Pinocchio
Composite Score: 87.3
Starring: Dickie Jones, Christian Rub, Walter Catlett, Frankie Darro, Cliff Edwards, Charles Judels, and Evelyn Venable
Directors: Hamilton Luske and Ben Sharpsteen
Writer: Bill Peet
Genres: Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Musical
MPAA Rating: Approved
Box Office: $121.89 million worldwide
My take on Watching This Film:
Pinocchio is the Walt Disney animated film adaptation of Carlo Collodi’s novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, following the escapades of a wooden puppet brought to life by the blue fairy to be like a son for the woodworker, Geppetto, with a cricket for his conscience. The film follows the titular puppet as he seeks to prove himself “brave, truthful, and unselfish” despite the temptations brought along his path by the anthropomorphic fox “Honest John” who seeks to make a profit off of Pinocchio’s naivete and the magic that has brought him to life. The film received Oscars for both its score and original song, “When You Wish Upon a Star”, which has become virtually synonymous with the Disney brand in the years since. The film has maintained an iconic status in film and animation history in large part because of the iconic song and the impressive animation that serves as its base, some impressively complex sequences for the hand-drawn era of the 1930s and 40s. The largest issues the film has are its story and themes. The story is fairly simple, and honestly almost nonexistent, acting more as a series of circumstances that happen to involve the same character than an overarching narrative where we get to experience the development of a group of characters or even a single character. Likewise, the predominant theme of the film is this muddied view of children, and specifically young boys, and their morality. It seems in places to take the stance that some kids are simply going to be “bad kids” and never seeks to find a root cause of this badness, chalking it up to general delinquency and tendency toward “jackassery”. At the same time, it’s also trying to debunk this belief by pointing out that not all kids are inherently bad, so long as they’re told early in life that they’re supposed to be good. Pinocchio’s pursuit of bravery, truth, and selflessness end up taking the viewer on this romp of all the things that kids shouldn’t do – skipping school, running off to join the circus, smoking, drinking, shooting pool, general vandalism – and the film takes a stance against all of these things in children, but it does it in such a way that simply forbids the actions. There’s no exploration of why these things are bad (ostensibly, it’s because the adults involved say so), and any young viewers are left with a puritanical take on morality that most likely won’t end up leaving them as model citizens, should they follow it throughout childhood and into adolescence. The film’s view of children is markedly low, but it still offers them some incredible visual art to partake of. Ultimately, the music and animation of Pinocchio hold up much better than its story or themes do, but its impact on cinema, animation, and the film industry as a whole make it a film that continues to hold up in the recounting of great films. Currently, you can stream this film on Disney+ if you’d like to watch it for yourself.
