Review: Pinocchio

Timeless classic about a lonely toymaker named Geppetto (voiced by Christian Rub), who creates a wooden marionette boy he names Pinocchio. Seeing a shooting star one night, he wishes for a real boy of his own. He then goes to bed, along with his pets, Cleo the Fish and Figaro the Cat. Meanwhile, the Blue Fairy (voiced by Evelyn Venable) appears and turns Pinocchio into a living but still wooden boy (now voiced by Dickie Jones). So long as he promises to be good, she will eventually turn Pinocchio into an actual boy. The next morning, Geppetto is overjoyed, and eventually sends Pinocchio off to school. Unfortunately, along the way, Pinocchio runs into a fox named Honest John (voiced by Walter Catlett), who leads Pinocchio astray, wagging school and Honest John and his mangy cat companion make a buck off of Pinocchio’s ‘living puppet’ status, and putting him into the clutches of the nasty impresario Stromboli (voiced by Charles Judels). The inimitable Cliff Edwards voices Pinocchio’s ‘conscience’, Jiminy Cricket, who constantly breaks the fourth wall, and hasn’t much success in keeping Pinocchio on the straight and narrow.

 

“Pinocchio” is in my view, the greatest animated movie of all-time and one of my all-time personal favourites of any genre. And although it was released in 1940, it still works perfectly today for the young and young at heart. Directed by Ben Sharpsteen (Disney’s “Dumbo”, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”) and Hamilton Luske (“Fantasia”, “Peter Pan”, “Cinderella”), this is one of those rare films for which the term ‘magical’ really does seem to fit, and the film has absolutely everything you could possibly want in family entertainment. Best of all, at 85 minutes, there isn’t a wasted moment in the film.

 

The story hasn’t aged a bit, and even the animation still looks beautiful, especially on DVD. The characters are all unforgettable, with a very cute fish, but the film is stolen by Figaro the Cat and of course, Jiminy Cricket. Figaro is adorable, and no matter how bratty and childish he can be, for some reason I always forgive him. Jiminy, meanwhile, even manages to get across a few adult gags here and there, such as accidentally putting his hand on the giant derriere of a statue of a young lady. But the title character himself has some great moments too, especially when he constantly asks ‘Why?’ in that special, annoying-yet-cute way kids always do. I also loved the cuckoo clock which hilariously has a woman spanking a child instead of the usual cuckoo bird coming out. The songs are terrific, with Jiminy’s ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’ (which won an Oscar, as did the music score) making you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It’s one of the greatest movie songs of all-time, and it’s no wonder that it has become Disney’s theme song.

 

It’s actually a clever story. It’s clearly a film about boys learning to behave themselves and follow the right path. So far as messages go, that’s not a particularly bad one, but cynics might see something weird in a story about blue fairies, old men who dream about having a boy of their own, and wooden puppets who grow a bird’s nest on the end of their erection. And is Honest John essentially pushing Pinocchio into child prostitution? Is Pleasure Island as suggestive as it sounds? But these were simpler and more innocent times, at least in literature and cinema, so such (misguided) concerns presumably never arose (Get it? Arose?). Honest John, for instance, is more of a Fagin-esque character to Pinocchio’s Oliver Twist, rather than anything more sinister. Still, it’s fun to analyse the film nonetheless, so long as it doesn’t stop you from being entertained and enchanted.

 

The film is quite scary, and yet it still remains perfect kids entertainment. I have no idea how that is achieved, but it’s true. Pleasure Island is the creepiest amusement park you’ll ever see, it sure ain’t no Never Never Land. Things get seriously creepy once kids start turning into jackasses, literally. And yet, kids surely won’t come out of this terrified. That’s movie magic, folks.

 

One flaw with the film (yes, even a five star classic can still have flaws) is that I never understood why Pinocchio turned into a donkey too. He’s not a real boy at this stage, just a wooden puppet. Oopsy. Even a fantasy needs internal logic at the very least. Actually, I also felt that the story transition from all of this into Geppetto getting swallowed by a whale, is sloppily done, too. How did he get there? And Pinocchio finds out about it by an act of God, basically. Meanwhile, do you get the impression that the reason why Pinocchio never makes it to school is more because it wouldn’t be convincing whilst he’s still a wooden puppet? I’m not advocating truancy, though, kids. Stay in school! Still, it does provide for a memorable, exciting climax to a wonderful motion picture for young and old. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore, folks, and that’s a damn shame.

 

The screenplay is by Ted Sears (“Alice in Wonderland”), Otto Englander (“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, “Fantasia”), Webb Smith (“Fantasia”), William Cottrell (one of several directors of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”), Joseph Sabo (“Fantasia”), Erdman Penner (“Alice in Wonderland”), and Aurelius Battaglia, from the Carlo Collodi story. How a film with two directors and at least six screenwriters can result in perfect entertainment is another example of movie magic.

 

Rating: A+