Review of Pinocchio (1940) by Matthew D — 13 Dec 2013

Movie Matt here with Pinocchio, one of my favorite films of the "Classic Disney" era (outside Snow White, Make Mine Music & Melody Time). The film is about the titular puppet and his friend Jiminy Cricket, the cricket who serves as his conscience & the bulk of the film is the puppet in trouble due to his own incompetence in listening to him.

The film failed at first for two reasons: 1. because the war was on the brink of starting (it was 1940) & 2. It was surprisingly darker than Snow White was. The scene with the donkeys & the boy on Pleasure Island who is seen turning into one was labeled the scariest scene in animation.

Pinocchio is the typical "young kid" character, meaning he has his flaws but learns from them as the film goes on, The character of the Cricket was okay but the major problem was the character of Geppetto, who's regulated to a side role despite being the person who carved him which received many complaints so in 2000, ABC & Disney made a TV movie called Geppetto, which was basically the story from his point-of-view (maybe I'll get to that at some point).

The reason of the 4-star rating was not because of it's dark nature but the way the message is delivered in the film through the famous song. When Doug Walker analyzed the film, he claimed the title song promoted "laziness".

I say different because I think that the song means that while you can wish on a star, you have to WORK to make what you wished for come true. A little scary in some portions but a good film for all ages.