PINOCCHIO
Walt Disney's cartoon film from Carlo Collodi's book
Identification Sheet:
1940, USA
Running Time:
Direction: Walt Disney, helped by several draughtsmen such as Hamilton Luske, Wilfred Jackson et Ben Sharpsteen.
Distribution: RKO
Sound Track:Leigh Harline, Ned Washington, Paul Smith
Main characters:
Pinocchio (voiced by Dick Jones), Geppetto (Christian Rub), Jiminy Cricket, the Blue Fairy, Worthington Foulfellow, Lampwick, Stromboli the Coachman and Barker.
Geppetto's pets, Figaro the Cat and Cleo the Fish, are Disney's creation. The character of Lampwick, the boy who turns into a donkey, is dubbed by Frankie Darro.
Conception of the work:
Pinocchio represents a technological breakthrough, like Snow-white and The Seven Dwarves. The Multiplane camera has been used to film a double space. It was an expensive film, above all after changing the team and paying technical ambitions to animate the movement.
After five month working on the cartoon film, it was began anew, for Pinocchio was decided to have a child face (and not a puppet face) and Jiminy was given the role of only narrator of the story.
An adaptation based on fantasy:
After Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves (1937), Pinocchio was Disney's second feature-film adapted from a tale. However, contrary to Snow-White, which was a worldwide famous story, Pinocchio was unknown by the majority of the world's population during the 30s (although it had been really successful at the end of the 19th century) yet it was the literary basis for the Italian readers.
Also the scenry is quite similar in both cartoon films. First, we are presented with the characters and then, the narrative rhythm goes faster and becomes fascinating. The clymax is achieved by the scene with the heroes and the whale. Thus Collodi's serial publications (1878) and book(1883) have been reduced and only a few chapters appear in the film.
Disney's rereading of Collodi's work focuses on two aspects:
Pinocchio is the initiatic story of an innocent child confronted with society. And in this confrontation, Pinocchio adquires a moral sensitivity which teach him right from wrong. Jiminy's role as "oficial conscience" is here essential, and that's why this character has more importance in Disney's film than in Collodi's book.
Pinochio is a fantastic film. fantasy is represneted by the Blue Fairy who gives life ti the puppet. She intervenes all along the film, as in Lampwick's metamorphoses. Thus, gripping and scary scenes are followed, but the film keeps moments of tenderness and humour, like those with Geppetoo's pets.
Posteriory of the film:
Released in 1940, the film was not distributed in Europe until 1947. It became successful as long as it was rereleased and it lade the world read an Italian book.
The world according to Disney:
"On a un peu vite taxé le film de moralisme. Le point de vue de Disney sur Pinocchio est beaucoup plus celui d'un conteur, voire d'un philosophe, que d'un moraliste. Pinocchio est décrit comme un innocent, ignorant en toutes choses (comment pourrait-il en être autrement ?), qui découvre les pièges et les merveilles du monde souvent à ses dépens. En cela, quoique marionnette, il est l'enfant par excellence, dont l'initiation à la réalité s'accomplira sur un chemin semé d'embûches. Quoi de plus normal qu'il trébuche ? Mais chaque fois qu'il se relève, lui qui n'a pour ainsi dire ni parent ni conseiller, il le doit bien plus à ses propres ressources et à son énergie qu'à un credo moral imposé de l'extérieur. Constamment à ses côtés, Jiminy Cricket demeure un compagnon sympathique, mais impuissant, qui n'aura presque aucune influence réelle sur son destin. Bonnes ou mauvaises, c'est toujours Pinocchio qui prend les décisions. (Par ailleurs, le scénario ne concède que deux interventions providentielles à la fée : ouverture de la cage dans la roulotte de Stromboli et envoi d'un message concernant Geppetto)". Jacques Lourcelles, Dictionnaire du cinéma, Robert Laffont, 1993.
In short, Disney was not moralising at all, but he was a simple story-teller, for he portrayed a innocent child (in this case a puppet), who is curious about the world.
Other film versions of Pinocchio:
Pinocchio, 1911, Italy, directed by Giulo Antamoro .
Le avventure di Pinocchio, 1936, Italy, directed by Raoul Verdini, is the first Italian attempt to film a cartoon feature-film (unfinished).
Le avventure di Pinocchio, 1972, Italy, directed by Luigi Comencini, was both a TV serial and a feature-film.
Pinocchio, 1969, USA, directed by Ron Merk.
Pinocchio, 1996, USA, directed by S. Barron.