'The Adventures of Pinocchio' Stills (1996) Martin Landau

‘The Adventures of Pinocchio’ featuring Jonathan Taylor Thomas (Pinocchio), Martin Landau (Geppetto), and others… released July 26, 1996 by New Line Cinema.

(New Line Cinema / Courtesy Everett Collection)

"The Adventures of Pinocchio" Premiere (July 21, 1996)

Jonathan Taylor Thomas attends the World premiere of “The Adventures of Pinocchio” in Santa Monica, CA, on July 21, 1996.

“The Adventures of Pinocchio premiere, which benefited the Amie Karen Cancer Fund for Children, the Leukemia Society of America and the National Tuberous Sclerosis Association. Film and TV star Jonathan Taylor Thomas played the anti-Macaulay Culkin, patiently signing autographs and chatting with fans despite feeling about ten feet under the weather” ( Los Angeles Magazine, September 1996).

(Photography: Unknown)

"JONATHAN TAYLOR THOMAS: The boy who would be Pinocchio" South Coast Today (August 11, 1996)

JONATHAN TAYLOR THOMAS: The boy who would be Pinocchio

By Luaine Lee, Scripps Howard News Service

South Coast Today 

Published Aug. 11, 1996 | Updated Jan. 10, 2011

He's only 14 and has been acting for seven years, but Jonathan Taylor Thomas (the middle son on "Home Improvement") could teach craggy veterans a few things.

Usually interviews with child actors range from catatonic to hyperkinetic, with someone either talking FOR them or AT them.

Not Jonathan. He still sports the smooth, powdery skin of a boy, but to hear him talk you'd think his arteries were hardening.

His mother sits behind him, unobtrusively against the wall. She doesn't monitor what he's saying or fill in the blanks. Obviously, she thinks Jonathan can fend for himself.

With his latest movie, "Pinocchio," his next, "Wild America," completed, and ABC's "Home Improvement" due back for another season -- Jonathan could afford a swagger or two.

"Hollywood is as competitive as soccer," says the lad, who played team soccer for eight years.

"I try not to worry about that. I just try and have fun, like the game of soccer. Yes, the pressure does get to you, but the ultimate goal is to have fun and just enjoy it.

"If I wasn't having fun and didn't think this was an interesting thing to do, I wouldn't be doing it. I'd just say, 'Forget it. I'll be a regular kid.'"

Humble though he is, Jonathan is no "regular kid." Last year he was in an accelerated program for gifted students, but now he's studying exclusively with a tutor. His favorite subjects are history, science and geography.

He's the swoon-master for pre-pubescent girls, the Brad Pitt of the Z-Generation, and he manages to charm the adults who work with him, too.

Steve Barron, director of "Pinocchio," says that it took someone special to energize the part of the wooden puppet.

"We knew that however the puppet was going to behave, his whole spirit had to come from the vocal track because that's what we did first," says Mr. Barron.

"And we got that performance, his rhythms and spirit, and put that into the puppet. This kid is clever. He's a clever actor and a good performer. Anybody less than that would've weakened the puppet ... "

Jonathan (who will be 15 on Sept. 8) first got the idea of acting from a commercial on television.

"When I was 7 I saw an ad for modeling and print work, and it just looked like fun to me. It looked like something I might want to try. I was playing soccer at the same time and it was sort of the same thing -- just fun, just enjoying it. I ended up having a great time doing it and it escalated from there. It started changing and I was doing more things, to a certain point, which is where we are now."

Even so, it's not all Willie Wonka's Chocolate Factory, even for him. There are difficult times.

"The hardest thing is the amount of time spent away from your family and friends. And you have to give up a lot -- not being able to do things you necessarily want to do. But the upside is you get to meet extraordinary people and do things that most people don't get to do. Experience is what it's all about -- what I'm gaining will help me later on in life."

The Pennsylvania-born youth has an 18-year-old brother, Joel, who is not an actor. He and Joel live with their mother, who has a master's degree in social work and helps manage Jonathan's career.

