Disney: Pinocchio (1940)

Some of my earliest movie memories come from Walt Disney's Pinocchio. I remember when this was released in 1992 when I was just five years old and my mother took me to see it at a small theater near in Sewanee. It had been promoted a lot on TV, particularly in regards to some tie-in toys that were from some fast food chain (it may have been Pizza Hut, I'm not sure), and Mom figured it would be something that my young mind would enjoy and she was right. Even though I was very young and my exact memories of it are vague, I can still remember loving this movie when I saw it in that theater. Along with The Jungle Book, it was one of the first Disney movies I ever saw and became a fixture of my early childhood. I rented the VHS that came out the following year many, many times from my local video store and as I became six and seven years old, more concrete memories of the film entered my mind. After a while, though, as with most Disney-oriented stuff, it went out of my life for a long time and while I certainly didn't forget about it, I didn't think about it much from when I was eight to my mid-teens (that's why I didn't put this as an installment of Stuff I Grew Up With). By the time I graduated from high school, I had gotten back into Disney, having now grown to appreciate the movies as an adult along with the memories of when I was a kid. I didn't see Pinocchio again until the Platinum Edition DVD was released in 2009 and I scooped it up. Like most movies from my childhood, it was a huge trip of nostalgia to see this great flick once again and to this day, it's one of the Disney animated features that is very special to me.

Everybody should know the story of Pinocchio but here's a summary in case you don't. Jiminy Cricket begins the film by telling us how he learned to believe in the old adage of wishing upon a star to make your dreams come true. A long time ago, he arrived in a small village (not exactly sure where or during what time period but it's obviously somewhere in Europe) and entered the workshop of a kindly woodcarver named Geppetto. Jiminy arrives just in time to see Geppetto put the finishing touches on a little wooden boy he names Pinocchio. Although happy with the puppet, he makes a wish that night that Pinocchio would become a real boy. Hearing his wish, the lovely and kind Blue Fairy brings Pinocchio to life. Although she's granted him life, the Blue Fairy tells Pinocchio that if he wishes to become a real boy, he must prove himself to be brave, truthful, and unselfish and to learn the difference between right and wrong. She appoints Jiminy Cricket to be Pinocchio's conscience. Eventually, Geppetto wakes up and, although he initially believes he's dreaming, is ecstatic to learn that his wish has come true. The next day, Geppetto sends Pinocchio off to school but he immediately runs into a couple of con-artists who easily manipulate the naive kid. From there on, the film centers on a series of encounters that Pinocchio has with many villainous characters and on Jiminy's attempts to steer him straight.

As I've said many times before, Disney has an uncanny knack for taking fairy tales and classic stories that have existed for centuries and making them so much their own that, therefore, most people think of the Disney versions when they hear the titles. Pinocchio is no exception. The Disney film is such a beloved classic that it's what most people think of when they hear the title. I'm sure few are familiar with the original Carlo Collodi book and fewer still have even read it (including me). It doesn't really matter because the film, as with many Disney adaptations, is quite different from its source material, although the first drafts of the screenplay were closer to the book but Walt wasn't satisfied with them. In any case, animator Norman Ferguson brought the book to Walt Disney's attention during production on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Walt became absolutely ecstatic about the possibilities of turning it into an animated feature. It was actually intended to be the studio's third animated feature with Bambi being the second but Bambi took longer to complete than expected. So Pinocchio ended up becoming the long-awaited follow-up to Snow White and even though the film wasn't all that successful when it was originally released in 1940, it's become one of the studio's most beloved films and for good reason too.

I know that there are some very cynical people out there who probably wouldn't take to Pinocchio himself that well but to me, Pinocchio is a very appealing. Unlike the sarcastic and mischievous little kid he was in the original book, he's depicted here as a very innocent and naive character. He's constantly asking, "Why?", is very gullible and is easy for one of the slick-talking villains to lead astray but he has a pure heart and, during the climactic chase with Monstro the whale at the end of the movie, sacrifices his life to save his father. He also, with the help of Jiminy, gradually learns the difference between right and wrong. I thought that Dickie Jones' performance fit the innocence of the character very well. I also think that his actual look is very appealing as well. If it weren't for his button nose, the rivets in his joints, or the Mickey Mouse-like gloves he wears, you would think he was already a real boy. Therefore, when the Blue Fairy turns him into a real boy at the end of the movie, it isn't that much of a change. In any case, I think Pinocchio is a very appealing, innocent character whom you can root for and sympathize with.

