Movie #2: Pinocchio (1940)

Prove yourself brave, truthful, and unselfish, and someday you will be a real boy.
 (Lady, if that's what it takes, then I'm pretty sure there are no real boys.)

Watched: June 19, 2012

In contrast to Snow White, I haven't seen Pinocchio since I was very small, and it never left much of an impression on me. So, I was a little bit unenthusiastic about watching it now, but I was very pleasantly surprised! I think the animation and scenery impressed me even more than Snow White's did, and there weren't any parts during which I found myself terribly bored. I even got a little choked up at a few parts!

Mainly, though, it's the most disturbing Disney movie I can think of. (Like, seriously disturbing, not Three Caballeros "why does a duck want to have sex with a human OH GOD"-disturbing.) It's cool! But... whoa. Good prevails in this movie, but not over evil. More on that later.

I have to say: Geppetto is less sympathetic to my mind than he's intended to be. The absent-mindedness and commitment to his art (and his son) are endearing, but the guy's kind of an asshole to his cat, and that loses you major points with me. Also, why did he think it was a good idea to send his effectively-newborn son, who had no compunction about lighting his hand on fire because he didn't know fire was bad into the wide, wide world (/school) unsupervised THE VERY NEXT MORNING? This man is clearly not fit to be a father.

 

 

Or a pet owner.

That said, as John Grant points out, this is an interesting movie for employing a(n ersatz) wicked stepfather (in the form of Stromboli), instead of a wicked stepmother. In fact, there are barely any female characters at all- just the Blue Fairy and Cleo the goldfish. (Speaking of the Blue Fairy... she is totally Evangeline from The Princess and the Frog, Y/N? Don't get too flirty, Jiminy, or Ray will fuck your shit up!) Geppetto is a single dad! And his son still winds up being a good, reasonably well-adjusted person in the end! How is a Disney movie made in 1940 somehow more progressive than some people are today? (Then again, Geppetto is pretty... passive, in terms of actually teaching Pinocchio about the world. Jiminy and the Blue Fairy do more to raise the kid, within the span of the movie anyway. Food for thought!)

Also, to be fair, I don't totally buy that Pinocchio proved himself in the end. Brave and unselfish, definitely, but truthful? He never actually told Geppetto where the ears and tail came from, and the Blue Fairy basically only has his word that he's going to tell the truth from now on, and he'd already been established as insanely naive and gullible. I'm just saying. Maybe I'm too critical, but I think she could raise her standards a little when it comes to creating human life.

Random things that charmed/entertained me...

There is SO MUCH DETAIL in Geppetto's shop. It's wonderful.

*head spins*

And also, Geppetto made a clock of a drunk getting kicked out of a bar.

I love when Disney movies have totally intentional, obvious things that belie the people who write them off as exclusively children's entertainment.

More art squee: the sweeping shots of the village the morning after Pinocchio comes to life.

Is that a bird's nest on that chimney in the forefront of the second one? God, I love Disney movies. So much detail!


Honest John: I'm speaking, my boy, of the THEATRE!
Music: DUN DUN DUNNNN
XD


I think I would like to hire the Blue Fairy to float down from on high and spout authoritative moralisms at people:
"You see, Pinocchio, a lie keeps growing and growing, until it's as plain as the nose on your face."
"Remember, a boy who won't be good might as well be made of wood!"
"Put down the PS3 controller and tell your girlfriend she looks pretty. Oh, and give your mother a call- she misses you. Dick."
(One of those isn't actually a line from the movie, but I'll leave it a mystery.)


The Coachman: I'm collecting stupid little boys.
Like you do.

ALTERNATELY:

The Coachman: I'm collecting stupid little boys.
Me: STORY OF MY LOVE LIFE, LOL, AMIRITE LADIES?

All of the stuff with the Coachman rounding boys up off the streets and taking them to "Pleasure Island" for nefarious purposes... probably reads very differently now than it did in 1940 (sadly).

That said, some things never change, and I give Disney points for realism for including the following exchange:
Lampwick: Come on, let's go in and poke somebody in the nose.
Pinocchio: Why?
Lampwick: Just for the fun of it.
Pinocchio: Okay, Lampy!
That is not just Pinocchio being naive; that is EXACTLY as dumb as I now understand boys to be. Four for you, Disney.

I got serious chills when Jiminy Cricket starts singing "When You Wish Upon a Star" at the end. Things like this are why I'm a hopeless Disney nerd, I guess.

I cried when... well, I didn't cry, but I got choked up and freaked out during the whole donkey transformation business. That... is one of the most disturbing things, if not THE most disturbing thing I have ever seen in a Disney movie. I'm not saying they were excellent human beings, but little boys being abducted, turned into donkeys, and sold to do a (short) lifetime's worth of backbreaking labor... and all the while retaining sentience and memory of being human! That is horror movie shit! And the Coachman's never even defeated! He just... goes on to transform more kids into beasts of burden. NO one is saved except Pinocchio! So much for good triumphing over evil. In some ways, it's a very optimistic movie (be[come] a good person --> wishes come true!), but in other ways... it is incredibly, incredibly dark. None of the villains get their comeuppance; instead, a bunch of misbehaving kids get a death sentence after being abducted, then effectively tortured and enslaved. ~*DISNEY MAGIC LOL*~

I wanted to pull my hair out when... Geppetto sends Pinocchio out on his own during his first day of... life. SO CLEARLY ILL-ADVISED, AUGH. I know there wouldn't be a movie if he didn't, but it's frustrating all the same.

Best song/sequence... Any scene that involves Geppetto dancing joyously around his shop, with all the clocks and music boxes and everything going. Pure charm.

In short... This movie was seriously entertaining and interesting! It probably won't wind up being one that I rewatch a ton of times (because it's not about a self-absorbed Incan emperor, or a girl who poses as a man and saves China), but I'd rate it as one of the better Disney films out there. Also one of the most nightmare-inducing.


Images all taken from the marvelously exhaustive disneyscreencaps.com.