Pinocchio (1940): Favourite Films Series

Pinocchio (1940): Favourite Films Series

Recently, I’ve been exploring many Disney animated classics in my series of movies that are less than 90 minutes long, and it’s reminded me of how my generation thought about movies like Pinocchio when we watched them on VHS as children, whether it was at home on a rainy weekend afternoon or at daycare with friends or at a family member’s house during a sleepover. I distinctly remember staying at my aunt and uncle’s once with my younger cousin and discussing which movie we should watch. We had an assortment of Disney VHS tapes to choose from, and I suggested Pinocchio because it was “the scariest” and we ended up watching it, but turned it off at the end because it got too intense for my younger cousin. We had no idea how much older Pinocchio was compared to some of our other choices like The Lion King or 101 Dalmatians. They didn’t stick out as “old” the way something black-and-white like King Kong did. 

Even now, I find it easy to forget that Pinocchio, despite looking at a glance like it was made in the late 80’s/early 90’s alongside some of my other childhood favourites like The Fox and the Hound or Aladdin, was only the second ever animated feature film by the company, which is a testament to how well it holds up. It set what would become standards for Disney animation in the decades to come, and helped open the gateway to what is now possible with animated storytelling. Long before it looked like Ariel was swimming under the sea in The Little Mermaid, the use of corrugated glass over animation cels pioneered the visual trick of making it look like Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket were walking along the sea bottom. Before Sebastian the Crab or Mushu in Mulan or even Thumper in Bambi, Jiminy Cricket was the original supportive side kick. Even beyond setting these templates, the movie itself remains endearing on its own terms, but it’s more than that. As I said in the intro, I liked it when I wasn’t yet too old to be willing to watch Disney VHS tapes because it was scary, but when I saw it for the first time when I was even younger, it both alarmed and fascinated me in equal measure.

To be honest, I never really cared for the first song in Pinocchio that Geppetto sings to the inanimate puppet, but I was never that into the songs in musical movies like this as a kid, anyway; once Pinocchio comes to life the adventure really begins, and this is not really one of the Disney classics geared toward the musical lovers, despite having a couple classic songs. The story was based on the book The Adventures of Pinocchio, which was quite serialized, and the film feels somewhat episodic, too, but for some reason I always misremembered Pinocchio ending up on Pleasure Island before he met the fox and the cat. Honest John and Gideon are goofball characters who are ultimately pretty harmless, especially in comparison to some of the other nightmarish goons Pinocchio encounters. Stromboli slamming that cage shut on Pinocchio is the first real cruelty the puppet boy tastes, and later, the evil Coachman is even worse. It’s like a jump scare when he’s talking to Honest John and Gideon at the bar and his face turns bright red as he says, “they never come back…as…BOYS!”

Something unique I like about Pinocchio is the variety of villains throughout the story, with each one getting bigger and meaner. The Coachmen’s menacing shadow as he cracks his whip is nightmare fuel for young kids, and even at the earliest age, I just knew going to Pleasure Island was going to end up bad for Pinocchio somehow. It’s wild to see the kids drinking and smoking cigars—things that would never be allowed in a family-oriented film nowadays, not without at least a PG rating—and wilder yet to see the dark truth of the Coachman’s intentions. Long before I ever saw a werewolf transformation, I was traumatized by the idea of a young boy changing into an animal beyond his will. As Pinocchio’s friend Lampwick screams out for his mama, his shadow on the wall morphs from that of a young boy to that of a colt, and when we see him again in full, he’s a braying donkey. It’s twisted and horrific—and that’s why I love Pinocchio even more now as an adult!

Reflecting back on all the Disney movies I saw as a kid, a lot of them felt like “kids movies” when I started to get older, but when I got really into movies once I was free of those troublesome teenage years and became a film-obsessed adult, I wanted to go back and watch them all again, and the ones I remembered most fondly were the ones I owned on VHS or rented most often from the video store—these included The Fox and the Hound, The Jungle Book, and Peter Pan—but I never forgot about Pinocchio, despite not owning it or renting it as often, and bought the Blu-ray sometime in university. I’ve rewatched it a few times in the years since, and every time I find it just as compelling for its combination of childlike whimsy and ageless disturbance. It almost makes me wonder if Steven Spielberg was channeling some of the youthful terror from this film into some of his best movies. Obviously there’s the connection of the song “When You Wish Upon a Star” included as part of the soundtrack for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but Monstro swimming after Geppetto’s raft is just as frightening as the shark swimming after the Orca in Jaws, and in so many ways, A.I. Artificial Intelligence is a high-tech retelling of Pinocchio.   

