Pinocchio

PLOT:

The film starts with Jiminy Cricket singing the hit Disney song “When You Wish upon a Star”. Jiminy then talks to the audience for those who may not believe in the song’s optimistic words and recounts his experience of being one of those non-believers until he met Pinocchio. Through a storybook entitled Pinocchio(which acts as a window to Jiminy’s aformentioned adventure), we see an unnamed town in the night and the workshop of the woodworker Geppetto. Jiminy walks into the workshop to warm himself from the cold. He notices a puppet Geppetto is working on. Geppetto names the puppet Pinocchio and after making his marionette dance around for the amused and bewildered eyes of Figaro, his kitten, and Cleo, his goldfish, he decides to go to bed. He notices a falling star in the sky and wishes that Pinocchio could be a real boy. While everybody is sleeping Jiminy wakes up and notices a Blue Fairy entering the room. She makes Pinocchio come alive since Geppetto has always been a good man and deserves his wish to come true. Pinocchio is alive, but still nothing more than a puppet. 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 doesn’t understand what a conscience is and Jiminy appears to explain it to him. The Blue Fairy then assigns Jiminy with the official title of acting as Pinocchio’s conscience, changes him into better clothes, and disappears again.

Jiminy teaches Pinocchio that whenever he needs guidance he should whistle, as exemplified in the song “Give a Little Whistle”. Pinocchio tumbles over some furniture during the song and wakes up Geppetto, Figaro and Cleo who were asleep during the song. When Geppetto discovers his wish has become true, he is filled with joy and starts to celebrate by turning on all his clocks and music boxes. The next day Pinocchio goes off for his first day of school. Despite warning Pinocchio not to walk with strangers, the cricket is quickly ignored. Pinocchio never arrives at his destination since two crooks, the fox, Honest John, and the mute cat, Gideon, convince him to become an actor in the puppet show of Stromboli while singing the song “Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee”. Pinocchio immediately becomes a sensation singing “I’ve Got No Strings” at the theater and makes a lot of money for Stromboli. Stromboli however refuses to permit Pinocchio to return home and locks him up in a bird cage. During his captivity Jiminy reappears. He tries to open the lock on the birdcage, but the lock is too old and rusty, and he admits that only a miracle would help them get out of that mess. Suddenly, the Blue Fairy appears and asks Pinocchio to explain what happened. Pinocchio lies and to his surprise his nose starts to grow longer. The Blue Fairy explains to him that his nose grew because he lied. When Pinocchio admits he lied, and Jiminy pleads to the Blue Fairy to give Pinocchio one more chance, she forgives him and helps them escape, by unlocking the birdcage: disappearing right after. Pinocchio and Jiminy get out of Stromboli’s coach, and go back towards home.

Meanwhile, Honest John and Gideon have met The Coachman in a tavern. The Coachman promises them a large sum of money if they can bring him little boys whom he can lead to Pleasure Island. The mentioning of the island and the Coachman’s evil grin scare Honest John and Gideon, but they nonetheless lure Pinocchio away and deliver him to the Coachman. Jiminy Cricket, again unable to warn Pinocchio of the danger, travels with him incognito. During the travel to Pleasure Island Pinocchio befriends Lampwick, a misbehaving and destructive boy who is older than he. On the island boys are able to have fun and do all the things their parents and other adults usually tell them not to do, such as: gambling, drinking, brawling, smoking and vandalism. Pinocchio imitates Lampwick and has fun doing all these mischievous things. A furious Jiminy Cricket tries to make Pinocchio leave the location, but he is only ridiculed by Lampwick. Filled with anger and humiliation, Jiminy leaves them alone, but while trying to discover a way to leave the island, he makes a horrible discovery. The Coachman orders hooded goons to close the gates preventing any escape from the island. Jiminy sneaks under the locked gate to find a now-deserted Pleasure Island in ruins and littered with debris, which Jiminy comments looks like a graveyard. Jiminy then proceeds to where he hears voices and crying: a terrible curse on the island has transformed all the misbehaving boys into donkeys for literally “behaving like jackasses” (the curse) and are then sold by the Coachman as work forces in salt mines and circuses. Jiminy rushes back to warn Pinocchio, but it’s already too late. At a pool hall, Lampwick gradually transforms into a real braying donkey and Pinocchio has already developed donkey ears and a donkey tail from tobacco and beer. Pinocchio stops drinking and smoking once he realizes what they are doing to Lampwick, thereby preventing any further transformation into a donkey, although it is too late for Lampwick, as he screams for help, only to lose his senses by braying and smashing a mirror with his new hooves. Pinocchio still has donkey ears and a tail, but keeps his mind and body, although at a later point when Pinocchio jokes about his donkey tail he starts braying like Lampwick, only to regain his voice when he realizes donkey ears are a mark of shame, not humor. Jiminy and Pinocchio quickly escape and swim back to their hometown.

