Pinocchio was the second feature length animated film by Disney, and was first released in 1940. Its story is one of the best known of all the fairy tales Disney adapted, and the story events, as well as the characters, have become archetypal, showing up in numerous other movies and books since then. This detracted a bit from my appreciation of the film, since so much seemed familiar to me.
It's probably unfair, since I think a lot of the elements and characters that were familiar were familiar since other films ripped them off from this one. Sadly, I couldn't empty my mind of all such knowledge, and I thus saw parallels and seemingly unoriginal events/characters all through the film. To the scores:
Pinocchio, 1940
Script/Story: 7
Characters/Performances: 8
Action: 7
Eye Candy: 8
Fun Factor: 5
Replayability: 6
Overall: 7.5
More a score on merit than on actuality. This one was the hardest to score fairly of all the early Disney classics I'm now reviewing, since I knew the story fairly well. Like all of the others, I think I'd see the cartoon when I was about 8, and never since. But Pinocchio is such a commonly recreated story, with elements of it showing up in so many other movies, that it didn't feel fresh or surprising to me.
That's partially the fault of the film, for being so linear and focused. I remembered the plot of Snow White and Peter Pan and various others, but was still surprised by small aspects of them. How wacky, or silly, or serious they were, or how some minor characters acted, or how their themes and tones were handled. Pinocchio had very little oddball surprising stuff, since it was probably the best "story" of all these early Disney cartoons. No pointless comic relief diversions or digressions, no extended slapstick sequences, no weird, distracting subplots, etc.
It was a very disciplined story, with all events serving the same purpose and building towards a coherent whole. This made it a solid tale with actual narrative weight and dramatic tension, but also made it non-surprising to my adult eyes. So I didn't find the viewing experience that exciting, since I knew where things were going at all times. I wish I'd forgotten more, actually.
One thing that surprised me early on was how accepting of his suddenly living puppet Geppetto was. He carved lots of marionettes, and then one night one of them is alive and walking around and talking? Geppetto is surprised for a moment, but soon enough he's dancing and singing, rather than looking for a hatchet, or calling for an exorcist. And then the next morning he's like, "Well, off to school you go, Pinocchio!" and he gives him some random book and an apple, and shoves him out the door.
Okay, so how the hell does Pinocchio know how to talk, much less read? He's like, six hours old. How does he know where school is? More importantly, how does Geppetto think other people will react to a sentient wooden puppet? He's not in NYC in 2014, he's in some peasant town in Europe in the pre-industrial age. They will burn him! I'm not a real strong advocate of home schooling, since it's mostly a way for religious nuts to keep their children from encountering the real world until they've been so brain washed that reality won't intrude. But in this instance, I think perhaps a few weeks or months of tutoring in the puppet shop might be a good idea.
Predictably enough, Pinocchio is immediately waylaid by some conmen and sold to the puppet show/circus. Jiminy fucking Cricket is supposed to be his conscience, and the film plays it as though Pinocchio is to blame for his various downfalls, but he quite literally doesn't know any better. He's not ignoring his better judgment or being naughty, since he doesn't have anything to ignore. He's unformed, morally, philosophically, and he's had zero experience in the world. Of course he'll believe anything anyone tells him in a convincing tone of voice. It's all Geppetto's fault for sending him out unprepared, and Jiminy Cricket's for being condescending and judgmental.
The other scene that stuck in my head was the transformation of the delinquent kid into a donkey. I remembered that the bad boys turned into animals, but the actual scene is shocking. Frightening. The transformation is werewolf like in its violence, and the horrified boy's reaction to his downfall. He's pissed and furious about it, and lashes out in just the sort of frantic panic any of us would feel if we found ourselves transforming into a beast of burden. Tables and chairs get kicked to kindling and walls are knocked over as the donkey boy rages in terror.
Later, there's a scene where the transformed boys are selected to be sent to the salt mines, and its' stark in its cruelty. The donkeys retain human memories and intellect, but their bodies are fully transformed, to the point that they can only bray in protestation at their degradation. Their masters care not, whipping them and sealing them into crates to be transported to their doomed fate of hard labor. Only the boys who are transformed, but who can still speak, are held back, until their vocal cords have lost all human function, presumably since the boys are being sold to donkey drivers who don't know of their human origin. The whole sequence has echoes of the horror of involuntary committal, ala
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, and I have to think that generations of young children have been scared shitless by that portion of the film. Which was, no doubt, the whole moralistic point in it.
Pinocchio is routinely held as one of the best animated films ever made. I can't dispute that, and I think it's the best of the Disney films I've seen thus far. Maybe not the most enjoyable to watch, but in terms of having a coherent plot and structure, strong, detailed characters, and not losing momentum or credibility (especially in the eyes of an adult viewer) by descending into long scenes of slapstick or absurdity, it's the best. I just wish I hadn't remembered so much of it, since that kept me from reviewing it as objectively as I have the other Disney cartoons I'm watching, and probably lowered its overall score.
Labels: disney, movie review