The character that most people associate with Pinocchio besides the title character is Jiminy Cricket. In his Disneycember series of videos, Doug Walker admitted that he doesn't care for Jiminy at all. While he isn't one of my favorite Disney characters, I do think he's likeable. He's pretty much a boyscout character (similar to what Mickey Mouse became): pure as can be, always doing the right thing and, as Pinocchio's conscience, trying to steer him in the right direction as well. I could see how some would get tired of that or find that to be really bland but I didn't mind it. However, he does have moments where he nearly quits being Pinocchio's conscience, like when Pinocchio becomes part of Stromboli's act or when he's smoking and playing pool at Pleasure Island but ultimately decides not to run out on the kid and ends up helping him. I also like how, even though he's Pinocchio's conscience and is thoroughly clean-minded, he isn't so uptight that he doesn't admire pretty women (even if all of those said women are either puppets or carvings). I thought Cliff Edwards did well as Jiminy's voice, especially when he sings When You Wish Upon a Star. Also, as many have mentioned, he doesn't look like a cricket at all but rather like a little man with a big head. He was originally designed to look like a cricket but Walt, as with Pinocchio's original personality, decided that wasn't appealing enough and had animator Ward Kimball create the design we know now. All in all, I can see how some would find Jiminy Cricket to be bland but I liked him.

Geppetto is characterized as a kindly old man, who loves making puppets and hand-carved clocks in order to bring joy to people and therefore, his wish to have a son is granted. Even before Pinocchio is brought to life, Geppetto absolutely adores his little "wooden head", happily controlling him around the room with the marionette strings. Christian Rub's performance really brings out the kindness of the character. I also smirk at how Geppetto is kind of senile. There are a bunch of clocks in his workshop, all of which work, and yet when they strike 9:00, he says, "I wonder what time it is" and pulls out a watch. (By the way, the clocks in his workshop are very interesting in their designs and no one looks the same as another. There are models on them such as a guy trying to chop a turkey's head off but the turkey keeps pulling his head away, a woman spanking a kid who's been naughty, and many others.) When he first discovers that Pinocchio is alive, he thinks that he's dreaming and pours water over himself, getting poor Figaro soaked in the process. My favorite is at the end when he's mourning the death of Pinocchio and it doesn't register that Pinocchio is talking to him. When Pinocchio is brought back to life and turned into a real boy by the Blue Fairy, he says, "Father, why are you crying?" Geppetto says, "Because you're dead, Pinocchio." "Father, no I'm not." "Yes, yes, you are. Now lie down." It's some nice levity to what was at first a very heavy and sad moment.

Even though they don't have speaking roles, Geppetto's pets are memorable characters as well. I really like the little cat Figaro (who would later appear in theatrical shorts and would somehow become Minnie Mouse's cat). His attitude is that of a cranky and spoiled little kid. I love his expressions when he's trying to sleep and Geppetto subtly asks him to open the window. He throws off his blanket, as if he's thinking, "Give me a break!" When Geppetto goes out to look for Pinocchio when he's been taken by Stromboli, Geppetto tells him and Cleo not to eat until he comes back with Pinocchio. As soon as Geppetto leaves, Figaro prepares to eat his dinner, but Cleo motions for him not to. Figaro then frustratedly leans on his left front leg, looking very much like a little brat who didn't get his way, and is like, "Oh, damn it!" He's also not too fond of Pinocchio at first, being a bit jealous of the attention he's getting from Geppetto even before he's brought to life, but he grows to love him by the end of the film. As for Cleo the goldfish, I don't have much to say. She comes across as sweet and such and seems to like Figaro even though he doesn't feel the same way (which gives her a big shock when Figaro kisses her at the end of the movie when Pinocchio becomes a real boy) but other than that, she doesn't do much.

