Disney Era Analysis – Pinocchio

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As mentioned in a previous blog post, I’ll be writing analysis content on all 60+ Disney animated feature films and their film making eras.

The first era is the Golden Age, which ran from 1937 to 1942 and started with Disney’s debut animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. As mentioned in another previous blog post, the Golden Age is known for setting the now-famous features in Disney’s animated feature films – being based on fairy tales, taking well-known literature and turning it into a child-friendly film, movies about and from the perspective of anthropomorphic animals, exaggerated villains, musical moments, adventures, and comedic sidekicks.

So how did Pinocchio measure up to these now-famous features and was it the right choice for a follow-up to the massively successful debut animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?

Being based on fairy tales:

Pinocchio is not based on and adapted from a fairy tale like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, rather it is based on and adapted from the 1883 Italian children’s novel, The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi.

Taking well-known literature and turning into a child-friendly film:

As mentioned above, the film is an adaption of the 1883 Italian children’s novel, The Adventures of Pinocchio and as with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney and his team made necessary changes for both the purposes of film making and to make it child-friendly, such as omitting Pinocchio going to jail, Jiminy Cricket not being killed by Pinocchio, and Pinocchio nearly being eaten by a fisherman (although Pinocchio does tell the Blue Fairy this happened to him in the film but it’s made a lie).

Both the novel and the film heavily focus on teaching morals to children through the titular character, as he would be relatable due to being new to the human condition. Honest John and Gideon the Cat represent temptation and dishonesty, and what happens at Pleasure Island is aimed to show children that if you indulge in vices without control you will ruin your life for good and even if you manage to quit these vices, you’ll still suffer consequences for your actions.

The film has also been regarded as a metaphor for mid-century American child-rearing, as well as a simple morality tale ideal for moral instruction.

Movies about and from the perspective of anthropomorphic animals:

Even though Pinocchio is about its titular character, he isn’t technically the main character. Jiminy Cricket (a cricket) is telling the story of Pinocchio mainly from his perspective, he is the first and last character to appear onscreen, and he has more screen time and lines than Pinocchio.

We also get scenes with children turned into donkeys for being naughty at Pleasure Island, however they can’t technically be counted as anthropomorphic animals, as they’re only anthropomorphic due to being humans transformed into animals.

We also have two anthropomorphic villains – Honest John (fox) and Gideon (cat).

Exaggerated villains:

When it comes to villains, there are a variety of interesting features about them when it comes to Pinocchio. A few that come to mind are: there is more than one, they are pretty much the exact counterparts to the good characters, and there are both animal and human villains.

There are five villains in the film – Honest John, Gideon, Stromboli, the Coachman, and Monstro. Stromboli is the opposite of Geppetto, Honest John (and by extension, Gideon) is the opposite of Jiminy Cricket, and the he Coachman is the opposite of the Blue Fairy. Monstro doesn’t have official counterparts, however you could argue that Figaro and Cleo are his opposites, due to the latter being kind animals to Pinocchio.  

For anthropomorphic con artists, I wouldn’t say that Honest John and Gideon are exaggerated. It’s implied that, although they may achieve some swindling success, the fact that they reluctantly work for the Coachman shows that, long-term, their conman lives don’t really work for them. This is also shown through the dishevelled clothing they are seen wearing.

Stromboli and the Coachman are the two human villains. Stromboli is exaggerated, but I feel that this is due to his performative nature as a puppeteer, shown when he performs his show with Pinocchio. In comparison, I feel that the Coachman was only exaggerated to show how evil he was in comparison to Honest John, Gideon, and Stromboli, and I find it interesting that the Coachman and Stromboli were portrayed as large men, with their size being used to intimidate the other characters.

Monstro is a villain as he scares every other animal in the sea, uses his cunning to lure in prey, and tried to recapture Geppetto and Pinocchio after they escaped. Ultimately, Pinocchio outsmarted him when he managed to get himself and Geppetto to safety inside a cliff and Monstro hit his head on it.

