Pinocchio (1940 film)

Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the story The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. It is the second film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, and was made after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was released to theaters by RKO Radio Pictures on February 7, 1940, and later re-released by Buena Vista Distribution Company.

The plot of the film involves an old wood-carver named Geppetto who carves a wooden puppet named Pinocchio (voice of Dickie Jones) being brought to life by a blue fairy (Evelyn Venable), 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

Jiminy Cricket walks into the workshop of the woodworker Geppetto to warm himself from the cold. Jiminy watches as Geppetto finishes work on a puppet he names Pinocchio. Before falling asleep, Geppetto makes a wish on a falling star that Pinocchio could be a real boy. During the night, the Blue Fairy visits the workshop to grant Geppetto's wish. She makes Pinocchio come alive, although still a puppet. The fairy tells Pinocchio that 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 asks if Jiminy would serve as Pinocchio's conscience, a task he accepts.

Geppetto discovers that his wish has come true, and is filled with joy. The next day, he sends Pinocchio on his first day of school. However, Pinocchio is led astray by the conniving Honest John and Gideon, who convince him to join Stromboli's puppet show instead. Pinocchio becomes Stromboli's star attraction, but when Pinocchio offers to come back in the morning, Stromboli abuses Pinocchio. With the help of the Blue Fairy and Jiminy, Pinocchio escapes.

Unfortunately, on his way back to Geppetto's house, Pinocchio is once again led astray by Honest John and Gideon, who convince him to go to Pleasure Island. On his way he befriends Lampwick, a misbehaved and destructive boy. Soon Pinocchio and the other boys begin to enjoy gambling, smoking, getting drunk and destroying Pleasure Island, much to Jiminy's dismay. Then Jiminy discovers the island has the power to turn boys who "make jackasses of themselves" into real donkeys, who are then sold to work in the salt mines and circuses as part of an evil racket run by The Coachman. Lampwick is soon transformed into a donkey, but Pinocchio manages to escape with a donkey's ears and tail.

Upon returning home, they find the workshop empty and soon learn (from a letter by the Blue Fairy) that Geppetto, while venturing out to sea to rescue Pinocchio from Pleasure Island, had been swallowed by a giant whale named Monstro. Determined to rescue his father, Pinocchio jumps into the bottom of the ocean, with Jiminy accompanying him. However, Pinocchio is soon found and eaten by Monstro, where he is reunited with Geppetto and his pets inside the whale. Pinocchio devises an escape plan by burning wood in order to make Monstro sneeze. The plan works, but the enraged whale gives chase. Eventually, Pinocchio succeeds in getting Geppetto to safety in a cave under a cliff before Monstro rams into it, but Pinocchio dies in the process. As Geppetto, Jiminy and the pets mourn the loss, the Blue Fairy decides that Pinocchio has proven himself unselfish and thus fulfills her promise to turn him into a real boy, much to the delight of Geppetto and Jiminy.

Production

In September 1937, during the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, animator Norman Ferguson brought a translated version of Carlo Collodi's 1883 Italian children's novel, The Adventures of Pinocchio to the attention of Walt Disney. After reading the book "Walt was busting his guts with enthusiasm" as Ferguson said.^[3] Pinocchio was intended to be the studio's third film, after Bambi. However, Bambi proved to be a challenging film to adapt, so Pinocchio was moved ahead in production while Bambi was put on hold.^[4]

The plan for the original film was considerably different from what was released. Numerous characters and plot points from the original novel were used in early drafts. Walt Disney was displeased with the work that was being done and called a halt to the project midway into production so that the concept could be rethought and the characters redesigned.^[4]

Originally, Pinocchio was to be depicted as a Charlie McCarthy-esque wise guy, equally as rambunctious and sarcastic as the puppet in the original novel.^[4] He looked exactly like a real wooden puppet with a long pointed nose, a peaked cap and bare wooden hands. But Walt found that no one could really sympathize with such a character and so designer and lead animator Milt Kahl had to redesign the puppet as much as possible. Eventually, he revised the puppet to make him look more like a real boy, with a button nose, a child's Tyrolean hat, and standard cartoon character 4-fingered (or 3 and a thumb) hands with Mickey Mouse-type gloves on them. Milt quoted, "I don't think of him as a puppet, I think of him as a little boy".^[4] The only parts of him that still looked more or less like a puppet were his arms and legs. In this film, he is still led astray by deceiving characters, but gradually learns bit by bit and is depicted as innocent, naïve, somewhat coy and exhibits a good heart. For example when he is offered to go to Pleasure Island he inquires he needs to go home several times, before Honest John and Gideon pick him up themselves and carry him away.

