I was absolutely amazed at just how tedious this film was to watch. The entire enterprise was directed at such a slow pace it acts as a sleep aid. After the obligatory needless prologue (designed for people who, like the scarecrow, haven't got a brain), we get to a drawn out story of the old cliche of a misunderstood robot that only wants to be human -- cutting edge in 1946, but hardly worth redoing now.
Every point, every dramatic moment, is hammered home with a 20-pound sledgehammer. The Pinocchio references get so overdone and annoying that you want to scream "Enough, Steve! Enough! We get it! We get it!" Only in the last twenty minutes does an interesting concept emerge (as a deus ex machina out of the clear blue sky), but by then you're screaming, "I don't care! Get this over with!"
The visuals are impressive, no doubt about that. But the movie fails on every other count. It is awash in smarmy sentimentality, and makes absolutely no logical sense (the Spinach Incident, for instance -- they never expected something like that to happen?) and seems satisfied to simply parade its cliches and hope someone applauds.
A major disappointment.
Every point, every dramatic moment, is hammered home with a 20-pound sledgehammer. The Pinocchio references get so overdone and annoying that you want to scream "Enough, Steve! Enough! We get it! We get it!" Only in the last twenty minutes does an interesting concept emerge (as a deus ex machina out of the clear blue sky), but by then you're screaming, "I don't care! Get this over with!"
The visuals are impressive, no doubt about that. But the movie fails on every other count. It is awash in smarmy sentimentality, and makes absolutely no logical sense (the Spinach Incident, for instance -- they never expected something like that to happen?) and seems satisfied to simply parade its cliches and hope someone applauds.
A major disappointment.