Three years ago, he explains, his parents were separated. Today he doesn't mention his father.

As for friends, that's not a problem, he says, in spite of the buzz he causes wherever he goes.

"I'm a pretty good judge of character. I can pretty well pick out someone I know is my friend for who I am and not just because I'm an actor or what I do. I have a few close friends I know well, and I've known them for a long time ... They like being with me and they don't care about that stuff. We don't talk about it when we're around each other. We don't care about it. We just play and have a good time," he shrugs.

All this may sound too perfect for a kid with streaky blond hair and an impish grin, but he admits that he does have one major shortcoming.

"I'm a neat freak," he laughs. "I like things in order and tidy." With his hands he arranges imaginary boxes in a row.

Like other kids, he's assigned daily chores. He feeds the dog and two cats, cleans his room, makes his bed. But he isn't paid a regular allowance.

"I don't really make a lot of purchases, don't go on extravagant spending sprees. If I'm going to buy something it's a CD or a fishing rod. It's not gonna be anything (big)."

Brightening, he chirps, "I get a learner's permit in a couple of months, I'll be turning 15. So a car may be in the works way down the line. But I have to learn how to drive first."

In spite of movies like "Tom and Huck," "Man of the House," "Pinocchio," and "Home Improvement" approaching its sixth season, none of that seems to have gone to his head.

The secret, he says, is maintaining outside interests. "Not having all your energy focused into acting, having two separate lives where you have your work life and your play life and keeping those two extremely separate, never blending them together because if they become one, then everything is focused into acting. That's when kids get into trouble," he says, resting his chin in his hand.

"You want to be able to leave and see your friends and travel and do things you like to do, have outside interests and concentrate on education. Because you've seen it a million times, people can be on the top one day and then the next, at the bottom. And that's just how it goes. But at least if that happens, I think I'm prepared and have something to fall back on."

Alamy Stock Photo

"Jonathan Taylor Thomas gets needed rest" Reading Eagle (June 24, 1996)

Jonathan Taylor Thomas gets needed rest

“Home Improvement’s” rising star Jonathan Taylor Thomas is getting in some rest and relaxation before the launch of his July 19-debuting “Adventures of Pinocchio” — and he can definitely use it after wrapping production of “Wild America.” Making the Morgan Creek feature proved to be wild indeed. Recreating the 1960s journey of the teenage Stouffer brothers to film endangered species, “Wild” took Thomas and co-stars to “every sort of life zone in North America, from the deepest swamp to the highest snowy mountain peek,” reported producer Mark Stouffer.

“It was a rough project — physically demanding, long days with not much sleep. I’m used to no hotels and no food, but some of these people weren’t,” added Stouffer, a National Geographic documentarian — whose older brother Marty hosts PBS’s “Wild America” series, and whose younger brother Marshall is a wildlife photographer. “We certainly didn’t have the comfort zone of other films, but there was no complaining.”

Taylor Thomas, who stole last year’s big screen “Man of the House” from Chevy Chase, had his pick of film offers for this summer’s hiatus. He chose the modestly budgeted “Wild America,” he said, because he liked its wildlife preservation aspect.

"Jonathan Taylor Thomas: A real Tom Sawyer for the '90s" The Daily Sentinel (January 7, 1996)

Jonathan Taylor Thomas: A real Tom Sawyer for the ’90’s

By Jack Garner

Gannett News Service

Jonathan Taylor Thomas especially remembers that summer day when he white-washed the fence. He was playing Tom Sawyer in “Tom and Huck,” and was recreating one of the most famous moments from Mark Twain’s great novel. “It was kind of eerie, white-washing that fence,” he says. “It goes down in history, it’s classic American literature.” “There’s a bit of pressure in that, too. We have to live up to what Twain wrote,” Thomas says. “This is going to affect the interpretation of ‘Tom Sawyer’ for all who see this film, especially young kids; so you have to live up to the story and give your best performance.”