The Blue Fairy (voiced by Evelyn Venable) comes in the form of a really beautiful woman with a kind demeanor who grants Geppetto his wish and brings Pinocchio to life. While she's kind to Pinocchio when she brings him to life and tells him what he must do to become a real boy, she does have to be a bit firm with him about the consequences of not telling the truth when she finds him locked up in Stromboli's wagon and he lies about how he got there. She only appears in two scenes in the movie and unlike her literary counterpart, isn't all that involved in Pinocchio's upbringing, since she appoints Jiminy as his conscience. Her presence, however, is felt constantly, such as when this glowing dove comes out of nowhere and drops a note for Pinocchio and Jiminy and at the end of the movie when she gives Jiminy a badge for his good work at being Pinocchio's conscience. While I don't mind the Blue Fairy, I don't quite get why she didn't just turn Pinocchio into a real boy in the first place. I know she wanted Pinocchio to learn to be good boy before he became flesh and blood but wouldn't the lessons on right and wrong that he learns be the same if he was a real boy? She says that a boy who won't do good might as well be made of wood. Why not say that to him as a warning that, if he doesn't learn his lesson, she'll before forced to turn him back into a puppet? I guess that would be a little cruel to grant Geppetto's wish and then take Pinocchio away from him but still, it could've been another way to take the story. Doug Walker brought up another good point: Pinocchio's personality was a creation of the Blue Fairy since he was just a block of wood beforehand. Why didn't she just bestow upon him the knowledge of the differences between right and wrong, the importance of telling the truth and so on? Maybe she figured it would be better if she gave him a child's personality and had him learn everything else for himself like a real child would but it does make you wonder. But like Doug himself said, that's probably thinking about it way too much.

Even though I've never read the original story, I've heard that it's actually a dark, twisted story, especially for something meant for children. Even though the Walt Disney film is not as twisted, this movie does become quite dark once Pinocchio starts running into the villains of the piece and there are even some moments here that are downright freaky. If we're going to talk about the villains (and there are five of them, which is amazing for any movie), let's start with the least threatening of them: the slick-talking conman fox Honest John (voiced by Walter Catlett) and his silent counterpart, the cat Gideon (who was supposed to be voiced by Mel Blanc but they deleted all his dialogue save for a few hiccups). First, you do have to wonder why these two characters walk around the town in plain sight and no one questions the presence of a large, anthropomorphic, talking fox and cat but it's a Disney film so you just go with it. Anyway, Honest John is definitely as sly as a fox. He's slick, fast-talking, and knows how to manipulate those who are very naive, such as Pinocchio. He's able to trick Pinocchio twice and use him to earn some money. Although he's not at all frightening like the other villains of the movie, there is a bit of sinister undercurrent to him that he goes along with the coachman's evil scheme to kidnap young boys, even though both he and Gideon are quite horrified when the coachman tells them why there's no risk in them getting in trouble with the law. All he cares about really is making money and not getting caught for it. He'll stoop to anything, even helping this evil man round up young boys. Gideon, on the other hand, is kind of like an evil version of Dopey the dwarf. He's dumb and never says a word (whether it's because he can't or just doesn't is never explained) but he goes along with Honest John's schemes to get money. Whereas Honest John uses his slick-talking to get the job done, Gideon often tries to bop people with a big mallet: brute force instead of brains. Again, they're not frightening like the other villains but they're definitely no angels either.

