Pinocchio
- Studio
- Walt Disney Studios
- Distributor
- RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Synopsis
Lonely woodcarver Geppetto longs for a child, and his wish is granted- partly- when the Blue Fairy brings a wooden marionette named Pinocchio to life. In order to become a real boy, Pinocchio must prove himself worthy and sets out into the world, accompanied by his "conscience," Jiminy Cricket. Pinocchio is led astray by a wicked fox named J. Worthington Fowlfellow, first to "a life in the theater"- Stromboli's puppet show- then to Pleasure Island, where the boys behave (and become!) jackasses. Pinocchio finally redeems himself by saving Geppetto from Monstro, the whale.
Characters
Pinocchio, Geppetto, Jiminy Cricket, Figaro, Cleo, J. Worthington Fowlfellow, Gideon, Stromboli, Lampwick, Monstro, the Blue Fairy
Credits
Directing
- Director
- Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske (as Hamilton S. Luske)
- Sequence Directors
- Bill Roberts, Norm Ferguson (as Norman Ferguson), Jack Kinney, Wilfred Jackson, T. Hee
Producing
- Producer
- Walt Disney
Writing
- Writer
- Ted Sears, Otto Englander, Webb Smith, William Cottrell, Joseph Sabo, Erdman Penner, Aurelius Battaglia
- Based on the Original Serial By
- Carlo Lorenzini (Collodi)
Animation
- Animator
- Preston Blair, John Bradbury, Jack Campbell, Les Clark, John Elliotte, Hugh Fraser, Ollie Johnston (as Oliver M. Johnston Jr), Lynn Karp, John Lounsbery, Don Lusk, Robert Martsch, John McManus, Joshua Meador, Charles Nichols (as Charles A. Nichols), Art Palmer, Don Patterson, George Rowley, Norman Tate, Don Tobin, Don Towsley, Bernard Wolf, Marvin Woodward, Shamus Culhane (uncredited)
- Animation Direction
- Fred Moore, Frank Thomas (Pinocchio), Milt Kahl, Vladimir Bill Tytla, Ward Kimball (Jiminy), Art Babbitt, Eric Larson, Wolfgang Reitherman
Voices
- Voice
- Dickie Jones (Pinocchio), Cliff Edwards (Jiminy), Christian Rub (Geppetto), Walter Catlett (Fowlfellow), Mel Blanc (Gideon, Hiccup sound effects), Charles Judels (Stromboli, Coachman), Evelyn Venable (Blue Fairy), Frankie Darro (Lampwick), Don Brodie (Barker)
Music
- Music
- Ned Washington, Leigh Harline, Paul Smith
Crew
- Art Directors
- Charles Philippi, Hugh Hennesy, Ken Anderson, Dick Kelsey, Kendall O'Connor, Terrell Stapp, Thor Putnam, John Hubley, McLaren Stewart, Al Zinnen
- Character Design
- Joe Grant, Al Hurter, John P. Miller, Campbell Grant, Martin Provensen, John Walbridge
- Backgrounds
- Claude Coats, Merle Cox, Ed Starr, Ray Huffine
Production notes
The first animated film to win an Academy Award for best original song for best original score.
In 1994, Pinocchio was one of 25 films added by the Library of Congress' National Film Preservation Board to the National Film Registry.
Songs and scenes from Pinocchio were recreated for a Christmas 1939 broadcast of CBS Radio and Cecil B. DeMille's Lux Radio Theater Show. Dickie Jones, Christian Rub, Eve Venabile, Walter Catlett and Cliff Edwards performed their characters on the radio adaptation of the movie.
The scenes of Pleasure Island were based upon the images of the 1939/1940 New York World's Fair. The intention was to satirize its hideous atmosphere in the film.
Despite this film's success with American moviegoers, Pinocchio was not accepted by the surviving members of the Collodi family, who felt that the film misused the strong social satire of the original book. To this day, Disney's Pinocchio is criticized by the Collodi family.
Walt Disney employed more than 750 staff members on Pinocchio, working them for several years.
Technicians developed an enhanced multiplane camera which could dolly in and out of an animated scene (similar to live-action photography), as opposed to the vertical method of shooting used in Snow White.
Animators pioneered using glass plates over the animation to create a realistic underwater look for the scene in the ocean, and established a technique called "the blend" to give the two-dimensional animation some depth.
Twelve artists labored for 18 months to design the character of Pinocchio alone. Disney, a perfectionist, is rumored to have thrown out over 2,300 feet of footage (representing at least five months of work) because it did not fit his vision.
Box-office returns for Pinocchio did not surpass those for Snow White, as Disney had hoped.
