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Pinocchio (1940) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more.
Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures.Based on Carlo Collodi's 1883 Italian children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, it is the studio's second animated feature film, as well as the third animated film overall produced by an American film studio, after Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 ...
- $164 million
- Walt Disney
- $2.6 million
Pinocchio: Directed by Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Ben Sharpsteen. With Mel Blanc, Don Brodie, Stuart ...
- (156K)
- Animation, Adventure, Comedy
- Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson
- 1940-02-23
When loving Geppetto creates a wooden puppet, his wish is granted when it comes to life as a little wooden boy named Pinocchio. With his faithful friend and conscience Jiminy Cricket by his side, Pinocchio, embarks on fantastic adventures that his bravery, loyalty and honesty until triumphs in his triumphs in his quest for his heart's desire: to become a real boy.
- Overview
- Plot
- Cast (all uncredited)
- Production
- Reception and Critical Reaction
- Differences from source material
- Allusions
is an animated musical comedy fantasy adventure film. The second film in the Disney Animated Canon, it was produced by Walt Disney Productions and originally released to theatres by RKO Radio Pictures on February 23, 1940.
was made in response to the enormous worldwide success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Based on the Italian book The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, which is the second most translated book in the world, with over 300 translations. The film stars a puppet - brought to life by a fairy - who tries to earn his right to become a real boy, as he faces the challenges and dangers of a dark, hostile world of crooks, villains, and monsters.
It premiered in New York City on February 7 and in Los Angeles two days later. The film was then theatrically re-released in 1945, 1954, 1962, 1971, 1978, 1984, and 1992.
The song "When You Wish Upon a Star," became a major hit and is still identified with the film, and later as a fanfare for Walt Disney Studios itself. Pinocchio also won two Academy Awards for Best Original Song and Best Original Score. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress in 1994 and was thus selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In the 2008 American Film Institute's “Top Ten Animated Feature Films of All Time” list, Pinocchio was ranked only behind Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In the decades since its release, the film has been widely considered by many film historians, critics, and pundits to be one of the greatest animated motion pictures ever made.
Jiminy Cricket opens the movie singing "When You Wish Upon A Star" as he sits on a bookshelf, on which various literary classics, such as Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and the titular book can be found, and given a place of prominence. After the song ends, Jiminy greets the audience and acknowledges that many may not believe that a wish, as the song states, may come true, and, as proof of the message, decides to tell the story of Pinocchio. He slides down the shelf to the book and opens it, beginning his story in a peaceful village at night, which Jiminy states he was passing through. At this point, the viewer enters the story Jiminy is telling through an illustration in the book.
's village is introduced at night, with only Gepetto's workshop showing signs of activity. Inspirational sketch by Gustaf Tenggren.
The only building from which light seems to emanate is Geppetto's workshop. Jiminy hops over to the open window and peers in to see a warm fire in a room filled with beautifully carved toys, clocks, music boxes, and puppets. He enters the room and warms himself by the fire. He then notices a lifeless marionette puppet, sitting on a shelf. As he is admiring the puppet, he hears someone coming. Crawling up the marionette's strings to hide on a high shelf, he sees Geppetto coming down the stairs with Figaro to finish painting the puppet. Geppetto greets Cleo, whose bowl sits nearby, and carefully paints eyebrows and a smile on the puppet's face. Having completed the marionette he names it "Pinocchio" (which literally means "Little Wooden Head") and tests it out by walking it around the workshop, to the tune of Little Wooden Head which is played by one of the music boxes. The bells of the clocks that cover the walls of the workshop indicate that it is now nine o'clock, and Geppetto announces that it is time for bed. After he, Figaro and Cleo have bidden each other goodnight, the woodcutter gets into bed, to notice a Wishing Star through the window. He wishes that Pinocchio would become a real boy, before falling asleep.
While the others sleep, Jiminy however can’t sleep with all the clocks in the workshop ticking and Geppetto, Figaro and Cleo snoring away. He shouts for all to stop and goes back to sleep. Suddenly, the wishing star seems to glow and Jiminy starts to hide.