The first real villain of the movie is Stromboli (voiced by Charles Judels), this big, fat gypsy (who has an Italian accent, for some reason) who is a puppet-maker and after Honest John sells Pinocchio to him, forces him to perform on stage. Since he's also a puppet-maker, you can sort of see Stromboli as an evil version of Geppetto. At first, he comes across as just a blowhard, angrily yelling at Pinocchio in Italian when he slips and falls during his stage performance. The comic and silly nature of that show with its funny looking and hyper moving marionettes coupled with Pinocchio's singing and his trying to imitate the other puppets also offset how dark the situation becomes in the following scenes. In the scene following the show where Stromboli sees how much money Pinocchio made for him, his true evil nature comes through. When Pinocchio tries to go home, Stromboli tricks him into laughing with him when he says that Pinocchio's statement about doing so is funny and then, when Pinocchio least expects it, he throws him in a cage and locks him in. That's when he reveals his plans to travel the world, making lots of money off of Pinocchio. Most horrific of all, he reveals that he plans to turn Pinocchio into firewood when he grows old and unable to perform. That coupled with the evil laugh he gives afterward is very intimidating. It also gets to me when Pinocchio starts protesting and Stromboli yells, "Quiet! Before I knock you silly!" And you believe he would do it too. At this point when Stromboli's wagon starts moving and Pinocchio is left alone in that dark wagon while a storm rages outside, you're like, "Holy shit, this movie's tone just took one sharp turn!" There's also a bit of cruel irony when Geppetto is out looking for Pinocchio and Stromboli's wagon passes right by him. Even crueler is when Geppetto calls for Pinocchio right after the wagon passes by but a thunderclap drowns the sound out. Pinocchio, and later Jiminy, of course do manage to escape Stromboli with the help of the Blue Fairy but still, Stromboli was a very sinister figure.

The most frightening villain in the entire movie to me is the coachman (also voiced by Charles Judels), this large Cockney guy who hires Honest John and Gideon to help him take unsuspecting rowdy boys to Pleasure Island, where he somehow turns them into donkeys (I know it's supposed to be caused by the boys doing things they're not supposed to, like drinking, smoking, getting fights, breaking stuff and so on but I'm still not clear on exactly how he does it) and sells them to be used in salt mines. That is messed up and terrifying on so many levels. Even before you get to Pleasure Island, the coachman reveals what a sick, sadistic character he is when he meets with Honest John and Gideon in a bar. When Honest John worries about them getting arrested for this scheme, the coachman assures him by saying, "They never come back as boys!" When he says that, his face turns slightly red, his eyes turn green, and his ears become pointed, all coupled with an evil grin. He looks like Satan right there (and perhaps he is of some satanic nature and it's just never explained). That along with how Judels said that line is scary as hell. On top of that, the coachman has these creepy looking henchmen who are dressed in black and are even kind of ape-like. You never find out what they are exactly but they're just as sinister as their boss. It also gets me when one of the boys turned donkey can still talk and when he says, "I wanna go home to my mama!", the coachman throws him in a section of the room with other ones that can still talk. When they start begging him to turn them back into boys, he cracks a whip and yells, "Quiet! You boys have had your fun, now pay for it!" It's a shame that the coachman doesn't get brought up more when Disney villains are discussed because I think he's one of the most terrifying characters the studio has ever created.

Since we're talking about the coachman, I have to mention the scene in this movie that freaked me out big time as a kid and still disturbs me even to this day. On the way to Pleasure Island, Pinocchio meets up with this kid Lampwick (voiced by Frankie Darro), who is a tough-talking, rowdy kid who can't wait to get to the island so he can be bad. When they get there, he takes great pleasure in getting into fights, tearing stuff up, drinking booze, and smoking cigars. But that attitude changes when he turns into a donkey. The transformation is gradual: ears and tail pop up and his face turns into that of a donkey when it's out of sight for a brief second (you got to love how Pinocchio slowly but surely gets rid of the cigar and booze when he sees what it's apparently doing to Lampwick). Once he realizes what's happening to him, Lampwick panics and starts yelling for his family. He begs for Pinocchio to help him and then his hands turn into hooves (which is a freaky but impressive bit of animation, I might). The freakiest part by far is after that when he fully transforms. It's done in shadow and you see his body contorting down to a four-legged stance and his screaming for his mother drowns out into a bray. You then see him as a fully changed donkey, braying crazily and kicking up the room in a panic. That scene scared the living crap out of me as a kid and even now when I watch it, I still get shivers. That has to be among the darkest and scariest moments Disney has ever produced.

