2. Pinocchio (1940)

After the somewhat surprising success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Disney moved on to its next animated feature, Pinocchio and it’s hard to disagree that they definitely stepped it up; they really grew from the experience of making their first film and brought everything they learned to Pinocchio, which is pretty definitively a better movie. The two movies share a relatively similar art style – you can certainly see the Dwarves in Geppetto, for example – and the animation continues to be lively and expressive. However, you can see how Disney have learned here, for the animation is even better and some of the issues they ran into with Snow White have been rectified. Unlike the uncomfortable attempts at realistic design with Snow White, the Prince and, to an extent, the Evil Queen, the human characters here are much more stylised – only the Blue Fairy follows this more realistic design and she does not look nearly as awkward or uncanny as Snow White. She shares similar issues, in particular the bad lip syncing, but it suits the Blue Fairy better, considering she is supposed to be a magical character and an unreal beauty - someone that is mostly human, but a little different - and she is not on screen enough for her design to become too distracting. The other characters are all quite wonderfully and uniquely designed - Pinocchio has just enough boy and just enough puppet, he is cute and lively without being too human and appropriately awkward and inhuman in his movements without coming across as too wooden or lifeless. A lot of this is greatly helped by the fantastic animation of his joints and movements, it really looks as if a puppet has come to life; before Pinocchio is animated, Geppetto puppets him around in a fantastically realistic way and even after being animated, Pinocchio still looks like a puppet being jigged around by invisible strings, particularly during his performance in Stromboli’s puppet show. In contrast to Snow White, whose attempts at realistic movements made her look like an awkward marionette, Pinocchio’s movements are deliberately jerky and unnatural and thus, are perfectly suited to more extreme and expressive animation. The supporting cast are all just as whimsically designed and animated, from Jiminy Cricket, who is appropriately bouncy and energised, to Figaro, who slinks around just like a real cat and best of all, Cleo – leave it to Disney to make a goldfish look so adorable.

omg u guys so kawaii <3

The villains are also fantastically animated, each in their own style, to match their personalities. Honest John and Gideon are lively and over-the-top, matching their tendency for physical comedy and their more fantastical appearance. Stromboli is animated in a similar way to Snow White, with very smooth and careful animation in an attempt to capture more human movement – unlike Snow White, however, Stromboli’s movements never get out of the animator’s control and they seem to have recognised that he must still be stylised to some degree; after all, he is a cartoon. The Coachman moves similarly, but a bit slower and more rigid, which again, fits as he is more cold and controlled than the short tempered Stromboli. Best of all is Monstro, he is drawn and animated in a very different way to the rest of the characters, a very clever choice, as it gives the whale a feeling of being otherworldly and mysterious, beyond that of the other characters. Monstro is painted with much darker colours, thicker brush strokes, he looks as if he is part of the background – this is used most effectively in his introductory scene, where he sleeps at the bottom of the ocean before suddenly awakening to devour some nearby, unsuspecting fish. It really looks as if part of the background has suddenly come to the life and entered the foreground, just as the fish are surprised and terrified, so are the audience, as our eyes have been trained to distinguish the difference between the parts of the picture that will move and the still images that are simply part of the background; Monstro’s design plays with audience expectations and expertly uses the very nature of animation in a fresh and different way. This all serves to make the whale look as dark, terrifying and otherworldly as possible and really establishes him as a serious threat. Additionally, the backgrounds are better than ever, in particular the underwater scenes, which look fantastic and are full of detail and life – little touches like the starfish and crabs that attach themselves to the rock weighing Pinocchio down help to create a genuine sense of teeming life in this ocean environment; combined with the slower and weighted movements of Jiminy and Pinocchio, you really believe that these characters are underwater. Well, besides the fact that they can talk and Jiminy apparently doesn’t need to breathe, but whatever, it’s a cartoon.

