Video for Disney Pinocchio

Pinocchio is the second animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics. It was produced by Walt Disney and was originally released to theatres by RKO Radio Pictures on February 7, 1940. Based on the story Pinocchio: Tale of a Puppet by Carlo Collodi, it was made in response to the enormous success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The plot of the film involves a wooden puppet being brought to life by a blue fairy, who tells him he can become a real boy if he proves himself "brave, truthful, and unselfish". Thus begin the puppet's adventures to become a real boy, which involve many encounters with a host of unsavory characters.

The film was adapted by Aurelius Battaglia, William Cottrell, Otto Englander, Erdman Penner, Joseph Sabo, Ted Sears, and Webb Smith from Collodi's book. The production was supervised by Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske, and the film's sequences were directed by Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, and Bill Roberts.

Pinocchio Characters

* Jiminy Cricket, voiced by Cliff Edwards. Jiminy is a cricket who acts as Pinocchio's "conscience" and the partial narrator of the story.
* Pinocchio, voiced by Dickie Jones. Pinocchio is a wooden puppet made by Geppetto and turned into a living puppet by the Blue Fairy.
* Geppetto, voiced by Christian Rub. Geppetto is a toymaker who creates Pinocchio and wishes for him to become a real boy.
* Figaro and Cleo, voiced by Mel Blanc. Geppetto's black and white housecat and goldfish, respectively.
* J. Worthington "Honest John" Foulfellow, voiced by Walter Catlett. Honest John is a sly anthropomorphic fox who tricks Pinocchio twice in the film. His full name is possibly John Worthington Foulfellow.
* Gideon is Honest John's dumb, mute, anthropomorphic feline accomplice. His voice was originally to be supplied by Mel Blanc of Loony Tunes fame, but they deleted his dialogue in favour of a mute performance (i.e. Harpo Marx). However, Gideon's hiccups were provided by Blanc.
* Stromboli, voiced by Charles Judels. Stromboli is a large, sinister, bearded puppet maker who forces Pinocchio to perform onstage in order to make money. He speaks in an Italian Accent.
* The Blue Fairy, voiced by Evelyn Venable. She is the beautiful fairy who brings Pinocchio to life and turns him into a real boy at the end.
* The Coachman, voiced by Charles Judels. A corrupt coachman who owns and operates Pleasure Island. He speaks in a Cockney accent.
* Lampwick, voiced by Frankie Darro. Lampwick is a naughty boy Pinocchio meets on his way to Pleasure Island. He turns into a donkey while the boys are hanging out.
* Monstro is the whale that swallows Geppetto, Figaro, and Cleo during their search for Pinocchio.

Pinocchio Box Office
Pinocchio was not commercially successful when first released, and Disney only recouped $1.9 million against a $2.6 million budget. The film achieved some success at the American box office, but was not able to profit, due to its poor performance in Europe. The timing of the film's release was a factor, with World War II cutting off European markets. Although the United States had not yet entered the war, the mood of the times may have meant less interest among Americans in seeing fantasy stories as they were in the days of Snow White. It also lacked the romance element that had proven popular in Snow White. To add insult to injury, Paolo Lorenzini, nephew of the original story's author, had beseeched the Italian Ministry of Popular Culture to charge Disney with slander for portraying the Italian puppet "so he easily could be mistaken for an American."

Nevertheless, there were positive reactions to the movie as well. Archer Winsten, who had criticized Snow White, wrote: "The faults that were in Snow White no longer exist. In writing of Pinocchio, you are limited only by your own power of expressing enthusiasm." Also, despite the poor timing of the release, the film did do well both critically and at the box office in the United States. Jiminy Cricket's song, "When You Wish Upon a Star," became a major hit and is still identified with the film, and later as a fanfare for The Walt Disney Company itself. Pinocchio also won the Academy Award for Best Song and the Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Musical Picture. In 1994, Pinocchio was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." In 2001 Terry Gilliam selected it as one of the ten best animated films of all time and in 2005 Time.com named it one of the 100 best movies of the last 80 years. Many film historians consider this to be the film that most closely approaches technical perfection of all the Disney animated features. Pinocchio has earned $84,254,167 over it's lifetime so far at the box office after many re-releases.

In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Pinocchio was acknowledged as the second best film in the animation genre, after Snow White.