History YMMV / Pinocchio

** [[WhatCouldHaveBeen At one point during the movie's production]], the "I've Got No Strings" musical number planned to feature a {{blackface}} puppet with enormous duck-like lips representing Africa that was quickly scrapped and unused. Only [[https://photos.auctionanything.com/x/9186/m12ms.jpeg a single model sheet of that scene is known to exist]], and in the final film it only appears in the background among the other puppets, [[https://animationscreencaps.com/pinocchio-1940/page/28 most notably before Stromboli puts Pinocchio in a cage]].

* BaseBreakingCharacter:
** Some viewers, like Blog/UnshavedMouse, see Jiminy Cricket as one of the great Disney sidekicks due to his sarcastic wiseass personality. Others find him to be the UrExample of an annoying Disney comic relief for this very same reason. It helps that the original Talking Cricket was not meant to be a likeable sidekick.
** The Coachman. Fans are split on whether or not he's one of the [[LoveToHate best]] or [[TheScrappy worst]] Disney villains, along with the more and most popular Stromboli. Some fans find him to be a character, despite having practically no interaction with the protagonist/s, love him for how evil he is and how he subverts the DisneyVillainDeath trope. Other fans, on the other hand, hate him for being a {{Jerkass}} and how, despite turning innocent little boys into donkeys and making them suffer a FateWorseThanDeath, he doesn't receive any form of comeuppance for his actions, just like in the original Collodi's novel. It doesn't help that his "They never come back... as BOYS!" quote and face has gained MemeticMutation.

** While on Pleasure Island, the boys are handed their cigars by an animatronic of a ''very'' stereotypic depiction of a [[TheSavageIndian Native American]], predating ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'' as Disney's [[OlderThanTheyThink first]] out-of-date theatrical depiction of Native Americans.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: There's a fair UsefulNotes/{{f|urryFandom}}ollowing around the two animal villains in the Japanese fandom. Foulfellow being as [[CunningLikeAFox cunning]] and as handsome as he is might've helped. As well as being voiced by ''Creator/YasuoYamada''! Gideon is often paired with him [[HoYayShipping to some degree]].

* UnintentionalUncannyValley: It's very clear that the Blue Fairy was rotoscoped and looked more humanoid than the other characters, a somewhat down step from Snow White. The effect is still creepy.

'''Jiminy:''' Your ''best friend!?'' And what am ''I''? Just your conscience!?

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: Even when taking into consideration the ValuesDissonance discussed below, and the fact that the MPAA used to be much more lenient about its film ratings in the 1960s and 70s, the fact remains that a movie which depicts Pinnochio’s conscience as a CovertPervert, underage drinking and smoking, gratuitous violence and swearing, an on-screen character death, a child being horrifically transformed into a donkey (a scene that was known to have been quite terrifying to watch for countless children in the 1940s, and to this very day), several other boys-turned-donkeys being brutally enslaved (and not being rescued by the end), and multiple villains [[KarmaHoudini getting away with their crimes]], somehow received a ''G rating.'' Not only that, it ''still'' has that G rating, despite the fact that movies will receive a PG for even the slightest insinuation of kid-unfriendly themes nowadays.

* ValuesDissonance: The story overall holds a rather dim view of how misbehaving children should be treated. The Blue Fairy tells Pinocchio "boys who won't be good might as well be wood" (particularly horrifying given what Pinocchio had just been told what happens to old marionettes), and other misbehaving children are transformed into donkeys and sold into slavery, without any hope of being rescued or redeemed. The message seems to be: behave, or horrible things will happen to you.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: Even when taking into consideration the ValuesDissonance discussed below, and the fact that the MPAA used to be much more lenient about its film ratings in the 1960s and 70s, the fact remains that a movie which depicts Pinnochio’s conscience as a CovertPervert, underage drinking and smoking, gratuitous violence and swearing, an on-screen character death, a child being horrifically transformed into a donkey (a scene that was known to have been quite terrifying to watch for countless children in the 1940s, and to this very day), several other boys-turned-donkeys being brutally enslaved (and not being rescued by the end), and multiple villains [[KarmaHoudini getting away with their crimes]], somehow received a ''G rating.'' Not only that, it ''still'' has that G rating, despite the fact that movies will receive a PG for even the slightest insinuation of kid-unfriendly themes nowadays.

-->'''Pinocchio:''' Don't hurt him, Jiminy. He's my best friend.\\

'''Pinocchio:''' [[RhetoricalQuestionBlunder You sure do]]!

-->"I WILL POOSH YOU IN DE POOBLIC'S EYE!"

* AwesomeMusic: “When You Wish Upon A Star”, to the point it becomes Disney’s trademark theme.

* OneSceneWonder: Lampwick only appears in the Pleasure Island scene, but sports a memorable design and personality of a juvenile delinquent trying to act like a big shot gangster, plus Frankie Darro's [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct absolutely heartbreaking performance]] as he [[FreakOut realizes]] he's being [[ForcedTransformation turned into a donkey]] and [[IWantMyMother desperately cries out for his mother]].