Monstro on that Unit 01 shit

Not only is the animation even better, but Disney have clearly learned from the narrative issues of Snow White as well; partially due to the fact that they were working with a full, established novel this time, rather than a short fairy tale, the narrative structure of Pinocchio is a lot less loose and aimless, scenes rarely drag on for much longer than they need to and the film keeps a steady pace. The narrative is still not incredibly strong and the story does kind of hop around from place to place, but the events aren’t meaningless and all follow the central idea of Pinocchio learning how to be a good boy and distinguish the difference between right and wrong. Disney still haven’t quite developed their most successful and engaging story telling techniques, but have definitely taken a step forward here and some of the narrative techniques employed in Pinocchio are still great. The movie has a number of different, mostly self-contained scenes, but is more easily divided into two parts – the first half is more bright, cutesy and fun, while the second half is more dark, dramatic and, quite frankly, frightening (we’ll get to that). The early sections of the movie resemble Snow White more, framing the narrative by reading a storybook, the cute, friendly animals, the happy dancing and singing; it’s all very sweet and joyful, but it’s always genuine and never becomes too saccharine, it’s hard to not get swept up in the fun that Geppetto and his family are having. Though the pacing of the rest of the movie is good, this opening section is... a little too long. It never gets too tedious, but it does take a while to get started, spending 30 minutes in the same room is just a little too much. Thankfully, the rest of the film moves around quite quickly and has much more locations and situations than Snow White, generally keeping it fresh and interesting; like I said, the story isn’t the strongest, it’s more just a bunch of things happening, but they are fun and engaging things and again, they all tie in to the central theme of Pinocchio learning how to be a good boy.

I kicked a cartoon cat in the butt, do I have to draw you a diagram?

Ultimately, the moral is a little ham-fisted – though it is a true and fair one, the movie pushes it so hard that it can at times come off as a strict parent, telling kids that they are not allowed to have fun or be mischievous in any way, or they will suffer a horrible punishment. Granted, you shouldn’t cut school or be a hooligan, but being kidnapped by an angry Italian man and transformed into a donkey cos you played a bit of pool seems like a bit of an extreme punishment (Seriously Jiminy explicitly takes issue with the fact that Pinocchio is playing pool, is pool evil or something?) It also becomes a little lost because you can’t really blame Pinocchio for a lot of what happens, he never makes a conscious decision to do wrong, he’s simply lead astray by other characters; plus, Pinocchio has effectively just been born, he has no experience or knowledge, he literally DOESN’T know the difference between right and wrong or the nature of responsibility and consequences. Why should he know to listen to his father or reasonable authority figures any more than Honest John or Lampwick? Still, I’m being too harsh – “be brave, truthful and unselfish and always let your conscience be your guide” is a perfectly fine moral, it’s just a little bit clumsy, here.

There are a lot more characters here than in Snow White and they are all more unique, individual and overall, a little more rounded and developed. Geppetto, Figaro and Cleo are all very likeable and their enthusiasm is infectious, they all have somewhat subtle, but noticeable characterisations – Geppetto is well intentioned, but a bit of an air-head, Figaro is a little irritable and impatient, Cleo is affectionate, but shy; they work very well as an ensemble, and that’s a statement I never thought I’d make about an old man and his cartoon cat and goldfish. I always remembered Jiminy Cricket as boring, a little too squeaky clean, but he’s actually a little mischievous and playful – he cracks jokes, makes light of the situation and even tries to pick a fight with Lampwick; of course, Jiminy is a cricket so obviously isn’t going to do any harm, but he seems to genuinely want to beat the shit out of this kid! Most humorous of all, Jiminy’s a bit of a womaniser, every time he sees a woman or even a toy of a woman he swoops in and tries to put the moves on her – these little characterisations keep the characters from becoming too dull. Pinocchio himself, unfortunately, isn’t the strongest protagonist; like Snow White, his decisions are always made by other characters and both he and the action of the film are led by others, not by him. This makes sense and is kind of the point of the film, Pinocchio is supposed to be an innocent, naive little boy who doesn’t know much about the world or what choices to make, so he follows and imitates other people – in this respect, his character is a success, so you can’t fault Disney too much, but as a main character, it’s a little weak and not too interesting. You definitely sympathise with Pinocchio and want him to succeed, but I personally never got too attached to him and was more interested in seeing how the other characters would interact with him.

