Disney Movie Challenge: Pinocchio

DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE

Pinocchio

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 58 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Frozen II in 2020.

After the huge success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs proved that animated feature films can make money it took three years for Disney to make another one. But he didn’t make just one he made two. In 1940 Disney released both Pinocchio and Fantasia. First up in February of 1940 is Pinocchio.

The movie is based on a novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Italian author Carlo Collodi. Oddly this wasn’t the first attempt to turn the novel into an animated feature film. Prior to Snow White an Italian company was attempting to make their own version of Pinocchio that would have been the first animated feature film. But part way through they had to abandon the project and Snow White went on to become the first animated feature and the Pinocchio novel ended up in Disney’s sights. As with most things Disney makes, the movie is a lot different than the source material, including a larger role for Jiminy Cricket.

The film is about a wooden puppet, Pinocchio, that was created by Geppetto. One night after Geppetto makes a wish the Blue Fairy comes and brings Pinocchio to life. Pinocchio is told that if he can prove himself brave, truthful, and unselfish he will become a real boy. To help him make good decisions Jiminy Cricket is sent to be his conscience. Pinocchio's first day of being alive Geppetto sends him to school.  Before he can get there he encounters a couple of con artists, Honest John and Gideon, who convince him to skip school and become an actor. But it turned  out that he was essentially sold into slavery to a puppeteer.  Jiminy finally shows up too late and can't help. Eventually the Blue Fairy comes to help.  Before the Blue Fairy will help them she asks Pinoccho to be honest and every time he lies he nose grows.  Eventually he is honest and the Blue Fairy releases them from the prison and turns him back to normal.   On his way back home he runs into Honest John and Gideon again. This time they convince him to go to Pleasure Island for a “vacation”. This again turns out to be a poor decision and again he is essentially sold into slavery.   Pleasure Island turns out to be a place where there are no rules and boys just run wild.  But after a certain amount of time they begin to turn into a donkeys.  Pinocchio is partially turned into a donkey but escapes with the help of Jiminy Cricket before he makes a full transition.  When Pinocchio and Jiminy finally make it home they find Geppetto is missing. While out looking for Pinocchio he got swallowed by a whale. Pinocchio and Jiminy then set out to find Geppetto and rescue him. After sacrificing himself to save Geppetto from the belly of the whale the Blue Fairy finds that Pinocchio has proven himself brave, truthful, and unselfish and is finally turned into a real boy.

With Pinocchio, Disney once again pushed the boundaries of animation. A lot of effort went into the effects animation. The goal was to make the background more alive with movement. This is evident in Geppetto’s workshop where there are lots of clocks and also in the shots of the water. It took animator Sandy Strother a year to complete the water effects, afterward animator Frank Thomas said “The water looks so real a person can drown in it, and they do”.

This is another excellent looking film. All the hard work that went into the animation really paid off. While the story of Snow White felt very familiar, Pinocchio on the other hand is quite the opposite. This is not a story one would expect from the modern Disney. The movie is dark. It involves Pinocchio getting kidnapped and sold into slavery twice. It also involves kids drinking, smoking, and vandalizing. Also there are multiple times in the film someone says that the kids are jackasses. This seemed kind of shocking when watching but then they literally turned into jackasses.
Also, lets talk about Jiminy Cricket.  He is the worst conscience. He oversleeps which lets Pinocchio get in trouble the first time. He then abandons Pinocchio at least 2 other times. At the end the Blue Fairy gives Jiminy a medal which is something I can’t understand. He did an awful job.

OVERALL: It's a great looking movie. But for me it's too episodic. I use to listen to a podcast where they talked about “and then movies”. It’s basically movies where something happens then something else happens but not really a progression of the story. This is pretty much what Pinocchio felt like to me. Pinocchio doesn't seem to learn anything from one episode to the next and Jiminy Cricket is worthless. The weird thing to me is that  Pinocchio is known for having his nose grow when he lies, but it's actually just one little scene. I thought it would play a bigger role in the film. It is one of the darker Disney films but still didn't connect with me.

RANDOM FACTS:

First animated film to win a competitive Oscar. It won 2 Oscars, one for Best Song and one for Best Score. It is actually the first film to win both of those Oscars and that wouldn’t happen again till Mary Poppins (another Disney film) in 1964

Pinocchio was originally intended to be Disney’s third film after Bambi. But due to the difficulty of animating Bambi they pushed Pinocchio production up and Bambi ended up being he 5th film.

Pinocchio wasn’t a huge hit overseas when it came out mostly due to the start of World War II.  The movie ended up losing money for Disney.

Part way through the production Walt Disney didn’t like the way the animation looked or the way the story was going and halted all production till it met his high standards.

Figaro the cat made his premiere in the film, Walt Disney loved the character of Figaro so much that he made him Minnie Mouse's pet.