PINOCCHIO

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 47, 17 May 1940, Page 20

PINOCCHIO

(Disney-RKO) Miss C. A. Lejeune, of the London "Observer," whose work as a film critic I admire almost as much as Walt Disney’s work as a film cartoonist, has described Disney’s new full-length cartoon feature "Pinocchio". as " quite simply the best film ever made." Those are strong words, sister, and ever is a long time; but without being quite so final, I would say that "Pinocchio" is at least as good as "Snow White" and probably better. Two things you miss in "Pinocchio": the melodies of "Frank Churchill, and the fluffy baby animals of Snow White’s forest scenes; but as against this, the technique of. the new film is immeasurably better, and the mood is more vigorous and satiric. And when it comes to inspiration and imaginative detail) Disney is still the supreme master of the cartoon. Max Fleischer’s "Gulliver" is a Lilliputian midget compared with " Pinocchio." An Italian fairy-tale of date 1880 gave Disney the basis for his story and he has elaborated and modernised it to make it charming, exciting, terrifying, humorous and caustic. Improved draughtsmanship and camerawork have given all the characters a vitality, a depth and a roundness, which even the characters of "Snow White" did not have. These creations of line and colour are as full

of life of their own as any of Hollywood’s flesh-and-blood stars. Children, I am. sure, will enjoy all of it; but again it is the adults who will appreciate it most. And soon in every drawing-room we may expect argument on the relative merits of the characters -Pinocchio himself, the little wooden boy carved by the old Wood Carver Gepetto and given life by the Blue Fairy but no conscience; Jiminy Cricket, the absurd, lovable little fellow who is appointed as the boy’s "official conscience"; J. Worthington Foulfellow (alias Honest John) ‘and his shabby girl friend, Giddy the cat, who lead Pinocchio sadly astray while Jiminy is

off guard; Lampwick, the bad boy who bears no small resemblance to Mickey Rooney; Cleo the coy goldfish; and Figaro the cuddlesome kitten. It is

Pinocchio’s lack of a conscience of his own that causes all the excitement, the comedy-and the terror. He is lured by Foulfellow’s specious promises into dodging school and becoming an actor,

enly to find that he has been sold into slavery. Escaping from this predicament with the aid of the Blue Fairy and Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio is soon in even hotter water on Pleasure Island, a place where bad little boys are allowed to do as they like until they are turned into donkeys. Pinocchio redeems himself and becomes a:real little boy with a conscience of his own when he goes beneath the sea to save his foster-father, Gepetto, who has. been swallowed by Monstro the Whale. Those scenes of the escape from the plunging whale are as realistic and exciting as anything Hollywood has ever achieved with huge settings and mobs of extras. Disney and his animators did it all with pens, brushes and cameras and whatever magical processes they have discovered.