Pinocchio (1940)

Directors:

Hamilton Luske
Ben Sharpsteen

Writers:

Carlo Collodi (story)
Ted Sears (story) ...

Release Date:

9 February 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Drama | Family | Fantasy | Music

Tagline:

Disney's all-time family classic is back ...No strings attached! [1987 re-release Australia]

Plot:

A living puppet, with the help of a cricket as his conscience, must prove himself worthy to become a real boy.

Plot Keywords:

Pinocchio | Cricket | Jiminy Cricket | Conscience | Fairy

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 2 wins

Cast

Mel Blanc	...	Gideon (voice) (uncredited)
Don Brodie	...	Carnival Barkers (voice) (uncredited)
Walter Catlett	...	J. Worthington Foulfellow (voice) (uncredited)
Marion Darlington	...	Birds (voice) (uncredited)
Frankie Darro	...	Lampwick (voice) (uncredited)
Cliff Edwards	...	Jiminy Cricket (voice) (uncredited)
Dickie Jones	...	Pinocchio (voice) (uncredited)
Charles Judels	...	Stromboli / The Coachman (voice) (uncredited)
Jack Mercer	...	Rough House Statue (voice) (uncredited) (unconfirmed)
Patricia Page	...	Marionettes (voice) (uncredited)
Christian Rub	...	Geppetto (voice) (uncredited)
Evelyn Venable	...	The Blue Fairy (voice) (uncredited)

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor High Fidelity Sound System)

Certification:

Denmark:A | Iceland:L | Peru:PT | South Korea:All | USA:Approved (certificate #4646) (original rating) | USA:G (re-rating) (1970) | New Zealand:G | Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Canada:F (Ontario) | Chile:TE | Finland:S | Germany:o.Al. | Sweden:Btl | UK:U | Brazil:Livre

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Trivia:

After a year of meticulous restoration, which included cleaning and removing scratches from the original negatives frame by frame, eliminating age-old distortions on the sound track, and revitalizing the color, the now-pristine film was reissued in 1992.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Jiminy inspects his image reflected in a copper pot, it is reflected as magnified. Images reflected off convex surfaces are reduced in size.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Jiminy Cricket: [after singing "When You Wish Upon a Star"] Pretty, huh? I'll bet a lot of you folks don't believe that, about a wish comin' true, do ya? Well, I didn't, either. Of course, I'm just a cricket singing my way from hearth to hearth, but let me tell you what made me change my mind.

Movie Connections:

Spin off Figaro and Cleo (1943)

Soundtrack:

Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee

When "Pinocchio" came out it was suddenly apparent that "Snow White" had been a mere ranging shot.

There are a hundred great things about "Pinocchio". Pleasure Island, for one. I'm amazed how quick the Disney artists were to discover that the multiplane camera, as well as providing accurate perspective and spectacular landscape shots, could be used more subtly to suggest sinister murk. (We get a similar effect in "Fantasia" in the first half of "The Rite of Spring".) And Lampwick's transformation into a donkey is a disturbing moment, for many reasons ... today they might have made the mistake of using flashy computer morphing, which would have been a mistake: expert animation and cutting gives us the distinct impression - almost all done with shadows - that there is a donkey BREAKING THROUGH from inside; which, in his case, is metaphorically accurate. (Probably the reason Pinocchio survives us that he is as free from native vice as from native virtue. He must LEARN to adopt the mind-set of Pleasure Island. This takes time: time enough for him to escape.)

But there's much, much more: clever use of songs (note the obvious, but none the less effective, irony of "I've Got No Strings"); daring use of stark WHITE backgrounds as well dense crowded ones; an intelligent, mythic story; a wonderful dash of humanity in the form of a cricket; a good musical score; rich atmosphere. The last is hard to describe. Of all Disney's films this one has the most pronounced Old World feeling, yet it doesn't seem to take place anywhere in particular - not even in Italy. Nor does it seem to take place in any particular era. I fear that no modern film could be so imprecisely evocative; the artistic innocence in which "Pinocchio" was forged may be lost forever.