The use of antagonists is interesting and something Disney doesn’t do too often, there is no central villain, so much as there are several villainous characters who lead Pinocchio off his path, for one reason or another. Though it is unfortunate that we don’t get to spend too much time with any one villain, as Disney villains have a legacy of being very well crafted and fun to watch, we do get a different effect of getting to see a multitude of different villains who all act in different ways and are motivated for different reasons. Rather than being a singular force of evil which aim to destroy Pinocchio, simply to serve the role as antagonist, the villains of Pinocchio instead reflect the different flaws that the Blue Fairy has instructed Pinocchio to eradicate from himself and serve as both literal and figurative obstacles on Pinocchio’s journey to become a real boy. The Blue Fairy tells Pinocchio that to become a real boy, he must prove himself to be ‘brave, truthful and unselfish’ and the villains of the movie act as mirrors to these attributes which Pinocchio must defeat if he wishes to prove himself; each villain exhibits all these flaws in some way, but are best defined by one in particular. Honest John and Gideon embody dishonesty and deception – they constantly lie to Pinocchio and lead him astray to suit their own needs, the ironic nickname of “Honest” John and the fact that he is a fox, an animal classically associated with trickery and cunning, establishes just how much he is defined by his identity as a con man. Pinocchio must learn not only to be wary of dishonesty in others and not let them lead him astray, but to always be truthful himself. Stromboli and the Coachman represent selfishness and greed, Stromboli lavishes the opportunity to count his money, kidnaps Pinocchio and locks him in a cage so that he can exploit him for profit and is furious when he discovers that a customer paid with a counterfeit coin. Stromboli’s greed encompasses him, he cares only about making money and has no interest in sharing with others – he “pays” Pinocchio with the counterfeit coin – or taking their feelings into consideration, so long as they can make him money. The Coachman takes the boys to Pleasure Island to indulge in their most selfish and destructive desires, transforming them into animals by having them behave as such – though he does behave selfishly by kidnapping children for money, his villainy comes more from bringing out the selfishness in others, including Pinocchio himself, who must learn to suppress his more selfish desires and be more thoughtful of others. Monstro represents fear – though it is not the whale himself who is cowardly, but the other underwater creatures, so terrified of Monstro that they flee at the very sound of his name and will not help Pinocchio find him. Monstro is the very representation of fear and Pinocchio must summon all his courage to literally walk into the belly of the beast and face his fears head on. 

Real villains have curves

Speaking of the villains, they play a role in making Pinocchio probably the scariest of all the Disney animated movies – at least three scenes scared the hell out of me when I was a kid and I still think they’re pretty spooky. Stromboli is not as threatening as I remember and is a lot goofier, but the Pleasure Island segments are just as dark and frightening as ever; the second you meet the Coachman, the film takes a very sharp turn into Nightmareville as the Coachman’s face basically transforms into THE DEVIL’S. From them on, the film becomes very dark, not just thematically, but aesthetically – the lightning and colours are dark, particularly in Pleasure Island itself, a carnival that contrasts creepy, unnatural lights against a dark night sky, creating long shadows and a surreal atmosphere. Honestly, Pleasure Island is quite a frightening place – it all looks eerie, the audience knows something is about to go wrong, too, which creates a foreboding sense of doom that hangs over the boys just like the huge buildings, statues and balloons. Groups of boys scramble around, developing a sense of claustrophobia and images like the Ferris wheel that is so crowded a boy falls out and has to be dragged back in are pretty unsettling – the boys look as if they are being herded like animals, foreshadowing their transformation into donkeys, where they will be literally herded into crates and shipped off into slave labour. As a kid, I was physically unable to watch Lampwick’s transformation scene, I had to avert my eyes from the screen and only look back every few seconds – of course, I could have easily fast forwarded past it, but a little part of me always wanted to see it happen. That says wonders to this film’s power, it knows kids want to be scared, just a little, and pushes the boundaries as much as it can without going too far – Lampwick’s transformation is reminiscent of horror movies (Though made before many of the classics, I wonder if a lot of horror movies were inspired by this scene?) in the way it knows that less is more and often what you don’t see is scarier than what you do. The way we see the final stage of the transformation in Lampwick’s shadow is chilling and effective, but ultimately, he is becoming a cartoon donkey, rather than a werewolf or a monster, which shows how the film knows to stop things short of being too frightening. Still, Lampwick’s desperate cries for his ‘mama’ and unsettling laugh as a donkey are still quite scary and add to the film’s surreal and disconcerting atmosphere.

