Review of Pinocchio (1940) by Austin M — 23 Feb 2011

Geppetto (Christopher Rub) is a clock maker who one day decides to create a wooden boy, Pinocchio (Dick Jones). Geppetto wishes on the evening star that his new creation would become a real boy, and by miracle his wish is granted by a fairy, well partially it is. In order to truly become a real boy Pincchio must prove himself, but he is young and very naive, so the fairy tells Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards) to act as Pinocchio's conscience and try ro keep him in line while he is trying to prove himself worthy of being a real boy. Jiminy does his best no doubt, but the job of keeping this puppet (whose nose will grow everytime he lies) out of trouble is surprisingly difficult. Along with their cat and fish, Pinocchio, Geppetto and Jiminy Cricket will together go on a wild ride as the young boy learns about the truths of life here on earth.

Well, at the time I happen to be writing a paper on the great Walt Disney himself, so I thought it fit to write a review on my favorite films ever made by him. We all know about Disney's wonderful career, I mean the guy started out as a poor cartoonist, went on to make the first full length animated feature film, and now has two amusement parks under his name in the U.S. alone. I think it is safe to say the man was quite succesful, though he never did really have very much money to his name. Every child growing up knows about Disney films, and for very good reason. He set the moral standards very high, and not only are pretty much all of his films enjoyable, but they can be very educational for kids. Walt Disney mixes beautiful animation, funny scripts, and a nice good life lesson in his movies. It is for this reason that he succeeded to the level that he did, and in my opinion Pinocchio is his best work, being one of the greatest animation achievements in film history to this day.

Okay, I mentioned three actor's names in my short plot summary, if you haven't already you should take a good look at these three names, because Pinocchio has some of the finest vocal talent in any animated film ever. I think it is easy to say Disney's films are no strangers to good voices, but this was exceptionally good in my opinion. Especially Dick Jones and Cliff Edwards playing Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket. The two characters' friendship is a funny one, and quite touching towards the end. Jiminy being Pinocchio's conscience, it is obviously not always the happiest of times beteen the two, as Jiminy advises Pinocchio and he happily goes the other way. Seeing as that is almost the entire film, you would think it gets a little repetitive and boring, right? Well it actually doesn't. If you have not already seen this film you will more understand what I mean after you do. But even though Pinocchio and Jiminy travel way beyond just the little workshop, and actually go all over the place, the story unfolds perfectly in the end. Pinocchio is very well written, and certainly has a unique storyline that is like no other fairytale anyone had seen before this. Pinocchio is not just your sweet little tale of a young boy, it is quite frightening at times truthfully. As Pinocchio is on his quest to prove himself worthy of being a real boy, the audiences learns a lot about the issues of the young people in the world, which is still very true today's time.

Pinocchio also has an absolutely beautiful soundtrack, featuring its most famous song, and perhaps Disney's most famous as well, "When You Wish Upon a Star". Music in films simply does not get any better than this. In fact, you will find most of Pinocchio's soundtrack on my ipod. The animation for this film was outstanding, truly hard to believe. Some of my most favorite all time, and definitely worth all of the praise it has received over the years.

Overall, Pinoccio is a film that will stick with you forever. There is a reason that this is 100% on the tomatoe meter. There is always someone who does not like a classic film, but I honestly feel that the person who would say this is rotten misunderstood the film, or just wanted to be different. Of course everyone has their own opinion, and that is to be respected, but I just cannot understand a low rating for this film. Beautiful animation, beautiful soundtrack, and a beautifully made film. Pinocchio is as fine of an animation film as you will ever see. Don't miss it.