Pinocchio is a popular animated motion picture created by the Walt Disney studio. The feature-length film was released in 1940. It was the second animated feature made by Disney, following the immense success of Disney’s first feature-length cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
Pinocchio is based on The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883), a famous children’s book by the Italian author Carlo Collodi. The story tells about an old woodcarver named Geppetto who creates a wooden boy puppet named Pinocchio. A good fairy gives the puppet life, but he wants to become a real boy. Pinocchio has many adventures before his wish to be a real boy is granted.
The Disney version of Pinocchio is filled with colorful characters. They include Pinocchio’s wisecracking friend Jiminy Cricket, the nasty puppeteer Stromboli, and the sly fox J. Worthington Foulfellow and his cat assistant, Gideon. Pinocchio has been acclaimed for its many remarkable animated action sequences, such as the scene in which Pinocchio is swallowed by a whale. Pinocchio also joins a group of boys who travel to Pleasure Island, where children are turned into donkeys and sold into slavery.
The film has an acclaimed musical score by Leigh Harline, Ned Washington, and Paul J. Smith. Among the best-known songs are “Hi Diddle Dee Dee (An Actor’s Life for Me),” “I’ve Got No Strings,” and “Give a Little Whistle.” Harline and Washington won an Academy Award for best song for “When You Wish upon a Star” as well as an Academy Award, with Smith, for the score.
Dickie Jones provided the voice of Pinocchio. Christian Rub was the voice of Geppetto, Cliff Edwards of Jiminy Cricket, and Walter Catlett of the fox.
See also Collodi, Carlo ; Disney, Walt .
