Pinocchio
Release Date: 2/7/1940
Distributed by: RKO Radio Pictures
Studio: Walt Disney Productions
Running Time: 88 minutes
Directors: Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske, Norman Ferguson,
T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Bill Roberts
Producer: Walt Disney
Country: United States
Language: English
Historical Significance:
-Second film by Walt Disney Studios
-Groundbreaking advancements in effect animation
Background:
Production on Pinocchio started in the middle of 1937, during the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Pinocchio was intended to be the studio's third film, after Bambi. However, Bambi proved to be a challenging film to adapt, so Pinocchio was moved ahead in production while Bambi was put on hold.
The plan for the original film was considerably different from what was released. Numerous characters and plot points, many of which came from the original novel, were used in early drafts. Producer Walt Disney was displeased with the work that was being done and called a halt to the project midway into production so that the concept could be rethought and the characters redesigned.
Plot Summary:
The plot of the film involves an old wood-carver named Geppetto who carves a wooden puppet named Pinocchio being brought to life by a blue fairy, who tells him he can become a real boy if he proves himself "brave, truthful, and unselfish". Thus begin the puppet's adventures to become a real boy, which involve many encounters with a host of unsavory characters.
Voice Cast:
Pinocchio: Dickie Jones
Jiminy Cricket: Cliff Edwards
Mister Geppetto: Christian Rub
Figaro and Cleo (Mute)
John Worthington Foulfellow: Walter Catlett
Gideon (Mute) Originally Mel Blanc, but he provides the sound of Gideon's hiccups
Stromboli: Charles Judels
The Blue Fairy: Evelyn Venable
The Coachman: Charles Judels
Lampwick: Frankie Darro
Monstro (Mute)
Alexander: Dickie Jones
Animation Style and Production:
Originally, Pinocchio was to be depicted as a Charlie McCarthy-esque wise guy, equally as rambunctious and sarcastic as the puppet in the original novel. He looked exactly like a real wooden puppet with, among other things, a long pointed nose, a peaked cap, and bare wooden hands. But Walt found that no one could really sympathize with such a character and so the designer Milt Kahl had to redesign the puppet as much as possible. Eventually, they revised the puppet to make him look more like a real boy, with, among other things, a button nose, a child's Tyrolean hat, and standard cartoon character 4-fingered (or 3 and a thumb) hands with Mickey Mouse-type gloves on them. Milt quoted, "I do not think of him as a puppet, I think of him as a little boy". The only parts of him that still looked more or less like a puppet were his arms and legs. In this film, he is still led astray by deceiving characters, but gradually learns bit by bit, and even exhibits his good heart when he is offered to go to Pleasure Island by saying he needs to go home two times, before Honest John and Gideon pick him up themselves and carry him away.
Additionally, it was at this stage that the character of the cricket was expanded. Jiminy Cricket became central to the story. Originally the cricket was not even in the film. Once added, he was depicted as an actual (that is, less anthropomorphized) cricket with toothed legs and waving antennae. But again Walt wanted something more likable, so Ward Kimball conjured up "a little man with no ears. That was the only thing about him that was like an insect."
In order for the animators to see how a character looks in three-dimensions, clay models of the characters, known as maquettes were built during the production of the film. The artists also built working models of Geppetto's cuckoo clocks, as well as Stromboli's gypsy wagon and The Coachman's carriage. However since it is difficult to animate a realistic moving vehicle, the wagons were filmed on a miniature set using stop motion. After the carriages were filmed the staff would create photostats (pictures of every frame of the animation), then "ink and paint" the photostats onto animation cels and overlay the cels with those of the characters on the rostrum camera.
Pinocchio is a ground breaking achievement in effects animation. Effects animators animate everything that is not the characters or the background. This includes smoke from cigars, shadows, magic, rain, and the ocean - none of which had been attempted to an extreme level of realism until this film. Pinocchio remains to this day the standard film for effects animation.
Awards and Nominations:
Pinocchio won two Academy Awards, one for Best Original Score and one for Best Original Song for the song "When You Wish upon a Star".
Music:
The songs in Pinocchio were composed by Leigh Harline and Lyrics by Ned Washington. Leigh Harline and Paul J. Smith composed the incidental music score.
"When You Wish upon a Star" - Jiminy Cricket, Chorus
"Little Wooden Head" - Geppetto
"Give a Little Whistle" - Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio
"Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (An Actor's Life for Me)" - J. Worthington Foulfellow
"I've Got No Strings" - Pinocchio
"Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee (An Actor's Life for Me) (reprise)" - J. Worthington Foulfellow
"When You Wish upon a Star (reprise)" - Jiminy Cricket, Chorus
The album was described as being "recorded from the original soundtrack of the Walt Disney Production Pinocchio". According to Walt Disney Records, "this is the first time the phrase 'original soundtrack' was used to refer to a commercially available movie recording."
The original version of "When You Wish upon a Star" was sung by Cliff Edwards in the character of Jiminy Cricket and is heard over the opening credits and again in the final scene of the film. The song has since become the theme song to The Walt Disney Company.
Funny Tidbits You Didn't Know:
- Mel Blanc (most famous for voicing many of the characters in Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons), was hired to perform the voice of Gideon the Cat, who was Foulfellow the Fox's sidekick. However, it was eventually decided for Gideon to be mute (just like Dopey, whose whimsical, Harpo Marx-style persona made him one of Snow White's most comic and popular characters). All of Blanc's recorded dialogue in this film was subsequently deleted, save for a solitary hiccup, which was heard three times in the film.
- Pinocchio was a success in the United States alone, however it had poor box office results internationally. The film budget was a total of almost $2.3 million and Disney recouped only a little more than half of the film's cost. This was due to the fact that the film's release in Europe and Asia was delayed because of World War II and its immediate aftermath, which hindered its financial success initially.
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