My Life as a Teenage Donkey, coming to Disney Channel this fall

In contrast to this, however, I was surprised by how much of the film was actually genuinely funny; the movie has a great sense of humour which it uses to deflate situations and keep things light and entertaining. Some of the humour, particularly with Honest John and Gideon, is a little too slapstick for my tastes, it comes off as a little Looney Tunes, but without much of a bite, so it falls flat; Jiminy can also be a little goofy at times, too. Generally, however, the movie has a playful, intelligent and at times, rather quirky sense of humour – at one point Jiminy rushes to Geppetto to tell him that Pinocchio is in trouble, but decides not to, because that would be snitching. I love that Jiminy has such a problem with snitching that he would put Pinocchio’s life in danger, being held a prisoner for the rest of your life is nothing compared to getting grounded! I’m not even sure if this was meant to be a joke but it was just so strange to me that it made me laugh. Jiminy’s aforementioned womanising is pretty funny too, there’s a great moment when Jiminy is watching Pinocchio perform in Stromboli’s show but isn’t enjoying the show at all, believing Pinocchio is making a fool out of himself and eventually just turns away from the show in a huff. Suddenly, some marionettes of scantily clad French women join Pinocchio on stage, and Jiminy puts on his glasses and stares at the stage with his mouth wide open –what a horn dog! They’re not even real Jiminy!!! Some of the lines are great too, after the show Jiminy decides to leave Pinocchio behind, noting ‘What does an actor need with a conscience anyway?’ And after discovering there is a room on Pleasure Island where boys can just get into a fight, Lampwick tells Pinocchio ‘C’mon, let’s go in and poke somebody in the nose.’ Pinocchio asks ‘Why?’ To which Lampwick unenthusiastically responds ‘Eh, just for the fun of it.’ Lampwick’s flippant attitude towards beating people up is just so funny to me. My favourite parts, however, are the little touches – like when Honest John tells Pinnochio that fame awaits him and raises his eyebrows, to which Pinocchio repeats ‘Fame?’ and raises his eyebrows in the exact same way, or when Pinocchio sees Lampwick grow donkey ears, he looks down at his glass of beer and puts it aside, as if he’s had too much. These little details show how much care and attention was put into this film and make sure that the audience always has something to look at; the jokes aren’t exactly laugh out loud funny, but they always put a smile on my face and I was surprised by just how much I warmed to the film’s goofy and good-natured sense of humour.

‘Man, Stacey was right, I DO have a problem.’

The music is less imperative than in Snow White, where most scenes were little more than an excuse to tie different musical numbers together; that is not to say the music is bad however, it’s just relied on less. There are songs, for sure, but they are not as big or showy as Disney songs often are – they are less musical numbers and more like brief little bursts of music, high-spirited and energetic tunes that mirror the fun-loving, adventurous nature of the film. I would be remiss to not mention “When You Wish Upon a Star”, which has effectively become Disney’s flagship song; there’s not much to say that hasn’t been said, it’s pretty damn good. It’s a very sweet and uplifting song that really does encapsulate everything Disney is about – faith, wishes, love, equality and never giving up hope, because sometimes dreams really do come true; it’s a little sappy, maybe, but you’d have to be pretty heartless not to at least enjoy it a little. The songs still don’t make particularly creative use of lyrics and like I said, aren’t exactly front-and-centre, but they’re still fun and very memorable.

Overall, Pinocchio is definitely a step forward – after somewhat of a practice run with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Disney has found its feet here and started to come into its signature style. It’s still cute and heart warming, but it has a little more grit than Snow White and more of a clear, narrative structure, though the plot is still a little thin and tends to meander. Is it perfect? No, the characters, while fun, still aren’t that fleshed out and the protagonist is still pretty dull; the songs are catchy, but Disney still hasn’t fully formed their lyrical style yet. Some consider this film to be Disney’s opus and the finest of all its narrative animations; I don’t quite agree with that, nor do I see it as the quintessential Disney movie, but it certainly is one of the most “Disney-esque” of them all and packs in almost everything you expect from a classic Disney movie – Pinocchio is a lot of fun and has a lot of heart. 

Other Thoughts

• When he thinks there might be a stranger in the house Gepetto just pulls out A GUN. What a nutjob.

PACK THE GAT IN THE SMALL OF MY BACK

• Seriously look at him HE IS THE DEVIL

Or maybe like, some kind of evil pig-man

• Wait... what happened to all the other kids who turned into donkeys!? Are they trapped in the salt mines forever!??!? What about Alexander!?!??!?!?

R.I.P Alexander we will never forget you

7.5/10

Next week: Fantasia!

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Twitter: @JSChilds