Film Review: Pinocchio (1940)

Film technology never made such spectacular advances like in the period between two world wars. In 1919 all cinemagoers could watch were black-and-white silent films, while in 1939 all they watched were sound film, some of them even in colour. Some wonders of new technology were, however, more expensive, complicated and demanding than others. By the end of 1930s Hollywood produced only two animated features. First of those, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was released by Walt Disney in 1937 after three years of gruelling work and immediately became not only massive hit but one of the most celebrated films of all time. Not wanting to sleep on laurels, Disney began to work on another animated feature and in 1940 result of his work was Pinocchio, another of his classics.

The film is based on The Adventures of Pinocchio, 1883 book by Italian author Carlo Collodi, which is now considered to be one of the classic of children’s literature. The plot begins in small Italian town in 19th Century when Jiminy Cricket (voiced by Cliff Edwards) comes to sleep in the house of Geppeto (voiced by Christian Rub), old and kind-hearted wood-carver who lives with his cat Figaro and goldfish Cleo. Geppeto has just finished marionette called Pinocchio whom he wishes to become a real boy. After he goes to sleep Blue Fairy (voiced by Evelyn Venable) comes and, in order to reward Gepetto for making so many people happy with his puppets, decides to grant him wish and gives life to Pinocchio (voiced by Dickie Jones). He is, however, to become real boy only if he deserves it and Jiminy Cricket volunteers to become his conscience. Next day Gepetto sends Pinocchio to school, but on the way he is met by anthropomorphic cat “Honest” John Fortington Foulfellow (voiced by Walter Catlett) and his sidekick Gideon the Cat. They talk Pinocchio into skipping school and becoming actor, but their real aim is to sell it to Stromboli (voiced by Charles Judels), greedy and cruel puppeteer, who uses Pinocchio in his shows. Pinocchio is freed by Blue Fairy, but, as he tries to return to Geppetto, he is again led astray, this time by mysterious Barker (also voiced by Judles) who brings him and many other errant boys to Pleasure Island where they enjoy smoking, drinking and vandalising, unaware that they are going to be turned into donkeys and later sold as slave labour. Pinocchio escapes with Jiminy’s help but later learns that Geppeto was swallowed by giant whale Monstro (voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft) while trying to find him.

For Disney and his studio Pinocchio was much more daunting task than Snow White. Unlike simple and archetypal story from Brothers Grimm books, Collodi’s book is episodic in nature and, at times, quite dark. Plot had to be simplified and the main character more likeable. The screenwriting was very long and arduous process, which went hand in hand with changes in the look of Pinocchio, which gained more human and less puppet features as the production went on. Disney, while appreciating Collodi’s text and having the plot in its essence faithful to the source, also understood that adaptation must conform to the requirements of new media and that certain changes, sometimes even drastic, were necessary. The result of his efforts is film that is at the same time Disney Classic and certain departure for Disnye formula. Most interesting thing about Pinoccchio is relatively large number of villains (Honest John, Barker, Monstro) which appear periodically and, unlike villains in other Disney films, don’t receive “proper” punishment for their misdeeds. This, on the other hand, allows audience to focus their attention to character of Pinocchio, which goes through transformation from lifeless puppett through naive boy to heroic character who ultimately saves the day.

The most brilliant decision Disney made with Pinocchio was to reboot the character of Jiminy Cricket, which doesn’t appear much in Collodi’s work, but who here becomes not only narrator and comic relief, but almost the real protagonist, a character that would serve as Pinocchio’s conscience and helper in his critical moment. Jiminy Cricket, voiced by popular singer Cliff Edwards, despite not actually looking like real cricket, became one of the most popular and the most iconic character in history of Disney productions. Even the supporting character of Figaro the Cat became popular enough to warrant appearance in number of Disney animated short films in 1940s.

But in the end, success of Pinocchio lies in its universal appeal to the audience. Older audience is very likely to identify with kind-hearted and likeable Geppeto. Younger audience is not only going to identify with Pinocchio, but also receive some important lessons about responsibility and doing what is right instead of what feels good. This message is conveyed through rather impressive feats of animation, with artists making sure that fill almost every corner of picture with moving objects. But the final piece of puzzle was music. This included soundtrack by Leigh Harline and Paul J. Smith that would ultimately win Oscar for Best Original Music. Title song “When You Wish Upon a Star” won Oscar for Best Original Song, became massive hit and remains one of the most recognisable pieces of music from Classic Hollywood era. Many decades ago it also served as one of the inspirations for Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Pinocchio was one of the most expensive productions of its time, with a budget of 2.46 million US$. As such, like so many ambitious projects of its time, it struggled to bring profit to its creators, mainly due to many foreign markets being closed to Hollywood studios due to Second World War. Unsurprisingly, Pinocchio recouped its costs only after re-release in 1945, which were followed with regular intervals till 1992, which helped not only bringing this extraordinary story to newer generations but also maintaining this film’s reputation as one of the greatest works of Classic Hollywood, a reputation which is likely to endure and not be affected by usually inferior remakes like 2022 live action version directed by Robert Zemeckis.

RATING: 9/10 (++++)

Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo

Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax y
Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax
Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e

BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7

Posted using CineTV