Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney and based on the story written by Carlo Collodi in 1883 called The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. It is the second animated film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. Made after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio 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 he wishes was a real boy. Upon doing so Pinocchio 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[]
In late-19th century Italy, Jiminy Cricket arrives at the shop of a woodworker and toymaker named Geppetto, who creates a puppet he names Pinocchio. As he falls asleep, Geppetto wishes upon a star for Pinocchio to be a real boy. Late that night, the Blue Fairy visits the workshop and brings Pinocchio to life, although he remains a puppet. She informs him that if he proves himself to be brave, truthful, and unselfish, he will become a real boy. When Jiminy reveals himself, the Blue Fairy assigns him to be Pinocchio's conscience. Geppetto awakens upon hearing the commotion from Pinocchio falling, and is overjoyed to discover that he is alive and will become a real boy.
The next morning, while walking to school, Pinocchio is led astray by con artist fox Honest John and his sidekick Gideon the Cat. Honest John convinces him to join Stromboli's puppet show, despite Jiminy's protestations. Pinocchio becomes Stromboli's star attraction, but when he tries to go home, Stromboli locks him in a bird cage and leaves to tour the world with Pinocchio. After Jiminy unsuccessfully tries to free his friend, the Blue Fairy appears, and an anxious Pinocchio lies about what happened, causing his nose to grow. The Blue Fairy restores his nose and frees Pinocchio when he promises to make amends, but warns him that she can offer no further help.
Meanwhile, a mysterious Coachman hires Honest John to find disobedient and naughty boys for him to take to Pleasure Island, a notorious and infamous place. Honest John, despite the legal risks and the Coachman's implication of what happens to the boys, persuades Pinocchio to take a vacation on Pleasure Island. On the way to the island, Pinocchio befriends Lampwick, a delinquent boy. At Pleasure Island, without rules or authority to enforce their activity, Pinocchio, Lampwick, and many other boys soon engage in vices such as vandalism, fighting, smoking and drinking. Jiminy eventually finds Pinocchio in a bar smoking and playing pool with Lampwick, and the two have a falling out after Pinocchio defends Lampwick for his actions. As Jiminy tries leaving Pleasure Island, he discovers that the island hides a horrible curse that transforms the boys into donkeys after making "jackasses" of themselves, and they are sold by the Coachman into slave labor. Pinocchio witnesses Lampwick transform into a donkey, and with Jiminy's help, he flees before he can be fully transformed, though he still has a donkey's ears and tail.
Upon returning home, Pinocchio and Jiminy find Geppetto's workshop deserted, and obtain a letter from the Blue Fairy in the form of a dove, stating that Geppetto had sailed to Pleasure Island in search of Pinocchio. He was swallowed by a gigantic and vicious sperm whale called Monstro and is now trapped in its belly. Determined to rescue his father, Pinocchio jumps into the Mediterranean Sea with Jiminy and is soon swallowed by Monstro, where he reunites with Geppetto. Pinocchio devises a scheme to make Monstro sneeze and allow them to escape, but the whale chases them and destroys their raft with his tail. Pinocchio selflessly pulls Geppetto to safety in a cove just as Monstro crashes into it and Pinocchio is killed.
Back at home, Geppetto, Jiminy, Figaro, and Cleo mourn Pinocchio. Having succeeded in proving himself brave, truthful, and unselfish, Pinocchio is revived and turned into a real human boy by the Blue Fairy, much to everyone's joy. As the group celebrates, Jiminy steps outside to thank the Fairy and is rewarded with a solid gold badge that certifies him as an official conscience.
Characters[]
- Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards) - A cricket who acts as the partial narrator of the story and who eventually becomes Pinocchio's conscience.
- Pinocchio (Dickie Jones) - The wooden puppet made by Geppetto and turned into a living puppet by the Blue Fairy.
- Geppetto (Christian Rub) - A toymaker who creates Pinocchio and wishes for him to become a real boy.
- Figaro (Clarence Nash) - Geppetto's black and white house cat.
