This article reviews 'A.I. Artificial Intelligence' (2001), critiquing its significant divergence from the Pinocchio fairy tale it purports to retell. The author highlights the baffling introduction of Gigolo Joe and the film's failure to capture the moral depth of the original story, instead offering superficial analogies and presenting David's quest for 'realness' as a refutation of Pinocchio's themes of virtue. The narrative culminates with David's capture and journey to a robot 'flesh fair,' further illustrating the film's thematic departures.
The Baffling Departure from Pinocchio
The author notes that despite Steven Spielberg's stated intention to create a modern retelling of Pinocchio, the movie 'A.I. Artificial Intelligence' significantly diverges from the classic fairy tale. After David's abandonment, the narrative takes turns that baffle the audience, given the initial setup, moving away from the expected parallels with Pinocchio's story.
Gigolo Joe: A Contrived Addition
The character of Gigolo Joe, played by Jude Law, is introduced as a robot prostitute. The author criticizes this character as a 'wholly original addition' that breaks the fairy tale structure, lacking a clear parallel to Pinocchio's original characters. Joe's plotline involves being framed for murder, which the author finds poorly conceived due to robots' inherent record-keeping abilities, suggesting a lack of narrative depth and serving primarily to advance David's journey.
Abandoning Pinocchio's Morality
The article argues that 'A.I. Artificial Intelligence' fails to capture the essence of Pinocchio as a morality tale. While Pinocchio's quest to become a real boy is driven by learning virtues, David's journey lacks moral development. The film attempts to portray David as virtuous by depicting all other human and robot characters as 'degenerates,' ultimately serving to argue that David is already human because 'nobody knows what 'real' really means,' thus refuting the original tale's virtuous premise.
David's Quest and the Flesh Fair
Following Gigolo Joe's framing, David embarks on a quest to find the Blue Fairy, believing she can make him 'real' and earn Monica's love. His journey leads him to a 'flesh fair,' an event where humans destroy robots. Captured by 'wolf-cycle' hunters alongside Joe and other robots, David is taken to this fair, with the 'wolf-cycles' serving as a superficial, rather than moral, analogy to fairy tale elements like being chased by wolves.
