Characters from The Adventures of Pinocchio.
open/close all folders
Pinocchio
- Adaptational Heroism: In the Disney version, some Live-Action versions and other adaptations, his misbehavior is driven by naivete rather than selfishness.
- Aesop Amnesia: He keeps forgetting his morals, even after suffering too much.
- Animate Inanimate Object: He is alive even as a log.
- Anti-Hero: He loves his father and the Fairy, but he is a reckless irritant. He starts out as mischievous, lazy and irresponsible.
- Bratty Half-Pint: He starts as an arrogant, mischievous, misbehaved kid.
- Break the Haughty: He has to pay dearly for his bad decisions.
- Can't Take Criticism: At least at the beginning, he did not take kindly that the Cricket scolded him.
- Disney Death: When he gets hanged in Chapter 15. It was originally meant to be the end of the story, but thanks to his editor and reader demands, Collodi was forced to write additional chapters in which the fairy saves him, Pinocchio gets better, and learns his lesson to Earn His Happy Ending.
- Ditzy Genius: A proficient student and a good worker, but a Horrible Judge of Character.
- Everyone Has Standards: Pinocchio has many flaws, but willingness to accept bribes is not one of those. Two weasels learn it the hard way.
- Horrible Judge of Character: He trusts the Fox and the Cat even when there are many clues that indicate that they're evil. Later, the same happens with some classmates, despite warnings of his teacher.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He is a jerk at the start, but his willingness to sacrifice for Mangiafuoco's puppets and his crying for the Fairy's supposed death demonstrates that he is a good guy deep down. He is good in essence, but his will is weak and almost always takes the wrong decision.
- Kid Hero: He is the hero of this story.
- Living Toys: He is a puppet.
- Mistress and Servant Boy: He becomes a "servant boy" of the Blue Fairy who cares for him, but also can tease him sometimes and give him Prank Punishments. There's no romantic angle though, since he considers her more of a mother-like figure.
- Muggle in Mage Custody: The relationship between him and the Blue Fairy is of this kind. He lives with the Fairy in her house, she takes care of him, but when he misbehaves, she often resorts to Prank Punishments like making his nose grow for lying or giving him fake food.
- Pinocchio Nose: The Trope Namer. In the Fairy's house, his nose grows when he lies about his money. Strangely, the last time he lies in the novel, his nose doesn't grow. That's because the lie he told was more to 'be polite' and not worry Geppetto - it even echoes a lie that Geppetto told early on.
- Plot Armor: It's really a miracle that he has survived all of the awful things of his world.
- Took a Level in Kindness: By the end of the book, he has stopped getting in trouble and works to help his sick father.
Maestro Cherry
- The Alcoholic: The most likely reason for his nickname.
- Cassandra Truth: Tries to make Geppetto believe the piece of wood really is alive. Geppetto later learns it to be true.
- Gag Nose: He even has a nickname for it.
- Race Lift: In the Grimm Fairy Tales adaptation he is a black woodcutter, who supplies Geppetto with wood.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He disappears after the two first chapters, but without him, Geppetto would have not built Pinocchio.
Mister Geppetto
- Berserk Button: He hates when he is called 'Polentina'. This term is to mock his wig, because it resembles polenta.
- Good Parents: Although he doesn't get along with children, he does his best to be a good father to Pinocchio. He gives him the pears he intended to eat as a breakfast, he made him clothes of newspaper and crumps of bread (Geppetto is extremely poor) and sells his coat to buy him an alphabet book for school. Furthermore, he is willing to wander the world to find his son.
- Grumpy Old Man: A minor example; he is polite enough to adress people, but is short-tempered. That trait gets weakened with time since he is still the nicest character of the novel.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Implied; there is a cat in Geppetto's old house.
- Morality Chain: He is the one influencing Pinocchio to be good without even being present.
- Truly Single Parent: He carves Pinocchio.
The Talking Cricket
- Ascended Extra: In many adaptations, like the Disney version, he is promoted to Pinocchio's sidekick and moral advisor.
- Cassandra Truth: Pinocchio refuses to believe him when he tries to convince him about the consequences of a hedonistic life and the true colors of the Fox and the Cat.
