Product Description

Celebrate the 70th anniversary of Walt Disney's Pinocchio! The legendary masterpiece that inspired millions to believe in their dreams has reawakened with an all-new, state-of-the-art digital restoration that shines brilliantly on 2-disc DVD. Now, for the first time ever, the richly detailed animation, unforgettable award-winning music When You Wish Upon A Star; and heartwarming adventure-filled story comes to life like never before. Plus, all-new dazzling bonus features transport you into Pinocchio's fantastic world! Join Geppetto's beloved puppet with Jiminy Cricket as his guide on a thrilling quest that tests Pinocchio's bravery, loyalty and honesty, virtues he must learn to become a real boy. The one and only Pinocchio will live on forever in the heart of anyone who has wished upon a star.

Bonus Features include: Pinocchio Knows Trivia Challenge, All-New Making Of Pinocchio, The Sweat Box, and more.

DAVE KEHR, NEW YORK TIMES
“The new “Pinocchio” looks magnificent, with a richness of color and a tight definition that evoke the theatrical experience.”

CHRIS NASHAWATY, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
“You won't find a sweeter story or a tidier morality tale about the virtues of being ''brave, truthful, and unselfish.'' Grown-ups will eat up the commentaries and featurettes about Disney's band of merry-prankster animators, and kids can spend hours with the disc's interactive puzzles and Pop-Up Video-style factoids. You really couldn't ask for more.”

KENNETH BROWN, BLU-RAY.COM
“Simply put, the 3-disc Blu-ray edition of Pinocchio should already have a comfortable home on every true filmfan's shelves. Buy it without any further delay.”

HARRY KNOWLES, AINTITCOOL.COM
“An absolute must for animation lovers!”

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #330 in DVD
• Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
• Released on: 2009-03-10
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
• Formats: AC-3, Animated, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Restored, Special Edition
• Original language: English
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 88 minutes

Features

• Celebrate the 70th anniversary of Walt Disney's PINOCCHIO! The legendary masterpiece that inspired millions to believe in their dreams has reawakened with an all-new, state-of-the-art digital restoration that shines brilliantly on 2-disc DVD. Now, for the first time ever, the richly detailed animation, unforgettable award-winning music ("When You Wish Upon A Star") and heartwarming adv

Amazon.com
This Disney masterpiece from 1940 will hold up forever precisely because it doesn't restrain or temper the most elementalemotions and themes germane to its story. Based on the Collodi tale about a wooden puppet who wants to become a real boy, Pinocchio is among the most magical, mythical, and frightening films to come from the studio in its long history. A number of scenes make permanent impressions on young minds (just ask Steven Spielberg, who quoted the film more than once in Close Encounters of the Third Kind), and the songs ("When You Wish upon a Star") can't be beat. --Tom Keogh

Stills from Pinocchio (click for larger image)

Review
Many film historians describe the film as the most beautifully realized and technically perfect of all the Disney animated features.
The film cost $2.6 million in 1940, but using the same techniques and processes, it would cost well over $100 million today.
The film required the talents of 750 artists, including animators, assistants, layout artists, background painters, special effects animators, and inkers and painters, who produced more than 2 million drawings and used some 1,500 shades of paint for the Technicolor production.
In the book the movie is based on, the character of Jiminy Cricket was unnamed, appeared in only a few chapters, and was squashed by Pinocchio.
Some believe the Blue Fairy was modeled after Marilyn Monroe but Monroe was only 14 at the time. The real-life model was Marjorie Babbitt, a dancer who had earlier enacted the part of Snow White for the animators.
Story concept for the movie was difficult. One day Walt Disney decided to scrap five months' work including animation and start over because it wasn't right.
The movie is based on the serialized stories of journalist Carlo Lorenzini written in 1881 for a children's illustrated weekly in Florence, Italy. Two years later, the stories were compiled into a book, The Adventures Of Pinocchio Tale Of A Puppet.
Jiminy Cricket became the film's most popular and enduring character appearing in subsequent Disney films and television shows, including Fun and Fancy Free and the Mickey Mouse Club.
Gustaf Tenggren, an award-winning illustrator, was assigned to the production to give the film the kind of lavish European storybook flavor that Walt Disney envisioned.
The movie won an Academy Award for best score and best song, When You Wish Upon A Star. --Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

Customer Reviews

BEWARE PURISTS--this Digitally Restored version TAMPERED WITH ORIGINAL ARTWORK'S COLOR PALETTE!!!
I just saw a special engagement of this latest 70th Anniversary version of Pinnochio at Disney's El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood in advance of the DVD re-release. Though I am happy to see the movie be given public exposure on a big theatrical screen, over the years I have seen many theatrical screenings of the movie on at least 12 different occasions including an original nitrate 3-strip Technicolor studio vault print in the early 1980's (before the studio dismantled its last nitrate screening room) and non-digital film restorations and was shocked to see that this latest restored version has digitally tampered with the film's original color palette for no justifiable reason.

Some of the chosen character hues are modern day, popular color hues, but look out of place in this early animated classic including certain pinks, reds and blues which are reused so often in identical shades that to classic animation buffs it becomes distractingly noticeable. For those animation buffs who know about Pinnochio, Walt intentionally muted colors in some of the scarier or sadder scenes. In the restored version, for example, when Pinnochio gets locked in Geppetto's "birdcage" the nighttime scene is bright and garish where it should intentionally be darker and muted.

The original movie had hand inked character outlines in colors that matched the interior ink colors, none of that is apparent in this restoration. The characters, though admittedly sharper and clearer, look color-wise like they were electronically tampered with, then reinserted in front of the original backgrounds.

