Pinocchio is the Golden Films and GoodTimes Entertainment version of The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi.
One day, a magical spark escapes from the Blue Fairy's house and lands on one of the logs burning on the fireplace of Geppetto, whose toy shop hasn't been doing well. Then, the old man carves a puppet from it, and it comes to life. The marionette has to learn how to behave.
Tropes:
- Abled in the Adaptation: The Wolf and the Cat do not become handicapped like in the book; they just get arrested. And before, the Cat does not have his hand cut off by Pinocchio, since that midnight confrontation was not violent.
- Adaptational Attractiveness: Mangiafuoco is cute, unlike his intimidating, ugly counterpart of the book. He is not as cute in the cover, but still far from the scary Mangiafuoco of the book.
- Adaptational Heroism:
- Mangiafuoco, a common target of the opposite trope, applies as this since he doesn't show any intention to burn puppets, and he just scolds Pinocchio for ruining his show instead of planning to burn him.
- The Blue Fairy does garrison Pinocchio from the disguised thieves (The Wolf and the Cat) unlike the book one that alleged to be dead and was quite morally ambiguous.
- Also happened with the Wolf and the Cat. In the midnight assault scene, they disguise as trees rather than as assasins and don't scare Pinocchio to give up the coins. Both things indicate that they wouldn't have hurt Pinocchio unlike their literary counterparts.
- Adaptational Nice Guy:
- Pinocchio lacks the mean demeanor of his literary counterpart.
- The Cricket is more friendly than the stern, serious Cricket of the book.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: The Blue Fairy is blonde instead of blue-haired.
- Adaptational Mundanity: Mangiafuoco's puppets are non-sentient to simplify the plot.
- Adaptation Species Change: No, it's not the Fox and the Cat. It's the Wolf and the Cat. Also, instead of a parrot, there are crows who tell Pinocchio about the theft.
- Adapted Out: Mastro Cherry, the Carabiniers, Mangiafuoco's puppets, many of the talking animals and the Green Fisherman. Well, this is a compressed adaptation. Among the talking animals that were eliminated from the book, there is a tuna who helped Pinocchio get Geppetto to land, and his elimination means that Pinocchio swims to the beach without help, albeit his original counterpart almost fails.
- Amusement Park of Doom: Dunceland (The Land of Toys) is a town that makes children dumb by letting them indulge in a life without responsibilities.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Since Pinocchio fails to acknowledge that the bad things are his fault, the Fairy does a mild reprimand to Pinocchio. "[That's happening] To you or because of you?"
- Brawn Hilda: The lady appearing at Mangiafuoco's show. She is strong, fat and unattractive.
- Compressed Adaptation: It has many of the subplots of the book but it condenses or omits many parts, like the Melampo arc or the school arc.
- Composite Character: The big pigeon has the role of a snail who works for the Fairy in the book and Medoro. It's the pigeon who tells Pinocchio that the Fairy is ill because of what happened to Pinocchio.
- Clueless Aesop: The film tries to teach that you should not lie, but since lying is not an important theme in the plot of neither the book nor this film, it fails to be persuasive.
- Didn't Think This Through: Pinocchio before going to Dunceland knows he should be in school and a life of only fun is not a good thing, and is warned by the Cricket not to go there. However, Pinocchio does go there, and it almost ends badly for him.
- Easily Forgiven: Pinocchio has no grudge whatsoever towards the Wolf and the Cat for stealing his money and only reports their theft due to them pressing them to speak about them.
- Foodfight!: In Dunceland, Pinocchio and Candlewick start fighting with cakes and all the other boys get involved on that food fight.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Wolf and The Cat, now in a coach which goes to jail, ask Pinocchio to tell the cop who arrested them the truth (that they're friendly), but Pinocchio tells the cop that they stole his (Pinocchio's) coins. This worsens their punishment.
- Karma Houdini: The Coachman, as almost always. Averted with the Wolf and the Cat, because they are caught by the police.
- Lighter and Softer: The violent elements of the book are downplayed or eliminated.
- Lost in Imitation: Pinocchio, Geppetto, the Blue Fairy and the Cricket are more similar to their Disney version counterparts than the book ones, while Mangiafuoco's puppets are not sentient and are not styled on Commedia dell'Arte. Averted with Mangiafuoco, who is actually more benevolent than the book one and his strong sneezes are kept in this version.
- Obviously Evil: The Coachman's creepy design makes it obvious that he is evil. That doesn't happen in the book, where he seems kindly, but he's far from it.
- Pinocchio Nose: Evoked and played for laughs at first. When Geppetto asks an unfinished Pinocchio if he would be a good boy, the puppet's head moves to say yes, but his nose grows. Later, played straight when Pinocchio lies to the Blue Fairy about his money and his nose grows.
- Produce Pelting: The people throw tomatoes at Mangiafuoco after Pinocchio ruins his show.
- Re-Cut: When the film was released, there was also a recut version that trims down a majority of the film (scenes like Mangiafuoco and pigeon were omitted) and has an narrator in it. This tape includes a Mel-O-Toons of Sinbad, and a ComiColor Cartoons of Simple Simon.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In the book, Candlewick died of overwork as a donkey. Here, it seems that Giangio, the farmer whom Pinocchio worked for, didn't buy Candlewick, giving an ambiguous fate to the boy.
- Talking Animal: Including but not limited to the Cricket, the Wolf and the Cat.
- Too Dumb to Fool: At the ending, the Wolf and the Cat attempt to exploit Pinocchio's lack of common sense to make him praise them as friends, but Pinocchio ends up indicting them of stealing his money despite not being even angry at them.
- Too Dumb to Live: Pinocchio gets warned by the Cricket not to go to Dunceland, but he does exactly that. He pays dearly for that decision. Luckily, he survives, but it could have been worse.
- Truer to the Text: Despite being based on the Disney take, this version does take elements from the original book.
- The scene where Pinocchio was being tricked into planting a money tree.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Implied, since Pinocchio as a donkey almost gets drowned. All those kids who became donkeys would end tragically.
