Happy 65th Anniversary Pinocchio!
Released February 7th, 1940
Ultimate Disney Pinocchio DVD Review
Fun Facts
- The film required the talents of 750 artists, including animators, assistants, layout artists, background painters, special effects animators, and inkers and painters, who produced more than 2 million drawings and used some 1,500 shades of paint for the Technicolor production.
- In the book the movie is based on, the character of Jiminy Cricket was unnamed, appeared in only a few chapters, and was squashed by Pinocchio!
- Some believe the Blue Fairy was modeled after Marilyn Monroe –- but Monroe was only 14 at the time! The real-life model was Marjorie Babbitt, a dancer who had earlier enacted the part of Snow White for the animators.
- Story concept for the movie was difficult. One day Walt Disney decided to scrap five months' work -- including animation -- and start over because it wasn't right.
- The movie is based on the serialized stories of journalist Carlo Lorenzini (aka, Collodi) written in 1881 for a children's illustrated weekly in Florence, Italy. Two years later, the stories were compiled into a book, "The Adventures Of Pinocchio: Tale Of A Puppet."
- Jiminy Cricket became the film's most popular and enduring character appearing in subsequent Disney films and television shows, including FUN AND FANCY FREE and the Mickey Mouse Club.
- Gustaf Tenggren, an award-winning illustrator, was assigned to the production to give the film the kind of lavish European storybook flavor that Walt Disney envisioned.
- The movie won an Academy Award(R) for best score and best song, "When You Wish Upon A Star."
- Many film historians describe the film as the most beautifully realized and technically perfect of all the Disney animated features.
- The film cost $2.6 million in 1940, but using the same techniques and processes, it would cost well over $100 million today.
Awards
* Academy Award® Winner (1940) -- Best Score
