The new Disney Plus film Pinocchio is a mostly live action remake of the 1940 Disney animated

classic about a wooden boy longs to become real, but must first undergo a series of trials

and temptations in order to do so.

You know the story, but director and co-writer Robert Sineckis has crowd stars like Tom

Hanks, Cynthia Arrivo, Joseph Gordon Levin, and Keegan Michael Key to give it new life.

I'm Aisha Harris.

And I'm Len Weldon, and today we're talking about Pinocchio on pop culture happy hour from NPR.

Joining us today is Margaret Willison, newly of not-sorry productions. Welcome back, Margaret.

Hi, Glenn. Thank you for having me.

Of course, and also with us is Christina Tucker, co-host of the podcast, Weight Is This A Date. Welcome

back, Christina. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, and as you say, hey, all right. As we mentioned,

you know the story of Pinocchio. So here Tom Hanks is a lonely wood carver whose name is

Jepetto who makes a wooden boy puppet out of pine. Cynthia Arrivo is the Blue Fairy who grants

Jepetto's wish for a son, sort of, by imbuing the wooden boy with life. Now it's not full life,

because if Pinocchio voiced by Ben Ainsworth wishes to become a real live boy, he must prove himself

brave and selfless and honest. And until it happens, a cricket named Jiminy gets sort of dragooned

into acting as his temporary conscience. He's voiced by Joseph Gordon Levin doing a whole southern

thing. The film hits all the familiar beats of the 1940 original. The Shifty Fox honest John is

voiced by Keegan Michael Key. The evil puppet show proprietor Stromboli is played by Giuseppe

Battistone. And Luke Evans is the also evil proprietor of an island of temptation. It does add a new

character, a puppeteer named Fabiana, played by Coyum Lemia. In the grand tradition of these

Disney live-action remakes, Fabiana gets a brand new song to sing, making it eligible for the

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