- Cleo - (Evelyn Venable) - Geppetto's goldfish Figaro's love interest.
- J. Worthington "Honest John" Foulfellow (Walter Catlett) - A sly fox who tricks Pinocchio.
- Gideon (Mel Blanc) - Honest John's feline and mute accomplice.
- Stromboli (Charles Judels) - A large Italian puppeteer who forces Pinocchio to perform onstage in order to make money and former employer of Honest John and Gideon.
- The Coachman (Charles Judels) - A corrupt coachman who owns and operates Pleasure Island.
- The Blue Fairy (Evelyn Venable) - The magical fairy who causes Pinocchio to become alive and who eventually turns him into a real boy.
- Lampwick (Frankie Darro) - A naughty boy Pinocchio meets on his way to Pleasure Island.
- Monstro (Thurl Ravenscroft) - The killer whale (not orca) that swallows Geppetto, Figaro, and Cleo whole during their search for Pinocchio, and finally swallowing also the latter.
Medvirkende[]
1978[]
- Pinocchio - Daimi Gentle, Alexander Glæsel
- Jesper Fårekylling - Ove Sprogøe
- Gepetto - Helge Kjærulff-Schmidt
- Stromboli - Poul Bundgaard
- Mikkel From - Claus Ryskjær
- Feen - Susanne Bruun-Koppel
- Kusken - Bjørn Puggaard Muller
- Slaphans - Jesper Klein
1950[]
- Pinocchio - Ingeborg Brams
- Jesper Fårekylling - John Price
- Gepetto - Sigurd Langberg
- Stromboli - Gunnar Strømvad
- Feen - Tove Maes
- Mikkel From - Knud Heglund
- Kusken - Kai Holm
- Slaphans - Buster Larsen
History[]
Release: reactions and criticisms[]
Pinocchio was not commercially successful when first released, and Disney only recouped about half of its $2.3 million budget, which was due in part to poor timing, with the cut-off of European markets, due to World War II. By the time the film was released, the mood of Americans had also darkened, also due to the war. People just weren't as keen on seeing fairy tales as they were in the days of Snow White.
But there were other reasons why Pinocchio didn't quite pan out on initial release as it received mixed reviews. One thing that Snow White had that Pinocchio didn't was romance. There wasn't much in the way of "falling-in-love-at-first-sight" in Pinocchio as there had been in Snow White, which apparently was what people had come to expect of in Disney. To add insult to injury, Paolo Lorenzini, nephew of the original story's author, had beseeched the Italian Ministry of Popular Culture to charge Walt for slander in portraying Pinocchio "so he easily could be mistaken for an American," when it was perfectly obvious that the little puppet was in fact Italian. Nothing had apparently come of the protest. But 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." Also, despite the poor timing of the release, the film did do well both critically and at the box office in the United States. Finally, 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 Song and the Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and in 1994 was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 2005, Time.com named it one of the 100 best movies of the last 8 decades. Overall, Pinocchio is considered a true-blue classic today, and many film historians consider this to be the most technically perfect of all the Disney animated features while numerous people in general hail it as one of the most beautifully animated ever.
Re-releases: theatrical and home video[]

With the re-release of Snow White 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. The 1992 re-issue was digitally restored by cleaning and removing scratches from the original negatives one frame at a time, eliminating age-old soundtrack distortions, and revitalizing the color. The film also received three video releases in 1985 being a hot-seller, 1993, (both of those releases were released as Walt Disney Classics videos) and 1999 as a 60th Anniversary edition. It also had a Disney DVD "Limited Issue" release that year before it was added to the Gold Classic Collection in 2000. It was also released on a special edition DVD overseas in 2003.
"Pinocchio" Theatrical Release History[] |
Pinocchio home video release history[] |
Cast and crew[]
Voice cast[]
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Animation direction[]
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Songs[]
Songs in film[]
The songs in Pinocchio were composed by Leigh Harline, Oliver Wallace, and Ned Washington. Leigh Harline and Paul J. Smith composed the incidental music score while Oliver Wallace served as the uncredited conductor as Charles Wolcott and Frederick Stark served auncredited orchestrators.
