It tells the tale of a wood-carver who longs for a little marionette he created and named Pinocchio to be a real boy. One night, a Blue Fairy comes down from the heavens and grants him his wish -- sort of. She gives life to Pinocchio, but she refuses to make him a completely real boy until he does the following thing: prove himself brave, truthful and unselfish. Fortunately for him, there is a delightful little character determined to keep him on the straight and narrow and act as his conscience: Jiminy Cricket.

This feat Pinocchio is entrusted to fulfil seems easy, but as anyone knows, the world is full of temptations, meaning that there are many ways that, if Jiminy fails to influence him otherwise, will cause him to veer off course and scupper his chances of becoming a real boy...

This film is just magical. I don't just mean that it contains magic within the story. I mean that the whole thing just comes together beautifully, resulting in a technically impressive film (check out the rooftop panning shot that took out a sizeable portion of the budget!) that remains a classic. Delightful artwork, animation, story-telling and music combine to make a lovely film that kids and adults should enjoy very much, and should even find very moving in places.


Becoming great   December 11, 2003
 8 out of 20 found this review helpful

Perhaps it's difficult to evaluate movies such as this without knowing just how much expertise was required to make them back in the 1950s. What was then a significant achievement can look rather bland next to today's computer-animated blockbusters. However, the stories from the early cartoons still remain strong and Pinocchio is one of the best. The characters are appealing, in the case of the 'good guys' or repulsive in the case of the 'baddies' and the action moves along quick enough to hold the interest. There are a few good songs, the most memorable being 'When You Wish Upon A Star' but the others are still hummable. The moral of the story is put across well without ever becoming preachy, as happened in later films, and 'Pinocchio' never gets too sentimental, which can be the kiss of death for some movies. You only have to look at Pinocchio 2 (made under the name Artificial Intelligence) to see how bad things can be if they get too cloying.

Apart from a rather ludicrous psycopathic blue whale, the film ends on a high and those who don't feel a twinge when Pinochio finally becomes a real boy probably shouldn't have been watching in the first place.


A Disney Classic   April 9, 2003
 20 out of 20 found this review helpful

The special DVD edition of Pinocchio is an excellent inclusion in collection, for those who are really fond of classical Disney animations. The Special edition is digitally re-mastered, so sound quality is further enhanced from watching the animation let's say several years ago. The magical and musical dimensions of this big name Disney classic is re-lighted, when watching this DVD. The values and qualities of what most Disney animations typically represent are clearly depicted in Pinocchio. What I really admire about Pinocchio is the cheerfulness and way the characters are represented, which are colourful and humourless.

Pinocchio is fairly tale which originated from Italy. It is about a lonely and innocent toymaker's dream for his creation (wooden puppet) to become alive. Does his dream come true? That is the general gist of the story.

The extras accompanying the DVD is a commentary on the creation of Pinocchio, which is really interesting and fascinating to learn about. You can relieve the musical beats and moments of the movie which are real pleasure to listen to.

In a nutshell and straight to the point, Pinocchio is big name Disney classic for all to enjoy and cherish. Disney is renowned for promoting family entertainment and this is an opportunity to watch the magic which Disney films continue to captivate audience with. To watch on DVD, is an extra bonus and real to joy to treasure in a DVD collection. If you are fan of Disney animations, Pinocchio is a must as it has a great story, good characters and shares the values and qualities already emphasised of what most Disney animations entail.


A good but not great movie   December 31, 2002
 6 out of 13 found this review helpful

I really have a mixed reaction to this movie. There are parts I like, but overall, it just strikes me as an ok movie.

The story is about a wooden puppet, Pinocchio, who is brought to life to fulfill the wish of Geppetto. But to become a real boy, he must learn to be brave and truthful on his own. Aided by Jiminy Cricket, he heads off into a world filled with temptation.

For me, this movie seems slow. While Geppetto's shop is richly detailed, too much time is spent playing around with the clocks and music boxes. I do get into the movie in the middle and find it easy to care about the characters. The scene where Lampwick turns into a donkey still creeps me out.

It is interesting to note how the animation had progressed in the 3 years since Snow White. All the humans were more realistic, even the background people.

I realize many people consider this Walt Disney's ultimate masterpiece. For me, however, this is a good movie but doesn't live up to some of his others.


The pinnacle of Disney's development of the art of animation   November 19, 2000
 22 out of 26 found this review helpful

This film is the most endearing of all Disney's full-length animation features, and, despite its age (it was made in 1940), it still remains fresh with every new viewing. This has as much to do with the perfect characterisations of the main protagonists as it does with the supreme quality of the animation and the picture's beautiful colour. The songs and musical interludes are also mainly memorable (high-lighted by the Oscar-winning and now classic "When You Wish Upon a Star"), but are not overbearing nor an infringement upon the story-telling and the morals and sentiments on which Collodi's fable are based. Some of the scenes, particularly that in the pool-room in which Lampwick mutates into an ass, achieve relevant moods and atmospheres which subsequent animators, even with the benefit of modern techniques, have never approached. With "Fantasia" (also released in 1940), this film marked the pinnacle of the Disney studio's development of the art of movie animation. Whilst the pictures of subsequent years continued to be hailed as classics and to achieve huge commercial success, none have surpassed the freshness, originality and technical innovation of Pinocchio and Fantasia.