The twisted history of Pinocchio on screen
Why can't we stop adapting this story? And why is every single adaptation just so creepy in its own special way?
What is it about Pinocchio, the story of a marionette puppet who wants to become a real boy, that makes filmmakers keep coming back to it, again and again? There are dozens of film adaptations floating out there, dating all the way back to the silent era, from animated features for the whole family to soft-core porn. Even with all these variations, you’d be hard pressed to find one that doesn’t fall somewhere between unsettlingly creepy and downright terrifying. And yes, that includes the original 1940 Disney animated classic. Since Pinocchio happens to be the latest in a series of live-action adaptations from Disney—and one of at least three adaptations coming out in 2022—we thought we’d take a look at the history of Pinocchio on film and why he’s such a popular subject, despite the inescapable weirdness factor.
From humble origins
As fairytale characters go, Pinocchio isn’t as old as you may think. Created by Italian political cartoonist Carlo Collodi, he first appeared in the pages of a weekly Italian children’s magazine in the late 19th century. Collodi eventually collected the stories into a single volume and published it in 1883, but that serialized origin will always be a part of Pinocchio’s DNA. That could be one of the reasons why it’s so tricky to adapt. It also explains some of the attraction. There are so many elements of the story to pick and choose from—the wooden boy who wants to be real, who cannot lie without his nose growing, who’s tempted by the stage and a life of pleasure, nearly turned into a donkey, then swallowed by a whale—filmmakers can focus on what interests them and leave the rest behind.
The very first screen adaptation of Pinocchio came out in 1911, just 28 years after the original book was published. It was a 45-minute Italian silent film that shows Pinocchio—portrayed by a fully grown man in a clown costume, complete with long nose—defying Geppetto as soon as he finishes carving him and wildly rampaging through a little village square. It’s creepy in the same way old vintage Halloween masks can be, probably cool for its time but nightmare fuel today.
It wouldn’t be until 1940, the same year the book rights reverted to the public domain (no coincidence, that), before another big-screen adaptation would hit theaters. Walt Disney wasn’t the first filmmaker to attempt to make an animated feature based on Pinocchio (an Italian studio set out to produce one in 1936, but never finished), he was just the first to succeed. Pinocchio became Walt Disney’s second feature-length animated film after Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. Unlike its predecessor, Pinocchio was a box-office disappointment. That wouldn’t stop legions of imitators and copycats in the years to come, though. And while it may be the least cringeworthy adaptation of all the versions we found, it still has some pretty intense scenes that have left generations of kids scarred for life. Despite its initial stumbling, Disney’s Pinocchio eventually found an audience and, like many Disney productions, cast a long shadow.
Pinocchio’s adventures through the decades
The next notable adaptation came along in 1957, a black-and-white television special starring Mickey Rooney as the title character (he would have been 37 at the time). It only aired once, and the only footage that still exists is pretty poor quality, but you can tell it was wild.
But it was in the 1960s and ’70s when Pinocchio adaptations really started getting strange. Here are a few of note from those years, and not one of them is anywhere near normal.
- Pinocchio In Outer Space (1965): A Belgian-American animated film in which Pinocchio blasts off in a rocket and has some adventures in space. In this version, Jiminy Cricket is replaced by an alien turtle called (no joke) “Nurtle the Twurtle.”
- Pinocchio (1968): Another television movie starring Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits as Pinocchio and Burl Ives as Geppetto. It’s never not weird when Pinocchio is played by a whole adult man.
- The Erotic Adventures Of Pinocchio (1971): An X-rated version billed as “a bedtime story for adults,” this hot take involves a “virgin” named Geppetta who stumbles upon a talking log in the forest and decides to carve it into the perfect man. No, really. The explanation can’t do this one justice.