Pinocchio's Christmas is a stop-motion animated television special by Rankin/Bass Productions that originally aired on December 3, 1980. It serves as a Christmas-themed adaptation of Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio and is Rankin/Bass' second adaptation of the book following the 1960 television series The New Adventures of Pinocchio.
It’s Pinocchio’s first Christmas and Geppetto is thinking of buying a Christmas gift for him. After selling an arithmetic book Geppetto gave him in order to get money to buy a present for him, Pinocchio is tricked by The Fox and The Cat into burying his money into the ground and the puppet gets further sidetracked from there. After a meeting with Lady Azura, Pinocchio learns that the gift Geppetto is really looking for is love and the puppet heads back home, but not without getting into further festive misadventures before reuniting with Geppetto.
Tropes Present in Pinocchio's Christmas:
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Like most other Pinocchio adaptations, the title character's brattiness is toned down to emphasize his naivete. In addition, while he sells the book Geppetto gave him, Pinocchio sold it to get money to buy Geppetto a gift instead of a getting a ticket to the puppet show (and when Pinocchio does join the puppet show shortly after, it’s to try and replace the money that just got stolen from him).
- And I Must Scream: A lighthearted version Played for Laughs in Pinocchio's backstory. He was already sentient as a log of wood before he was carved into a puppet, but he couldn't talk yet: when he tried, it came out all muffled until Geppetto finally gave him a mouth.
- Become a Real Boy: The non-sentient female puppet Julietta is ultimately transformed into a real girl by Lady Azura, and it's implied that she becomes Pinocchio's adopted sister. Pinocchio himself is still a puppet in the end, but Lady Azura implies that he'll be a real boy someday.
- Blatant Lies:
- "It's the Truth" has The Fox and The Cat trying to convince Pinocchio that anything that they say to him is always true. This is after they tricked Pinocchio into burying his money in the snow for them to steal.
- Following the above musical number, Pinocchio is taken in by Lady Azura who asks him how he managed to steal Julietta. Pinocchio comes up with a ridiculous story claiming that Julietta is a princess that results in his nose growing longer and subsequently shrinking when he tells the truth.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: This version of Pinocchio usually calls his father "Papa Geppetto."
- Delayed Reaction: Mr. Cherry is easily startled when he learns that the log that would become Pinocchio is able to laugh. When Geppetto is given that log, he talks to it while carving a marionette out of it and only becomes shocked after he gives it a mouth and it starts to speak words.
- Disney Death: An in-universe example, though the audience knows Pinocchio is alive: Geppetto finds the lifeless puppet "Sir Larry Olive-Tree," a replica of Pinocchio carved by Fire-Eater for his act, and thinks it's the real Pinocchio. He mourns his son's "death" until the real Pinocchio comes home in the end.
- Evil Laugh: The Sleigh Driver belts out "ha, ha, ha" plenty of times while delivering Pinocchio to The Duke. It's a Catchphrase of his, serving as a dark mirror to Santa Claus’ "ho, ho, ho".
- Faint in Shock: After seeing a blue light (belonging to Azura, but he doesn't realize it until after the fact) headed his way, Pinocchio ends up fainting moments after The Fox and The Cat have been scared off by said light.
- False Friend: The Fox and The Cat present themselves to be friends of Pinocchio in order to take advantage of the puppet and inconvenience him whenever they meet.
- First Snow: It's snowing at the start of the special and Pinocchio experiences it for the first time after mistaking it for fuzzy rain.
- Garbage Hideout: After repeatedly getting struck by lightning numerous times during "It's the Truth" (which involved lightning strikes occurring whenever The Fox said “may lightning strike that tree” or a similar phrase), The Cat tries to hide in a trash can just as The Fox is about to speak of lightning. The Fox saying "cancel the lightning" doesn’t prevent another bolt of lightning from striking her afterwards.
- Gender Flip: The Cat is female here in contrast to other adaptations keeping the character a male.
- Grief Song: "The Very Best Friend I Ever Had," sung by Geppetto when he thinks Pinocchio is dead. Doubles as a Parental Love Song.
