Pinocchio (1940 film)
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This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 1994. | ||
"Ideas come from curiosity."
— Walt Disney
"When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do. And one thing it takes to accomplish something is courage."
— Walt Disney
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Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and based on the 1883 Italian children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. It was the second animated feature film produced by Disney, made after the first animated success Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Why It Wishes Upon A Star
- With the massive success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney's first feature length film, Pinocchio served an follow-up to said film. With the film fully living up to the artistic promise of it's predecessor, and in some technical aspects even surpassing it, proved the previous film's success was no fluke.
- Part of the previous film's success was establishing a new standard of character animation that's still the industry criterion. This film maintains that standard with new refinements introduced, and a diverse range of movement:
- When Pinocchio's still a lifeless puppet, he's dangles and swings likeooden object he is when he moves around. When he comes alive, he still joined and wooden, but his movements are those of a sentient being, and when he becomes a real boy at the end, he moves like one.
- Jiminy Cricket nimbly leaps from point to point
- Old Geppetto moves with a slower, stiffer gait
- The Fox and the Cat, are slapstick comedians who tear through their scenes.
- The Blue Fairy is an ethereal presence who glides smoothly into a room.
- The film tackles an ambitious range of settings, themes and visual and dramatic effects.
- For instance, the scenes in Geppetto's workshop, filled with his imaginative carved toys and clocks, were atmospheric, charming, and endlessly inventive.
- While every Disney film included a quota of effects animation by 1940, this film displays it in abundance: water ripples and flows, flames flicker and dance, raindrops splash, lightning flashes, ominous shadows look.
- In addition, the crew continued experimenting a multiplayer camera crane, which introduced a new illusion of depth in animated films. One scene starts with a bell tower at roof level, then moves down into the streets of the village, passing under an arch and around a corner, all in a single unbroken movement.
- Collodi's epic original story was fanciful, and often frightening while not afraid to deal with dark topics such as dismemberment or death. Disney's take manages to maintain the novel's dark elements and some of its themes while putting its own touch on things.
- The film removed most of the book’s violence. For instance, In the novel Pinocchio’s feet were burned off and later he was hung by the neck on a tree overnight.
- But at the same time, the writers actually made some sequences more frightening.
- For starters, there's the selection of downright terrifying villains and situations.
- The film Pinocchio encounters drinking, smoking, and gambling on Pleasure Island, details missing from the book.
- The screenwriters condensed the puppet’s five-month stay on the island into one terrifying night, giving the film a narrative momentum that’s often missing from Disney's previous film.
- Stromboli is a much more horrific presence in the film than the book's Showman, while Monstro the whale (originally a giant shark) is one of the unforgettable monsters in animation.
- Collodi's novel from the 19th century lacked a clear, straightforward story line, was often repetitive, inconsistent and without the unity and logical flow Disney preferred, and overall had an unlikable protagonist who consistently had to relearn lessons. Disney's take, on the other hand, focused on Jiminy Cricket, whose literary counterpart was killed within the first few chapters, but recreated for Disney as the puppet's conscience, and a moral center throughout the story.
- On a related note, Jiminy served as the narrator, and became a more appealing figure, essentially looking like a tiny humanoid.
- In contrast to Disney's previous adaptions, he sought out celebrities to provide voices for the animated characters
- Jiminy Cricket was voiced by Cliff Edwards, a former vaudevillian with a warm personality that came through with his voice.
- Walter Catlett, another vaudevillian voiced Honest John and sang "An Actor's Life for Me"
- Frankie Darro, a child star in silent films, voiced Lampwick
- Dickie Jones, basically had his career highlight with Pinocchio, who had a long career in bit parts and Westerns
- Evelyn Venable -- a stage actress -- had one of her last film roles as the Blue Fairy. Her role relied heavily on rotoscoping, the process of drawing an outline of a human figure
- Another way the film's different from Snow White is that Disney began work on the film, before the musical score was set. The songs were also an improvement over Snow White's.
- "When You Wish A Star" became a hit, and Walt Disney's theme song.
- Evoking the ethnic humor of vaudeville, "I've Got No Strings" goes through Dutch, French and Russian variations. In the film, it is a tour de force of animation artistry, seamlessly melding several types of movement, from dancing marionettes to Pinocchio’s awkward gestures to Stromboli’s sweeping arms.
- Overall, the film's filled with tour de force sequences. The artists were aided at times by scale models, following a suggestion by animator Joe Grant. They also had the luxury of experimenting with effects, with discarding months of work, with exploring new techniques until Disney was satisfied with the results. Animating Monstro the whale, for instance, involved using a five-foot model.
- The animation is often considered to be revolutionary and beautiful for it's time, and still as hold up to this day with vivid backgrounds, cartoony movements and inventive lighting techniques that were new at the time and still feel impressive today.
- Many of the characters are wonderfully charming and likable.
- Pinocchio is an adorable protagonist who learns the difference between right and wrong later in the film, and becomes very brave in the film's climax when he saves his father from certain doom.
- Jiminy Cricket is a wonderful sidekick for Pinocchio and acts as a parental figure for him to make sure he doesn't get into any trouble, and caring for him at every step of the way.
- Honest John is a suspicious figure who tricks Pinocchio into doing nefarious things and is very intimating and threatening, as it's clear he is trying to put Pinocchio into real danger and is clearly up to no good.
- The Blue Fairy is a caring and kind mother figure towards Pinocchio and helps him along in his adventure across Italy and brings him back to life after he got killed at the end of the climax by turning him into a real boy.
- Geppetto is a kind and quirky inventor who is often lonely and loves his son Pinocchio to pieces and cares about his safety and wellbeing, thus he goes on a search for him after he goes missing for a few days.
Trivia
- The film was supposed to get a direct-to-video sequel titled Pinocchio 2 that followed Pinocchio in a combination of stories as he learned how to be a real boy. While the first film saw Pinocchio learn what it meant to be honest and kind, the sequel would have taught him other lessons, leading him to a question that many children ask at one point or another, 'why isn't life fair?'. Unfortunately, it was one of many DTV sequels cancelled by John Lasseter when he took over as head of Disney.