History Headscratchers / Pinocchio

** Glass is relatively light in weight, the bowl’s flat bottom displaced its weight, the glass used to make Cleo’s bowl is thicker than normal cause it’s a vessel that has to contain something that’s heavy in mass, and the fact that saltwater has a higher density than freshwater which is in Cleo’s bowl.

*** Justified as child labor was very common back then and it wasn’t uncommon for greedy unscrupulous people to trick children into said career field. More over this story was written in the late 1870s or early 1880s a time when Spain, England, and France had many overseas territories now starved for free/cheap labor (as they had or were in the process of abolishing slavery) as well as the USA (where the push for anti-child labor laws and compulsory education for children under 16 was only starting to gain major traction) which made child labor trafficking a rather lucrative industry especially by “recruiting” children from places suffering from extreme geopolitical and/or economic depression/turmoil like Italy which had only finished unification in 1871 and still feeling the fallout of when the original story was published.

** Alternatively, [[{{YourHeadAsplode}} his nose explodes]] [[NightmareFuel and splinters fly everywhere.]]

* I know this is pendanic but...if Geppetto wanted a son, why didn't he just go to a nearby orphanage and request the caretakers to bring him a boy for him to adopt?

** RuleOfFunny . That's literally the only reason for that tiny part of the movie to exist, to make a joke out of the whole breathing underwater thing and to [[LampshadeHanging Lampshade]] it as well. "Yes, we are aware it doesn't make sense for Jiminy to be breathing underwater. Deal with it."

*** I wasn't questioning Honest John's morality, but his concern over law. The guy is [[ConMan CON-ARTIST]] fox who deceives, kidnaps, and apparently murders. If none of those things got him criminal charges, what's to worry about sending a bunch of wayward children to some off-limits island?

** This is a case of something we'd have to set aside. A wooden puppet boy manages to act like a regular human being despite having no muscles or internal organs to help him digest or anything. We may as well argue why in Star Fox, there are humanoid animals piloting starcrafts. It's a part of the story. :)

** Maybe she meant "helping him" in terms of direct supernatural intervention (i.e. her magic). Informing someone where their "[[{{TrulySingleParent}} father]]" is (depending) usually is a mundane thing, VoluntaryShapeshifting notwithstanding...

* "There's no risk! They ain't ever come back, as BOYS!!" Sinister plot Coachman, but contrary to what you just said, there is a risk! What would happen if some the boys you brought to Pleasure Island Didn't turn into donkeys? Even rebellious kids can have moral standards. Pinocchio was only there because of Honest John's manipulation (which he tried harder to resist this time). Had he not befriended Lampwick (or any other boys), he probably wouldn't have grown those ears and tail. Pleasure Island also has amusement park rides, nothing ethically taboo about those. (At least today) Free food and drinks : Any orphan or homeless kid would go for that alone. And I kind of doubt that destroying property is considered vandalism if the landlord approves.

*** I still don't get where this is going, especially since it's already been addressed (twice even) that the Coachman ''owns the property'' and gave kids ''permission'' to destroy it. It may not be morally appropriate, but it's not illegal under those circumstances. (I'm probably thinking about this in terms of legal standards instead of ethical standards, but my point still stands) If you hire someone to paint your house, do you charge them with graffiti afterwards? Similar principle applies here.

[[folder:Why Cut the Dialogue?]]
* This may seem really minor, but in the latest release of Pinocchio, during the song "Give a Little Whistle" they cut out certain phrases. Not even dirty phrases, they're Jiminy saying, "Right!" and "Look out Pinocchio!" Why? For what purpose, to what end, why would those phrases need to be taken out?
** It's probably just a remastering error.
[[/folder]]

* Even if we can assume Pinocchio observed a lot of the results from all the smoking on Pleasure Island, whales obviously have a different repertory system. So how did Pinoc figure that smoke from a large fire would make Monstro sneeze him and Gepetto out?

*** then again considering that not many people even in the 1940s knew the anatomy of whales and other aquatic mammals in general the animators and scriptwriters were just stuck in a “we got him in there now how do we get him out” conundrum and just went with the most simple of a solution.

