Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the story The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. It is the second film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, and was made after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was released to theaters by RKO Radio Pictures on February 7, 1940.

The plot of the film involves an old wood-carver named Geppetto who carves a wooden puppet named Pinocchio who is brought to life by a blue fairy, who tells him he can become a real boy if he proves himself "brave, truthful, and unselfish". Thus begin the puppet's adventures to become a real boy, which involve many encounters with a host of unsavory characters.

The film was adapted by Aurelius Battaglia, William Cottrell, Otto Englander, Erdman Penner, Joseph Sabo, Ted Sears, and Webb Smith from Collodi's book. The production was supervised by Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske, and the film's sequences were directed by Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, and Bill Roberts.

Pinocchio won two Academy Awards, one for Best Original Score and one for Best Original Song for the song "When You Wish upon a Star".

Plot[link]

After singing the film's signature song "When You Wish upon a Star", Jiminy Cricket explains to the audience that he is going to tell a story of a wish coming true. In flashback, he moves into the workshop of the woodworker Geppetto to warm himself from the cold. Jiminy watches as Geppetto finishes work on a wooden marionette whom he names Pinocchio. Before falling asleep, Geppetto makes a wish on a star that Pinocchio could be a real boy. During the night, the star, in the form of a Blue Fairy, visits the workshop to grant Geppetto's wish. She makes Pinocchio come alive, while remaining still a puppet. The fairy tells Pinocchio that if he wants to become a real boy of flesh and blood he must prove himself to be brave, truthful and unselfish and able to tell right from wrong by listening to his conscience. Pinocchio does not understand what a conscience is, and Jiminy appears to explain it to him. The Blue Fairy asks if Jiminy would serve as Pinocchio's conscience, a task he accepts.

Geppetto discovers that his wish has come true, and is filled with joy. The next day, he sends Pinocchio on his first day of school. However, the naive Pinocchio is led astray by the conniving con artists Honest John and Gideon, who convince him to join Stromboli's puppet show instead. Pinocchio becomes Stromboli's star attraction as a magic string-less marionette, but when Pinocchio wants to go home for the night (though promising to come back in the morning), Stromboli locks Pinocchio in a birdcage to prevent him from leaving. During the night, the Blue Fairy comes to ask why Pinocchio disobeyed Geppetto. Despite Jiminy's urgings, Pinocchio tells an overblown story to hide his shame, but with each lie his nose grows and grows until it is like the branch of a tree. The Blue Fairy explains that "a lie will keep growing and growing, until it's as plain as the nose on your face." Pinocchio vows to do better from now on and the Blue Fairy changes his nose back to normal and sets him free, warning that this will be the last time she helps him.

Unfortunately, on his way back to Geppetto's house, Pinocchio is once again led astray by Honest John and Gideon, who convince him that he is sick, and the only cure is to go to Pleasure Island. On his way he befriends Lampwick, a misbehaved and destructive boy. Soon Pinocchio and the other boys begin to enjoy gambling, smoking, getting drunk and destroying Pleasure Island, much to Jiminy's dismay. Then Jiminy discovers the island harbours a terrible curse which turns boys who "make jackasses of themselves" into real donkeys, who are then sold to work in the salt mines and circuses as part of an evil racket run by The Coachman. Lampwick is soon transformed into a donkey, but Pinocchio manages to escape with only a donkey's ears and tail.

Upon returning home, they find the workshop empty and soon learn (from a letter by the Blue Fairy) that Geppetto, while venturing out to sea to rescue Pinocchio from Pleasure Island, had been swallowed, along with his cat, Figaro, and his fish, Cleo, by a giant whale named Monstro. Determined to rescue his father, Pinocchio jumps into the bottom of the ocean, with Jiminy accompanying him. However, Pinocchio is soon found and eaten by Monstro, where he is reunited with Geppetto and his pets inside the whale. Pinocchio devises an escape plan by burning wood in order to make Monstro sneeze. The plan works, but the enraged whale gives chase. Eventually, Pinocchio succeeds in getting Geppetto to safety in a cave under a cliff before Monstro rams into it. After Monstro's defeat, Jiminy discovers that Pinocchio is dead. At their home, the group mourn for Pinocchio, but from afar, the Blue Fairy decides Pinocchio has proven himself, and he is reborn as a real human boy, much to the joy of his family. When Jiminy steps outside to thank the Fairy, she decides he has done well, and gives him a gold badge that certifies him as an official conscience.

