Pinocchio


Pinocchio is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan village. He was created as a wooden puppet but he dreams of becoming a real boy. He is notably characterized for his frequent tendency to lie, which causes his nose to grow.
Pinocchio is a cultural icon. He is one of the most re-imagined characters in children's literature. His story has been adapted into many other media, notably the 1940 Disney film Pinocchio. Collodi often used the Italian Tuscan dialect in his book. The name ' is a combination of the Italian words ', and occhio ; Pino is also an abbreviation of Giuseppino, the diminutive for Giuseppe ; one of the men who greatly influenced Collodi in his youth was Giuseppe Aiazzi, a prominent Italian manuscript specialist who supervised Collodi at the Libreria Piatti bookshop in Florence. Geppetto, the name of Pinocchio's creator and “father,” is the diminutive for Geppo, the Tuscan pronunciation of ceppo, meaning a log, stump, block, stock or stub.

Fictional character biography

Pinocchio's characterization varies across interpretations, but several aspects are consistent across all adaptations: Pinocchio is a puppet, Pinocchio's maker is Geppetto and Pinocchio's nose grows when he lies.
Pinocchio is known for having a short nose that becomes longer when he is under stress, especially while lying. In the original tale, Collodi describes him as a "rascal," "imp," "scapegrace," "disgrace," "ragamuffin," and "confirmed rogue," with even his father, carpenter Geppetto, referring to him as a "wretched boy." Upon being born, Pinocchio immediately laughs derisively in his creator's face, whereupon he steals the old man's wig.
Pinocchio's bad behavior, rather than being charming or endearing, is meant to serve as a warning. Collodi originally intended the story, which was first published in 1881, to be a tragedy. It concluded with the puppet’s execution. Pinocchio’s enemies, the Fox and the Cat, bind his arms, pass a noose around his throat, and hang him from the branch of an oak tree.
A tempestuous northerly wind began to blow and roar angrily, and it beat the poor puppet from side to side, making him swing violently, like the clatter of a bell ringing for a wedding. And the swinging gave him atrocious spasms...His breath failed him and he could say no more. He shut his eyes, opened his mouth, stretched his legs, gave a long shudder, and hung stiff and insensible.

Clothing and character

Pinocchio is a wooden marionette and not a hand puppet. But the piece of wood from which he is derived is animated, and so Pinocchio moves independently. Basically good, he often gets carried away by bad company and is prone to lying. His nose will become longer and longer once he starts lying to others. Because of these characteristics, he often finds himself in trouble. Pinocchio undergoes transformations during the novel: he promises The Fairy with Turquoise Hair to become a real boy, flees with Candlewick to the Land of Toys, becomes a donkey, joins a circus, and becomes a puppet again. In the last chapter, out of the mouth of The Terrible Dogfish with Geppetto, Pinocchio finally stops being a puppet and becomes a real boy.
In the novel, Pinocchio is often depicted with a pointy hat, a jacket and a pair of colored, knee-length pants. In the Disney version, the appearance is different; the character is dressed in Tyrolean style, with Lederhosen and a hat with a feather.

Nose

Pinocchio's nose is his best-known characteristic. It grows in length when he tells a lie; this appears in chapter XVI. Collodi himself, in Note gaie claims how "to hide the truth of a speculum animae face is added to the true nose another papier-mache nose". There is an inconsistency, however, because his nose grows when it is first carved by Geppetto, without Pinocchio ever lying.
The nose appears only a couple of times in the story, but it reveals the Blue Fairy's power over Pinocchio when he acts disobediently. After the boy's struggling and weeping over his deformed nose, the Blue Fairy summons woodpeckers to peck it back to normal.

Literary analysis

Some literary analysts have described Pinocchio as an epic hero. Like many Western literary heroes, such as Odysseus, Pinocchio descends into hell; he also experiences rebirth through metamorphosis, a common motif in fantasy literature.
Before writing Pinocchio, Collodi wrote a number of didactic children's stories for the then-recently unified Italy, including a series about an unruly boy who undergoes humiliating experiences while traveling the country, titled Viaggio per l'Italia di Giannettino. Throughout Pinocchio, Collodi chastises Pinocchio for his lack of moral fiber and his persistent rejection of responsibility and desire for fun.
The structure of the story of Pinocchio follows that of the folktales of peasants who venture out into the world but are naïvely unprepared for what they find, and get into ridiculous situations. At the time of the writing of the book, this was a serious problem, arising partly from the industrialization of Italy, which led to a growing need for reliable labour in the cities; the problem was exacerbated by similar, more or less simultaneous, demands for labour in the industrialization of other countries. One major effect was the emigration of much of the Italian peasantry to cities and to foreign countries such as the United States.
The main imperatives demanded of Pinocchio are to work, be good, and study. And in the end Pinocchio's willingness to provide for his father and devote himself to these things transforms him into a real boy with modern comforts.

Media portrayals

Earliest adaptations

When Walt Disney Productions was developing the story for their film version of Pinocchio, they intended to keep the obnoxious aspects of the original character, but Walt Disney himself felt that this made the character too unlikable, so alterations were made to incorporate traits of mischief and innocence to make Pinocchio more likable. Pinocchio was voiced by Dickie Jones. Today, the film is considered one of the finest Disney features ever made, and one of the greatest animated films of all time, with a rare 100% rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes. In the video game adaptation of the film, Pinocchio lives out the same role as the film, traveling through the world filled with temptations and battling various forces.
This Disney incarnation was later used in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, voiced by Peter Westy; Disney's House of Mouse, voiced by Michael Welch; and Kingdom Hearts, voiced by Seth Adkins. Pinocchio makes cameo appearances in Aladdin, Teacher's Pet, the Mickey Mouse television series, and Tangled.
In the early 1990s, it is rumored that Elijah Wood portrayed the real-boy version of Pinocchio in the live-action segments for the updated Jiminy Cricket educational serials I'm No Fool and You, in addition to the new shorts of I'm No Fool.
In the video game Pinocchio is featured as one of the many iconic Disney characters kidnapped by the evil witch Mizrabel in her plot to dominate their world; he is imprisoned alongside Genie in the Cave of Wonders until eventually being rescued by Mickey Mouse.

Later 20th-century adaptations

portrayed Pinocchio in Toto in Color

  • Tatsunoko Productions created a 52-episode anime series entitled ', first aired in 1972. This series has a distinctly darker, more sadistic theme, and portrays the main character Pinocchio as suffering from constant physical and psychological abuse and freak accidents. Pinocchio was voiced by actress Yuko Maruyama and in the 1992 English-dubbed version by actor Thor Bishopric.
's film The Adventures of Pinocchio