My favorite villain and the one I was waiting on when my mother took me to see the film when I was five because I'd seen him in advertisements is the whale, Monstro. Hey, I love giant monster movies so it shouldn't surprise anyone that he's my favorite. There's a lot of buildup to him starting when Pinocchio and Jiminy receive the letter from the Blue Fairy that tells them that Monstro has swallowed Geppetto's ship whole and Jiminy warns Pinocchio about how gigantic Monstro is because he's heard of his reputation. Also, when the two of them go down into the ocean to look for Monstro, all of the sea-life they come across run away in abject fear when they mention Monstro's name. When we finally get to Monstro, we see why everyone is so scared of him because he is a very intimidating creation due to his sheer size and the loud, frightening roars he makes (provided by Thurl Ravenscroft). The animation on him (done by Wolfgang Reitherman, one of Walt's beloved Nine Old Men) is very impressive and it brings out his sheer power perfectly. The sequence where Pinocchio, after being swallowed by Montro and reuniting with Geppetto, makes Monstro sneeze them out is my favorite part of the movie, especially when Monstro, furious at them for doing that to him, chases them across the ocean. It really is a thrilling sequence, with Monstro tearing the ocean up, smashing into rocks, destroying their raft, and charging at them full throttle while Pinocchio tries to save Geppetto. That latter bit is very suspenseful because Pinocchio is trying to drag Geppetto through an opening in this wall of rocks and it keeps cutting back to Monstro getting closer and closer, to the point where he leaps toward them and you see a closeup of his huge, sharp toothed mouth. Pinocchio just barely manages to get Geppetto and himself through the opening before Monstro crashes into the rock wall. Even though he doesn't get them, Monstro, intentionally or not, does manage to kill Pinocchio through the fury he causes when he crashes into the cliff. However, unlike the other villains in the film, Monstro is not actually evil. He swallows Geppetto and Pinocchio because he's hungry and the only reason that he chases them during the climax is because he's pissed at them for making him sneeze. As frightening as he is, he's still just an animal and only acts the way one normally acts.

Another dark aspect of the film is that none of the villains are ever defeated or made to pay for what they've done. They just disappear when the sections of the movie involving them end. Honest John and Gideon no doubt went on to scam more people and make money in more sleazy, dishonest schemes; Stromboli is never punished for what he did to Pinocchio (although you could guess that he probably lost a lot of money and was ridiculed after Pinocchio escaped from him); most disturbing of all, the coachman is never caught and the boys aren't saved; and even though Pinocchio and Geppetto manage to escape from Monstro, he more than likely wasn't killed by crashing into that cliff and probably went home with a bad headache, plus he did manage to kill Pinocchio. I don't think that's ever happened again in a Disney movie where the villain isn't killed or at least defeated by the end of it. It no doubt would have been very contrived and distracting to show all of those villains getting their comeuppance when all you really care about is Pinocchio and the other main characters but that's still awfully downbeat for a Disney movie.

Many people tend to forget that this was made back in the 40's when adults were the main audience for movies and therefore, there's a lot of stuff here that some would find inappropriate for a kids' movie. Obviously, there's the smoking (the bar where Honest John and Gideon meet with the coachman seems to be absolutely thick with cigar smoke) and booze drinking but there's also stuff that involves Jiminy Cricket. When Jiminy is watching Geppetto put the finishing touches on Pinocchio, he leans his hand on something and soon realizes that his hand is on the rear end of a model of a woman. He quickly removes his hand and says, "Pardon me." Very adult joke. And like I said, Jiminy isn't above admiring models and puppets that look like pretty ladies. There's nothing wholly inappropriate here, as with most Disney films, but it's clear that this movie was meant for adults as much as it was for kids (hence, Walt's definition of family films).