Cast of characters[link]

• Pinocchio (Dickie Jones The protagonist. A happy wooden puppet made by Geppetto and turned into a living puppet by the Blue Fairy.
• Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards), a cheerful cricket who acts as Pinocchio's "conscience" and the partial narrator of the story.
• Mister Geppetto (Christian Rub), a woodcarver who creates Pinocchio and wishes for him to become a real boy.
• Figaro and Cleo are Geppetto's tuxedo cat and goldfish, respectively, who do not like each other very much until the end of the film when Pinocchio becomes a real boy.
• John Worthington Foulfellow (Walter Catlett), also known as Honest John, is a sly anthropomorphic fox and known criminal who tricks Pinocchio twice in the film.
• Gideon is Honest John's mute and crafty anthropomorphic feline accomplice. His voice was originally to be supplied by Mel Blanc of Looney Tunes fame, but they deleted his dialogue in favor of a mute performance (i.e. Harpo Marx) just like Dopey of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. However, Gideon's hiccups were provided by Blanc.
• Stromboli (Charles Judels), a large, sinister, bearded puppet maker and the main antagonist of the film's first act who forces Pinocchio to perform onstage in order to make money. He speaks in an Italian accent, though he is identified as being a gypsy. He is the only villain of the film to be part of the official Disney Villains line-up. He is not seen again after the scene when Pinocchio is locked up, so his defeat remains unknown, but it is likely that his career suffered a slump without Pinocchio.
• The Blue Fairy (Evelyn Venable), the beautiful fairy who brings Pinocchio to life and turns him into a real boy at the end.
• The Coachman (Charles Judels), a corrupt and sadistic coachman who owns and operates Pleasure Island and serves as the main villain of the film's second act. He enjoys turning unruly boys into donkeys. He speaks in a Cockney accent. The look of the Coachman is like Charles Laughton in Jamaica Inn by A. Hitchcock (1939). Like Stromboli, his fate is left unrevealed.
• Lampwick (Frankie Darro), a naughty boy Pinocchio meets and befriends on his way to Pleasure Island. He turns into a donkey while the boys are shooting pool.
• Monstro is the whale that swallows Geppetto, Figaro, and Cleo during their search for Pinocchio. He is the third and final antagonist of the film. Pinocchio is later swallowed when Monstro is eating and he and Geppetto reunite. Monstro's whale sounds were provided by Thurl Ravenscroft.
• Alexander, (Dickie Jones) is one of the boys who transformed into a donkey on Pleasure Island. He can still talk and is hurled into a special holding pen for suchlike donkeys.

Production[link]

In September 1937, during the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, animator Norman Ferguson brought a translated version of Carlo Collodi's 1883 Italian children's novel, The Adventures of Pinocchio to the attention of Walt Disney. After reading the book "Walt was busting his guts with enthusiasm" as Ferguson said.^[3] Pinocchio was intended to be the studio's third film, after Bambi. However, Bambi proved to be a challenging film to adapt, so Pinocchio was moved ahead in production while Bambi was put on hold.^[4]

The plan for the original film was considerably different from what was released. Numerous characters and plot points from the original novel were used in early drafts. Walt Disney was displeased with the work that was being done and called a halt to the project midway into production so that the concept could be rethought and the characters redesigned.^[4]

Originally, Pinocchio was to be depicted as a Charlie McCarthy-esque wise guy, equally as rambunctious and sarcastic as the puppet in the original novel.^[4] He looked exactly like a real wooden puppet with a long pointed nose, a peaked cap and bare wooden hands. But Walt found that no one could really sympathize with such a character and so designer and lead animator Milt Kahl had to redesign the puppet as much as possible. Eventually, he revised the puppet to make him look more like a real boy, with a button nose, a child's Tyrolean hat, and standard cartoon character 4-fingered (or 3 and a thumb) hands with Mickey Mouse-type gloves on them. Milt quoted, "I don't think of him as a puppet, I think of him as a little boy".^[4] The only parts of him that still looked more or less like a puppet were his arms and legs. In this film, he is still led astray by deceiving characters, but gradually learns bit by bit and is depicted as innocent, naïve, somewhat coy and exhibits a good heart. For example when he is offered to go to Pleasure Island he inquires he needs to go home several times, before Honest John and Gideon pick him up themselves and carry him away.

