Pinocchio (1940)

For our next film, we have Disney’s Pygmalion ft. Jonah and the Whale also known as Pinocchio. This movie is a classic and for good reason. While Snow White may have been the first feature film for Disney, Pinocchio seems to have been much more influential. For a long time, “When You Wish Upon a Star” was the theme for Disney and part of the intro they would put on any of their movies. Pinocchio also laid the foundation for storytelling and art for pretty much every classic Disney movie to come.

Original Poster Source by IMDB

Summary: Geppetto is a lonely clock maker/carpenter/inventor. One night he makes a marionette boy that he later wishes (upon a star) would become a real boy. A blue fairy hears his wish and brings the boy, Pinocchio, to life as a living puppet. She agrees to turn him into a real boy if he can pass her moral test and overcome temptation. To assist him, a talking cricket named Jiminy is assigned as a conscience to keep him on the right path. Following this, Pinocchio deals with temptation and sees the dark places that following the wrong path can lead to. Upon returning home, he discovers Geppetto has been swallowed by a whale while searching for Pinocchio. Pinocchio goes to find him and free him from the belly of the whale. In this act, he redeems himself from his previous moral failings and is determined to be worthy of becoming a real boy.

To cut to the chase, Pinocchio is a good movie. It’s relatively entertaining from front to back and ends with a good moral to show your kids. To start with, the art of this movie is pretty good. While I would say that Snow White has much better artistic heights, Pinocchio manages to avoid the weird, featureless humanoids that Snow White, while keeping animation on par with the rotoscoping that caused the featureless faces of Snow White. Admittedly, The Blue Fairy does get a little close to the smooth-skins of Snow White, but they give her enough facial features and her screen time is so short, that it avoids the existential dread of the Uncanny Valley. The animation of the movie is pretty good, there’s nothing that comes off as poor or weird, but there’s nothing that really blew my mind about it, except for the scenes showing Geppetto’s clocks and the animation of the whale. The scene of Lampwick’s transformation into an ass is extremely effective in expressing the horror of that event, though that was more of a win in the animation direction, than the technical quality of the animation of that scene.

Pinocchio has decent music. Even though we haven’t reviewed a large body of Disney work yet, I already know from prior experience that the music in Pinocchio is only decent at best. What Pinocchio has going for it is that it’s got some very memorable pieces. As previously mentioned “When You Wish Upon a Star” is a fundamental piece of Disney music. Likewise, there’s “Give a Little Whistle,” “Hi Diddle Dee Dee” and “I’ve Got No Strings.” They’re all loaded into the front of the movie and after they pass, the music starts taking more of a backseat to allow the story be told. Another thing to mention regarding the music is that Pinocchio has little to no music/animation syncing, like Snow White had.

Where Pinocchio does innovate is in storytelling. Snow White did have a story, but large parts of that movie seem to be dedicated to showcasing some of the better animation they could do with the bigger production value. Pinocchio, on the other hand, conveys a story that, while simple to follow, I feel is relatively deep in it’s statement on the human condition. On a surface level, the general moral or theme of the movie is that one should follow the follow the straight and narrow path and acts as a moral agent, or there will be bad consequences. Pretty simple, but I think the way it is expressed is much deeper. If you note, Pinocchio keeps making bad decisions throughout the film. He keeps ignoring Jiminy, skips school, follows Honest John, and hangs out at Pleasure Island. Despite doing these things, The Blue Fairy continues to support him, even getting him out of a dangerous situation after he lies to her face. Instead of failing, he eventually becomes a real boy. I think that the point of the story and what The Blue Fairy is trying to teach Pinocchio and us, is that it is human nature to be flawed. We should try to resist temptation, but at some level, it is “only human” to be fooled ad tempted. What’s important is that, when situations are dire, we follow the call to action. For Pinocchio, that was saving his father. The test is less that he’s supposed to be a perfect, moral automaton or “puppet” and that he’s supposed to be a human and, while failing to be perfect, he strives for what is good.