Back home, they find Geppetto is not home, and neither are Figaro or Cleo. There are cobwebs in here. Pinocchio and Jiminy are informed by the Blue Fairy that Geppetto ventured out to sea to rescue Pinocchio from Pleasure Island, but was swallowed by a whale named Monstro. Pinocchio, wracked with guilt, decides to travel underwater at the bottom of the ocean with Jiminy to find him. Pinocchio and Jiminy are swallowed by Monstro and discover his father, Cleo, and Figaro on a ruined boat inside the whale’s stomach. After a happy reunion Pinocchio comes up with an escape plan by burning wood on the boat to create smoke to make Monstro sneeze. The plan works, but the enraged sea mammal chases them. He destroys their raft and Geppetto almost drowns, only to be saved by Pinocchio who tries to swim him to the shore. Monstro swims after them, but crashes into a cliff on the rocky coastline, knocking him out and causing a tidal wave. Everyone washes onto shore and survives, except Pinocchio who was drowned by the enormous wave.

In Geppetto’s home everybody mourns over Pinocchio’s death. But the Blue Fairy decides that Pinocchio has proven his his worth in being a brave, good boy and brings him back to life as a real boy. Everyone celebrates Pinocchio’s revival and Jiminy is awarded an 18 karat gold medal by the Fairy for acting well as Pinocchio’s conscience. The film ends with Jiminy once again singing “When You Wish upon a Star”.

REVIEW:

Pinnochio has long been one of those Disney films that I believe to be among the best animated and contains one of the best stories. The little wooden boy has endeared himself to billions of fans over the years and this film still stands the test of time.

As the film progresses, there are a few catchy songs, and it seems as if this was going to to the way of a musical, but about halfway through, the music stops. nothing wrong with that, but I believe it would have been better with a couple of other songs. Apparently, there were songs that got cut, so it is quite possible that this was meant to have been a musical film. Having said that, it contains one of the most beautiful of all Disney songs, the hauntingly beautiful “When You Wish Upon a Star.”

Pinnochio is a reluctant hero. After the Blue Fairy brings him to life, he  goes through the usual naivety, but after he returns from Pleasure Island, he seems to have gained a new found confidence and wisdom. Maybe it was something in the ears and tail, but it just seemed a bit sudden. My guess is that the part of the character development that dealt with this change ended up on the cutting room floor.

Jiminy Cricket is one of the most beloved characters in the Disney universe, and this is the film that introduced him to us.

Geppetto seems to be a distant relative of the absent minded professor. One thing that has always caused me to question this film, si what he was doing out on the middle of the ocean looking for Pinocchio. It may have been covered in the book, but not in the film, as far as I saw. On top of this, why did he take Cleo and Figaro with him. Speaking of Cleo. After they all wash up on shiore after being tossed around by Monstro, she is still in her bowl. Cartoon logic…gotta love it!

The villains in this film, Honest John and Gideon, Stromboli, The Coachman, and Monstro, are all unique in their own way, but only Monstro poses any real threat. Stromboli and The Coachman just provide tough situations.

Pleasure Island is an interesting concept…and way for the characters to say jackass in 1940…lol I would have liked to have gotten some kind of explanation as to what kind of magic is behind the whole boys turning into donkeys thing.

There are some holes in the plot, but most of those seem to be pieces that were cut out for time purposes and don’t really hurt anything unless you’re trying to over think this nice family film. I have issues with those that go that far into trying to decipher films. Movies are meant to be enjoyed. Yes, we can want a bit more information here and there, but not to the extent of knowing every detail about every character. Pinnochio is one of those films that people have enjoyed time and time again. Why not join the masses?

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

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