If they seem like especially astute observations for a child actor, two points must be made. First, Thomas no linger is a child actor. Despite his short stature and baby face, the star of TV’s “Home Improvement” is already 14. Second, Thomas is smarter than the average actor, child or otherwise. He’s carrying a straight-A record in school, is a vociferous reader, understands the importance of education, and takes a practical approach to his beginning career as a film actor.

His role model is Ron Howard, who began his career as a little kid named Opie, and is now being mentioned as a best director Oscar nominee for “Apollo 13.”

Fortunately, though, Thomas remains enough of a kid that his fondest memories of the “Tom and Huck” set are racing co-star Brad Renfro with the gold carts they’d been provided to get to the locations. “Brad and I got along, which helps in a film having to do with loyalty and friendship,” Thomas says. 

Renfro, who made his debut in “The Client,” plays Huck Finn in the film.

Asked if he thinks his fellow teenagers should be able to identify with Tom Sawyer, Thomas has no worries. “Tom wanted to be free and independent, and was an adventurer. He wanted to be free of society’s hold, just like teenagers of today. If kids are skeptical about relating to the character, they’ll find they have a lot of similarities. “He’s got a lot of great leadership qualities, and he’s there when you need him.” “This movie also deals with a lot of moral issues, too; and we need morality in the ‘90s. Tom has to make the right decision at the key point in the film. That’s important.”

Thomas also thinks today’s teens will appreciate that “Tom and Huck,” isn’t a fluffy, cleaned-up version of Twain. “I think this movie is different than the previous Tom Sawyers. It’s grittier and more realistic; it’s got an edge to it. It’s like the book; the book is dirty and gritty and rough and tough.”

As an actor, Thomas also is growing out of childhood roles and into adolescent parts. Not all child stars make the transition. “I’ve been aware of it and there’s concern. But there will always be projects for a wide variety of ages, and hopefully they will be quality projects,” he says. “If I don’t do a movie this year, that’s fine, too. Life goes on. I’m aware that acting careers can end like that,” he adds, with a snap of his fingers. “You just have to have an education to fall back on. And that’s why I’m going to a good school now and getting the best education I can get. I want to take advantage of that.”

"Young actor dislikes violent films" The Hour (July 29, 1996)

Young actor dislikes violent films

Jonathan Taylor Thomas says he prefers starring in movies children can learn from — not violent films. “There’s enough bloodshed in the world. Do you need more in the cinema?” the 14-year-old actor asked in a recent interview.

Thomas said his latest movie, “The Adventures of Pinocchio,” has a message for children all over the world. “Every kid has to learn the difference between right and wrong at some time,” said Thomas, who stars on TV’s “Home Improvement” and was the voice of Simba in “The Lion King.”

(Photo: Unknown)

"JTT In The Adventures Of Pinocchio" (1996) BOP Magazine

"The Adventures of Pinocchio" (1996) featured in BOP Magazine.

 

"The Longest Day" Home Improvement (April 2, 1996)

HOME IMPROVEMENT 

"The Longest Day" 

Season 5, Episode 22

Airdate: April 2, 1996. 

Director: Andy Cadiff

Writers: Carmen Finestra, David McFadzean, Matt Williams.

Synopsis: 

The Taylor family, Tim (Tim Allen) & Jill (Patricia Richardson) find out that their middle child, Randy (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) may have cancer. They anxiously await the final results of a test that will conclude if he is seriously ill. 

Jonathan Taylor Thomas speaks on Home Improvement’s “The Longest Day” via the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards on May 1, 1999:

“We’ve done a lot of really good work on that show [Home Improvement] over the years. I think for us, one of the episodes we’re most proud of is probably the one where my character [Randy] ended up getting sick… it was possible that he might have cancer. And I think that was an episode that we were most proud of just because [we] got to go out there and not just do comedy. I mean, everyone knew we, were a really well tuned comedy machine, we could do that, we had that down. And then to switch to drama, and sort of inter-lap those two in a single episode, and have it received so well by the people. That was very rewarding for us.”

(Photography:  ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)