Pinocchio Movie Review (1940)

I am so excited to move onto this next movie! The film’s theme song, When You Wish Upon a Star, is one of my all-time favorite songs, Disney or otherwise. For this project, I’m focusing on the story itself, including dialogue, character development, any subplots, how a story presents itself, the speed at which it moves, if it slows down unnecessarily, etc.

Update: In February 2022, I started a video version of the DFP on Tiktok. You can find the video below. Thoughts expressed in the video may be different than what are expressed in the blog post, due to the time difference in posting.

A Brief Summary

A wish upon a star makes woodcarver Geppetto’s dream come true when his new puppet, Pinocchio, comes to life. With the help of his new conscience, Jiminy Cricket, and the guidance of the Blue Fairy, Pinocchio explores his new world as he tries to become a Real Boy. However, Pinocchio’s naive and trusting personality turns against him as he is soon ditching school to follow ‘Honest John’ to the theater stage and to Pleasure Island. Geppetto disappears while trying to find Pinocchio and it’s up to Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket to find him and bring him home. Includes lots of wall clocks, an unfinished game of billiards and a giant whale that gets hangry.

What works

• I really liked having Jiminy Cricket break the fourth wall to talk to the audience. While Snow White had the text on the first few pages of the storybook, having the brief narration from Jiminy and essentially reading the book he wrote (theoretically) makes the story feel a bit more personal.
• The inclusion of all the clocks (of various 1940 and earlier styles) makes me so happy and not just because it allows Jiminy to show some normal humanistic traits.
• Geppetto is adorable. He’s so excited to have Pinocchio around because his wish came true but he also shows realistic reactions to the fact that he’s now a father and has no idea what really he’s doing.
• Stromboli is one freakin’ fabulous villain. His temper is so quick to rise and so violent. Yet he displays both a lack of control and an amazing restraint in how his temper is exhibited.
• The Blue Fairy is possibly one of the best fairies to ever exist in the Disney universe. She is so wise and her interactions with Pinocchio and Jiminy (batting her eyes to get him to be a conscience) are gold.
• The music! There’s only a handful of actual lyrical songs in this film, ‘When You Wish Upon a Star’, ‘Hi Diddle-Dee-Dee’, ‘Give a Little Whistle’, ‘Little Wooden Head’ (sung by Geppetto) and ‘I’ve Got No Strings’. They really add so much to the story and really help move the story along.
• The chat with the Coachman
  • ‘Honest John’ Foulfellow (who brought Pinocchio to Stromboli and to the Coachman) mentions that his selling of Pinocchio to Stromboli is evidence of how low he’d go for a buck. However, when the Coachman mentions ‘Pleasure Island’, Honest John begins to panic. He and Gideon both seem to want out, despite the cash, but the Coachman convinces them otherwise.
  • With that type of reaction from Honest John, it shows who actually has power in this neck of the woods (aka the Coachman) which I love.
• Is it bad that Pleasure Island looks fun? Not all of it, like Tobacco Row or the Rough House, but they have a coaster and I would really have liked to have walked through the Model Home before it was destroyed. It was so well designed that it looks like an incredible mansion.
• Lampwick, an annoying bratty child who became the visual for what not to do. His transformation into a donkey did almost if not as much good for Pinocchio as Jiminy Cricket did.
• This movie, for being an hour and a half, moves pretty fast. Pinocchio and Jiminy go from Stromboli to Pleasure Island to Monstro with very little in between.
• Monstro, scarier than the shark from Jaws and possibly most of the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park.

What may or may not Work

• Without Jiminy, Pinocchio is a pretty flat character. He, like the material he is made from, is wooden. He is, by no fault of his own, thrust into a world that he has no knowledge of. He’s fun to watch and while he does grow a bit as a character, it is an odd learning curve. He goes from knowing nothing to knowing a few things (around the time of Pleasure Island) BUT when he’s down in the belly of Monstro, he just seems to know what to do to get out. (This may seem like a natural learning curve but there’s just too much of a growth spurt at the end for me to fully ignore it.)
  • Part of this is just due to the length of the film. So while I do root for Pinocchio, there’s a gap in his learning that’s missing. That being said, I still believe he deserved the ending that he got and so I acknowledge the character choices and move on.

What doesn’t work

• Jiminy’s original wardrobe. Poor guy, he really needed that new getup. (Shout out to fashion queen, the Blue Fairy!)

Honorable Mentions

• “Gesundheit”–Jiminy’s response to Monstro sneezing.
• The entire Monstro chase scene because they’re in the open water, he already destroyed the raft and he’s still intent on destroying them (I don’t know why, it’s not like he ate them, Geppetto was living in his belly). Scary times 11.

Side Questions

• Why did Pinocchio and Lampwick take so long to start turning into donkeys (or Pinocchio’s partial transformation)?
• How long was Pinocchio on Pleasure Island? There are tons of cobwebs in Geppetto’s house yet it felt like only a single day had gone (with a very, very long night). Geppetto does comment in Monstro’s belly that it’s been days, so what’s the timeline?

What I learned from watching this film

• Character development, character development, character development.
• Have fun with villainous characters. Monstro, Stromboli, Honest John (and Gideon) and the Coachman all come to life and work in different ways.
  • Stromboli is a fireball, ready to explode at a moment’s notice.
  • Honest John is a low-level criminal, more of a pickpocket than a mastermind. He follows the money, seemingly regardless of anything BUT he does show a tiny sense of personal wellbeing.
  • Monstro is scarier than all of them, if for the fact that I would just let him eat me instead of trying to get away. I’d freeze in place and just hope that I could die quickly.
  • The Coachman, he starts off as the middleman (between Honest John and Stromboli), definitely sleazy but also with a much more level head. He quickly rises to the top of the food chain when his plan (and his facial expressions) reveal him to be a devious mastermind.
• Rereading what I wrote about Pinocchio (his character development), I wonder if I was a tad too harsh. But it does make me wonder about characters, intelligence, and fresh perspectives. While I still think his character could have been worked on just a little bit more, Pinocchio was a joy to watch and he’ll definitely have some good stories when he finally makes it to school.

@jocelynnielson

DFP Review 2: Pinocchio. When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true. #disneyfilms #moviereview #filmreview #pinocchio #disneyfilmproject #disney #disneymovies

♬ original sound – Jocelyn Nielson

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