Pinocchio ***** (1940, voice Dickie Jones, Christian Rub, Evelyn Venable, Charles Judels, Walter Catlett) – Classic Movie Review 1407

Walt Disney’s second animated adventure feature film Pinocchio, based on Italian writer Carlo Collodi’s 1883 children’s novel The Adventures of Pinocchio (Le avventure di Pinocchio), is a double Oscar winner for its Best Original Score and Best Original Song. It focuses on the well-loved children’s story of the puppet boy Pinocchio, created out of wood by woodcarver Geppetto (voice of Christian Rub) in a small Italian village. Pinocchio dreams of becoming a real boy but he is a terrible little liar who is prone to fabricating big whoppers and his nose grows when he tells untruthful stories.

The puppet is brought to life by the Blue Fairy (voice of Evelyn Venable), who tells him he can indeed become a real boy if he proves himself to be brave, truthful and unselfish. Pinocchio’s quest to become a real boy involves him in meeting a host of attractively roguish characters.

This enduring 1940 icon is a fast-paced series of entertaining fantasy adventures, interspersed with some excellent jokes, and realised with painstaking animation, careful editing, very catchy tunes and gorgeous Technicolor images.

It is a lovely movie, though it perhaps does not quite have the warmth or magic of its predecessor, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, partly because Pinocchio gets upstaged by the more appealing Jiminy Cricket (voice of Cliff Edwards), the supposed conscience of Pinocchio.

However, Pinocchio, Jiminy, puppet master Stromboli (voice of Charles Judels) and canny fox J Worthington Foulfellow (voice of Walter Catlett) are as individual, well-etched and memorable characters as found anywhere in cinema animation. And technically it is a ground-breaking achievement in effects animation, providing a then new level of realistic movement for vehicles and machinery, as well as rain, lightning, snow, smoke, shadows and water.

The Oscar-winning song ‘When You Wish upon a Star’ became the Disney studio theme tune, and ‘Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee’ and ‘Give Me a Little Whistle’ are nearly as good. It won the Best Original Music Score Oscar, too.

Dickie Jones (right) voices Pinocchio.

Pinocchio is voiced by Dickie Jones. Sadly, Richard Percy Jones died at the age of 87 on 7 July 2014. Starting in 1934, he enjoyed a long and successful career in Hollywood, appearing in many movies and TV shows, and was also a skilled rodeo rider. He worked with James Stewart in the 1939 classics Destry Rides Again and Mr Smith Goes to Washington. His last film was Requiem for a Gunfighter in 1965.

When Walt Disney Productions intended to retain the hero’s more obnoxious traits from the original story, Walt Disney himself felt this made the character too unlikable, so alterations were made to incorporate traits of innocence to make Pinocchio seem more likeable.

Collodi’s book is adapted by Aurelius Battaglia, William Cottrell, Otto Englander, Erdman Penner, Joseph Sabo, Ted Sears and Webb Smith. The supervising directors are Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske, and sequence directors are Norman Ferguson, T Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney and Bill Roberts.

Initially a box office disaster, it went into profit in its 1945 reissue and today it is considered one of Disney finest’s features and one of the greatest animated films of all time.

It is followed by a part live action version in 1996 as The Adventures of Pinocchio.

It was announced in October 2018 that Guillermo del Toro is remaking Pinocchio for Netflix.

It was announced in October 2018 that Roberto Benigni is to play Geppetto in Matteo Garrone’s Pinocchio.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1407

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