Pinocchio is a 2012 Italian animated film directed by Enzo D'Alò, based on The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. The movie's soundtrack was composed by Italian singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla. It was screened out of competition at the 70th Venice International Film Festival.
Long ago, a young Geppetto is happily playing with his kite until the kite is carried away by the wind when the string is broken. Many years pass, and the kite miraculously finds its way home to its now elderly owner, and Geppetto reminisces happy memories of his boyhood, inspiring him to carve a wooden puppet in his childhood likeness, and names it Pinocchio. However, the puppet turns out to be alive and Pinocchio proves to be a mischievous little boy, running away from home and causing trouble all over the village. Eventually, the little puppet is thrust into adventure after adventure while his worried father continues searching for him.
An English version was produced in Canada the same year for international release. In 2018, another English version was produced and released in the US by Lionsgate Home Entertainment, with celebrity voice actors re-dubbing some of the cast.
Provides examples of:
- Abuse Mistake: Invoked by Pinocchio. When Geppetto grabs him, he pulls a Wounded Gazelle Gambit and makes everyone think that his father would beat him back home, regaining everyone's sympathy after wreaking havoc upon them earlier. Geppetto spends the night in jail as a result.
- Adaptation Name Change: In the English version, Lucignolo is called Wickley instead of the more commonly used "Lampwick"/"Candlewick" translations of the name.
- Adaptational Early Appearance: Pinocchio tells his first first lie to Geppetto when he claims he's too sick to go to school, causing his nose to grow longer. Instead of the blue fairy scolding him for this, it's his father who intones "some lies have short legs, others have long noses."
- Adaptational Karma: Inverted. Although the film follows somewhat closely to the book's events, the Fox and the Cat don't get their comeuppance. Instead, they successfully trick Pinocchio into burying his coins for a money plant, and steal it while he goes for a walk into town. Afterwards, they disappear from the story completely.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Lampwick's naughtiness is almost non-existent, making him come off as a slacker more than anything.
- Adapted Out:
- Mastro Antonio/Mastro Cherry, the man who provides Geppetto the wood. Instead, Geppetto just has the block of wood lying around the house before deciding to carve a puppet out of it.
- The large tuna that helps Pinocchio and Geppetto escape the Dogfish. Pinocchio simply swims out of his mouth carrying his father on his back until Alidoro sees them from the beach and rescues them.
- Advertised Extra: The Italian film posters and trailer prominently display the names of Rocco Papaleo and Paolo Ruffini, who are the voices of Mangiafuoco and Lucignolo respectively. While both characters do have major roles, they do not appear or speak again after their initial appearance. Gabriele Caprio and Mino Caprio—as Pinocchio and Geppetto respectively—aren't even mentioned!
- Advertising by Association: Posters and trailers for the film advertised it as "from the director of La gabbianella e il gatto", known to some English speakers as Lucky and Zorba.
- Aesop Amnesia: Pinocchio gets into trouble a lot all because he refuses to learn from his past experiences, and is constantly tempted by shady individuals due to his Horrible Judge of Character.
- Affably Evil: The Green Fisherman, upon finding out Pinocchio is a sapient being and not a fish, gives him the choice of whether Pinocchio wants to be fried or poached.
- Age Lift:
- The Fairy with Turquoise Hair is made to look like a young girl. Ironically, her appearance here is actually more accurate to her initial appearance in the book before reappearing as a grown woman and takes on a motherly role in a later chapter. The fairy stays looking like a young girl in this version, however.
- Lampwick's height and voice seems to suggest he's a teenager, instead of a young boy like Pinocchio.
- Animated Adaptation: Of the original novel by Collodi.
- Animated Musical: The film contains several musical numbers.
- Ascended Extra: Alidoro the police dog appears a lot compared to the original. He tries to tell Geppetto that Pinocchio is currently lost at sea, giving him the idea to take a small boat and row out into the storm. Near the end, he even takes place of the Tunny's role of rescuing Pinocchio and Geppetto after the two escape from the Dogfish.
- Compressed Adaptation:
- The Tall Poppy Syndrome causing some schoolboys to trick Pinocchio into leaving school is not portrayed. They still trick him and bully him, but more so because they're making fun of him for being a puppet. Heck, the school subplots are left out entirely since Pinocchio never even gets to class.
- Pinocchio and Lampwick turn into donkeys after staying in the Land of Toys for five months. Here, they start turning into donkeys after a night's sleep. It also excises the part where donkeys are sold off to farms or circuses in favor of keeping the donkeys nearby to keep the Land of Toys functioning, and the Land of Toys has a circus of its own to send Pinocchio there, heavily streamlining the sequence of events.
- Disney Acid Sequence: The animations accompanying the scene where Pinocchio and Lampwick are at the Land of Toys (or Amusement World as the movie calls it). There's a lot of bright, flashing colors, raining candies, dancing clowns, and a very fast-paced song contributing to its manic energy. Epileptics, be wary.