This film was rereleased theatrically in 1945, 1954, 1962, 1971, 1978, and 1984. The film went under a full restoration process in 1991 and was reissued in 1992 as a "special edition."
Pinocchio was released to video in 1984, starting the "Walt Disney Classics" video series. The digitally remastered version was released to video in 1993, and again in 1999 on both VHS and DVD as a "40th Anniversary" edition.
This was the second film in the official Disney list of animated films.
In 1994, Pinocchio was one of 25 films added by the Library of Congress' National Film Preservation Board to the National Film Registry.
Songs and scenes from Pinocchio were recreated for a Christmas 1939 broadcast of CBS Radio and Cecil B. DeMille's Lux Radio Theater Show. Dickie Jones, Christian Rub, Eve Venabile, Walter Catlett and Cliff Edwards performed their characters on the radio adaptation of the movie.
The scenes of Pleasure Island were based upon the images of the 1939/1940 New York World's Fair. The intention was to satirize its hideous atmosphere in the film.
Despite this film's success with American moviegoers, Pinocchio was not accepted by the surviving members of the Collodi family, who felt that the film misused the strong social satire of the original book. To this day, Disney's Pinocchio is criticized by the Collodi family.
Walt Disney employed more than 750 staff members on Pinocchio, working them for several years.
Technicians developed an enhanced multiplane camera which could dolly in and out of an animated scene (similar to live-action photography), as opposed to the vertical method of shooting used in Snow White.
Animators pioneered using glass plates over the animation to create a realistic underwater look for the scene in the ocean, and established a technique called "the blend" to give the two-dimensional animation some depth.
Twelve artists labored for 18 months to design the character of Pinocchio alone. Disney, a perfectionist, is rumored to have thrown out over 2,300 feet of footage (representing at least five months of work) because it did not fit his vision.
Box-office returns for Pinocchio did not surpass those for Snow White, as Disney had hoped.
This film was rereleased theatrically in 1945, 1954, 1962, 1971, 1978, and 1984. The film went under a full restoration process in 1991 and was reissued in 1992 as a "special edition."
Pinocchio was released to video in 1984, starting the "Walt Disney Classics" video series. The digitally remastered version was released to video in 1993, and again in 1999 on both VHS and DVD as a "40th Anniversary" edition.
This was the second film in the official Disney list of animated films.
Awards
Academy Award Winner, Best Original Song, "When You Wish Upon a Star" (Music: Leigh Harline, Lyrics: Ned Washington), 1941.
Academy Award Winner, Best Original Score, Leigh Harline, Paul Smith, Ned Washington, 1941
Academy Award Winner, Best Original Score, Leigh Harline, Paul Smith, Ned Washington, 1941
Pictures
Reviews
A classic, nuff said.
My all time favorite Disney movie! loved it since i was 3 in 1985 when my parents bought me this excellent, dark and unique animated movie. The original Carlo Collodi story is way more darker but this one manages to become a pure winner.
Best Disney Feature
I'm finishing a review of the 40+ Disney Animated Features, and I believe Pinocchio is the best. The animation surpasses Snow White, and is the last time Disney truly went all out in animating a film: World War II, labor unrest, and creative exhaustion insured that no future Disney film would have the amount of care that was put into Pinocchio. Even with its technical advances, I don't think that Pixar has caught up with the scope of this sixty year-old film.
The music is also the best of the Disney canon: the Disney theme "When You Wish Upon a Star" is only the most famous -- "An Actor's Life For Me," "Give a Little Whistle," and "I've Got No Strings" are also unusually strong. Many Disney films have one great song, a few have two; perhaps Mary Poppins, the Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast have three -- but only Pinocchio has four.
Pinocchio is not everyone's favorite: the film can scare children, and does not have the highest level of "Disney Warmth" (although Jimminy Cricket and Pinocchio himself are cute characters,) and it does not have "Princess Appeal" as there are no significant female characters. Its quality is unsurpassed, however, and it deserved to be one of the twenty films designated as American National Treasures.
Pinocchio
Quite possibly the best animated film ever produced. The movie speaks for itself. Watch it over and over, you won't be sorry.
Pinocchio
One of Disney's best! Interesting fact: Mel Blanc did the voice of Gideon. Disney later decided that Gideon should not speak. All of Blanc's dialogue was cut out except for a single hiccup that Gideon has in the bar.
Pinocchio
Bar none, Disney's best animated film! Stromboli, Lampwick, Monstro -- I first saw this in a re-release when I was a kid, and it's left me awestruck ever since!
Pinocchio
A Classic. Artwork is incredible, but the storytelling somewhat dated.
Pinocchio
One of the best of Disney! The thought and the details of the movie are wonderful. Watch this movie,pay attention to the details and to think it was made in the 40's!!!