- Spirit Advisor: He becomes this after Pinocchio squashes him with a mallet.
- Turn the Other Cheek: Despite being killed by Pinocchio, he still tries to warn him about the Fox and the Cat and lets him live in a cabin.
- Unexplained Recovery: Pinocchio accidentally kills him, but he revives without explanation in the Fairy's house. It is possible that he's an enchanted animal capable of resurrecting himself, given that he claims that he has lived in the house Geppetto resides in for more than one hundred years.
Mangiafuoco
- Evil Puppeteer: While he does threaten to burn Pinocchio and then Harlequin, he ultimately changes his mind and subverts this trope by sparing Harlequin and gifting Pinocchio some coins to help Geppetto.
- Face of a Thug: He is terrifying, but he hides a positive side.
- Large and in Charge: He's described being a frighteningly towering and imposing figure.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The five coins still have an impact on the story after he is long gone.
The Fox and the Cat
- Bad People Abuse Animals: The Cat silences a blackbird trying to warn Pinocchio by eating him.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: They feign to be kindhearted people with handicaps, but they're con artists.
- Cats Are Mean: The Cat is a conman and a murderer.
- Con Artist: Both of them, pretending to be handicapped, then stealing the money of people trying to help them.
- Cunning Like a Fox: The Fox is a conman trying to cheat people out of their money.
- False Friend: They fake to be kind to Pinocchio to steal his money and they even try to kill him.
- Foul Fox: The Fox, along with his partner-in-crime the cat, is a con artist who pretends to be handicapped to take advantage of people's kindness. Not only that, but the two of them feign kindness to Pinocchio to steal his money and later try to kill him.
- Laser-Guided Karma: By the end of the story, the Fox is now truly lame, nearly hairless, and tailless (he had to chop it off and sell it as a fly swatter for money), and the Cat truly blind. And how does Pinocchio respond to their pleas? By politely telling them to bugger off.
- Obfuscating Disability: Both fake handicaps. The Fox feigns to have a limp and the Cat feigns to be blind; they do so to beg money. At the end, they become handicapped for real.
- Verbal Tic: The Cat has the tendency of repeating the last word of the Fox's sentences.
- Would Hurt a Child: Their willingness to kill Pinocchio shows that they are not above murdering children.
The Fairy With Turquoise Hair
- Cool Big Sis: She's described to be a young girl when she rescues Pinocchio from being hanged and heals him, making her this by default. It also helps that before she returns in adult form, Pinocchio refers to her as his sister.
- Death by Despair: Her Secret Test of Character for Pinocchio is pretending to be this by replacing her house with a tombstone that says "Here Lies The Little Girl With Blue Hair, Died Of Sorrow For Being Abandoned By Her Little Brother Pinocchio". The puppet's devastated reaction proves to her that he's good deep down and decides to take care of him.
- Good Is Not Soft: While being loving and helpful in most of her appearances, the Fairy leaves Pinocchio outside for a whole night and gives him a breakfast of fake food as a punishment for getting in trouble.
- Madonna Archetype: She appears as a normal maiden who dresses like a Proper Lady, but is actually a millenary fairy Pinocchio grows to worship as a beloved mother figure. Furthermore, her characteristic blue hair can be seen as a stand-in of the Virgin Mary's blue cloak.
- Mistress and Servant Boy: She plays the role of "mistress" for the young and naive Pinocchio, whom she loves, but can also tease him sometimes and give him Prank Punishments. There's no romantic angle though, since he considers her more of an adoptive mother.
- Morality Pet: Pinocchio loves the Fairy. He cries when he believes she died and donates her the money he wanted to use for a jacket when he hears that she's ill.
- Parental Substitute: She acts as Pinocchio's maternal figure and adopts him as a son while Geppetto is trapped in the Terrible Dogfish.
- Prank Punishment: She is really fond of those. Making Pinocchio's nose grow when he lies and giving him fake food as a punishment for skipping school are her usual methods.
- Really 700 Years Old: The book states that she lived near the forest for more than a thousand years.
- Shapeshifting: She first appears as a young girl, then as a grown woman after faking her death and then as a talking blue-haired goat.