Additionally, it was at this stage that the character of the cricket was expanded and Jiminy Cricket became central to the story. Originally the cricket was only a minor character. Once the character was expanded, he was depicted as an actual (that is, less anthropomorphized) cricket with toothed legs and waving antennae.^[4] But again Walt wanted something more likable. Ward Kimball had spent several months animating a "Soup Eating Sequence" in Snow White which was cut from the film due to pacing reasons. Ward was about to quit until Walt rewarded him for his work by promoting him to the "supervising animator" of Jiminy Cricket.^[4] Ward conjured up the design for Jiminy Cricket as "a little man with an egg head and no ears. And the only thing that makes him a cricket is because we call him one."^[5]

Due to the huge success of Snow White, Walt Disney wanted more famous voices for Pinocchio, which marked the first time an animated film had used celebrities as voice actors.^[3] Jiminy Cricket was played by Cliff Edwards, who at the time, was a popular singer who introduced the song Singin' in the Rain. He was also an actor on Broadway and in films such as The Hollywood Revue of 1929, Those Three French Girls, and he had a small part in Gone with the Wind. The character of Pinocchio was voiced by child actor Dickie Jones who had recently been in Mr Smith Goes to Washington. Musical theatre actor Walter Catlett, who had appeared in classics such as Bringing Up Baby and Mr Deeds Goes to Town, played Foulfellow the Fox. Christian Rub played Geppetto and the design of the character was even a caricature of Rub.^[4] Young Frankie Darro who had starred in Wild Boys of the Road and had supporting roles in The Phantom Empire and A Day at the Races, played Lampwick. Evelyn Venable, who is said to be the inspiration for the Columbia Lady, played The Blue Fairy while Charles Judels played both the villainous Stromboli and The Coachman.

Another voice actor was Mel Blanc most famous for voicing many of the characters in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons from Warner Bros.. He was hired to perform the voice of Gideon the Cat. However, it was eventually decided for Gideon to be mute just like Dopey, whose whimsical, Harpo Marx-style persona made him one of Snow White's most comic and popular characters. All of Blanc's recorded dialogue in this film was subsequently deleted except for a solitary hiccup, which was heard three times in the film.

During the production of the film the character model department was set-up headed by Joe Grant.^[4] The character model department was reasonable for the building of three-dimensional clay models of the characters in the film, known as maquettes. These were then given to the staff to observe how a character should be drawn from any given angle desired by the artists.^[4] The model makers also built working models of Geppetto's cuckoo clocks, as well as Stromboli's gypsy wagon and The Coachman's carriage. However since it is difficult to animate a realistic moving vehicle, Disney resorted to a "rotoscoping" animation technique invented by the Fleischer Brothers, Disney's chief competitor at the time. "Rotoscoping" involved filming a live-action "gypsy" wagon maquette on a miniature set using stop motion animation. Then each frame of the animation was enlarged onto sheets of paper as a pattern these are called "Photo-stats". Animators then placed a sheet of animation paper over these "Photo-Stats" and traced the wagon, and then repeated this for each new frame of film in order to capture the exact movement of Stromboli's wagon. These drawings were then "inked and painted" onto animation cels. The cels were then overlayed on top of background images with the cels of the characters to create the completed shot on the rostrum camera.^[4]

Despite Disney's initial resistance to "rotoscoping" (he reluctantly agreed to allow it in Snow White, three years before) he embraced the animation technology to be used in certain ways.^[6] Live Action footage for Pinocchio was shot with the actors acting out the scenes. However unlike Snow White the live action images were not merely traced, as this would result in stiff, unnatural movement. Instead the animators used them as a guide for animating and studied how human beings move and incorporate those poses into the animation, but exaggerated them slightly.^[4] The animators referred to this as Live Action Reference rather than rotoscoping. However some rotoscoping was used in the animation of the Blue Fairy.