I have to touch on the stunning finale, because it’s one of my favourite endings to any Disney movie. Monstro the Whale might be my first movie kaiju: a giant monster whale so massive and destructive and awe-inspiring it’s one of the main reasons I forget how old the movie is (I have a hard time comprehending that this movie was made and released so long ago, World War II wasn’t even half over yet). The animation is impeccable, every frame feels alive, and Monstro is truly terrifying. This is the real reason the movie was too scary and my cousin had to turn it off before the end all those years ago. The idea of being eaten by him was scary enough, but his huffing sounds preceding his enraged roars after they escape his belly still build up genuine dread in me as I watch. It also wouldn’t be half as great of a finale were it not for the old school, grandiose musical score.

Pinocchio is certainly not everyone’s favourite Disney classic, and I understand why, but for me, it’s one of the few I can still enjoy as much today as I did when I first saw it. I don’t know if it’s my personal favourite of them all, but it’s up there for sure, for all these reasons and more. When I adopted a cat back in high school, he had been given the name Disney, and I realized why: he looked exactly like Geppetto’s tuxedo cat Figaro. That’s the power Pinocchio has. For some, this movie is Disney. To think that a combination of just the right voice actors, seven different directors, over 750 artists, all under the leadership of one mastermind, in an analog era of global uncertainty, could result in a film as timeless as this, really does prove when you wish upon a star, dreams can come true. 

Movies Under 90 Minutes Part 6: Leftover Genres

 

Part Six

Atypically Short Genre Entries: Action, Sci-Fi, Drama, and Thriller

 

For the last round before we find out which movies will be going to the quarter-finals, I’m combining a few different genres, because there are not that many short films left to go through. With comedy, animation, and family films, shorter runtimes make sense because they are generally targeting a range of viewers and deal with subject matter that doesn’t need to overstay its welcome. With dramas, there’s more breathing room for dialogue scenes and slow, deliberate buildups, or for complex worldbuilding in science fiction and fantasy tales, or adrenaline-pumping sequences in action movies that also need to build up to bigger and better car chases and fist fights and shootouts—therefore, movies that just take longer. I’ll start with the action movies that don’t require more than ninety minutes to accomplish that adrenaline rush for the viewer, and then go from there. 

CONTENDERS

The very first movie up is a personal contender for one of the best foreign action films I have ever seen. I first saw Run Lola Run (1998) in a university film class and was absolutely floored by its relentless pace and unique direction. Even upon multiple rewatches, I can still catch something new in the visual storytelling, and am always thrilled by it. Another far less artistic (though still highly entertaining) flick that’s more of a continuous straight-up action set piece than Run Lola Run’s thriller/action combo is Crank (2006), starring Jason Statham as a guy who needs to literally keep the adrenaline pumping so he can get revenge on the guys who poisoned him with a drug that’s trying to stop his heart. Next, there’s Shoot ‘Em Up (2007), an action movie I had no expectations for, but it has stuck with me after all these years, thanks to some memorably over-the-top moments that almost makes it feel like a precursor to The Expendables in retrospect, but actually, in comparison, it was a more consistently fun little 86 minute…well, the title self-describes it best—as opposed to Expendables’ excessive collective runtime with all sequels factored in.

Rope (1948) is a very unique film in this category, from one of the greatest directors of all-time: Alfred Hitchcock. It’s not a whodunit but more of a wait-until-they-find-out-whodunit, as the audience is shown the murder in the first scene and the killers hide the body in a chest-like table before they invite their guests over for a party, including the victim’s partner and father, as well as a suspicious former teacher, played by Hitchcock favourite Jimmy Stewart. It was quite experimental for its time, as it was shot to appear like it was filmed all in one take, with techniques that may seem obvious now, but it sustains the tension in the single location, and feels like watching a play, which is no accident, given it was based on one. The whole thing plays out in real time: 80 minutes, including credits at the beginning and end. Next up is an even heavier hitter. Rashomon (1950) blends elements of historical drama, psychological thriller, and murder mystery to create something so unique the title is now used to define this type of multi-perspective, non-linear narrative. Even in comparison to Rope, Rashomon is wholly unique and substantially more influential. Finally for crime dramas, there’s the black-and-white French film Breathless (1960), AKA À bout de souffle, made by Jean-Luc Godard during the New Wave movement.

