Pinocchio (1940)

Directed by: Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Ben Sharpsteen | 88 minutes | animation, family, fantasy, musical | Original voice cast: Dickie Jones, Cliff Edwards, Christian Rub, Evelyn Venable, Walter Catlett, Charles Judels, Frankie Darro | Dutch voice cast: Siert Peters, Olaf Wijnants, Donald de Marcas, Wim van Rooy, Bernadette Kraakman, Jan Nonhof, Jan Anne Drenth, Carol van Herwijnen, Romke Schuitema, Steffen Dales

‘Snow White’, Walt Disney’s first full-length animated film, from 1937, was considered an extremely silly project at the time. Because: “Who could sit still for that long to watch animation? Won’t all those colors hurt your eyes?” However, history has shown that these very thoughts were foolish, as the film turned out to be an unqualified success, both among audiences and critics. Fantastic for Disney of course, but try to follow such a great film in a respectable way, let alone match it. Yet many agree that they have succeeded with ‘Pinocchio’. The effectiveness of the episodic and moralizing story can be disputed, but in terms of animation art ‘Pinocchio’ surpasses its predecessor ‘Snow White’ and the film can even be seen as the absolute pinnacle of the studio in this area. The music is also great, with the opening track and central theme “Wish Upon A Star” even becoming the signature tune of the Disney studio itself. In addition to the high-quality animation and the timeless music, the many fun and interesting characters are responsible for making ‘Pinocchio’ such an immortal film. The jovial Gepetto, his surly cat Figaro, the flirtatious fish Cleo, cricket sidekick Jiminy Cricket, the colorful villains, and of course the cute but naive Pinocchio himself, make Disney’s second full-length animated feature a work of art to cherish.

Disney’s animated film ‘Pinocchio’ is an adaptation of a story by Carlo Collodi, an Italian journalist and writer. Pinocchio’s adventures began in the form of a serial. They were recurring short stories of the wooden rascal in newspapers. This episodic character can also be seen in Disney’s film. Just when he manages to break out of one plight, usually with the help of his conscience Jiminy Cricket, he finds himself in the next with a new setting and a new set of villains or temptations. To some extent this creates diversity and scope, but otherwise it also makes for a somewhat disorganized story. This is partly due to the writers’ seeming need to focus primarily on symbolism and life lessons and to let events guide them.

In the audio commentary on the Blu-ray disc, some film historians and Disney experts argue that, unlike the original story, Pinocchio is not really didactic, but this is debatable. All events seem to serve moral, ethical lessons, sometimes at the expense of logic. Just like the equally episodic film ‘Crash’ by Paul Haggis, in which a multitude of racist situations are piled on top of each other to convey a message, ‘Pinocchio’ can be seen as a parable, with sequences that have one dominant theme from a substantive point of view. . The symbolism or theme of ‘Pinocchio’ appears to be strikingly Christian. From the beginning, Pinocchio is instructed to resist temptations (in short, the works of Evil, or the Devil) in order to be a real boy. His sense of pride is played out when he is persuaded to become famous as an actor in a puppet theater, and immediate desires when he can live a life of debauchery with other bad boys on Pleasure Island. But when he can resist or make amends for this by being honest about his transgressions—that is, by confessing his sins—and showing selfless, and even sacrifice, when he risks his own life” father” saves Gepetto from the stomach of a whale – he is blessed with an actual resurrection as a “real boy”. This theme is not very problematic, were it not for the fact that sometimes “deus-ex-machina” methods are used to continue the story. This means that at times when there really is no way out, the blue fairy suddenly shows up to save Pinocchio. For example, she suddenly appears in the puppeteer Strombosi’s car when Pinocchio is locked up and comes flying in the form of a dove to throw a letter at the door of Gepetto’s house so that Pinocchio and Jiminy can find out that the old man has been swallowed by whale Monstro. Aside from the somewhat easy transitions, this last part of the film, featuring whale Monstro, feels like a somewhat standalone adventure, probably added by the creators to make the film a bit more epic in nature and to give it a spectacular and emotional touch. final, in which Pinocchio goes through his final development.