* OneSceneWonder: Lampwick only appears in the Pleasure Island scene, but sports a memorable design and personality of a juvenile delinquent trying to act like a big shot gangster, plus Frankie Darro's absolutely heartbreaking performance as he realizes he's being turned into a donkey and desperately cries out for his mother.

* DracoInLeatherPants: Honest John and Gideon. Some fan works depict them as being [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone remorseful]] in escorting Pinocchio to Pleasure Island because they were intimidated by the Coachman. A few go as far as [[TheDogBitesBack standing up to him]] when they see his treatment of the other boys. It helps that they're the first anthropomorphic characters in the Disney canon.

** The terrified reaction of Honest John upon hearing of Pleasure Island's business. Some question if that was a genuine case of EvenEvilHasStandards, or perhaps PragmaticVillainy as he actually feared the law's punishment if he get caught?

** The Coachman is a rather ambiguous character. While he could just be an unscrupulous man who [[ExploitedTrope seeks to profit from bizarre phenomena that could only occur in the world of a morality play]], he's also been interpreted as a supernatural KarmicTrickster, a red wearing EvilCounterpart to the Blue Fairy -- while she has children learn from their misdeeds and sends them towards redemption, he punishes them for their stupidity and misbehaviour by transforming them into donkeys and giving them to possibility of redemption. A less common variant of this theory interprets him not merely as a malevolent fairy, but as being [[DevilInDisguise literally Satan]]. The fact that his NightmareFace involves contortions that a normal human face simply can't do is often taken to be evidence of this, although it could just as well be ordinary cartoon exaggeration that was turned up to eleven for the sake of RuleOfScary, without really implying anything about the nature of the character.

* {{Adorkable}}: In contrast to his meaner and more brattier counterpart in the book, this Pinocchio is so endearing because of how cheerful, naive and innocent he is. His excitement about the world around him is comparable to a teenager on his first day of high school.

* {{Padding}}: The movie uses every single opportunity to delay our characters getting out of Geppetto's workshop and any action on their part will be prolonged to a ridiculous degree, such as Figaro opening the window, Geppetto looking around the room with a gun in his hand, or Pinocchio's finger catching on a candle's fire.

** However, while their ultimate fate in the film is left to the interpretation of the viewers, like for the rest of the other antagonists, it can be implied that Honest John and Gideon suffered some sort of comeuppance offscreen during the unspecified time Pinocchio stayed on Pleasure Island, since Geppetto, before being swallowed by Monstro the whale, sailed to said island after discovering that Pinocchio was taken there, and the only people who could knew that were Honest John and Gideon and probably some villagers who heard the already notorious crooks singing loudly the song about Pleasure Island in late evening while taking Pinocchio to the Coachman's coach. Plus, Stromboli is implied to have gone bankrupt after Pinocchio's escape or to have at least reacted in total rage and desperation for noticing it too late.

* {{Adorkable}}: Pinocchio. In contrast to his meaner and more brattier counterpart in the book, this Pinocchio is so endearing because of how cheerful, naive and innocent he is. His excitement about the world around him is comparable to a teenager on his first day of high school.

** The game makes the message that sometimes you must learn to take caution for yourself very evident. How so? By having absurdly evil people kidnap children with abandon and force them into slavery without any comeuppance.
** Also the bit "If you don't go to school, you'll become a donkey". Justified in that Italy's compulsory formal school system had just gotten started with the beginnings of Resorgimento (unification of all the Italian nation-states into one cohesive country) about 20 years before the book was first written and published (in 1883). In rural, southern and poverty-stricken areas, kids still mostly did not go to school, or only for a short time. It was more important to help out at home or work in the family business, if any, or apprentice in a trade. Basic reading and writing were often taught by priests, but for many children that's as far as it went.

** The Coachman is a rather ambiguous character. While he could just be an unscrupulous man who [[ExploitedTrope seeks to profit from bizarre phenomena that could only occur in the world of a morality play]], he's also been interpreted as a supernatural KarmicTrickster, a red wearing EvilCounterpart to the Blue Fairy -- while she has children learn from their misdeeds and sends them towards redemption, he punishes them for their stupidity and misbehaviour by transforming them into donkeys and giving them to possibility of redemption. A less common variant of this theory interprets him not merely as a malevolent fairy, but as being [[DevilInDisguise literally Satan]]. The fact that his NightmareFace involves contortions that a normal human face simply can't do is often taken to be evidence of this, although it could just as well be ordinary cartoon exaggeration that was turned UpToEleven for the sake of RuleOfScary, without really implying anything about the nature of the character.

* CrossesTheLineTwice: Lampwick's turning into a donkey is [[NightmareFuel terrifying]], but there are some comical moments before the drama really settles in. The sight of Lampwick growing ears and a tail makes Pinocchio toss aside his beer and cigar, respectively. Before he notices, Lampwick and Pinocchio have this exchange about Jiminy.