Sidestepping over to sci-fi, The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and The War of the Worlds (1953) were two classics I originally put with horror in part one, but they’re more defined by their extraterrestrial plots than they are by their frightening invasions. In a somewhat similar vein, Attack the Block (2011) mixes in comedy and horror for an alien invasion action-adventure that’s unlike any other less-than-90 movie I’ve come across so far. Star Wars creator George Lucas’ directorial debut has been forgotten by many modern audiences to the point where they don’t realize that the name of the THX sound effect every 2000s kid cranked the volume up on their TV to experience before the start of a movie comes from the title THX 1138 (1971).

Chronicle (2012) is a very unique contender because it’s the only superhero film I know of that’s less than an hour-and-a-half (it’s 83 minutes, to be exact) and it also happens to be a found footage film, making it only one of three in this competition, with the others being REC and The Blair Witch Project (sorry, Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity, I know you’re both less than 90, too, but I really don’t like either of you that much). Chronicle isn’t all about superhero action, but blends thriller and coming of age elements to make for one of the best superhero films not directly based on a comic book in the 21^st century so far. Finally for sci-fi/action/adventure, I have to give a nod to Dinosaurus! (1960), which is just a silly fun time with some old school special effects, and it runs only 85 minutes. 

Now I’m moving on to dramas, and for this being the final batch of contenders, I’m shocked by how many heavy hitters remain. First up: Stand by Me (1986), which is one of the best in several categories—among the best coming of age films, Stephen King adaptations, 80’s dramas, and child actor performances. Once (2007) is an incredibly charming musical romantic drama about an unnamed Irish guy who meets a younger unnamed Czech girl on the street while he’s playing music one evening, and the two of them develop a connection through their musical talents. If you have any kind of heart, it’s hard not to be endeared by its rough low-budget look and feel, the natural chemistry of the two non-actor leads, and the emotionally moving original songs (one of which won the Oscar that year). It feels like a prototype of sorts for director John Carney’s later favourite of mine, Sing Street. One more romantic drama is the second entry in director Richard Linklater’s “Before” trilogy. Before Sunset (2004) is only 80 minutes, and the entire trilogy is often considered underrated. 

Looking at the last four films of significance, two are directorial debuts and two are early features from another all-time great director. Darren Aronofsky’s Pi (1998) is an unsettling mathematics-centric psychological thriller, and Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station (2013) is a biographical drama about the last day Oscar Grant lived before he was killed by a police officer. Stanely Kubrick’s filmography spans many genres with varying runtimes, the longest of which is Spartacus at a whopping 197 minutes. Two of his earliest movies, though, are less than half that long, including the one he made right before Spartacus. The Killing (1956) is a noir film about a heist at a horserace track that’s 84 minutes and Paths of Glory (1957) is an anti-war WWI film with elements of combat and court drama that’s 88 minutes. I’ll give a final honourable acknowledgement to Lord of the Flies (1990), which wouldn’t really be a true contender for “best” anyway, but it’s a precise 90-minute adaptation of the famous novel that I enjoyed well enough when I watched it as a kid.

 

ELIMINATIONS

This fifth round is the most ridiculous yet, because of what I am faced with. Even in the case of the horror genre, with the plethora of black-and-white classics stacked on top of so many other great films, it was not nearly as hard to eliminate the contenders. This is one of the greatest groupings of films in terms of quality and impact so far. Fifteen animated and family films made it through out of dozens of contenders last time; from these miscellaneous genres, nine out of nineteen contenders will continue on to the next round.

Run Lola Run is a no brainer to see continue on, but Crank and Shoot ‘Em Up are eliminated. Rope is more than just its gimmick and deserves to go on. It remains an entertaining thriller independent from its significance to filmmaking, just like Rashomon, which, although I didn’t love it when I first saw it, remains such a defining piece of cinema and is undeniably thought-provoking. Breathless is out. That could hurt some of the French New Wave film snobs out there, but I never found it interesting or all that special. This might come as a surprise, but I’m eliminating all of the sci-fi contenders except for one. Most just aren’t exceptional classics or even close to any of the other unique examples from the other miscellaneous genres, but the one I’ll let continue on is The War of the Worlds, just for how well the ancient special effects still hold up today. Of the dramas, Stand by Me, Once, and Fruitvale Station shall all continue, for each is unique and emotionally resonant. The fact that they are even in this category of films running on the shorter side is astounding. Both Stanley Kubrick films must continue on, as well, however Pi will not, despite its uniquely dark black-and-white photography and unusual topic for its genre, nor will Before Sunset, despite its underrated status.

Well…that’s it for genres! There won’t be any new movies from here on out, but now the real work begins, of figuring out which of the nearly thirty best from every genre are worthy of continuing into the quarter-finals! Tune in next time for the genre finalists’ elimination round!