It was always going to be a challenge to make a live action remake of Disney's animated classic, and director Robert Zemeckis made a few changes to the script with Chris Weitz.
Shouldn't they have paid more attention to the song's lyrics?
"When You Wish Upon a Star" and "I've Got No Strings" are two of the songs written for the live remake. There is a story called "Pinto!" Holy smoke-o!
One of Disney's most questionable lyrics can be found in "The Coachman of Pleasure Island".
After escaping a child- captor, Pinocchio lands in the clutches of another one and finds himself on the Coachman's vehicle. The Coachman in the original film is a man who "collects stupid little boys" and takes them to a hedonist theme park called Pleasure Island, which is basically a trap. Evans channels a Fagin-like energy to his child- kidnapping role in the live action version of the movie.
Luke Evans as the Coachman, taking his human trafficking haul to Pleasure Island (I am not joking). Credit: Disney
Evans got his own song, "The Coachman of Pleasure Island," a song about peer pressure, not being a "party pooper," and threatening to convince someone. The new film added girls to the Coachman's cart, which appears to be a step towards addressing the film's flaws. The film is misogynistic and has a lot of nonsense.
Yes, ready?
"Real boys always want more, and real girls always want the real boys more."
You can read that again. Tell me if I'm hearing it right by listening to it.
A film that starts off on the right foot in its obsession with whatever the hell a "real boy" is supposed to be, is cannonballs into nooope territory. The song isn't in the original film so the writers added this line to the film song. When the Coachman sings "Real boys always want more", he's inevitably referring to the piles of candy and root beer awaiting them at Pleasure Island, but the line doesn't specify this at all.
The second line is sung by the girls on the cart. Is it possible that they are being manipulated? The song says "real girls prefer the real boys who always want more" Feminism's idea that our culture always steers us to see any connection between women and men, girls and boys as romantically inclined is the basis of this nonsense. It's worth pointing out the restricted cis gender and the lack of acknowledgement for non-binary, trans, and gender non- conforming kids, which would have been an awesome move from Disney in a film that actually takes pains to determine real boys.
The Coachman doesn't punish these kids for being peer pressured. In a time when speaking out against misogyny and working to dismantle systems of oppression must be prioritised even from an early age, why did Disney think this would work? This song is sung by a villain, so it is meant to show the most ridiculous of opinions, not to be taken on as one's own. Kids tend to take things literally more often than not, so distinguishing between the villain's song lyrics and the overarching message of the film is a bit of an ask.
Maybe you're okay with this line, maybe it's just a small thing for me. I don't like the idea of kids singing this song in the playground in 2022.
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