Entry tags:
100 Disney Things [006]: Why I Love Jiminy Cricket
100 Disney Things [006]
Hoo boy, it's been a long time since my last post for this, hasn't it? I'm a bit swamped but luckily this has been sitting on my hard drive, almost complete, for a long time.
As a topic suggestion,
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sleipnir/![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
grimoire asked why I like Jiminy Cricket so much. I kind of briefly talked about my love for Jiminy before when I made my Top 25 characters list but my explanations were a little bit weird and all over the place, so I'll try doing it again. First off, though, I guess I should say that my whole Jiminy theme sort of sprung up accidentally over time. My default icon, layout, and friends only banner are all themed around Pinocchio, and the reason why is kind of hard for me to fathom at this point, to be honest. The layout came first. I guess when I made it I was feeling very Disneyish and sentimental and WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR~ so that's why I picked Pinocchio. I did an image search and found those two pieces of art I used for the header and the friends only banner and I completely fell in love with them. The faded colors and empty space were just so visually appealing to me, and I based my layout around those qualities. And I've had this layout forever and I love it more and more each day and refuse to change it!
Then came my default icon. For the longest time it was my Brother Bear icon (made by
that_was_cheesy). I guess one day I decided I wanted to change it, and I had made this black & white Jiminy icon a while ago and felt it met my criteria for a default icon (character I'm fond of/associate with + happy expression + textless/general purpose). And it fit with my layout. That said, I'm actually thinking of changing it because it's a rather old icon and I'm not really happy with it anymore, but I'm not sure what to switch to. (Suggestions welcome.)But I DO love Jiminy, and so I'll try to explain why. I guess there are multiple parts to it.
#1: My love for Pinocchio as a movie
It's weird, because when I first watched Pinocchio, I was very critical toward it. I thought it was way too dark and horrifying for a kid's movie and the movie overall made me unhappy rather than happy. During the movie I was basically like this: "NOOO PINOCCHIO DO NOT FOLLOW HIM. OMG, JIMINY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?? GET OVER THERE AND HELP HIM. NOOO WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE KEEP THIS POOR BOY SAFE? OMG NOOO THIS IS SO TRAUMATIZING."
Over time, though, it GREW on me. I liked the universe (a universe where nobody blinks an eye at talking, dressed foxes and islands turn bad boys into donkeys JUST BECAUSE), I loved the characters, and the art... goodness. This movie is a work of art. It's gorgeous.
The art in this movie is just so atmospheric and detailed and perfect.
When I didn't have expectations that it would be sweet and entertaining, the darkness stopped bothering me and I learned to revel in it. For example, Pinocchio has, like, five villains. At least. FIVE. WTF!! It's the Disney movie with the highest ratio of evil to good characters and it's marvelous. (I'm always amused when I see a graphic on Tumblr featuring the villain of each Disney movie, and it's like they're unsure who to put for Pinocchio. "Uh... Stromboli? Uhh... the Coachman? Uhhhh...")
The Pinocchio ride in Disneyland amuses me for similar reasons -- it's like one brief room of happiness followed by like six rooms of terror and creepy carnivals. Accurate.
So yes, although I don't think Pinocchio ranks anywhere near the top 10 best Disney films (unless you're going by animation alone, perhaps), it keeps on rising up in my affections regardless. I think it might actually have broken my top five by surpassing Snow White/Hunchback/Pocahontas, and that shocks me. I never even grew up on this movie and it's my darling now.
So anyway, Pinocchio is dear to my heart and also representative of early Disney movies in general which I'm particularly fond of, so my love for the movie influences my love for Jiminy.
#2: Jiminy as a symbol for Disney in general
Another aspect is that in a sense, Jiminy is an indicator of my love for Disney as a whole. As the originator of "When You Wish Upon A Star" which is the Disney anthem, to me he represents all that Disney stands for, all the wishes and dreams and magic and [insert more Disney marketing buzzwords here]. Another thing that's made me attached to Jiminy is my two favorite things at Disneyland: Fantasmic and Magical, both of which have Pinocchio segments that I love (it really is hard for me to separate my love for Jiminy out from my love for Pinocchio as a whole!). So really, part of my love of Jiminy is actually just my love of Disney and the kind of atmosphere of fantasy and dreams that goes along with that.
#3: Jiminy as a character
The other aspect is that I relate to Jiminy Cricket. I'm a very rules-following person and was always the goody-two-shoes. There are various Disney characters I relate to for this reason, Jiminy among them. There are aspects of his character I don't relate to at all (HIS WOMANIZING WAYS) (also, his tendency to make wisecracks about everything), but in general I really like the idea of a personified conscience who ends up being rather ineffectual, and I love his character design. Everything from his clothes and umbrella to his huge feet is adorable.
Lol, I ain't kidding about the cuteness.
#4: Jiminy in Kingdom Hearts
Finally, I list this last but chronologically it actually should be first -- my love Jiminy stems from Kingdom Hearts. In fact, my love for Disney in general was (re)born from Kingdom Hearts. Never doubt the power of a video game! In KH, he's the dedicated chronicler of your adventure. This is so perfect because if you know me, I've always been the secretary type, good at handling details and information and disseminating it (so again, I relate to Jiminy), and it just seemed like such an appropriate creative choice. I'm pretty sure I internally squee'd when I saw that Jiminy had a big part in the game -- it seemed so right. Just in general, as a Disney fan, I'm always really impressed with the choices the Kingdom Hearts team makes as far as Disney characters go -- they really capture the essence of the characters in a way that just makes you go, "OMG yes, that's perfect."
This post makes me realize I should do either a general Pinocchio appreciation post, or a more specific appreciation post focused on something in particular I really love about that movie. Like my fannishness over the Lampwick/Pinocchio pairing. It's the best pairing, hush. You can suggest topics for future posts for this meme over here.
no subject
~You've probably seen this already, but I loved the Penny Arcade comic about Jiminy's KH2 mini-game requirements (if you haven't seen it yet, it is here). It was hilarious! I love that KH gives him such a big role. It just makes sense! XD
no subject
And lol yes! I've seen that Penny Arcade comic. Accurate depiction of trying to play KH2. XD I think I've never even beaten that game, just because I was trying to finish Jiminy's journal for the bonus movie. orz
Something that I was thinking about from some of the discussions on the LJ side of this post -- I really like how KH features a lot of classic characters prominently. It's nice to see classic movies get some love. :)
no subject
~Yeah, I love how KH features a lot of classic characters. I mean, I love some of the newer Disney movies and all, but it is nice to see the classic movies get some love. ♥
no subject
Heh, I've always wondered if Jiminy's womanizing was suggested by Ward Kimball as it sounds like sort of the quirky thing he'd like to animate in a character. (Either way it is some great character acting.)
I know what you mean about Pinocchio's art - the early feature stuff seems to be a giant artistic challenge as to how many different elements and techniques they can incorporate onscreen. (That Monstro sequence still has me gaping on account of all those effects. I hope the Ink & Paint girls got a decent bonus for that!)
no subject
Heh yeah, Jiminy's antics are very Ward Kimball, aren't they?
And yeah, the water in the Monstro sequence is crazy. Looks so heavy and dangerous! Same with Monstro too. I just look at Pinocchio and am like, "This must've taken a ton of manhours. o_O"