Pinocchio was a ground breaking achievement in effects animation. In contrast to character animators who concentrate on the acting of the characters, Effects animators create anything else that moves that is not the character. This includes vehicles, machinery and natural effects such as rain, lightning, snow, smoke, shadows and water as well as the fantasy or science-fiction type effects like Fairy Dust.^[4] The influential abstract animator Oskar Fischinger who mainly worked on Fantasia contributed to the effects animation of the Blue Fairy's wand.^[7] Effects animator, Sandy Strother kept a diary about his year-long animation of the water effects in Pinocchio which included splashes, ripples, bubbles, waves and the illusion of being underwater. To help give depth to the ocean the animators put more detail on the waves on the water surface in the foreground and put less detail in as the surface moved further back. After the animation was traced onto cels, they would trace it once more with blue and black scripto pencil leads to give the waves a sculptured look.^[4] To save time and money the splashes were kept impressionistic. Pinocchio was one of the first animated films to have highly realistic effects and is often highly regarded by Effects animators as having some of the best Effects animation the studio ever did.^[4]

Cast and crew

Cast of characters

• Pinocchio (Dickie Jones), a happy wooden puppet made by Geppetto and turned into a living puppet by the Blue Fairy.
• Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards), a cheerful cricket who acts as Pinocchio's "conscience" and the partial narrator of the story.
• Mister Geppetto (Christian Rub), a woodcarver who creates Pinocchio and wishes for him to become a real boy.
• Figaro and Cleo are Geppetto's tuxedo cat and goldfish, respectively, who do not like each other very much until the end of the film when Pinocchio becomes a real boy.
• John Worthington Foulfellow (Walter Catlett), also known as Honest John, is a sly anthropomorphic fox and known criminal who tricks Pinocchio twice in the film.
• Gideon is Honest John's mute and crafty anthropomorphic feline accomplice. His voice was originally to be supplied by Mel Blanc of Looney Tunes fame, but they deleted his dialogue in favor of a mute performance (i.e. Harpo Marx) just like Dopey of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. However, Gideon's hiccups were provided by Blanc.
• Stromboli (Charles Judels), a large, sinister, bearded puppet maker and the first antagonist of the film who forces Pinocchio to perform onstage in order to make money. He speaks in an Italian accent, though he is identified as being a gypsy. He is the only villain of the film to be part of the official Disney Villains line-up. He is not seen again after the scene when Pinocchio is locked up, so his defeat remains unknown. However, fans say that without Pinocchio, his next show presumably bombs.
• The Blue Fairy (Evelyn Venable), the beautiful fairy who brings Pinocchio to life and turns him into a real boy at the end.
• The Coachman (Charles Judels), a corrupt and sadistic coachman who owns and operates Pleasure Island. As the second antagonist of the film, he enjoys turning unruly boys into donkeys. He speaks in a Cockney accent. The look of the Coachman is like Charles Laughton in Jamaica Inn by A. Hitchcock (1939).
• Lampwick (Frankie Darro), a naughty boy Pinocchio meets and befriends on his way to Pleasure Island. He turns into a donkey while the boys are shooting pool.
• Monstro is the whale that swallows Geppetto, Figaro, and Cleo during their search for Pinocchio. Pinocchio is then swallowed when Monstro is eating and he and Geppetto reunite. Monstro is the third and final antagonist of the film. Monstro's whale sounds were provided by Thurl Ravenscroft.
• Alexander, (Dickie Jones) is one of the boys who transformed into a donkey on Pleasure Island. He can still talk and is hurled into a special holding pen for suchlike donkeys.

