Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Pinocchio a wicked boy who needs to be punished so he learns how to behave, or is he an independent and free-thinking spirit whose bad behavior is exaggerated and subject to Disproportionate Retribution? Is the Blue Fairy a Big Good who only wants what's best for him or is she a Manipulative Bitch who emotionally blackmails him into doing what she wants? In his book Pinocchio-papirene ("The Pinocchio Papers"), NorwegianAnarchist author Tor Åge Bringsværd (who clearly disagrees with several of the book's lessons) re-imagines Pinocchio as an emissary from the plant kingdom and the Blue Fairy as Manipulative BitchWolf in Sheep's Clothing, and the Big Bad of the book, who manipulates and browbeats Pinocchio into forgetting his true mission and becoming an obedient "good boy" who won't cause trouble. Part of the book consists of an in-universe dissection of Carlo Collidi's writings:
In Collodi's work, Pinocchio remains the lazy, thoughtless, naughty and above all disobedient boy, who is constantly and cruelly punished. Which Collodi finds perfectly natural and correct. His story is about how to force a child to behave the way you want it to, how to brainwash a small human, how to bend and break a strong and independent will, how to in the most cunning manner frighten and bully people towards Heaven. As previously mentioned, Collodi sees no problem with this. He constantly sides with the strongest, without question or hesitation, and delights in Pinocchio's "salvation" at the end. [...] If we accept that events did happen roughly like Collodi describes them, we have to draw the conclusion that Pinocchio's childhood must have been pure hell.
Anvilicious: A really big book dedicated to teach: If you're a disobedient boy, you will be bound, tortured and killed. It has other teachings about good behaviour that are not subtle.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The snake with the smoking tail. While some scholars view a possible religious subtext in it (after encountering the snake Pinocchio gets in trouble by trying to steal a fruit, grapes from a vineyard in his case), it's understandable why most adaptations tend to omit the snake: it comes out of nowhere and is never brought up again.
Complete Monster: The Little Man is a kind-looking coachman who runs the Land of Toys, a paradise country for children devoid of teachers, books, and schools. In actuality, the Little Man is a sadist who lures in hundreds of lazy boys to the Land of Toys to be turned into donkeys, whom he sells as slave labor. Using some of those donkeys to pull his wagon, he bites the ear off of one for mistreating Pinocchio. Turning Pinocchio and Lampwick into donkeys, the Little Man has them sold into slavery, with Lampwick dying at the farm he was sent to.
Jerkass Woobie: Pinocchio may be mischievous and rough but all his suffering and inherent good nature make him somewhat sympathetic. Not many characters treat him with respect or civility; Geppetto is one of the few to treat Pinocchio with some kindness.
Karmic Overkill: The uncompromising, Anvilicious, Scare 'Em Straight morality tales where Pinocchio is constantly punished in the most horrific ways for relatively small crimes, has caused several modern readers to view Pinocchio's world as unnecessarily cruel. It can be (and has been) argued that teaching kids to be on their guard against those who would exploit or abuse them is a valuable lesson... but it's still notable that even in the cases when Pinocchio had noble intentions, and was either a victim of bad circumstances or got in trouble because he naively trusted people who didn't deserve to be trusted, the narrative will still without fail treat him as having acted maliciously and as such deserving of all the bad things that happen to him.
Moral Event Horizon: The Coachman/The Little Man is beyond the line because of what he does to children. The Fox and the Cat cross the line when they attempt to murder Pinocchio.
Never Live It Down: Pinocchio is best known for growing a nose when lying, but he wasn't an obsessive liar. He didn't lie that much in the novel and the growing nose thing only happened twice, and with a long time distance.
Ron the Death Eater: While Pinocchio's more flawed nature can be understandably shocking for those expecting him to behave more like his Disney counterpart, some people exaggerate his bad moments to the point of ignoring his character development and give him that treatment.
Saved by the Fans: Pinocchio. He was going to die hanged by the Fox and the Cat.
Unintentionally Sympathetic: When Pinocchio is manipulated into skipping school to see his father, the Trauma Conga Line that he goes through because of it is treated as a punishment as if he deliberately wanted to skip school for the sake of laziness.
The Woobie: Geppetto, because of his poverty and the problems he has unjustly gained.
Moe: Andrea Balestri as Pinocchio. Even when his line deliveries aren't perfect (some had to be redubbed in post) he's too gosh darn adorable to the point of becoming endearing.
Padding: In the more complete cuts of the series, some scenes such as Geppetto fixing himself a schiacciata with stale bread when he believes hunger is making him imagine Pinocchio's voice while carving the puppet and The Chase when Pinocchio runs from home can feel a bit dragged out.
Sacred Cow: Despite the Adaptational Mundanity, the Luigi Comencini miniseries is widely considered in its home country to be the definitive adaptation of Collodi's novel and a cornerstone of Italian television.
The final interaction the Blue Fairy has with a crippled Donkey-Pinocchio, expressing her disappointment of him running away right as he was about to become a real kid, and complaining about how naughty kids believe that their parents will always be there to bail them out of trouble, concluding that by this point she just wishes Geppetto could have his son back, since he seemed fine with a puppet but she was the one who wanted to give him more (plus, in this version the Fairy is a manifestation of Geppetto's deceased wife, so essentially she wanted to help her husband get a child beyond the grave). While she does intervene to save Pinocchio from drowning by turning him back into a puppet later and in the ending it's implied the house Geppetto and Pinocchio see in the distance is hers, it's still a sad scene. Even the Repulsive Ringmaster looks as if he's holding back tears after she leaves. Did her speech hit too close home for him?