Just as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was groundbreaking because it was the world's first full-length animated feature, Pinocchio is also groundbreaking in the animation techniques it introduced. First off, the movie absolutely gorgeous to look at. Everything is very well designed, both the characters and the environments. The clocks in Geppetto's workshop look really good and practical because real working models of them were built for the animators to use as models for their drawings. They also used rotoscoping, which had been invented for the Fleischer Brothers' Superman cartoons, to get realistic movements out of the wagons in the film. There was also some rotoscoping used in the animation of the Blue Fairy. As they did with Snow White and would also do with other films, the animators studied live action footage of actors (I'm guessing the actual voice actors) performing the various scenes as a guide and also studied how human beings move, rather than tracing the live action images as they had done with Snow White. As a result, the characters do move very much like real people, albeit a bit exaggerated. As far as the environments go, I thought the most atmospheric ones were the seedy bar where Honest John and Gideon meet the coachman and Pleasure Island. Even before things turn sinister there, the place doesn't look quite right to me. The outside of some of those attractions looked a little freaky to me and that big wooden door at the entrance should have given those boys pause but they were too dead-set on causing trouble to think about it. I also thought the park looked very eerie when it suddenly got all quiet and still and Jiminy noticed that there wasn't a soul in sight. Nice bit of atmosphere there.

We're so used to all the technology used in animated films nowadays that we take it for granted and when you realize what the Disney animators were doing back when animation was in its infancy, it's quite impressive. Not only do the characters, environments, and vehicles look good but there are some very well done effects-work in the film as well. One that really impresses me is the opening shot of the day after Pinocchio is brought to life. The camera actually moves through the village as if it were a real three-dimensional space and you actually see animated characters come out of their houses, as if it were live-action footage. Again, given the limitation of animation technology at the time, it's amazing how realistic that looks. The water effects in the final act of the movie also look very good and took a year to develop with all the waves, bubbles, ripples, and the blurry underwater look. As I mentioned earlier, on top of that, Monstro looks absolutely breathtaking in his animation. I know it's easy to take animation for granted today but like I said, if you put this film into context as to when it was made, you can see how groundbreaking it really is.

Song-wise, Pinocchio has one of the most iconic that Disney has ever produced. When You Wish Upon a Star not only won an Oscar that years but it has also become the theme for the Walt Disney Company itself. It's a beautiful and heartwarming song, sung very well by Cliff Edwards. I know some have criticized it in recent years as promoting laziness rather than being proactive but like Doug Walker said, I think it's meant to be a message of hope rather than something you should actually do all throughout your life. It's not saying you should just let fate take care of everything. It's just saying that sometimes, things work out so unexpectedly well that it could be seen as a miracle (besides, people shouldn't take stuff like this so seriously anyway). The other songs are fine for the most part. Little Wooden Head, the song that Geppetto sings when he's first controlling Pinocchio after finishing him, is sweet and charming, showing what a kind man he is and how much he loves this little puppet; Give A Little Whistle, which Jiminy sings to Pinocchio after he's been appointed as his conscience, is okay but I don't think it was needed at all; I can't help but smile at Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee, the little song that Honest John sings when he's fooled Pinocchio into going along with one of his schemes because it's so cheerful despite the fact that it's being sung by a villain; and finally, there's I've Got No Strings, which Pinocchio sings when he's performing on stage for Stromboli, which is quite charming and Dickie Jones has a good singing voice. Pinocchio also won an Oscar for the music score itself but I don't know what was so special about it. It's a good score, mind you, and it does its job well, particularly in the freaky donkey transformation scene and the thrilling climactic chase with Monstro, but I don't get what convinced the Academy that it was good enough for an Oscar. That's just me, though.

I honestly think that Pinocchio is one of Disney's best animated features. It's beautifully designed and animated, has great characters, creepy villains, its fair share of scary, dark moments, and an iconic main song. I know I'm not the only one who feels that way about it either. Even though it may not have been a financial success when it was originally released, it eventually did gross over $84 million due to reissues throughout the years and it's now deservedly seen as a classic of American animation. If you haven't seen it and you're a lover of animation, particularly Disney, this is mandatory viewing. It's, simply put, a true work of cinematic art.