Crew

• Supervising Director: Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske
• Sequence Directors: Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Bill Roberts
• Animation Directors: Art Babbitt, Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Eric Larson, Fred Moore, Woolie Reitherman, Franklin Thomas, Vladimir Tytla
• Story Adaptation: Aurelius Battaglia, William Cottrell, Otto Englander, Erdman Penner, Joseph Sabo, Ted Sears, Webb Smith
• Character Designers: Albert Hurter, Joe Grant. John P. Miller, Campbell Grant, Martin Provensen, John Walbridge
• Music: Leigh Harline, Paul Smith, Ned Washington
• Uncredited Ochrestrators: Edward J. Plumb, Frederick Stark
• Art Directors: Kenneth Anderson, Hugh Hennesy, John Hubley, Dick Kelsey, Kendall O'Connor, Charles Philippi, Thor Putnam, Terrell Stapp, McLaren Stewart, Al Zinnen
• Backgrounds: Claude Coats, Merle Cox, Ed Starr, Ray Huffine
• Animators: Preston Blair, John Bradbury, Jack Campbell, Les Clark, John Elliotte, Hugh Fraser, Oliver M. Johnston Jr., Lynn Karp, John Lounsbery, Don Lusk, Robert Martsch, John McManus, Joshua Meador, Charles A. Nichols, Art Palmer, Don Patterson, George Rowley, Norman Tate, Don Tobin, Don Towsley, Bernard Wolf, Marvin Woodward

Reception

Pinocchio was a moderate success domestically, however it had poor box office results internationally and the domestic gross alone was not enough to make back the film's revenue.^[1] This was due to the fact that the film's release in Europe and Asia was delayed because of World War II and its immediate aftermath, which hindered its financial success initially.^[8] Pinocchio cost twice as much as Snow White, with the film's total budget of $2.289 million, but Disney recouped only $1.423 million of the film's cost in 1940.^[1] However several re-releases in the years following the war have been very successful.

The film received generally positive reviews. 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." 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 Original Song and Best Original Score, making it the first Disney film to win not only either Oscar, but also both at the same time. This did not occur again until Mary Poppins in 1964 and The Little Mermaid in 1989. In 1994, Pinocchio was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

In 2001, Terry Gilliam selected it as one of the ten best animated films of all time^[9] and in 2005, Time.com named it one of the 100 best films of the last 80 years. Many film historians consider this to be the film that most closely approaches technical perfection of all the Disney animated features.^[10] Subsequent re-releases would tally Pinocchio's lifetime gross to $84,254,167 at the box office.^[11]

In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Pinocchio was acknowledged as the second best film in the animation genre, after Snow White.^[12]

In June 2011, TIME named it the best animated movie of "The 25 All-TIME Best Animated Films".

Film critic Leonard Maltin stated that "with Pinocchio, Disney reached not only the height of his powers, but the apex of what many critics consider to be the realm of the animated cartoon."^[13]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has the website's highest rating of 100%, meaning every single one of the 37 reviews of the film on the site are positive. The general consensus of the film on the site is "Ambitious, adventurous, and sometimes frightening, Pinocchio represents the pinnacle of Disney's collected works- it's beautifully crafted and emotionally resonant."

Reissues

With the re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 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 soundtrack distortions, and revitalizing the color. The film also received five video releases, three DVD releases, and one Blu-ray release, the first video release on VHS and CED Videodisc was a hot-seller in 1985 (this print was re-mastered and re-issued in 1986).

A more comprehensive digital restoration that was done for the 1992 re-issue was released on VHS in 1993, followed by its 4th VHS release and first release on Disney DVD in 1999. This film did not make it into the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection, although early printings of the 1999 VHS did use the Masterpiece Collection logo. The second Disney DVD release and final issue in the VHS format (the first in the Walt Disney Gold Classics Collection VHS/DVD line) premiered the following year in 2000. The third DVD release and first Blu-ray Disc release (the second Blu-ray in the Walt Disney Platinum Editions series) were released on March 10, 2009 (March 11, 2009 in Australia). Like the 2008 Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray release, the Pinocchio Blu-ray package featured a new restoration by Lowry Digital in a two-disc Blu-ray set, with a bonus DVD version of the film also included.^[14] This set returned to the Disney Vault on April 30, 2011.^[15]

Home media

• July 16, 1985 (VHS, Betamax, CED Videodisc, and Laserdisc, Classics edition)
• October 14, 1986 (VHS and Betamax, remastered Classics edition)
• March 26, 1993 (VHS and Laserdisc, restored Classics edition)
• July 1993 (VHS made in Brazil - Abril Vídeo/Walt Disney Home Video)
• April 16, 1995 (VHS made in the UK - Disney Videos, Classics edition, Spanish-dubbed Clásicos edition)
• October 26, 1999 (60th Anniversary Edition, as well as a Limited Issue DVD)
• March 7, 2000 (VHS and DVD, Gold Classic Edition)
• March 10, 2009 (70th Anniversary Platinum Edition DVD and Blu-ray)

