Pinocchio (1940) voices Dick Jones, Cliff Edwards, Mel Blanc, Christian Rub directed by Norman Ferguson Movie Review

Pinocchio (1940)   5/55/55/55/55/5


Pinocchio (1940)

No Lie, It's The Best

Inventor and craftsman Gepetto creates a wooden marionette puppet which he names Pinocchio and as he heads to bed he says to his cat Figaro that wouldn't be nice if Pinocchio was real. Whilst he is asleep The Blue Fairy appears and because Gepetto has brought so much happiness to others grants his wish and gives Pinocchio a life of his own so he doesn't need strings. But Pinocchio isn't a real boy yet and to help him prove that he is worthy of being a real boy The Blue Fairy assigns Jiminy Cricket as his conscience. It's not an easy task for Jiminy as Pinocchio has a habit of getting into trouble especially when he comes to the attention of Honest John who is anything but and leads the naive Pinocchio astray.

Cliff Edwards singing "When You Wish Upon A Star" that was enough to have me captivated and "Pinocchio" hadn't even got past the opening credits. And then there is Jiminy Cricket dodging around the ornaments as Christian Rub sings "Little Wooden Head" and Gepetto dances with Pinocchio as well as the comically adorable Figaro. In truth I could go on because there is not a single aspect of "Pinocchio" which I don't love be it the singing of Cliff Edwards or the comedy of the scatty Gideon the Cat, the wild haired, clown faced sidekick of Honest John Fox.

The thing is that "Pinocchio" simply works as a whole, the story of Pinocchio wanting to be a real boy, the lessons he learns on his travel, the nose growing when he is lying, the run in with cruel puppeteer Stromboli, Jiminy's endeavours to look out for Pinocchio, the music, the clever lyrics the beautiful animations which have depth as well as plenty of humour it simply gets it spot on every single time. If I had to pick an element out of "Pinocchio" which is the heart of the movie for me I would have to say it is Cliff Edwards because between his singing and the voicing of Jiminy he makes the movie especially combined with the great animation work.

What this all boils down to is that "Pinocchio" is for me one of the greatest animations ever made and its success comes from the fact that everything is right from the lyrics of the songs to the choice of actions to voice the characters. The fact the storyline is ridiculously all over the place which even features being swallowed by a whale isn't an issue as it provides so much variation for the fun.


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