Pinocchio is now the oldest movie I own on Blu-ray with Casablanca being the second oldest by two years. However, watching the film you would never assume it was 69-years-old (for some reason this is called the 70th Anniversary edition though). It is a testament to Disney’s storage and restoration process considering I have films on DVD from the ’50s that don’t look half as good. Disney has followed up on the terrific transfer of last year’s Sleeping Beauty on Blu-ray with another gem in Pinocchio and it makes me look forward that much more to reviewing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs when it debuts on Blu-ray this Fall. Owning these films on high-definition Blu-ray makes you feel like you are taking part in preserving film history and I am not sure these films will ever look better. I don’t see how they could.
This was the first time I had seen Pinocchio in many years, but as it played along it felt like I had only seen it yesterday. I have always liked this movie despite the fact the story is occasionally fractured and sometimes transitions don’t make a lot of sense. However, once watching the special features on this disc and realizing the Carlo Collodi stories that inspired the film were originally printed as serials it makes much more sense as to why and how Geppetto ended up in the belly of a whale at the bottom of the ocean. But I do wish the gentlemen on the audio commentary would have addressed the story details a little more outside of simply giving in to the story. I don’t say this because I see the leaps in logic as a problem, I just wish a little more background as to why some of these leaps were made had been addressed.
Pinocchio went on to win two Oscars, including a win for Best Original Song in what would become the Disney theme song for all intents and purposes in “When You Wish Upon a Star” as well as the spotlight introduction of Jiminy Cricket. This Blu-ray edition brings all of it to life with a beautiful restored image and the always impressive Disney audio track and, of course, it comes with a load of special features.
The first disc includes a fact-track with pop-up trivia information playing throughout and a Disney Song Selection feature that allows you to pick and choose individual songs from the film one at a time and also the ability to play the film with the lyrics to each song playing along with the film. On top of that is the audio commentary with Leonard Maltin, Eric Goldberg and J.B. Kaufman. Personally Maltin gets on my nerves a little bit and Goldberg is the ultimate Disney lover delivering unquestioning bits of information. The commentary is a bit on the “this is the greatest thing ever” side but it does have a wealth of information and is very easy to listen to as it also includes occasionally archived interviews with the filmmakers.
Disc two delivers your traditional supplements beginning with “No Strings Attached: The Making of Pinocchio,” the main featurette which runs for 56 minutes with archived footage and interviews pieced together with original artwork, new interviews and details on the difficulty involved with bringing the second major Walt Disney animated feature to life. The featurette plays like the majority of Disney making-of docs with a lot of glad handing and talk of how Pinocchio is the best Disney film ever — a common phrase on every Disney DVD — and it is yet another DVD where the Nine Old Men are referenced, but the difference here being this is a film that was made when the Nine Old Men weren’t so old.
Next comes three deleted scenes running ten minutes including an alternate ending and introduction to the three scenes, which include a scene where Geppetto tells Pinocchio about the tree he was made from, a different version of Geppetto inside Monstro and the alternate ending showing a different version of Pinocchio becoming a real boy. All of the scenes are previewed in storyboard form and narration explaining the origin of the scene and how it would have fit into the film.
“The Sweatbox” is a six minute featurette looking at the room referred to as the sweatbox, something Walt Disney pioneered. All this is was a tiny room where animated footage or montaged storyboards were previewed for Walt to critique and give direction based on how the film and story was coming together.
“Live Action Reference Footage” is ten minutes of pretty much exactly what it sounds like it is with plenty of old school looks at the reference footage animators used to bring Pinocchio to life with emphasis on the scene where Jiminy Cricket warms himself by the fire. It’s more of a “how did they do that” than simply showing you reference footage. You have seen this before on other Disney DVDs, but this is a little more in-depth.
You also get some puzzle games, a trailer gallery, production art gallery, a deleted song titled “Honest John” and an 11 minute feature on toy making showing the difference between the toys Geppetto made to the high tech toys of today. It sort of has the feeling of being a mini-TLC program.
Finally, it comes with a feature referred to as “Disney View” which takes the 1.33:1 presentation and adds original artwork from animator/artist Toby Bluth to each side of the screen to fill up your widescreen television. The painted panels change throughout the film, primarily to correspond with the scene you are watching. There is also an included DVD version of the film for those that may not have Blu-ray players spread throughout the house or want to take it in their car during trips to entertain the kids.
In my opinion there are currently two kinds of must buy Blu-ray discs. The first being Criterion’s step into Blu-ray allowing consumers the chance to once again get in on the ground floor of the Criterion Collection and classic animated Disney films on Blu-ray. Pinocchio marks only the second classic Disney to be released in high-definition. Sleeping Beauty was the first and you can click here and buy both Sleeping Beauty and Pinocchio and begin your classic Disney Blu-ray collection and you won’t have to buy another one until the fall release of Snow White. To me this is a no brainer for any animated film fan or fan of classic Disney 2-D animation. These Blu-ray releases look spectacular and the films speak for themselves.