- Interquel: This special takes place during the time frame of the original Pinocchio story, and includes some of its events with a Christmas twist, but ends before Pinocchio has his climatic adventures (becoming a donkey and being swallowed by the whale/dogfish) and becomes a real boy: Lady Azura's final speech implies that these things will happen in his future.
- Lighter and Softer: Given that it’s Pinocchio in a Christmas special, most of the darker elements from Collodi's book are downplayed or removed entirely. In particular, Pinocchio's transformation into a donkey and his later escape from a whale (two prominently dark moments from the original story) are only briefly alluded to at the end when Azura looks into Pinocchio’s future.
- Lost in Imitation: While for the most part this special is Truer to the Text of the book than Disney's Pinocchio, it does borrow some ideas from Disney. For example, where in the original book, all marionettes are sentient, here Pinocchio is the only sentient marionette in the world, and he owes his existence to the blue fairy Lady Azura. (In this version she planted the seed that grew into the tree from which he was carved.)
- The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: Geppetto's song "I Never Know What Gifts to Buy" has him singing to his own reflection about what gift to give to Pinocchio, with the reflection contributing to the song.
- Named by the Adaptation: Unlike most other adaptations where the Fairy with Turquoise Hair/Blue Fairy goes unnamed, she is referred to as Lady Azura here.
- Non-Indicative Name: Maestro Fire-Eater (with Fire-Eater being the English translation of Mangiafuoco) performs with puppets and never utilizes fire-eating in his acts in any capacity.
- Ode to Family: "Love, The Perfect Gift for Christmas Day" is sung by Lady Azura to Pinocchio about how the familial bonds of love is what Geppetto is looking for in Christmas. Pinocchio sings it again to The Duke, a man who is perpetually busy to the point of only having three minutes to spend Christmas with his children, who is moved by it and vows to spend Christmas with his children.
- Pinocchio Nose: It wouldn’t be a Pinocchio adaptation without it. In this particular case, when Pinocchio's nose is fully grown after lying to Lady Azura, his nose is decorated with holly.
- Produce Pelting: After Pinocchio takes Julietta from him and escapes, Maestro Fire-Eater uses a marionette that resembles Pinocchio to replace him for his performance. The audience quickly realizes that the marionette is not alive and throws apples at it, prompting Maestro Fire-Eater to discard the puppet.
- Santa Claus: He shows up near the end to give Pinocchio and The Talking Cricket a sleigh ride back to Geppetto's workshop.
- Skipping School: When explaining his past to Julietta, Pinocchio mentions how he learned to play hooky from school as a result of befriending The Fox and The Cat.
- Spared by the Adaptation: As usual for the Talking Cricket in Pinocchio adaptations, Dr. Cricket isn't killed and doesn't become a ghost. Pinocchio does throw a book at him, but instead of dying he's just offended and moves out of Geppetto's house, then reunites with Pinocchio later at Lady Azura's home.
- Shout-Out: Pinocchio's temporary stage name, "Sir Larry Olive-Tree," is an obvious reference to Sir Laurence Olivier.
- Stage Names: Sir Larry Olive-Tree becomes Pinocchio's stage name when he is performing for Maestro Fire-Eater.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The Sleigh Driver serves as the special’s equivalent to the Coachman.
- Tempting Fate: In the song "It's the Truth," the Fox repeatedly sings that if he's not telling the truth, "may lightning strike me down" or "may lightning strike that tree." Each time he sings this, lightning strikes the Cat, or else strikes the tree and knocks a branch onto her.
- Truer to the Text: In a roundabout way, the special adapts elements from the original book that are often cut from adaptations, such as Pinocchio planting a money-growing tree, the puppet being chased by gendarmes, his backstory of being alive back when he was a log, and the Fairy having animal servants. Kids who grew up on the Disney version probably think they were made up for the special, especially since some of these are given more of a Christmas twist. After all, the original didn't have Santa Claus save the day.
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: The Duke is so busy that he only has three minutes to spend with his children at Christmas. Pinocchio convinces him to change his ways and spend more time with them.
- Women Are Wiser: Inverted with the Fox and the Cat. The Cat is female in this incarnation, and she's the stupid, slapstick-prone Butt-Monkey of the two villains, while the Fox is the Straight Man and the brains of the outfit.