The wishing star glows brighter, and gets closer to the window; eventually, reaching the workshop, it transforms into the Blue Fairy, who is about to make a fateful spell out of Geppetto's wish. She approaches Pinocchio and brings the puppet to life with a tap of her wand, and his strings vanish without a trace. Pinocchio is delighted and surprised at his ability to move and talk. The Fairy informs him, however, that he is not a real boy yet, but must prove himself brave, truthful, and unselfish in order to become one and learn the difference between right and wrong. After Jiminy hops in to explain to Pinocchio, the Blue Fairy decides to dub the cricket Pinocchio's conscience and leaves, telling Pinocchio to always let his conscience be his guide.
Jiminy tries to explain the concept of right and wrong, and, though he is largely unsuccessful, Pinocchio tells him that he wants "to do right". Jiminy then sings "Give A Little Whistle", and Pinocchio joins in, falling into a pile of toys by accident. This wakes Geppetto, who cautiously searches the room. Upon finding Pinocchio moving and talking, he first thinks he is dreaming but is eventually convinced, and delighted, that his 'son' is alive. Winding the music boxes, Geppetto, Pinocchio, Figaro, and Cleo celebrate. Pinocchio is distracted by a candle and, not knowing what it is, accidentally sets his finger on fire; Gepetto panics and extinguishes the wooden boy's finger in Cleo's bowl. He decides that they should go to sleep before anything else happens.
•Dickie Jones as Pinocchio
•Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket
•Christian Rub as Geppetto
•Walter Catlett as J. Worthington Foulfellow
•Mel Blanc as Gideon, and Donkeys
•Charles Judels as Stromboli, Coachman, and Native American Statue
Story development
“I take the liberty of calling to your attention again to the use of the language and the pronunciation... It is a masterwork full of episodes and fit to be developed.” ―Lo Duca in a letter dated July 4, 1935 It's clear that Walt Disney had been aware of Pinocchio long before deciding to adapt it for animation; Roy E. Disney recalled his uncle reading the story to him before bed. However, Disney does not seem to have considered it for a feature until it was suggested by Ben Sharpsteen. Mrs. K. Evers, a family friend, suggested it for a short subject in a letter of April 8, 1935. On his holiday in Europe Disney had met Lo Duca, an Italian journalist, who was similarly enthusiastic that Disney adapt it, urging him that it was 'fit to be developed' in a letter. The title Pinocchio had been registered as a feature in May 1934. Collodi's original story, Le avventure di Pinocchio first appeared in serial form in 1881, and was published as a book in 1883. An English translation of story was published in America in 1911. Walt Disney owned the original Italian edition and several different English translations of the tale, and in 1937 Bianca Majolie, a member of the story department, made a new translation. A play by Yasha Frank, based on the original story, was published in 1939 but performed earlier; Disney circulated a memo on June 9, 1937 recommending that his artists will see the play, and consider it as material for a feature. However, due to the pressure to complete Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, story meetings for Pinocchio do not appear to have begun until March 24, 1938. Story work for Bambi was begun in 1937, before the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and earlier than that of Pinocchio. Thinking that the animal characters of Bambi would be easier to animate than the predominantly human cast of Pinocchio, Disney expected Bambi to be completed first. By December 1937, however, it seemed Pinocchio would be the first to be ready for release. It is thought that Walt showed less enthusiasm in story meetings for Pinocchio than in those for Snow White. Anxious to increase the output of his studio - he intended at this point to release, in addition to short cartoons, two or more features every year - he seemed eager to move onto the animation stage as quickly as possible. As a result, the story was split into sections; The first, consisting of scenes introducing Pinocchio, Geppetto, Figaro, and the Blue Fairy, was prepared in a scene-by-scene format. Animation began in early 1938. It was not until February of that year that Disney began to show more interest, finding potential in the scenes featuring Monstro the whale.