Additionally, it was at this stage that the character of the cricket was expanded and Jiminy Cricket became central to the story. Originally the cricket was only a minor character. Once the character was expanded, he was depicted as an actual (that is, less anthropomorphized) cricket with toothed legs and waving antennae.^[4] But again Walt wanted something more likable. Ward Kimball had spent several months animating a "Soup Eating Sequence" in Snow White which was cut from the film due to pacing reasons. Ward was about to quit until Walt rewarded him for his work by promoting him to the "supervising animator" of Jiminy Cricket.^[4] Ward conjured up the design for Jiminy Cricket as "a little man with an egg head and no ears. And the only thing that makes him a cricket is because we call him one."^[5]

Due to the huge success of Snow White, Walt Disney wanted more famous voices for Pinocchio, which marked the first time an animated film had used celebrities as voice actors.^[3] Jiminy Cricket was played by Cliff Edwards, who at the time, was a popular singer who introduced the song "Singin' in the Rain'. He was also an actor on Broadway and in films such as The Hollywood Revue of 1929, Those Three French Girls, and had a small part in Gone with the Wind. The character of Pinocchio was voiced by child actor Dickie Jones who had been in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Destry Rides Again. Musical theatre actor Walter Catlett, who had appeared in classics such as Bringing Up Baby and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, played Foulfellow the Fox. Christian Rub played Geppetto and the design of the character was even a caricature of Rub.^[4] Young Frankie Darro who had starred in Wild Boys of the Road and had supporting roles in The Phantom Empire and A Day at the Races, played Lampwick. Evelyn Venable, who is said to be the inspiration for the Columbia Lady, played The Blue Fairy while Charles Judels played both the villainous Stromboli and The Coachman.

Another voice actor was Mel Blanc most famous for voicing many of the characters in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons from Warner Bros. He was hired to perform the voice of Gideon the Cat. However, it was eventually decided for Gideon to be mute just like Dopey, whose whimsical, Harpo Marx-style persona made him one of Snow White's most comic and popular characters. All of Blanc's recorded dialogue in this film was subsequently deleted except for a solitary hiccup, which was heard three times in the film.

During the production of the film the character model department was set-up headed by Joe Grant.^[4] The character model department was responsible for the building of three-dimensional clay models of the characters in the film, known as maquettes. These were then given to the staff to observe how a character should be drawn from any given angle desired by the artists.^[4] The model makers also built working models of Geppetto's cuckoo clocks, as well as Stromboli's gypsy wagon and The Coachman's carriage. However since it is difficult to animate a realistic moving vehicle, Disney resorted to a "rotoscoping" animation technique invented by the Fleischer Brothers, Disney's chief competitor at the time. "Rotoscoping" involved filming a live-action "gypsy" wagon maquette on a miniature set using stop motion animation. Then each frame of the animation was enlarged onto sheets of paper as a pattern these are called "Photo-stats". Animators then placed a sheet of animation paper over these "Photo-Stats" and traced the wagon, and then repeated this for each new frame of film in order to capture the exact movement of Stromboli's wagon. These drawings were then "inked and painted" onto animation cels. The cels were then overlayed on top of background images with the cels of the characters to create the completed shot on the rostrum camera.^[4]

Despite Disney's initial resistance to "rotoscoping" (he reluctantly agreed to allow it in Snow White, three years before) he embraced the animation technology to be used in certain ways.^[6] Live Action footage for Pinocchio was shot with the actors acting out the scenes. However unlike Snow White the live action images were not merely traced, as this would result in stiff, unnatural movement. Instead the animators used them as a guide for animating and studied how human beings move and incorporate those poses into the animation, but exaggerated them slightly.^[4] The animators referred to this as Live Action Reference rather than rotoscoping. However some rotoscoping was used in the animation of the Blue Fairy.

Pinocchio was a ground breaking achievement in effects animation. In contrast to the character animators who concentrate on the acting of the characters, Effects animators create anything else that moves that is not the character. This includes vehicles, machinery, and natural effects such as rain, lightning, snow, smoke, shadows, and water, as well as the fantasy or science-fiction type effects like Fairy Dust.^[4] The influential abstract animator Oskar Fischinger who mainly worked on Fantasia contributed to the effects animation of the Blue Fairy's wand.^[7] Effects animator, Sandy Strother kept a diary about his year-long animation of the water effects in Pinocchio which included splashes, ripples, bubbles, waves, and the illusion of being underwater. To help give depth to the ocean, the animators put more detail on the waves on the water surface in the foreground, and put less detail in as the surface moved further back. After the animation was traced onto cels, they would trace it once more with blue and black script to pencil leads to give the waves a sculptured look.^[4] To save time and money, the splashes were kept impressionistic. Pinocchio was one of the first animated films to have highly realistic effects and is often highly regarded by Effects animators as having some of the best Effects animation the studio ever did.^[4]

Reception[link]

Pinocchio went into release accompanied by generally positive reviews. Archer Winsten, who had criticized Snow White, wrote: "The faults that were in Snow White no longer exist. In writing of Pinocchio, you are limited only by your own power of expressing enthusiasm." Jiminy Cricket's song, "When You Wish upon a Star", became a major hit and is still identified with the film, and later as a fanfare for The Walt Disney Company itself. Pinocchio also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and Best Original Score, making it the first Disney film to win not only either Oscar, but also both at the same time. This did not occur again until Mary Poppins in 1964 and The Little Mermaid in 1989.

