PICK OF DIGITAL & ON DEMAND TV

PINOCCHIO, DISNEY+ DAY

TODAY is Disney+ Day, when the streaming service will be showcasing a plethora of new shows and movies, including its first ‘UK Original series’, Wedding Season, and a streaming release for Thor: Love And Thunder (below), as well as hard-hitting Mike Tyson biopic Mike, animated spin-off series Cars On The Road and much more. Cream of the crop is this live-action musical update of the 1940 Disney favourite. Robert Zemeckis, director of the Back To The Future films, brings state-of-the-art digital technology to Carlo Collodi’s venerable tale of the puppet who comes to life. Zemeckis is reunited with his Forrest Gump and Cast Away star, Tom Hanks (pictured), who plays the kind-hearted toymaker Geppetto. Young British actor Benjamin Evan Ainsworth (star of Son Of A Critch, which arrived on Paramount+ yesterday) provides the voice of Pinocchio, while the wonderful Cynthia Erivo is the Blue Fairy, who promises to turn him into a real boy if he promises to be ‘brave, truthful, and unselfish’ — Erivo also sings us that classic number from the original movie, When You Wish Upon a Star.