Summary
Overview
The How Did This Get Made podcast records live from Chicago's historic theater to dissect the 1996 live-action film 'The Adventures of Pinocchio' starring Martin Landau and voiced by Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Hosts Paul Scheer, Jason Mantzoukas, and June Diane Raphael explore the film's bizarre choices, disturbing imagery, questionable accents, poor CGI, and overtly sexual undertones that make this children's movie feel more like a fever dream than family entertainment.
Introduction and First Reactions
The hosts introduce the film and share their immediate visceral reactions to watching The Adventures of Pinocchio. Jason reveals he's never seen this "waking nightmare" before, describing it as haunting and filled with pre-vis quality CGI. Paul notes how the film would traumatize children, while the hosts discuss the movie's overtly sexual imagery and disturbing mouth-opening water scenes that resemble adult content more than children's entertainment.
- Jason describes the film as a 'waking nightmare' that he's never seen before
- Paul worries about traumatizing children if he took them to see this movie
- The hosts note the film is 'overtly sexual' with disturbing imagery
- CGI effects look like unfinished pre-vis work
" This was straight up garbage. All of the CG, all of the effects looked like pre-vis. They looked like the idea of what we were going to draw, but then they're like, fuck it, put it in, we're in, we're in. "
" Every time that nose grew, I was like, somebody in this room has turned on. That person, me. "
June's Hotel Revelation and Movie Length Debate
June explains her unique perspective on the film, noting that despite being in a luxury hotel where she's willing to watch anything, she still had an overwhelmingly negative reaction to Pinocchio. The hosts engage in a heated debate about the film's runtime, with June insisting the 96-minute movie felt impossibly longer, comparing it to watching both Infinity War and Endgame combined.
- June loves luxury hotel experiences and will happily watch anything on TV in hotels
- The movie is actually 96 minutes but felt exponentially longer to viewers
- June checked the runtime 22 minutes in and couldn't believe so little time had passed
- The hosts debate whether they'd rather watch the movie again or have diarrhea for the same length of time
" For me to have such a negative reaction to a movie during a luxury hotel experience means it's really quite, quite bad. "
📚 8 more sections below
Sign up to unlock the complete summary with all insights, key points, and quotes
Get this summary + all future How Did This Get Made? episodes in your inbox
100% Free • Unsubscribe Anytime
Sign up now and we'll send you the complete summary of this episode, plus get notified when new How Did This Get Made? episodes are released—delivered straight to your inbox within minutes.