Financially however, Pinocchio was not initially a success.^[1] The box office returns form the film's initial release were both below Snow White's unprecedented success and below studio expectations.^[1][8] Of the film's $2.289 million negative cost - twice the cost of Snow White- Disney only reoccupied $1.9 million of the film's cost by late 1940, and did not regain the loss until 1947.^[9] This was primarily due to the fact that World War II and its aftermath had cut off the European and Asian markets overseas, and hindered the international success of Pinocchio and other Disney releases through 1945.^[1] Joe Grant recalled Walt Disney being "very, very depressed" about Pinocchio's initial returns at the box office.^[8]

Despite its initial struggles at the box office, a series of reissues in the years after World War II proved more successful, and allowed the film to turn a profit. By 1973, the film had earned $13 million from the initial 1940 release and four reissues;^[10] further reissues in subsequent years have brought Pinocchio's lifetime gross to $84,254,167 at the box office.^[11]

In 1994, Pinocchio was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Filmmaker Terry Gilliam selected it as one of the ten best animated films of all time in a 2001 article written for The Guardian ^[12] and in 2005, Time.com named it one of the 100 best films of the last 80 years. Many film historians consider this to be the film that most closely approaches technical perfection of all the Disney animated features.^[13] Film critic Leonard Maltin stated that "with Pinocchio, Disney reached not only the height of his powers, but the apex of what many critics consider to be the realm of the animated cartoon."^[14]

In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Pinocchio was acknowledged as the second best film in the animation genre, after Snow White.^[15] In June 2011, TIME named it the best animated movie of "The 25 All-TIME Best Animated Films".

On Rotten Tomatoes, a website which aggregates film reviews, the film has the website's highest rating of 100%, meaning every single one of the 37 reviews of the film, from contemporaneous reviews to modern re-appraisals, on the site are positive. The general consensus of the film on the site is "Ambitious, adventurous, and sometimes frightening, Pinocchio represents the pinnacle of Disney's collected works- it's beautifully crafted and emotionally resonant." ^[16]

Awards and honors[link]

American Film Institute recognition

• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies - Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills - Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains:
  • Stromboli - Nominated Villain
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs:
  • "When You Wish Upon a Star" - #7
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes:
  • "A lie keeps growing and growing until it's as plain as the nose on your face." - Nominated
• AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals - Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers - #38
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated
• AFI's 10 Top 10 - #2 Animated film

Reissues[link]

With the re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1944 came the tradition of re-releasing Disney films every seven to ten years. Pinocchio has been theatrically re-released in 1945, 1954, 1962, 1971, 1978, 1984, and 1992. RKO handled the first two reissues in 1945 and 1954, while Disney itself reissued the film from 1962 on through its Buena Vista Distribution division. The 1992 re-issue was digitally restored by cleaning and removing scratches from the original negatives one frame at a time, eliminating soundtrack distortions, and revitalizing the color. The film also received five video releases, three DVD releases, and one Blu-ray release, the first video release on VHS and CED Videodisc was a hot-seller in 1985 (this print was re-mastered and re-issued in 1986).

The more comprehensive digital restoration that was done for the 1992 re-issue was released on VHS in 1993, followed by its fourth VHS release and first release on Disney DVD in 1999. The film did not make it into the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection, although early printings of the 1999 VHS did use the Masterpiece Collection logo. The second Disney DVD release and final issue in the VHS format (the first in the Walt Disney Gold Classics Collection VHS/DVD line) premiered the following year in 2000. The third DVD release and first Blu-ray Disc release (the second Blu-ray in the Walt Disney Platinum Editions series) were released on March 10, 2009 (March 11, 2009 in Australia). Like the 2008 Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray release, the Pinocchio Blu-ray package featured a new restoration by Lowry Digital in a two-disc Blu-ray set, with a bonus DVD version of the film also included.^[17] This set returned to the Disney Vault on April 30, 2011.^[18]

Home media[link]

• July 16, 1985 (VHS, Betamax, CED Videodisc, and Laserdisc, Classics edition)
• October 14, 1986 (VHS and Betamax, remastered Classics edition)
• March 26, 1993 (VHS and Laserdisc, restored Classics edition)
• July 1993 (VHS made in Brazil - Abril Vídeo/Walt Disney Home Video)
• April 16, 1995 (VHS made in the UK - Disney Videos, Classics edition, Spanish-dubbed Clásicos edition)
• October 26, 1999 (60th Anniversary Edition, as well as a Limited Issue DVD)
• March 7, 2000 (VHS and DVD, Gold Classic Edition)
• March 10, 2009 (70th Anniversary Platinum Edition DVD and Blu-ray)

Soundtrack[link]

The songs in Pinocchio were composed by Leigh Harline and Lyrics by Ned Washington. Leigh Harline and Paul J. Smith composed the incidental music score.

