Parents' Guide to Pinocchio Unstrung

Director Rhys Frake-Waterfield's abilities are improving a bit, and there's some interesting puppet work here, but otherwise, this is a prime example of lazy storytelling and clunky filmmaking. Pinocchio Unstrung looks a bit better than its predecessors, Frake-Waterfield's disposable Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey and its awful sequel, but it still suffers from a lack of skill. It looks as if a lot of work went into making the Pinocchio puppet, but, working with a low budget, Frake-Waterfield is forced to shoot around the puppet's limitations, and the result is a choppy movie with no sense of space, rhythm, or perspective. (When viewers first see Cricket, he appears to be full-sized; only later do we learn that he's only a few inches high.)

Extreme gore effects and a few jump scares can only do so much when there's so little to care about. The themes of friendship and of Pinocchio learning to accept himself the way he is (rather than being a real boy) seem tacked on, rather than lessons actually learned. And the characters behave according to the story's needs, rather than coming to life and driving the story. Friendships don't seem genuine. In the end, the main reason to see Pinocchio Unstrung is to goggle at the brutal gore effects. Hopefully audiences won't get strung along.