- Dodgy Toupee: Geppetto's yellow-orange hairpiece, carried over from his literary counterpart.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After Pinocchio and Geppetto swim out of the Terrible Dogfish and tells Alidoro to swim his father ashore first, Pinocchio is turned into a real boy by the fairy.
- Forced Transformation: Pinocchio and Lampwick turn into donkeys in the Land of Toys. Same goes for all the other children.
- Gender Flip: The originally male Fox is changed to female, technically making her a vixen.
- Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: The intro and an old family photo shows that Geppetto had a full head of hair as a kid. Since he's now an old man, he's become fully bald and wears a Dodgy Toupee.
- Jerkass: Pinocchio, at first. Even before he's carved into a puppet, he laughs at Geppetto when he hurts his foot, and just causes more mischief to him (and to random townspeople) once Geppetto finishes carving him. He gets better, of course.
- Karma Houdini: None of the villains are punished for their horrible treatment of Pinocchio, including the Fox and the Cat, who avert the book's Laser-Guided Karma.
- Kids Are Cruel:
- Pinocchio has shades of this when he first comes to life, bringing a lot of trouble to Geppetto.
- Some random schoolboys trick Pinocchio into playing hooky when they told him about a huge shark spotted on the beach, just because.
- Lighter and Softer: There are scenes lifted wholesale from the novel, except for character deaths and anything too violent or scary from the original is softened.
- Pinocchio defends himself from the Fox and the Cat (who are both disguised as hooded thieves) and bites the cat's paw, but unlike the book, he doesn't bite it clean off. He's shown to be simply wounded the next day, which is arguably a more realistic outcome.
- Pinocchio's hanging happens off-screen and is only shown in silhouette before the blue-haired fairy tells her servants to fetch him.
- Even in the Land of Toys where the kids are turned into donkeys, their fate either involves helping with the amusement parks mechanisms or become a circus animal. The Blue Fairy's presence among the jeering crowd also shows that she's aware of the place with subtle implication that she rescues the children-turned-donkeys when they are thrown into the sea after they fail to be of use, like what she had done with Pinocchio. The kids also retain their anthropomorphic forms instead of turning into full-on beasts. Whether that makes it better or worse is another story.
- Lost in Imitation: It takes some cues from the Disney version.
- Character designs, like Pinocchio's round face, black hair, and red and yellow color scheme, and Lampwick's/Wickley's tilted hat, prominent overbite, and adolescent voice.
- The Fox and the Cat are working for the puppetmaster (Mangiafuoco/Stromboli), and so they tempt Pinocchio to skip school to visit the puppet theatre. In the book, Pinocchio only encounters them after leaving the theatre and there's no hint that they are subordinates of anyone. By the end, they also become Karma Houdinis, unlike in the novel where their pretend disabilities become real.
- Pinocchio and Lampwick meet later in the story as they're about to go to the Land of Toys instead of being classmates at school. Lampwick also suffers Uncertain Doom after the two transform into donkeys.
- The Land of Toys is located on an island not unlike Disney's Pleasure Island. Nowhere does it say on the book that the Land of Toys cannot be reached by land, hence why the Little Man's mode of transport is a coach pulled by donkeys (and why he's also known as the Coachman).
- A Minor Kidroduction: The movie begins with Geppetto as a young boy playing with his kite before transitioning to the now elderly Geppetto.
- Missed Him by That Much: Geppetto and Pinocchio are looking for each other in the middle of a crowd in the City of Catchfools. Unfortunately, Pinocchio's back is already turned when Geppetto finally sees him and calls out to him, and goes home all by himself.
- Never Bareheaded: Lampwick wears a hat which he never takes off, until he starts transforming into a donkey, that is.
- Police Are Useless: It says a lot when Pinocchio is the one who gets jailed when he tells them about being a victim of theft. Earlier, the village carabinieri put Geppetto in jail for allegedly abusing Pinocchio, despite evidence to the contrary.
- Promoted to Love Interest: The Fairy with Turquoise Hair. Her Age Lift brings her closer to Pinocchio's age, with Pinocchio expressing several times that he wishes to marry her when they first meet. It seems to be entirely one-sided though.
- Redubbing: This is the case with the US version released by Lionsgate. Pinocchio, and the Fox and the Cat, are redubbed respectively by Johnny Orlando, Ambyr Childers and Jon Heder.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- It's ambiguous with the Talking Cricket. Pinocchio throws a mallet at him, but we do not see if the impact kills him. He does reappear as a ghost before appearing fine and alive during the scene with the Crow and the Owl.
- Lampwick, or rather, Wickley turns into a donkey and is last seen being dragged away from Pinocchio into the furnace to do backbreaking labor along with the other donkeys. It's not shown if he's worked to death, leaving his fate mostly unknown.
- A Wild Rapper Appears!: The Crow, the Owl, and the Talking Cricket perform a rap number when tending to Pinocchio's injuries.