"Storia di Pinocchio" is a melancholic song with lyrics that describe Geppetto's loneliness, the struggles he has with dealing with a child like Pinocchio and how he still loves him in spite of it all. It can give misty eyes to the fans that have become fathers or are missing their own dads.
The Woobie: As if Geppetto wasn't already pitiful in the book, the series expands upon him doubling down on the sadness: he's lost his wife, he has severe doubts of his parenting skills while trying his best with the little he has, and he drowns his sorrows when Pinocchio goes missing before deciding to go search for him. In the series finale when Pinocchio shows him the easy way out of the Terrible Dogfish, Geppetto hesitates on returning to the outside world, arguing that they can sustain themselves with the fish the monster swallows and that life isn't kind to them, essentially being willing to stay safe but trapped rather than face the world again. Nino Manfredi's performance really sells his plight as well.
From the 1996 Film
Accidental Nightmare Fuel: Many viewers found Pinocchio's appearance in the movie to be reeking with Unintentional Uncanny Valley, to the point where it's not hard to find comments on Youtube videos of the movie describing how Pinocchio's design terrified them as kids.
The puppet theater opera scene is filled with this, especially "What Are We Made Of?" by Brian May and Sissel.
Rachel Portman's score in general is also quite good, with the main theme and "Terra Magica".
Catharsis Factor: Unlike the original story and most other adaptations, Lampwick and the other kids who are turned into donkeys get their own chance at redemption and are transformed back into humans once they perform good deeds.
Complete Monster: Lorenzini, starting out as a powerful, arrogant rival to Geppetto, adopts Pinocchio in return for paying off Geppetto's debt, and soon tries to burn Pinocchio and Geppetto's other puppets as part of his show. When his business collapses, Lorenzini starts anew by opening Terra Magica, where hundreds of unruly children are spiked with an elixir that transforms them into donkeys which he sells off for slave labor, and even orders one to be skinned to make him a new pair of boots. After being transformed into a sea monster, Lorenzini returns in The New Adventures of Pinocchio, disguised as his "widow", Madame Flambeau, who runs a carnival into which he shanghaies Pinocchio and a transformed Geppetto into performing. Having transformed Pinocchio's friend Lampwick into a sea donkey, Lorenzini threatens Lampwick and Geppetto's lives to coerce Pinocchio into turning himself back into a puppet. Lorenzini has also turned innocent people into fish-like creatures he keeps in his aquarium, which he regularly eats as a dish. Revealing himself as Lorenzini, he intends to eat Lampwick, and use Pinocchio and Geppetto as firewood for his feast.
Critical Dissonance: The film was poorly received by critics, but was better received by audiences.
Evil Is Cool: As horrible as he is, you have to admit that Lorenzini is an amazing villain for a kid's film.
The local singer is constantly told to "put a sock in it". At one point, a sock lands in his mouth (courtesy of Pinocchio falling from a building and landing in a clothesline). Pepe notes in the end that he "ate a lot of socks".
It's even better in the Italian dub, since Pinocchio's voice actress Ilaria Stagni also dubbed Bart Simpson, whose catchphrase "Eat my shorts" has been translated into "Ciucciati il calzino" (as in "go suck a sock"), making it an accidental Actor Allusion.
Tino's False Reassurance when Geppetto fears that he'll get burned at the stake for accidentally creating a living puppet: "No, no! They've stopped burning people... They might hang you, though!"
"You're going to kill yourself for one of your puppets?"
Geppetto: He's my son.
In the end, Pinocchio tells Geppetto that he's sorry he couldn't be a real boy. Geppetto's response?
"But you are real to me, my son. You are real to me."
Then in response, as they hug, Pinocchio sheds a singletear of joy, which lands on his heart and transforms him into a real boy.
Hilarious in Hindsight: While this film has some Lost in Imitation aspects from the Disney animated movie, the 2000 Disney-produced TV musical Geppetto shows the boys at Pleasure Island turning into donkeys after going through a roller coaster ride, and Pinocchio's nose being a Chekhov's Gun to escape from the whale.
Volpe is far from a good person, but you've got to feel bad for how easily he gets pushed around by Felinet, who herself is a pushover for Lorenzini. Then there's that moment where he admits to missing his father.
Older Than They Think: Pinocchio lying inside the whale by denying his love for Geppetto, making his nose grow on purpose to help them escape. This was first done in the 1976 musical adaptation with Sandy Duncan in the Cross-Cast Role of Pinocchio. Although in that version, Pinocchio uses the extra length of his nose as firewood to light a smoky fire and make the whale cough them out, while here he uses his nose to pry the sea monster's throat open.
Tear Jerker: Geppetto being forced to surrender Pinocchio to Lorenzini. He has to yell at the poor kid to get him to leave. The fact that Geppetto had to immediately turn away and clench his eyes just makes it unbearable to watch. Pinocchio is visibly heartbroken, but still whispers "I love you, papa..." as Lorenzini takes him away.
Geppetto: Why does everything good get thrown to the beasts?
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Lampwick and the rest of the naughty children-turned-donkeys also getting another chance like Pinocchio and becoming real boys again avoiding the typical Only the Leads Get a Happy Ending? Nice concept that carries on the message that bratty kids can redeem themselves, too bad it all happens offscreen and it's told instead of being shown by Pepe during the final narration.
Visual Effects of Awesome: In-Universe Example (though the effects of the actual film are good as well, thanks to Jim Henson's Creature Shop being involved). The production values of the puppet show that Lorenzini is giving are quite impressive given the time period the film is set in.
and "Birichinata