Upon its 1940 release, Pinocchio was not financially successful. Mainly due to World War II cutting off European and Asian markets overaseas. However, others think it was too dark for being a film for family audiences. While there are also clear dark elements in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, these evil forces are vanquished in the film's climax; in comparison, four of the villains of Pinocchio (Honest John, Gideon, Stromboli, and The Coachman) continue their deeds unpunished, or at least basing on what is seen on-screen and leaving their fates open to deduction and interpretations by the viewers (even Monstro's fate is ambiguous and not clear and sure). It is thought by some that the use of multiple villains in the film is a reflection of complexity of the Depression (following the Second World War, most Disney films would be characterized by a single villain). The dark themes of the film are also thought to be a result of the film's European sources, particularly Collodi's original story (the darkness of which Disney nevertheless attempted to lessen in his adaptation) and a mise en scene heavily influenced by German Expressionism. Intense sequences, such as Stromboli's imprisonment of Pinocchio, Lampwick's transformation, and Monstro's scenes, were deemed particularly frightening for young audiences. The Second World War had cut off Disney's European market, preventing the exhibition of Pinocchio (and, later that year, Fantasia) in Europe. It has been speculated that this cut off an audience which may have been more ready to accept the film more than Americans, given the film's strong European influences.
Despite not being initially a commercial and financial success, the film remains one of the most critically acclaimed of all the Disney animated features. Archer Winsten, who had been critical of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, had nothing but praise for Pinocchio. The New Yorker's review was similarly positive, arguing that "it befits us to take Pinocchio to our hearts with gratitude and pleasure." While many audiences complained about the absence of a romance, some critics praised the film for staying away from over-sentimentality. Richard Mallett (Punch) wrote, "is it better than Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? I think it is, much better, not in spite of (as at least one reviewer said) but partly because of the absence of so much conscious sentiment and charm." The film is also considered the most technically brilliant film in the Disney animated features canon. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 100% of the critics gave the film a positive review based on 41 reviews. Pinocchio is one of the handfuls of films to achieve a 100% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
•In the book, the titular character, Pinocchio, is depicted as a much more ill-behaved character whom is bratty, rude, self-centered, and obnoxious in personality, and has a more wooden-like appearance. In the film however, the character's personality has been reworked into a much more innocent and good-natured character, and he has a much more human-like appearance despite being a wooden puppet.
•Geppetto was bald and used a yellow wig to cover his baldness. Geppetto in the film instead has a full head of grey hair. Also, Geppetto has a red nose that presumably was taken from another woodworker on the book, Maestro Antonio, who was nicknamed Maestro Cherry due to it.
•In the film Geppetto is in a much better economical status than his book counterpart, who couldn't even afford to light fireplaces and had to sell his jacket to get a schoolbook for Pinocchio.
•In the original story, The Talking Cricket and Pinocchio did not get along. The Cricket actually dies early on when he tries to lecture Pinocchio on his bad behavior, only to have the puppet accidentally crush him with a hammer. He reappears later on as an equally preachy ghost, then inexplicably reappears alive again towards the end.
•In the original story, Geppetto actually gets arrested through some meddling townsfolk who misinterpret his attempts to discipline the naughty Pinocchio for child abuse. This does not happen in the Disney version.
•Stromboli was originally called "Mangiafuoco" ("Fire-Eater"), and despite his terrifying appearance, was capable of kindly impulses, like sparing with Pinocchio and sympathizing with him when he knew about Geppetto's poverty. The Italian dub names him Mangiafuoco.
•Two books labeled Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan are visible in the very first shot of the film. Alice in Wonderland was released 11 years after Pinocchio, with Peter Pan immediately following two years later. Seventy years after the release off Pinocchio, in 2010, another Disney adaptation of Alice in Wonderland would be released and become a billion dollar grossing Tim Burton blockbuster starring Mia Wasikowska and Johnny Depp.
•The clock with the mother spanking the child with a bucket of paint on his hand is inspired by a 1931 cover from The Saturday Evening Post that depicts a older woman spanking a boy with paint on his face with her shoe.
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When woodworker Geppetto longs for a son, his puppet Pinocchio is magically brought to life. Pinocchio must prove himself “brave, truthful and unselfish” to become a real boy, but he faces temptation at every turn, despite the advice of surrogate conscience Jiminy Cricket.
Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on Carlo Collodi's 1883 Italian children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, it is the studio's second animated feature film, as well as the third animated film overall produced by an American film studio, after Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 ...
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