Pinocchio was Disney's second feature length animated film, following the enormously successful Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Disney would soon follow Pinocchio with Fantasia (1940) and Dumbo (1941). These were four of the best animated Disney films in the history of the studio, in addition to their cultural and historical importance.
Disney would never again equal the incredible quality of Snow White, although Dumbo came close. But while Pinocchio lacks some of the magic and inspiration of its illustrious predecessor, it still has originality, characters, voice talent, animation and a story that are on an extremely high level of quality.
The characters and plot are loosely based on a serially published story by Carlo Collodi. Gepetto (voiced by Christian Rub) is a good-natured, absent-minded but lonely old man. He is a woodcarver, and his latest creation is Pinocchio (eventually voiced by Dickie Jones). Gepetto wishes for the marionette to come to life, and his wish is granted by a fairy princess (Evelyn Venable). She also assigns Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards) to the role of Pinocchio's conscience.
Jiminy's voice and personality bear much resemblance (which is probably unintentional) to Jimmy Stewart. (Don Knotts also, but that would be anachronistic.) Jiminy also gets the film's best song, "When You Wish Upon a Star", which along with the score became the film's only Academy Award nominations.
Since Jiminy is so much smaller than the rest of the characters, it seems odd that he is always able to keep up with them, and they are always able to hear him. Jiminy does provide one of the few jokes targeted solely to adults, when he shows excitement over the gams of glamorous marionette dancers. One of the most memorable characters to come from Pinocchio, Jiminy and his folksy charm would be appropriated in many future Disney shorts.
Pinocchio is promised by the fairy that he will become a real boy if he is good. But Jiminy is unable to keep him from temptation. Naive and gullible, Pinocchio is an easy target for crafty con artist 'Honest' John (Walter Catlett), who sells him first to garrulous puppeteer Stromboli (Charles Judels), then to a sinister coachman (also Judels).
In a marvelous morality tale, the coachman takes Pinocchio to Pleasure Island. Young teenaged boys run wild there; smoking, drinking, vandalizing, even playing pool (shudder!). But in a sequence as horrifying as the transformation of the evil Queen into a wicked old hag in Snow White, we learn just what happens to bad little boys. Pinocchio's delinquent sidekick Lampwick (Frankie Darro) reminds me of Mickey Rooney, then about the same age and mired in the interminable Andy Hardy series.
Pinocchio has other scary scenes as well. He is locked in a cage by Stromboli, who threatens to chop him into firewood. Then there's the ill-tempered Monstro, a gigantic whale that even Jiminy Cricket has heard of. Although crickets don't do much sailing, and why Geppeto was looking for Pinocchio in the ocean is another matter altogether.
One pattern throughout the early, classic Disney cartoons is that the hero or heroine is young and naive, perhaps even stupid. Pinocchio has a better excuse than Snow White, Dumbo, or Bambi, having literally been 'born yesterday'. Still, the only bright idea he has in the entire film is to set a fire in Monstro's belly, an highly risky plan that nearly gets everybody killed.
Pinocchio took three years and the efforts of dozens of animators to become a reality. But unlike the current Disney feature cartoon product, Dinosaur, the great effort was more than justified by the end result. (83/100)
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