Awards and honors

American Film Institute recognition

• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies - Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills - Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains:
  • Stromboli - Nominated Villain
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs:
  • "When You Wish Upon a Star" - #7
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes:
  • "A lie keeps growing and growing until it's as plain as the nose on your face." - Nominated
• AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals - Nominated
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers - #38
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated
• AFI's 10 Top 10 - #2 Animated film

Soundtrack

The songs in Pinocchio were composed by Leigh Harline and Lyrics by Ned Washington. Leigh Harline and Paul J. Smith composed the incidental music score.

• "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
• "Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (An Actor's Life for Me) (reprise)" - J. Worthington Foulfellow
• "When You Wish upon a Star (reprise)" - Jiminy Cricket, Chorus

The music CD sets Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic and Disney's Greatest Hits include "When You Wish upon a Star", "Give a Little Whistle", and "I've Got No Strings".

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 Was Saying to the Duchess" - J. Worthington Foulfellow (this line is spoken briefly by Foulfellow in the film, however)
• "Three Cheers for Anything" - Lampwick, Pinocchio, Alexander, Other Boys
• "Monstro the Whale" - Chorus
• "Honest John" (this song appears as a bonus feature on the 70th Anniversary Platinum Edition Blu-ray and DVD)
• "Turn On the Old Music Box" - Jiminy Cricket

Media and merchandise

Theme parks

• Many of the Pinocchio characters are meetable characters at Disney parks.
• Pinocchio's Daring Journey is a popular ride at Disneyland Park (Anaheim),^[16] Tokyo Disneyland,^[17] and Disneyland Park (Paris).^[18]
• Pinocchio Village Haus is a quick service restaurant at Walt Disney World that serves pizza and macaroni and cheese.^[19] There are also similar quick-service restaurants in Disneyland and Disneyland Paris, as well, with almost identical names.
• In It's a Small World at Hong Kong Disneyland and Disneyland, Pinocchio was a prop or puppet, while Jiminy Cricket was a toy (Only at Disneyland).
• There is a hidden Pinocchio doll in Tokyo Disneyland's It's a Small World.

Other films

• Some of the characters (including Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket) make cameos in the 1988 film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
• In the 1992 film, Aladdin, Genie's face (in one scene) turns into the title character from the 1940 film.
• Pinocchio and the Blue Fairy make an appearance in the Teacher's Pet film.
• Pinocchio has a cameo in the film Tangled.^[20]

Cruise ships

• Pinocchio's Pizzeria is a quick service restaurant aboard both the Disney Magic and the Disney Wonder that serves multiple types of pizzas.
• The horn sound of the Disney Cruise Line ships is to the tune of a song in this film, "When You Wish Upon a Star". Also another one of the Disney Dream's horns is to the tune of another song in this film, "Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (An Actor's Life For Me)".

Ice show

Disney on Ice starring Pinocchio, toured internationally from 1987 to 1992. A shorter version of the story is also presented in the current Disney on ice production "100 Years of Magic"

Video games

Aside from the Sega Mega Drive (Or Genesis in North America), Game Boy, and Super Nintendo games based on the animated film, Geppetto and Pinocchio also appear as characters in the game Kingdom Hearts. The inside of Monstro is also featured as one of the worlds. Jiminy Cricket appears as well, acting as a recorder, keeping a journal of the game's progress in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and, Kingdom Hearts II.^[21] Pinocchio's home world was slated to appear in Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, but was omitted due to time restrictions, although talk-sprites of Pinocchio, Geppetto, Honest John and Gideon have been revealed.^[22][23] As compensation, this world is set to appear in the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, although the manner of Pinocchio's return to puppet form has yet to be explained. It is revealed that this new area contains the town, circus, and Monstro as part of this new world, and also features appearances by Geppetto, Jiminy Cricket, and the Blue Fairy.

References

External links

• Official website
• Pinocchio at AllRovi
• Pinocchio at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Pinocchio at the Internet Movie Database
• Pinocchio at Rotten Tomatoes