Disney Classics In Order - No. 2 Pinocchio

I bet you thought I’d forgotten about this, didn't you? I suspect I may have overreached myself a little on this. I may have to step up the frequency as, at this rate, it’ll take me a couple of years to get through ‘em!

Pinocchio (1937)
Dir. Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske (Supervising Directors), Bill Roberts, Norman Ferguson, Jack Kinney, Wilfred Jackson, T. Hee*
Based Upon:- “The Adventures of Pinocchio” by Carlo Collodi

The One Where
A lonely old bloke makes himself a wooden son who naturally gets brought to life by a blue fairy. Hijinks ensue.

General Viewing Notes
There’s a definite improvement in the quality of the animation in the three years since Snow White. While the Blue Fairy still has that slightly softer, ill-defined look seen in Snow White, Gepetto and the other human characters here are much more in keeping with the Disney style which is very much coming to the fore now. The pacing is much tighter here as well - there’s more a sense of things happening than in Snow White.

Disney Tropes
Some that we’ve seen before:- the character design for the animals and comedy characters is more appealing than that of the “regular” people; fake-out death for the main character. A couple of new ones:- creeping around in dark houses (also to be applied to Snow White); forlorn parental figure searching for lost child in poor weather; non-speaking animal comedy sidekick (both Figaro and Giddy).

Things You Notice As An Adult
- What are the rule sin this world? Honest John and Giddy are, respectively, a giant talking fox and a giant (non)talking cat. Everyone else is a regular human though and doesn’t seem to bat an eyelid at these massive freaks of nature. Have they drifted in from another Disney film? Or are Disney just testing the waters here before they go full-on anthropomorphic animals?
- The whole nose-growing-when-he-lies only happens once in the entire film and not until around fifty minutes in. Weird, feels like it was a much bigger part of the whole film.

Classic Songs - Are They?
When You Wish Upon A Star certainly feels iconic especially given as it’s subsequently become the intro heard at the start of every Disney film. Give A Little Whistle is certainly a catchy tune as is An Actor’s Life For Me but the latter starts to wear it’s welcome out by the end of the film

Continuity
At one point, Jiminy Cricket takes off his coat and jacket to go inside a lock in order to pick it. He hangs them on the lock; in the next shot, they disappear; when he comes out, Pinocchio hands them to him. Sloppy work, Disney….

Trivia
Books on the shelf next to Jiminy Cricket include Peter Pan and Alice In Wonderland. The shape of things to come….

Any Good Then?
It’s nicely animated and has some good character design work but the episodic nature of the story itself make this one fairly unsatisfying; effectively, Pinocchio drifts from one incident to the next and no villain ever gets their comeuppance for the way they treat him, he just gets away from them. It was never a favourite of mine as a nipper and I can see why. 

Next One Of These
A selection of classical music videos.

* Real name Thornton Hee but credits himself as T.Hee. Absolutely the best name for an animator ever.