At this point, the damage is done and obviously this restoration was "stylistic." But in any case, it might be compared with someone redoing the Mona Lisa with more modern color hues for the purpose of improving the artwork or making it more modern day acceptable. Either two things, perhaps no one at Disney was knowledgeable enough to notice what the outside restoration company was planning to do with the film in early test segments or maybe they figured that modern day DVD audiences would not know the difference or care, but this is the first "DIGITALLY RESTORED" classic Disney film that I have ever taken issue with. What a let down since it is my very favorite Disney film of all!!!

P.S. I was the founder of the former, long time Disney employees' Animated Film Club (later referred to as the Disney Film Club) which included Disneyland and Walt Disney Studio employees. It was founded in 1976 and continued on and off for many years afterward with visits from surviving original Disney animators, screenings of rare Disney footage and more.

The finest animated feature ever made. Period.
The one-two whammy of audience and critical indifference to "Pinocchio" and "Fantasia" killed Walt Disney's desire to experiment with the limits of animation in the 1940s. From then on, play it safe was his motto. This may be one of the greatest tragedies to beset popular American culture in the 20th century; despite the depths of pretension and kitch in "Fantasia," it was at least evidence of a spirited mind in pursuit of the unattained -- but "Pinocchio" must have broken old Walt's heart. There are visual effects in this movie that remained unchallenged until the digital age, and it's worth recalling that every single one of them was drawn by hand. It has one of the most beautiful and exciting musical scores in the history of the movies (I can't hear Cliff Edwards' high, pure falsetto holding that final note of "When You Wish Upon a Star" without chills), a deeply plangent sense of emotion that never tips over into bathos, and a wealth of detail that is still staggering after 65 years. But it may be too dark a movie to attain the popularity of more cheerful Disney cartoons like "Snow White" -- although even that one can frighten the tots. Now: where is the double-disc Special Platinum Edition???

Timeless Musical Fantasy
Disney has restored this all-time classic to its original brilliance. The universal themes of love, family, friendship and good vs. evil make this educational and enjoyable. Yes, there are some quite scary scenes and evil is shown for what it is. However, just as in most fairy tales, good triumphs over evil in the end.

The story is told by Jiminy Cricket and the start of the movie is peaceful. He arrives at Geppetto's home where there are music boxes, toys, amazing clocks and a puppet who is just "all strings and joints." Geppetto is just painting on the finishing touches before he heads off to bed. The "cutest" black and white cat named Figaro adds warmth and amusement to the story. The sassy fish Cleo is a visual delight.

As the woodcarver drifts off to sleep, he says: "Wouldn't it be nice if he was a real boy?" He then sends Figaro to open the window and sees a wishing star. He makes a wish and while he sleeps, the Blue Fairy brings the Marionette Pinocchio to life. He then must learn to have a conscience, so it is decided that Jiminy Cricket will be his guide so he will know what is good and what is evil.

Pinocchio begins his journey to become a "real boy," but first he has to learn to be brave, loyal and honest. He is kidnapped after he joins a traveling show so he can become a famous actor, but escapes with the help of the Blue Fairy. She is the most beautiful animated fairy I have ever seen. Pinocchio then must learn to survive on his own. He takes a trip to Pleasure Island. This is a place where children go and they are allowed to play and never work, but the sinister truth is that they are all changed into donkeys and end up being shipped off to the salt mines. While he seems to keep making the wrong choices, once he realizes he will be turned into a donkey (his ears and tail already have grown), he goes back home. (Not unlike the prodigal son in a way, yet he is so young.)

When he arrives home, he finds cobwebs and the house has been empty for some time. A note arrives that tells him where he can find his father, so he jumps into the ocean to find Monstro the whale, where his father, Geppetto is trapped. Once under the sea, things get a bit scary and the whale is quite evil, not unlike other creatures from the sea in Disney's movies. Will he find his father? I won't give the ending away.

This is about the magical power of believing in your dreams and also will teach children to be moral and choose the good in life. I have to wonder if some politicians forgot to watch this movie as children. It teaches that lying is wrong and that a lie keeps growing and growing once it is told.

There are messages that reading is good and education is something you should strive for. The illiterate Red Fox is hilarious as he tries to read the ABC book upside down! The fox tries to tell Pinocchio that education is not good for him. I also noticed that because Pinocchio could not read (because he didn't go to school!), he could not read the note about his father and therefore, Jiminy Cricket had to read it for him. See a similar scene in "Mulan" where the lucky cricket in that movie types out the letter like a typewritter, which is also a beautifully animated movie with snow scenes similar to the wave scenes in this classic. I could see many details in this animation which have carried over into other movies.

There are many messages for adults in this movie....I doubt children will pick up on (Note the song that talks about "There are no strings on me!." This seems to be talking about our responsibility to others.)

As an adult, you will find them amusing and thought provoking. I had to laugh when I heard the Cricket say: "What does an actor want with a conscience anyway." That hit the mark! I would like to see more actors develop a conscience.

One of my favorite quotes by Jiminy Cricket is: "A cricket can't be too careful you know." It is laugh out loud funny when he says it.

The first part of the movie is hilarious, the middle is a big adventure and the ending is a wonderful surprise for children. There are a few politically incorrect items, but they are almost tongue-in-cheek and you have to think about when this movie was made!

If you have ever wished upon a star, or a falling star, this is for you! I agree, this is a masterpiece of animation....unlike anything you will find today. It is so detailed and moves at a pace where it is comfortable to watch. This is a thoughtful movie, unlike some of the more fast paced extravaganzas you see today.

~The Rebecca Review