chacusha | 100 Disney Things [015]: Why I Love Pinocchio

Since I'm signing up for

fffx, I wanted to take the time to write at least one new canon promo for one of the canons I'm requesting, so I've decided: Pinocchio (1940)! The canon promo is available over here, but I've also included the text below, massaged a little bit in order to be in a more natural format (n=1686). (I've talked a little bit about what I like about Pinocchio before, so I'm sorry that some of this treads the same ground.)

Overview

Pinocchio (1940) is Disney's second animated film: a fairy tale featuring a woodcarver's puppet who longs to be human (a "real boy"). The movie has popularized so many elements that you are likely to be aware of them even if you have not watched the film: Pinocchio's nose growing whenever he tells a lie; the song "When You Wish Upon a Star," which has become Disney's anthem of sorts; Jiminy Cricket's memorable "Victorian coattails" design; and the "in the belly of the whale" plot point/imagery, for example.

I find the film an enjoyable watch due to its music and art/animation, which I find very charming (the water effects in this film honestly blow me away even 80 years later, as does the amount of loving detail put into Gepetto's clockwork creations and the physical comedy in the animation of various characters), and the way the world comes off as having a lot more going on all around it than what we see. This latter thing is mainly accomplished by having the world operate on rules that are left unexplained, and by having a large, colorful cast that tends to exit the story shortly after being introduced. The movie is also (to me) shockingly dark in a way that I find interesting and fun to explore.

I also think the movie is worth watching because a lot of other media builds on the trait that Pinocchio has of being a quasi-AI character -- Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation and the main character from A.I. Artificial Intelligence both reference Pinocchio, for example. It is also easy to read a trans narrative in Pinocchio's desire to be a "real boy." For these reasons, I think this movie is a classic that is worth the watch and has a lot of potential to be expanded in fanfiction.

Selling points

Here are various things I like about Pinocchio:

- Darkness: One thing I like about this movie is that it's strangely dark for a children's film. What starts out as a fairly simple task (go to school) ends up with Pinocchio lost and far from home, in the company of various people who would like to exploit him.It's funny when you see people trying to do round-ups of Disney villains from various Disney movies and then you see them struggle with which character to list as the villain from Pinocchio because there are SO many villains who could conceivably claim the villain mantle for this movie:

Honest John and Gideon: While they're two characters, they act so much as a team, I feel bad splitting them up, so here: consider them as together counting as one villain. While clearly two-bit crooks low down on the criminal totem pole, they have the distinction of setting Pinocchio off on his dark journey and appearing multiple times throughout the film, each time with an important role.
Stromboli: A villain who appears early, and starts out fairly nice and pleasant, before locking Pinocchio in a cage and refusing to let him go home. An intimidating villain although far from the most villainous.
The Coachman: A man who collects runaway boys and sells them as donkeys... Probably the creepiest and most evil villain of the film, who never gets any plot punishment either (none of the villains in this film do!).
Monstro: The whale that eats Gepetto. Morally neutral, but nevertheless a terrifying presence and has the distinction of being the final antagonist of the film and so feels a bit like the Big Bad.

There is just so much magical darkness in this film -- aside from Pinocchio being treated as a puppet when he's a sentient being, there's the whole "turning bad/truant boys into donkeys and selling them for their labor" plot point that is all kinds of dark and messed up, as well as the morality-based magic, where being untruthful leads to body modification, while being brave, truthful, and unselfish can not only lead to becoming human but also having a second chance at life. I don't know if it was intentional or not, if my modern sensibilities make this film so much more horrifying than it was intended to be, but there's so much horror embedded into this movie as well as a recurring theme of humanity vs. dehumanization (the body horror of gradually losing one's ability to speak!), plus so many forms of child endangerment and exploitation and stranger danger, which I find fascinating and interesting to explore.

- Unexplored characters: Another aspect of this film I find interesting is that it has a large cast of interesting but undeveloped characters. All of the villains above, for example, give the impression of having a lot more going on than what we see in the film, and could easily be fleshed out in fic. There's also Gepetto, an old man longing for children at the time we meet him, which makes you want to know more about who he is and his life experiences; Figaro and Cleo, Gepetto's pet kitten and goldfish who have a lot of personality despite not having any lines, and who have a background romance (Cleo flirts with Figaro who kind of has an "ew, girl cooties" reaction to her); Lampwick and the other Pleasure Island boys, who have a horrifying donkey transformation and piteously ask for their mothers or to be allowed to go home before you NEVER HEAR FROM THEM AGAIN; the Blue Fairy who admittedly is a bit more of a plot device than a character, popping in and out of the story to get Pinocchio unstuck or deliver him information he needs, but nevertheless a mysterious force of nature; and then of course Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket themselves, whose relationship starts off as strangers and then develops into something like parent/guardian/adviser/friend over the film. Even Pinocchio raises a lot of questions about the experience of being a human boy vs. a living puppet, while Jiminy's wise-cracking personality + starting the movie off as a homeless bum with dilapidated clothing also makes you wonder about his life experiences before the start of the film.

- Relationships: For this canon, I tend to request various romantic pairings, mostly Pinocchio/Lampwick (great friends-to-lovers dynamic) and Blue Fairy/Jiminy Cricket (has kind of the vibes of Gimli's admiration of Galadriel lol), but I also find Cleo/Figaro and Honest John/Gideon interesting. Romantic elements in this movie are very light but enough there to pique one's interest. There are also some interesting platonic relationships: Gepetto & Pinocchio, and Pinocchio & Jiminy Cricket are the main relationships that drive the movie.

