Pinocchio Blu-Ray

[kmiller15211]

I'm not a big fan of companies re-releasing their movies over and over again (aka "The Lucas" technique), adding a tiny addition every time, but I am thoroughly impressed with the Blu Ray version of Pinocchio. While it has always been one of my favorite Disney movies (along with Aladdin and Dumbo), the extra features really set it apart.

The crown jewel of the special features is an hour-long featurette on the making of. I absolutely love the behind the scenes historical stuff, so this was right up my alley. Some highlights:
* While Mel Blanc never really voiced a speaking Disney animated character, he was ironically the voice of Gideon, the mute sidekick of Honest John. Along the way, Disney decided to make the Gideon character non-speaking, thus Blanc's would-be-only Disney animation appearance was cut. However, there is a single Gideon hiccup that is the only voice work that Blanc would ever do in a Disney film. As a personal sidenote, Blanc can be heard in the Carousel of Progress as Uncle Orville, and, I believe, several of the other random characters.
* This film marks the beginning of the Nine Old Men. At the time of Pinocchio, they were all young men, getting tutored by the superstars of the animation department at that time who were all nearing their decline or peaking - Bill Tytla (Stromboli), Art Babbit (who would lead the strikers against the studio years later), and Fred Moore (Lampwick)
* It shows the evolution of the Jiminy Cricket character, who went from a Grasshopper-looking thing to near human character who, in the words of Leonard Maltin, "is only a cricket because we're told he is". Ward Kimball helps to illustrate the progression.
* The story development was fascinating. In the Collodi writings, the Pinocchio character is a cruel little puppet, actually killing Jiminy with a hammer in one episode. To allow the audience to identify with Pinocchio, they made him nearly human. Instead of being inherently bad, they gave him innocence so that he's sympathetic. Brilliant.
* You get a peek at the voices behind the characters, including the actual voice of Pinocchio, who is now showing the movie to his great-grandchildren.
* Interesting looks at the multi-plane camera, rotoscoping, and other techniques that the movie used to great effect to add to the plot, not dominate it.

These are just a few of the cool things on the extras, not to mention that the movie itself looks absolutely amazing, almost as if they shot it last year. So, if you're lucky enough to have a Blu-Ray player, I highly recommend it.

[ltldeb]

We have it but haven't had the time to watch it yet. I think after your review we may have to watch it sooner rather than later.
_________________
*~deb~*