'Pinocchio's Benjamin Evan Ainsworth dishes on recreating the beloved puppet

Courtesy of Disney+

There's a new Pinocchio in town. Benjamin Evan Ainsworth plays the puppet who becomes a boy in the new Disney+ movie, streaming now.

Ainsworth didn't want to give too much of the film away, but told ABC Audio some of what's new this time around, like "new characters...new songs [and] new bits here and there that are really exciting...so you've got to tune in to Disney+ to see it."

What Benjamin didn't tinker with too much was the voice Dickie Jones created in the 1940 animated Disney film, explaining, "That original is in so many hearts today and that voice is so like iconic, that I think it would be a shame to let it go." He did, however, "put a little bit of my own energy in there to make it my own, too."

Pinocchio also stars Tom Hanks as Gepetto. Thirteen-year-old Benjamin says it was awesome working with "such a legend."

"... One of the first days on set, he came around and said, 'Hey, Ben, you want to run lines?' I was like, oh, my gosh, Tom Hanks wants to run lines with me," the British actor recalls. "So it was one of those moments where it's just kind of like, Oh, okay, yeah, cool face, yeah, let's run some lines. And he gave me the nickname Benocchio, and it was his idea to get me this Pinocchio hat to wear on set. And it's really fun. Really fun moments with him on set."

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

Friday, September 9, 2022 at 6:00AM by George Costantino and Jason Nathanson Permalink