And at Pleasure Island-where little boys and girls are turned into donkeys and sent off to the salt mines-the Coachman collects these newly transformed critters with the help of some frightening “vapor monsters.” Stromboli literally throws Pinocchio into a bird cage and leaves him to languish there.

That said, some scenes can get pretty scary. Rarely does anyone get seriously injured, though, other than when Honest John and Gideon are knocked out courtesy a large sledgehammer. The film is replete with slapstick humor-including gags taken straight from the original as well as some new ones. In a song, Pinocchio is told to not be a “party pooper-you’ll ruin it for everyone!” So reluctantly, Pinocchio agrees to go. In a similar vein, Pinocchio’s trip to Pleasure Island isn’t the product of being tempted by all the bad stuff there. “Why, to be famous is to be real!” Honest John insists. “I want to be real!” Pinocchio tells Honest John. When the duplicitous fox Honest John pushes Pinocchio to Stromboli’s puppet show, he couches it in very 21 st-century temptations for fame, promising Pinocchio he could be not just an actor: He could be an influencer. The new Pinocchio adds a few lessons that weren’t in the original, too. “No one is ever going to tell you no” at Pleasure Island, Pinocchio is told-which tells viewers that, sometimes, no is a very important word in deed. “Sugar Mountain” offers a gluttonous thrill ride, where candy can be scooped right off the mountainside, and “Shop ‘n’ Lift” allows consumers to just take whatever they want. Pleasure Island offers attractions such as “Contempt Corner” (where revelers are encouraged to hurl insults) and “Degrade School” (free bricks are available outside to break windows). And, of course, Geppetto is a loving, giving, devoted father-one who makes some tremendous sacrifices when he learns that Pinocchio is in danger.Īs was the case in the original 1940 animated classic, this version of Pinocchio often illustrates how boys and girls ought not to behave. A kindly seagull named Sofia chauffeurs both Pinocchio and Jiminy when the plot requires. Fabiana, a kindly puppeteer, helps Pinocchio when he’s in the clutches of Stromboli, a dastardly and greedy entertainment mogul. And while Pinocchio’s nose does grow from fibbing, at least some of those lies he tells for an altogether different purpose-needing a longer schnoz to make an escape.Īnd while he runs across many terrible people in his adventures, he stumbles on a couple of good ones, too.

He ultimately proves to be brave and unselfish, too. Often, even when he makes bad decisions, that core motivation remains. The Blue Fairy tells Pinocchio that he must pass an ordeal to become a real boy and “prove that you are brave, truthful and unselfish.” But honestly, the wooden waif starts off with some good traits right from the block.įirst, Pinocchio really does want to make Geppetto proud. And after a short talk with the Blue Fairy (originator of said beam of magic), he has one simple ambition: To make his creator-his father-proud. Pinocchio is no longer a puppet: He talks. But the light finds no way past the glass in the frame, and-by accident or design-the blue beam deflects, pouring all its magic into the wooden puppet.įor magic this is. And so Geppetto snuggles under his blankets as Jiminy curls up on his shelf.īut lo, around midnight, the cricket gets startled awake by a strange, blue light-a beam of blue radiance that pounds against the picture of Geppetto’s lost little boy. His thought is interrupted by a cuckoo clock. “If I was to tell you,” he says to Figaro, “you would think I was-” And then the old man sees a “wishing star.” The carpenter makes his wish and refuses to say what it is. Jiminy Cricket-an impoverished insect who just stopped in to warm himself up-watches this small family drama unfold from a shelf. “This is why I gave you a smile,” he tells the puppet.

And Pinocchio-so named because he’s made out of pine-is a happy creation. “If only this could be more than a memory.”Īnd then Geppetto’s done, doing his best to push the sadness away. “Happily ever after was never meant to be,” he sighs, making some final adjustments. But chip by chip, shave by shave, he’s pulled a puppet from the wood, one that Geppetto thinks looks a little like his own dearly departed child-even if his cat, Figaro, disagrees. How long he’s worked on his little wooden boy-painstakingly carving him from blocks of pine-it’s hard to say. When Geppetto pines for his lost son, he does so somewhat literally.

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