- Finally, worldbuilding opportunities: A lot of the movie (and the book it's based on) operates on an interesting kind of fairy tale logic. For example, why do boys turn into donkeys on Pleasure Island...? This is never at any point explained. Do the people buying the donkeys know they used to be boys?! Who is the Coachman and how did he (come up with? get involved with?) this donkey-boy trafficking operation? Who is the Blue Fairy, and does her name imply the existence of other fairies? Does she set the stipulations of the wishes she grants and the magic aid she provides, or is that just how magic works in this universe and her hands are tied here? The movie kind of lampshades this bizarre plot element, but: why are talking puppets odd in this world but talking animals are not? And why do some animals talk (Honest John and Gideon, who are a fox and cat; Jiminy Cricket) and some do not (Figaro and Cleo; the Pleasure Island donkeys)? What in this odd fairy tale world comes off as magical and implausible and what does not?! Can puppets given life really die (drown)? Under what circumstances? It is very mysterious!

Supplemental canon/materials

While very much optional, there are two pieces of related media that I think have enriched my appreciation for this film: the first is the original book and the second is an album of covers of Disney music called Stay Awake, which I think is great listening.

- The original book, The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi is public domain and available for free on Project Gutenberg. The length is approximately 50-60k words, or ~200 pages. I like it because it adds a bit more detail to the story, and more happens over a longer period of time (although the worldbuilding remains mysterious!). Pinocchio is a different kind of person in the book (naturally naughty, lazy, and mean-spirited); the Blue Fairy has a much larger role while the (unnamed) Cricket has a smaller role; various characters end up with darker fates than in the movie; and the relationship between Pinocchio and Lampwick gets a bit more detail to it (there is a scene between them on Pleasure Island in the book but not the movie that I find very funny and shippy) while being largely the same as the movie: extremely affectionate, close friends. Also, unlike in the movie, you do actually find out what happened to Lampwick after Pleasure Island. (Spoilers:) Pinocchio comes across him, still a donkey and working on a farm. Overworked and underfed, he dies right in front of Pinocchio's eyes. L-lol... :')

- The album, Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films can be listened to for free on YouTube and is a little over 1 hour long. I really love this album because (1) it features a very eclectic mix of music from older Disney movies, which don't really get covers or remixes, (2) it is very Pinocchio-heavy, featuring some truly bizarre but interesting spoken-word interludes that are all Pinocchio-themed as well as covers of some classic Pinocchio songs, including its instrumental music (very rare!), and (3) going along with the Pinocchio-theming, this album is creepy/sinister as fuck, which is an incredibly bizarre choice for an album of Disney music, but I am not complaining! I personally think whoever put together this album must have seen and really appreciated Pinocchio, and I find listening to it sparks so many ideas for this fandom!

So that's it -- that's a more detailed treatment of why I like Pinocchio and why I think it's worth watching and why I'm quite fannish about it (and have been for, like, 15 years).

You can suggest topics for future posts for this meme over here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I really enjoyed reading this! I've never seen people talking about Pinocchio in a fannish way before, so it's really interesting to see that perspective on it. I see what you mean about gaps that could be explored; I didn't remember that the film never follows up on what happens to the donkey boys!

I remember being shocked by how dark the original book was. Pinocchio has his feet burned off? Pinocchio gets hanged?? Surely I didn't imagine this?

Glad you enjoyed reading my fannish thoughts on Pinocchio! It's a pretty tiny fandom, but yeah, so much potential for fic and fix-its IMO!

And yeah, the original book is shockingly dark. Pinocchio's feet getting burned off, getting hanged... I also felt bad for the Fox and Cat in the book -- even if they were crooks, what happens to them in the end is pretty dark. Also, when the talking cricket dies like 5 minutes after you meet him... 😂

Oh, I feel pretty confident saying it's not only modern sensibilities. As a kid, I was not allowed to watch Pinocchio because it gave my mom nightmares when she was a child. As yes, it is dark, especially the whole pleasure island/donkey slaves bit.

I know with Snow White, part of Disney's choices were just to showcase what they could do. I don't know how much of that persisted with their second full-length film, but I agree the artwork is gorgeous. In both cases, I spent too much time marveling at the backgrounds when I was rewatching old Disney movies about a year ago.

Oh dear. XD Pinocchio -- traumatizing multiple generations of children, I guess!

And yeah, the backgrounds are just stunning to look at. The background paintings just kind of steal the show.

This was a really interesting and fun read! I remember being a bit scared by various elements of Pinocchio when I watched it as a child, so I definitely think it's not only just modern sensibilities. You're right in that the film never follows up with what happens to the donkey boys, which adds further nightmare fuel to the fire in a way...and learning more about the original story is quite fascinating. There is an element of fairy tale magic throughout the world, but it is presented in such a way that you can't help but wonder how the magic truly works there--what's considered normal versus strange, etc. Further character exploration would have been great in way too, given the breadcrumbs given to us!

Speaking of character exploration and characters who sometimes seem more plot device than actual character...have you heard of When You Wish Upon A Star, a book in Disney's Twisted Tales series that delves more into the Blue Fairy? I've been curious about this series of potential what-ifs/further character exploration books since seeing them crop up in the library...and this one in particular intrigues me given its focus on an earlier Disney film comparatively (they even have one about Arthur from The Sword in the Stone now!). When I read this post, I was quite curious to know if you had read it/knew about it! :)

The animation for Pinocchio is still stunning to this day. Thank you again for sharing your thoughts on the film here! ♥

Thanks for reading -- I'm glad you enjoyed! Definitely a lot of nightmare fuel in this film XD

I've heard of the Twisted Tales series and I also knew there is a Blue Fairy one, but I actually haven't read any of them, nor have I heard much about them, so I have no idea if they're good or interesting or not. I've got a lot of books on my to-read list, but maybe I'll check them out and see how they are!

Thanks for the thoughts! :D

100 Disney Things [015]: Why I Love Pinocchio

Overview

Selling points

Supplemental canon/materials

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