*** even if he could leave them with someone he could trust not to do them harm said person might not want to return them after Gepetto returned, more over if word got around that an old man with a goldfish and a black and white kitten were searching for someone named Pinocchio, Pinocchio would be able to easily find them.

** This question would have better suited for the teenage boys that were turned into donkeys, because children aren't the smartest in scary situations.

** It's important to note (because the phrasing of the question is somewhat ambiguous on this matter) that the Coachman '''isn't''' the one using the donkeys. He's selling them on after they've transformed. That's why they're all being thrown into boxes labelled "To the salt-mine" or "To the circus". Presumably, he charges fairly (since he has ''a lot'' of donkeys to sell, there's no need for him to overcharge) and never tells the folks he's selling them to exactly where the donkeys came from; for all the buyers know, these could just be regular donkeys the Coachman or an associate of his is breeding. Turning into a donkey is also serving as a belated lesson for the boys (i.e. "if you'd behaved and gone to school, didn’t disobeyed your elders and just followed the rules you wouldn't now be facing the prospect of working yourself to death") and judging by the time period and the places they're being sold to, their new owners likely wouldn't think twice about either selling them again or else putting them down the minute they ''didn't'' work hard and simply buying another donkey either from the Coachman again or from another source.

*** it might also have to do with whatever threshold a misbehaving boy is supposed to meet as Lampwick didn’t start transforming until after he’d spoken badly about Jiminy and the reason Pinocchio was the last one affected was because he DID noticed and stopped first smoking and then drinking which lowered his level of misbehavior (more over he never actually insulted or dismissed Jiminy), followed by his honesty and immediate reaction to his laugh at Lampwick’s initial new appearance turning into a bray (he immediately covered his mouth in shock and embarrassment), and then when Lampwick completely transformed right before his eyes Pinocchio was absolutely terrified! The reason that Pinocchio only got ears and a tail is because he’s confused and conflicted and listened to and followed Jiminy's instructions to get off the island with no hestiation. In the book the illustration of his and Jiminy's flight from the island shows the Coachman and his goons trying to shoot them as they dive into the waves which could mean they were seen escaping and were being chased to prevent the Coachman’s entire operation from being exposed.

*** not true there are “punishments” that children have received that are significantly worse than a spanking and not all of them historical either. Deliberately locking a child in a windowless room with no food or drink and forcing them to relieve themselves. Trust me when I say there’s a big debate over when does punishment become abuse.

** Maybe designing the clocks that way was meant as knock on the ambiguous moral standards of Gepetto's voice actor, who was an outspoken Nazi sympathizer?

** Gepetto would also need to put his wood-carving job on hold. If he fell behind a day's work, he'd have to say, "The Blue Fairy brought my recent puppet creation to life the night before. I spent the day with him teaching him life-lessons. That's why your music box isn't ready yet sir." Might be to risky of a move for both the action and the excuse. Some people might wanna send him to a mental ward until they see Pinocchio, but even then he could get a reputation as a village loon.
*** on top of that learning how to talk and learning how to read are completely 2 different things. What upsets me is that why didn’t Gepetto take some time off to personally escort Pinocchio to school as it’s his first time out of the house into greater society or if he couldn’t have someone he could trust to do so (as it’s clear that he can ring all his clocks at odd hours without the neighbors getting upset which means he has some standing in the town)? Honest John might not have even been able to lure Pinocchio away the first time if there had been an adult present with him.

** glass is relatively light in weight, the bowl’s flat bottom displaced its weight, the glass used to make Cleo’s bowl is thicker than normal cause it’s a vessel that has to contain something that’s heavy in mass, and the fact that saltwater has a higher density than freshwater which is in Cleo’s bowl.