Still, Pinocchio doesn’t go through much development as a character. He shows in the last act that he has courage and loves his father very much, but nothing in the early parts of the film shows otherwise. The only thing is that he suddenly shows himself to be smart when he has to find a way to free Gepetto from the belly of the whale. Perhaps there was more development in Collodi’s original story. In it, Pinocchio started out as a cheeky, arrogant, and generally unkind “child” and so there is potentially more room for change (for the better). Walt Disney has actually made Pinocchio into a sweet and cute little boy, who laughs and dances and behaves like any other child. So, yes, also naive and rash. So, apart from his wooden structure, he is a real boy right from the start. The problems he gets into are certainly not always his own fault. He is more of a plaything for his environment, who sometimes makes wrong choices. Not that this is very objectionable to the involvement in his fate. It’s enough to see the sweet Pinocchio in all sorts of threatening, hopeless situations and see him longing for Gepetto to sympathize with him. When the thick tears run down his wooden cheeks, the viewer melts and wants nothing more than to see him dance and jump again with Gepetto and all the pets.

Pinocchio is animated so beautifully and cutely, and he’s such a sweet, funny little man, that it would be satisfying enough to just watch him for the entire runtime. How his expression changes continuously – from and to surprised, happy, anxious, sad, loving -, the way his wooden legs swing when he jumps around, how his knees are together when he is insecure or anxious… there is always to discover something interesting in his animation. And this actually applies to the animation of all characters and environments. The film really feels like an adult feature film, which can compete with the best “live action” films in terms of acting, camera work, and lighting. There’s so much detail in backgrounds and objects that you can keep watching the movie and discovering new things. Much also feels like a romantic, impressionistic painting and a compelling feature film at the same time. A virtuoso shot zooms in on Gepetto’s cottage – starting at the town’s church bell, moving slowly along and through the streets with children playing and birdsong, finally arriving at the frenzied leaping Pinocchio, who can’t wait. to go to school. And the way in which light is used is particularly atmospheric, whether it be the moonlight that shines into Gepetto when Figaro slowly opens the window with his paws, or the sunlight that shines through the mist into a house of a red-orange glow. In a Blu-ray documentary about the making of ‘Pinocchio’, a speaker states that in the late 1930s, Disney’s film became richer and darker in their animation style and that film historian Russell Merritt is talking about the “Rembrandt ” look, and this is a nice description when it comes to the use of light in ‘Pinocchio’. It’s really beautiful.

Despite the episodic nature of the film, the independent scenes of ‘Pinocchio’ are very special. For example, because of the appealing, captivating characters. Jiminy Cricket has been developed by Disney itself into a full-fledged character, who even threatens to steal the spotlight from Pinocchio and, in addition to the voice, also forms the heart of the film. And the villains are often intimidating and fascinating at the same time. Sometimes the menacing atmosphere is very palpable and the film almost feels like a horror movie, such as when Pinocchio’s “buddy” Lampwick turns into a donkey before his eyes – partly shown, as in the best horror traditions, through a shadow on the wall – and in confrontations with the formidable-looking whale Monstro. But the film is also very funny, with Jiminy Cricket often providing comic relief, as is Gideon, the sidekick of villain Honest John, who, like in a Warner Brothers cartoon, continuously walks around with a large ax in his pocket, where he likes to give others a hand. noise sells more. But of course ‘Pinocchio’ is first and foremost an emotional, dramatic story about a boy who wants to be reunited with his (surrogate) father and vice versa. When this finally happens again, after many thrilling adventures, many a viewer will do an inner happy dance, as Pinocchio literally does with Gepetto, cat Figaro, and loyal friend Jiminy. And this feeling will undoubtedly grow stronger with each viewing session. Because ‘Pinocchio’ is a film that entertains endlessly and provides new surprises.