Another interesting feature is that the fate of all of the villains in the film are left unknown. It’s assumed that Honest John and Gideon were eventually arrested, it’s assumed that Stromboli would have eventually discovered Pinocchio’s escape and would have been financially ruined, and it’s assumed that Monstro either would have been knocked out or injured from hitting his head on the cliff and most likely would have moved on to other prey. You could assume that the Coachman would have eventually been arrested as Pinocchio most likely would have told Geppetto about him, however neither this nor any of the above possible comeuppances for the other villains are confirmed.

Musical moments:

One of many things that stood out to me about the film was that there were less musical moments and more dialogue in it, in comparison to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Similarly to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio’s soundtrack had two reprise songs – “When You Wish Upon a Star” and “Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee.” “When You Wish Upon a Star” is used as bookends for the film, being heard over the opening credits and in the final scene, and “Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee” is sung by Honest John when he takes Pinocchio to both Stromboli and Pleasure Island. “Give a Little Whistle”, specifically the end of the song, leads to Geppetto discovering that Pinocchio has come to life.

Adventures:

Both Jiminy Cricket and Pinocchio go on adventures, albeit unwittingly. The first adventure kicks off with Honest John and Gideon leading Pinocchio astray and taking him to Stromboli, to be the star in his show, with Jiminy going along for the ride as the Blue Fairy has assigned him to be Pinocchio’s conscience. The second adventure is when Honest John and Gideon take Pinocchio to the Coachman, with Jiminy going along when he discovers them leading Pinocchio away, with both of them ending up at Pleasure Island. The third adventure is when Pinocchio and Jiminy escape Pleasure Island and make it home, only to discover that Geppetto has gone looking for him. When the Blue Fairy tells them via a Dove that Geppetto sailed out to Pleasure Island only to be engulfed by Monstro, Jiminy and Pinocchio go to the bottom of the ocean to find and rescue him.

Comedic sidekicks:

Jiminy Cricket and Pinocchio are paired together for the entire film, however as mentioned earlier, Jiminy Cricket and Pinocchio are co-stars, Jiminy isn’t a comedic sidekick. Honest John, Gideon, the Coachman, Stromboli, and Monstro are villains, they are in no way comedic sidekicks. Whilst Geppetto, Figaro, and Cleo didn’t appear onscreen long enough to be regarded as sidekicks, and they’re not, they are Pinocchio’s family.

In all honesty, I believe that there were no comedic sidekicks in this film.

My overall thoughts:

Walt Disney stated in a 1956 interview that the profits and success from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs gave the Studios room and permission for experimentation and improvement in their films. This is definitely evident with Pinocchio.

All I knew about Pinocchio was that the titular character’s nose grew when he lied and that Geppetto was the puppet master. When I watched the film, it was a lot darker than I expected it to be, the twists and turns surprised me, however the inevitable happy ending of the film didn’t. I appreciated that Pinocchio was a completely different type of story with darker elements than Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Overall, I felt that the adaptation of a children’s novel was a good follow up to the adaptation of a fairy tale, and a good choice for Disney’s second animated feature film.

The next part of the Disney Era Analysis series will be released next week and will focus on Fantasia.

Fun Facts and Trivia:

  • Disney’s first animated feature film for the 1940s.
  • Pinocchio was originally intended to be Disney’s third film after Bambi, however due to the long film-making process of that film, it was delayed in favour of Pinocchio.
  • “When You Wish Upon a Star” went on to become the official Disney song and anthem.
  • The effect of Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket talking underwater was the result of a specially designed microphone with coiled internal wire, as well as paddles that distorted the sound enough to give a watery effect.
  • Pinocchio was one of the first Disney animated feature films available on DVD.
  • Monstro is the first monster Disney main villain, as well as the first main villain in a Disney film to have the longest amount of screen time.

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