*** I wouldn't put money on that. Hand crafted cookoo clocks, as well as the music boxes, toys, and knickknacks in Geppettos shop would be quite expensive. Although I'm mainly saying that based my perception of those items priced today, when they would be considered valuable antiques.
*** but every major town had at least 1 clock maker and besides while Geppettos clearly lives the good life making and selling his wears it’s also possible that he does custom orders. Thieves tend to go to places where they know they can make a lot of money and disappear easily, something that would be hard to come by in smaller communities like Geppetto’s village where nearly everyone knows everyone.
** Let's keep in mind that air conditioning didn't exist yet. (even if it did, I doubt it would be available to someone like Geppetto) It's bound to get stuffy in that workshop at night. And the guy does need some fresh air too. He does indeed need to open up some windows, and the one right above his bed is an ideal choice because A) He'd get the fresh air and night breeze directly from the source. And B) If anyone DID try to break in from said Window, they'd have to avoid steeping on Geppetto and thus waking him up. (And he keeps a gun under his pillow for good measure in the event this would happen) Geppetto has very little to worry about in this case.

*** the doors symbolize the threshold of temptation and that crossing them is falling into temptation. Thus when the coachman orders the doors to be shut he’s also literally closed the boys’ last chance to turn back and save themselves. If even one had ultimately decided that he wasn’t interested (or suspected that the stories about it being true) and thus decided to stay on the outside of the gates before they closed the Coachman might have him taken back to the mainland if he believed that the boy had learned his lesson or wasn’t naughty enough in exchange for keeping his mouth shut. Payment for transit is frequently less costly and easier to pay back than staying in an inn especially when one’s having second thoughts.

** not true in many societies death such as Pinocchio’s case is a death of personality. The Pinocchio that was a naive yet curious wooden puppet is now dead and the flesh and blood Pinocchio is a new one.

*** what about when the parents go to check up on them and see their beds empty and they find that all but the town’s or district’s “good boys” are missing? A mass disappearance like that in a single night isn’t something that can be easily dismissed or explained away.

*** justified as child labor was very common back then and it wasn’t uncommon for greedy unscrupulous people to trick children into said career field. More over this story was written in the late 1870s or early 1880s a time when Spain, England, and France had many overseas territories now starved for free/cheap labor (as they had or were in the process of abolishing slavery) as well as the USA (where the push for anti-child labor laws and compulsory education for children under 16 was only starting to gain major traction) which made child labor trafficking a rather lucrative industry especially by “recruiting” children from places suffering from extreme geopolitical and/or economic depression/turmoil like Italy which had only finished unification in 1871 and still feeling the fallout of when the original story was published.

*** she might’ve not been able to so and thus Pinocchio needing to prove himself worthy of being a real boy was a round-about method to granting Gepetto’s wish. Remember when she freed Pinocchio from that cage it was the last time she could help him directly (which is why she sent that bird to deliver the message on what had happened to Gepetto, Figaro, and Chloe had gone so even she is limited as what she can and cannot do.

[[folder:Pinocchio and the Hays Code]]
* As we all know, not one of the villains in this film receives punishment for their crimes. This isn't necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, but I'm just curious as to how that got around the Hays Code which was in full effect at the time the movie came out. One of the rules the Code had was that no criminal could get away with their crimes.[[/folder]]

* As emotional as Pinocchio's apparent death and revival as a real boy, one thing that hasn't been made sense is when he comes back to life. When Geppetto tells Pinocchio he's crying because he's dead, Pinocchio tells him that this isn't the case. How does someone whose only been alive for a few days more or less know about death? Does Pinocchio understand the concept the death? Or did he simply pick up on Geppetto's sorrow when he mentioned the word 'dead' knowing it meant something awful had happened to him? And if it is the former where did he learn the concept of death? Was it from someone else like Lampwick, Jiminy, or Geppetto prior to escaping Monstro? Or was he born with the knowledge on the concept of death already when the blue Fairy gave him life?

** It's entirely possible that the Coachman isn't even really human, but is instead a demon disguising itself as human. And assuming that's the case, would it be at all reasonable to assume he'd be interested in something as material and easily-lost as monetary wealth when he could get an endless emotional high out of causing misery and pain to young boys just for the pure dick factor? That's right. The Coachman is probably a demon who is psychologically tormenting boys and turning them into donkeys just to be an [[JustForPun ass]], and any money he could possibly be making is entirely just for show.

** Nobody [[IncrediblyLamePun knows.]]