Pinocchio

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Much like my current opinion on Snow White, my view on Pinocchio had previously been mixed. When I had watched it in the past, I had somewhat enjoyed the film, but had found the story too episodic in its structure. To be fair, this is mostly due to the fact that the original story of Pinocchio was told in a serial form. Generally, I am still personally not a big fan of that type of storytelling. But I feel as if  I have gained a greater appreciation for Pinocchio over the years, for several reasons.

First of all, the animation looks beautiful, especially when compared to Snow White, which came out just a few years earlier. In addition to the much of it looking lovely and moving wonderfully, there are incredible advances in animation present here. Examples of this include the types of shots used and effects during the underwater scenes, so it should be respected for that. 

The music is also great- obviously, When You Wish Upon a Star is iconic and with good reason. Give a Little Whistle and I’ve Got No Strings are also a lot of fun and An Actor’s Life for Me has a pretty catchy tune.

The movie also deserves props for daring to be one of the darkest films in the canon. Seriously, that whole thing with the Donkeys is messed up. This is also made worse by the fact that none of the villains get their comeuppance, but that just reflects reality. In real life, the bad guys are not always caught and this film is simply a rare example that demonstrates that. In addition, the Villains are all in equal parts enjoyable and terrifying, just as they should be.

In terms of the main characters, I enjoy Jiminy Cricket’s character immensely, even if he does feel a bit dated. As for the protagonist, on the one hand Pinocchio is quite a frustrating to watch at times. He is naïve enough to make the same mistakes over and over and over again, which can began to feel quite repetitive. In fact, it is quite funny towards the end of the film when Gepetto speaks of the (missing) puppet saying : “He was such a good boy”. No he wasn’t- he literally spent the entire running time doing the exact opposite of what he should be doing, which is how you got in this mess in the first place!. ‘This mess’ being the whole ‘swallowed by a whale’ thing.

On the other hand, he is also naïve enough to remain very likable throughout all of this, as he comes across as well meaning, even if he does continuously mess up.  

Overall, Pinocchio is an entertaining film with brilliant animation, iconic songs and fairly likable characters, even if the story structure may not be for everybody.

Rating

Good Guys: Pinocchio is well meaning but frustrating to watch and Jiminy is a great sidekick, even if his personality does feel a little too Forties. I also like the side characters of Cleo, Figaro and Geppetto, so the characters get a 7/10

Bad Guys: As I previously said, the film’s various Villains have perfect amounts of entertainment value and scare factor, so they get a 9/10

Animation: As beautiful as it is technically impressive, the animation gets this blog’s first 10/10

Music: Some iconic songs put together with some catchy tunes give the music a 8/10

Plot: The plot can be a little too episodic at times, but the individual segments are still entertaining, so the plot gets a 6/10

Overall Rating: 40/50

Next up: Fantasia