Box-office In Italy and Europe,
Pinocchio grossed over $7 million within the first three days of its release. It went on to gross $3.67 million in the United States, and $37.7 million in other territories (of which €26 million was in Italy), for a worldwide total of $41.3 million, against a production budget of $40 million. David Rooney of
Variety wrote, "In Roberto Benigni's take on Carlo Collodi's classic fairy tale,
Pinocchio, the spirit of the late
Federico Fellini—with whom Benigni talked of doing the project together—surfaces repeatedly. But that spirit fails to enliven a film substantially lacking in personality, energy, magic and humor ... The union between the
Tuscan fairy tale and the region's most talented contemporary offspring would seem like the perfect marriage. In fact, it comes off as artificially exuberant and a little precious." Roberto Nepoti of
La Repubblica stated, "The film is a kind of linear translation of the book, illustrated by the splendid scenographies of Danilo Donati, played by good actors, accompanied by special effects of excellent levels but where, unfortunately, something is missing. What is missing is a visionary fantasy, a sense of excess, of the poetry that belongs to Benigni as an actor and author, but which Benigni as director has not yet acquired."
Pinocchio went on to receive six nominations at the
David di Donatello Awards, winning two in the process:
Best Production Design and
Best Costumes, both to
Danilo Donati. It also received three nominations at the
Nastri d'Argento Awards, winning in the
Best Score category. Director
Jim Jarmusch, who had previously directed Benigni in two films, said that, "I saw it in both the American and the Italian versions. Miramax killed the film by dubbing it badly and stripping it of the dark tones Roberto cared about, fearing it wouldn't appeal to American children. It's a poetic film, his, and the image of the carriage pulled by the little mice remains unforgettable." Actor
Robert Downey Jr. called
Pinocchio "A wonderful film, with ideas and inventions that worked from many points of view. I think Benigni was able to interpret it with his unique style. But what makes Pinocchio timeless is precisely its ability to be told in a thousand different ways." He didn't specify if he watched the subtitled or dubbed version.
American version 's performance as the title character. The English-dubbed recut version by Miramax was met with critical panning in the United States. The website's consensus reads: "Roberto Benigni misfires wildly with this adaptation of
Pinocchio, and the result is an unfunny, poorly-made, creepy vanity project."
Jonathan Rosenbaum stated on
Chicago Reader that "the recut American version is truly awful, but a good 75% of the awfulness is attributable to Miramax". Audiences polled by
CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D+" on an A+ to F scale. Peter Howell of
The Toronto Star wrote that, "while there's no question that Benigni has the stamina and comic timing to play a mischievous child, even his considerable charisma cannot conceal the fact that he's a 50-year-old man in a red-and-white Harlequin suit, running around frantically pretending to be a boy. Braschi is utterly charmless as the Blue Fairy, despite making her entrance in a Cinderella carriage pulled by oversized white mice, one of the movies few visual feats." Amongst other issues, the English dub was heavily criticized, with many critics also finding that Breckin Meyer being chosen as Benigni's voice was inappropriate and that he was too young. Elvis Mitchell of
The New York Times stated that the voices "are so sloppy you might feel as if you're watching a 1978
Hong Kong action picture: the dubbed mouths of the Italian cast are probably still moving an hour after the film is over". Mitchell also called it "an oddity that will be avoided by millions of people" and criticized Benigni's decision to play the titular character, opining that his role as Pinocchio is "as believable as
Diana Ross playing
Dorothy in
The Wiz". Howell remarked that, "the distributor Miramax has compounded the problem by overdubbing all the Italian voices in the film with the voices of British and American actors, robbing Pinocchio of much of its European flavour (three theatres in the
GTA [were, at the time] showing the original Italian version, with subtitles). Particularly puzzling is the decision to overdub Benigni with the flat American tones of Breckin Meyer (
Rat Race), instead of allowing Benigni's own fractured English to inject some badly needed levity (the English voices include
Monty Python's John Cleese and Eric Idle, adding to suspicions that these two will take any gig that comes with a
paycheque)."
Steven Spielberg said, "I really liked it. In particular, I appreciated his great imagination, the sadness, and the ability to go beyond by also highlighting the dark side of the character."
Accolades The original version was nominated for six
David di Donatello Awards (winning two) and three
Nastro d'Argento (winning one): •
David di Donatello: •
Best Production Design (Danilo Donati) –
won •
Best Costumes (Danilo Donati) –
won •
Best Actor (Roberto Benigni) •
Supporting Actor (Kim Rossi Stuart) •
Best Cinematography (Dante Spinotti) •
Best Score (Nicola Piovani) •
Nastro d'Argento: •
Nastro d'Argento for Best Score (Nicola Piovani) –
won •
Best Supporting Actor (Kim Rossi Stuart) •
Best Producer (Nicoletta Braschi) The English dub was nominated for six
Golden Raspberry Awards (a first for a foreign-language film) and won one: •
Worst Picture •
Worst Director •
Worst Screenplay •
Worst Actor (Roberto Benigni "Dubbed Godzilla-style" by
Breckin Meyer) –
won •
Worst Remake or Sequel •
Worst Screen Couple (Roberto Benigni and Nicoletta Braschi) ==See also==