I find it impossible to account for the massive accomplishment of this film-- beyond the astounding animation, the fabulous backgrounds, the amazing score, etc-- without getting right down to the most simple aspect of the production, which is its sum effect as a film on me, a viewer. The unity of all these elements as they come together-- the voices chosen to be married to the character images, the songs chosen to be married to the narrative and to enliven its look and feel, the Louvre-quality visual execution of the scenes... particularly the little extras thrown into each and every scene (like the flock of doves flying out of the bell tower during the tracking shot into the town that marks the start of Pinocchio's first morning as a living puppet, the funhouse mirroresque pov shots viz Chloe watching Gepetto make Pinoke dance, all the little clocks in motion, which could just as easily been painted into the background as static images... just like all the little bubbles in Chloe's tank-- not to mention the mindbending masterwork that constitutes the whole scene with Monstro the whale.. all the little bubbles, waves, the foam, it'a all so amazing, an incredible achivement of labor and talent in combination, uttterly meticulous and a real peak in the zone of highly detailed animation cels), one and all, the performances of the actors, etc etc etc (so many incredible individual contributions seamlessly welded together)-- is just unbelievably enchanting.
This is what I have to mention when describing why I love the film so much. The sum effect of its unspooling in front of me is profoundly, gently enthralling. I tend to enjoy pretty much the majority of these vintage Disney animated features... some standouts are
Bambi, Fantasia, Dumbo, Lady & the Tramp, Cinderella... of course who doesn't love the
Jungle Book... a little known film which is a favorite of mine is
The Great Mouse Detective (w Vincent Price as Prof Ratigan.. with my beloved little Fidget,
, Ratigan's sidekick, the peglegged sinister little bat).
All these films are magical and enchanting to greater and lesser degrees. But
Pinocchio is a high water mark on so many levels. It's like a psyhological/emotional brassiere: it lifts the spirits (or at least mine) throughout the period you have it on. No matter how many times I've seen it, it remains timeless and its effect is forever preserved.
Another aspect that really gets me going when watching Pinoke: Disney always liked to keep his characters-- at least some of them-- reflecting contemporary ideas of "cool", even if the word wasn't even in existence yet; maybe a better word is "hip". (Interestingly enough, the director in the live action realm who I think most resembles this Directorial Eye For Cool was Sternberg.) The movements of his characters, their poses when stationary, the way they dance, little bits of business... utter coolness abounds. Watch Jiminy's movements during the "
Give A Little Whistle" routine. The hangout between Pinoke & Lampwick in the 8 Ball pool hall... Pinoke talking outa the side of his mouth, Lampwick spitting (with a metallic *ding* when the gob hits) and strutting.. the pinkie-out, street-cool strutting of Honest John & Gideon.. they look just as hip as Vaughan Bode' characters; these guys were born to be on the side of a NYC subway
whole car back in the late-70's/early 80's. In fact hanging over the whole Pleasure Island dealie is a Bowery Boy flavor, especially the place called The Rough House.
Despite the sly hipsterish nature of some of the animation/characters, the film just turns me into a little kid again when I watch it. It feels like an utterly sincere film. Not surprisingly, Oskar Fischinger's collaborative contribution to the film was to the magnificent renderings of the magical aspects of the fairy. The breathing warmth and seeming sincerity of the thing, the fullness of its: hominess in Gepetto's cabin; feeling of a bleak doom in the poolhall scene; terror of the Monstro scenes; the happiness and beauty of the fairy scenes and the slight little kick in their conversations (and Jiminy's harmless flirting)-- one could go on forever.
Since I don't have a Blu player, I have only watched the SD disc in the PLatinum set (I bought the Blu version, even though there's a 2-disc SD edition out there w/out Blu) so I haven't seen the extras. Thus I don't know the full story of all the phases of preproduction to production. I only know that Disney was not happy with the flavor of the thing, the balance of the action, the tone of the lead character. Jiminy was a critical brainchild added after the fact and vastly expanded to knit the whole thing into a perfect tapestry. Walt's touch was amazing-- his nose for the flavor of the nonexistent "Perfect Family Hearth & Home", of love and goodness and all-American dreams-fulfilled... this was a pulse the man magically had a finger forever on. A family would go to a film like this, come out of the theater and
be more of a family for it. Then in time the spell breaks and they're all just a bunch of people with connected DNA again, retreating to their own private, separate mindsets heading for their respective rooms for the night.