Overall, I feel that this is a great film, but, unfortunately, I think it is overshadowed by the quality of Disney’s body of work. It’s very entertaining and, I would say, always worth a rewatch. In the overall scheme of things, from what we’ve seen, I would put it ahead of Snow White, but just barely, as both are great.

-CJ

Pinocchio was in the same realm as Snow White for me as a kid. I didn't care for it, but I would take Pinocchio over watching Snow White. Re-watching it today, I feel the same as I did back then, however I find myself liking the film a lot more. At this point, I'd actually say it ties with Snow White, or that it may beat it out by some small fraction. While I do notice some similarities in the film, there's also a lot of difference, and I can certainly see that the success of Snow White had a huge impact on how Disney made their movies. 

Similar to Snow White, the backgrounds are extremely detailed, but this time, they feel more fleshed out. Where Snow White left things pretty bight, and washed out, the backgrounds in Pinocchio are rich with color, and the tones set the atmosphere when we change settings or time of day. Maybe it's seeing both Snow White and Pinocchio together, but while the backgrounds are more fleshed out, they didn't capture me the same way Snow White did. They just seemed like they were supposed to be there. Now what did capture my attention are the characters. I think Pinocchio is really where Disney found their style. No longer do we have washed out rotoscoped humans on screen; we have more cartoon-y characters, with physical features that define them. Even the one example we have of rotoscoping with the Blue Fairy seems better improved. She has more definition in her face, and she feels like she should be in the movie. We even start to get the classic Disney eyes, and I think this helps immensely as we get much more emotion out of these characters. The expressions are much more pronounced, and there's a much deeper illusion of life set in front of us. Unlike Snow White, Pinocchio feels lacking in effects. Aside from the underwater scenes, and the smoke in Monstro's mouth, there's nothing super eye catching. Even the smoke rising from Monstro's mouth looks a bit off to me. While things in Snow White looked a little to real, I think Pinocchio suffers sometimes, for looking a little to fake. (While I'm on this subject, I'm just going to say that Monstro is the most horrifying thing in this movie. Something about that little eye just freaks me out.) 

With Snow White I had a lot of issues with the plot. I felt it dragged in all the wrong places, and that it was rushed with the start. I feel like that is all fixed with Pinocchio. Every event that is put in front of us has a good lead up, climax, and semi-resolution, until we get to the next issue. I actually prefer Pinocchio to Snow White for this reason. It keeps my attention and focus, and it keeps me engaged until I get to the next scene. We also have a wider and more complex set of characters, that I feel have more personality, and charm. I feel it's much easier to connect to Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket, and even to Honest John and Gideon. We're not introduced to a cast that is black and white, where one side can do no wrong, and where the other is pure evil. We're dealing with moral imperfections, things that we do that make us human.  We also get some slapstick humor from Gideon and Honest John, that lends some much needed comedy into some serious situations. 

One thing that took me by surprise was the lack of music. Snow White almost felt like a musical, where Pinocchio almost seems to be lacking in it. The whole movie really only has four songs, and two of those seem to be only partially sung. That being said, what it does have feels very up beat, and almost feels out of place in what's supposed to be 1880's Italy. I will say it does have the same issue with Snow White in that the music is dated, and the songs aren't that catchy. Again, that's simply a product of the times. These films are almost 100 years old, and I doubt that in another 100 years some kids going to be actively humming or singing songs like "A Whole New World," or "Poor Unfortunate Souls." 

As far as overall thoughts go? Like Snow White, it's aged well, and it certainly shows the overall improvement of the studio. I would even say I like this movie better than Snow White, with the exception of the story. I just don't think its as classic and as well known as Snow White, and that hurts it a bit. In the end, I feel like it's got to be a tie between the two, I like them about the same, and I'd happily re-watch them again. 

-AJ