• "When You Wish upon a Star" - Jiminy Cricket, Chorus
• "Little Wooden Head" - Geppetto
• "Give a Little Whistle" - Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio
• "Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (An Actor's Life for Me)" - J. Worthington Foulfellow
• "I've Got No Strings" - Pinocchio
• "Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (An Actor's Life for Me) (reprise)" - J. Worthington Foulfellow
• "When You Wish upon a Star (reprise)" - Jiminy Cricket, Chorus

The music CD sets Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic and Disney's Greatest Hits include "When You Wish upon a Star", "Give a Little Whistle", and "I've Got No Strings".

Songs written for film but not used[link]

• "I'm a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow" - Jiminy Cricket (this song eventually showed up in Fun and Fancy Free)
• "As I Was Saying to the Duchess" - J. Worthington Foulfellow (this line is spoken briefly by Foulfellow in the film, however)
• "Three Cheers for Anything" - Lampwick, Pinocchio, Alexander, Other Boys
• "Monstro the Whale" - Chorus
• "Honest John" (this song appears as a bonus feature on the 70th Anniversary Platinum Edition Blu-ray and DVD)
• "Turn On the Old Music Box" - Jiminy Cricket

Media and merchandise[link]

Theme parks[link]

• Many of Pinocchio's characters are meetable characters at Disney parks.
• Pinocchio's Daring Journey is a popular ride at Disneyland Park (Anaheim),^[19] Tokyo Disneyland,^[20] and Disneyland Park (Paris).^[21]
• Pinocchio Village Haus is a quick service restaurant at Walt Disney World that serves pizza and macaroni and cheese.^[22] There are also similar quick-service restaurants in Disneyland and Disneyland Paris, as well, with almost identical names.
• In It's a Small World at Hong Kong Disneyland and Disneyland, Pinocchio was a prop or puppet, while Jiminy Cricket was a toy (Only at Disneyland).
• There is a hidden Pinocchio doll in Tokyo Disneyland's It's a Small World.

Other films[link]

• Some of the characters (including Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket) make cameos in the 1988 film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
• In Aladdin, Genie's face (in one scene) turns into that of Pinocchio, when Aladdin says he will set the Genie free and the Genie thinks Aladdin is lying. Thus when the Genie turns into Pinocchio, his nose is really long.
• Pinocchio and the Blue Fairy make an appearance in Teacher's Pet.
• Pinocchio has a cameo in the film Tangled.^[23]

Cruise ships[link]

• Pinocchio's Pizzeria is a quick service restaurant aboard both the Disney Magic and the Disney Wonder that serves multiple types of pizzas.
• The horn sound of the Disney Cruise Line ships is to the tune of a song in this film, "When You Wish Upon a Star". Also another one of the Disney Dream's horns is to the tune of another song in this film, "Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (An Actor's Life For Me)".

Ice show[link]

Disney on Ice starring Pinocchio, toured internationally from 1987 to 1992. A shorter version of the story is also presented in the current Disney on Ice production "100 Years of Magic".

Video games[link]

Aside from the Sega Mega Drive (Or Genesis in North America), Game Boy, and Super Nintendo games based on the animated film, Geppetto and Pinocchio also appear as characters in the game Kingdom Hearts. The inside of Monstro is also featured as one of the worlds. Jiminy Cricket appears as well, acting as a recorder, keeping a journal of the game's progress in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and, Kingdom Hearts II.^[24] Pinocchio's home world was slated to appear in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, but was omitted due to time restrictions, although talk-sprites of Pinocchio, Geppetto, Honest John and Gideon have been revealed.^[25][26] As compensation, this world appears in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, under the name "Prankster's Paradise", with alternate versions of Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket, Geppetto, Cleo, Monstro and the Blue Fairy appearing.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pinocchio (1940 film)

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Pinocchio (1940 film)

• Official website
• Pinocchio at AllRovi
• Pinocchio at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Pinocchio at the Internet Movie Database
• Pinocchio at Rotten Tomatoes
• Pinocchio on Lux Radio Theater: December 25, 1939. Adaptation of Disney film.