- "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
- "When You Wish Upon a Star (Reprise)" - Jiminy Cricket; Chorus
Songs written for film but not used[]
- "I'm a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow" - Jiminy Cricket (this song eventually showed up in Fun and Fancy Free)
- "As I Saying To the Duchess" - J. Worthington Foulfellow
- "Three Cheers For Anything" - Lampwick; Pinocchio
- "Honest John" - Chorus (promotional)
- "Jiminy Cricket" - Chorus (promotional)
- "Monstro the Whale" - Chorus (promotional)
Goofs[]
- Pinocchio and Lampwick are seen hanging out by playing eight ball pool together but eight ball pool didn't exist until about after 1900 and this film is presumably set in the 19th century.
- When Pinocchio is surrounded by sea horses, Jiminy Cricket rides up to him on another sea horse. After it neighs, Jiminy Cricket says, "Steady there, Nelly!" in a regular voice, suddenly his speaking voice switches back to the processing that created under-the-water sound that was used previously.
- If you look very closely to the scene where Lampwick looks at his refection at the billiard's mirror when his transformation has begun. You will notice that Lampwick's refection has gray hair while the Lampwick outside the mirror has black hair.
- Even though Lampwick is seen using his toy catapult 3 times if you look carefully there are no stones being fired.
- When Pinocchio plays with the candle, he burns his left hand, but Gepetto puts Pinocchio's right hand into the water.
- In the pool game on Pleasure Island, the yellow 1-ball turns into a red 3-ball.
- When Pinocchio becomes entangled with the Russian dancer marionettes, two extra marionettes suddenly appear.
- When trying to free Pinocchio from Stromboli's cage, Jiminy Cricket takes his jacket and hat off and puts them on the padlock. In a later scene, they are no longer there.
- When Jiminy cozies up to sleep on the end of a fiddle, he kicks his shoes off in front of him. But when he is aroused by the Blue Fairy's arrival and grabs his shoes, they are now some distance away, sitting neatly heel to heel.
- As he approaches the entrance to the rough house with Lampwick, Pinocchio takes a bite out of the big pie he's holding in his left hand. A few seconds later, just before he throws it away, the pie appears to be intact.
- When Pinocchio meets Honest John and Gideon, he carries a book and apple (which Honest John eats). When the three go marching throughout the town, Pinocchio's apple core and book vanish.
Titles in different languages[]
- Arabic: بيونوكيو (Beonokeo)
- Bosnian: Pinokio
- Bulgarian: Пинокио
- Cantonese Chinese: 木偶奇遇記 ("A Puppet's Extraordinary Encounters")
- Croatian: Pinokio (also Pinocchio)
- Czech: Pinocchio
- Danish: Pinocchio
- Dutch: Pinokkio
- Finnish: Pinokkio (also Pinocchio)
- French: Pinocchio
- German: Pinocchio, das hölzerne Bengele (later Pinocchio; known as Die abenteuer des Pinocchio in Austria)
- Greek: Πινόκιο
- Hebrew: פינוקיו
- Hungarian: Pinokkió
- Icelandic: Gosi
- Indonesian: Pinokio
- Italian: Pinocchio
- Japanese: ピノキオ (Pinokio)
- Korean (South Korea): 피노키오
- Mandarin Chinese: 木偶奇遇記
- Norwegian: Pinocchio
- Persian: پینوکیو
- Polish: Pinokio
- Portuguese: Pinóquio
- Romanian: Pinocchio
- Russian: Пиноккио
- Serbian: Pinokio
- Spanish: Pinocho (also Pinocchio in Latin America)
- Swedish: Pinocchio
- Thai: พิน๊อคคิโอ
- Turkish: Pinokyo
- Vietnamese: Pinocchio
Videos[]
References[]
- Maltin, Leonard (1973). Pinocchio. In Leonard Maltin (Ed.), The Disney Book, pp. 37. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc.
- ↑ Pinocchio. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on June 10, 2009.
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