Monday, March 22, 2010

Chucky vs. Pinocchio

A few nights ago, I took a trip down memory lane and re-watched Pinocchio’s Revenge. I had seen this movie back in the late 90s when I used to rent a lot of my movies from Hollywood Video. Then, I wasn’t too afraid of this movie and I thought it was entertaining but I after seeing it again after all those years I found myself enjoying it for it’s cheese value. It’s not a good movie but it’s entertaining. What I did notice was how much it borrows from the Child’s Play movies. Although this post may come off as saying that Pinocchio’s Revenge is subpar as compared to Child’s Play, I want to state that my comparing and contrasting is due to my realization that Pinocchio’s Revenge is a second rate Child’s Play.



Chucky:
First off, I know his real name is Charles Lee Ray. Now, here is why I think the doll worked for Child’s Play but why it failed to deliver for Pinocchio’s Revenge. The main reason why Chucky is so creepy is because he was based off of the scary looking My Buddy dolls and in the film they are called Good Guy dolls. The other reason why Child’s Play delivers the scares is because of the brutality of Chucky and that he is way more lethal. You never actually see Chucky kill people but you see POV shots of him running around and you see his hands holding the knife, but it’s almost as though it’s keeping you in anticipation before you actually see him kill.



Pinocchio:
I guess for me, when it came to Pinocchio, seeing that doll going around killing people wasn’t really scary because it’s hard to convince me that the doll was scary. It looked more childish than funny and even after you see the doll animated it wasn’t really scary, it just looked cheesy. Pinocchio wasn’t really brutal at all, in fact he killed two people and only one was with a fire poker. The whole thing just didn’t seem as violent as Chucky can get. Pinocchio’s Revenge also is lacking in the suspense that Child’s Play has, you see Pinocchio running around and it doesn’t really offer the audience anticipation so when you finally see Pinocchio… it’s like we already saw him. It’s anticlimactic.

I think that Pinocchio’s Revenge is an entertaining movie but unfortunately it comes off as a poor man’s Child’s Play and I think that is it’s main problem. Although just because it is a second rate Chucky movie doesn’t mean that it should be watched for cheese value. In my opinion, it was hard not to compare this to the Chucky films because I saw a lot of similarities. What baffles me is: what exactly did Pinocchio get revenge on?

5 comments:

deadlydolls said...

I've been waiting to see Pinoccio's Revenge for years but have somehow never gotten around to it. Thanks for reminding me to check it out! Anything that attempts to replicate Child's Play simply has to be seen by me.

The Vicar of VHS said...

I count myself a fan of PINOCCHIO'S REVENGE, and while the comparisons to CHILD'S PLAY are inevitable (and probably even invited), I don't think it's quite a straight knock-off. That's because I thin PR leaves open the possibility (Spoiler....) that the doll is not really the one doing the killing, but rather the little girl, disturbed by her mother's newfound relationship with her studmuffin and the sounds of headboard-banging coming through her walls at night. I'd have to go back and rewatch to be sure, but I seem to recall that every time Pinocchio is running around killing, the girl is the only one seeing him. So while he *could* be a Chucky-style killer (the legend of the old man and his occult interests leaves that open as well) he also could just be the manifestation of the little girl's psychosis. Hence his "cuteness" as opposed to Chucky's evil glares would be intentional and indicative of the main idea.

Okay, so it's not an original idea particularly, but it's something a little different from CHILD'S PLAY, at any rate.

Just my opinion, though--it's been years since I watched it. :)

Mr. Johnny Sandman said...

Vicar: You make a very valid point about this movie and I do agree with you that it was probably what separates PR from CHILD'S PLAY. However, in the end (SPOILER) the mother of the girl sees Pinocchio killing rather than her girl. I think it would have been better had they left it open like that.

But please, see it again and tell me what you think of it. I'll even give you a guest post if you want.

Disney fan 4ever said...

I don't know much about child's play but I know chucky is a ripoff of slappy from goosebumps but even so I'm a Disney guy so Disney's pinocchio is pinocchio to me so I still think chucky wins

Solstice said...

Lmao Chucky came before Slappy

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