Product: Pinocchio
Rating: 5.0
This film has never looked better...and Disney's magic dust is as potent as ever
Note: The review that follows is of the 70th Anniversary edition that includes Blu-ray and DVD discs.I first saw Pinocchio soon after it appeared on movie screens in 1939 and have since seen it more than a dozen times. Based on Carlo Collodi's children's classic, it remains my favorite Disney animated feature, the first to be released as a DVD and is now available in both Blu-ray and High Definition, also for the first time. It has never looked better. The two-disc Platinum 70th Anniversary Edition supplements the 88-minute film with a wealth of bonus features that include never-before-seen deleted scenes, a never-before-seen alternative ending, the "Pinocchio Knows Trivia Challenge," "Pleasure Island Carnival Games," the "No Strings Attached" featurette on making the film, and an audio commentary by Leonard Maltin (film critic and historian), Eric Goldberg (Disney animator and director), and J.B. Kaufman (film historian and author). These bonus features are indeed special.As is also true of so many later Disney animated features (notably Dumbo in 1941, Bambi in 1942, Peter Pan in 1953, and Beauty and the Beast in 1991), the film Pinocchio examines several themes that include a child's or children's separation from loved ones, efforts to reunite them, serious (sometimes life-threatening) dangers to be overcome, lessons learned from all the struggles, and of course the happy ending. Of course, children's reactions to Pinocchio will vary depending upon age. (My ten grandchildren range in aqe from two to 17.) Younger ones may become upset by certain scenes, as when the little boys on Pleasure Island become donkeys, but "children of all ages" - including parents and grandparents - will thoroughly enjoy the musical score as well as Jiminy Cricket whose voice is provided by Cliff Edwards. This is one of Disney's loveliest and most charming films. In a survey conducted by the American Film Institute in 2008, Pinocchio was ranked #2 among the ten greatest animated features. (Note: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was #1, then Pinocchio, followed by Bambi, The Lion King, Fantasia, Toy Story, Beauty and the Beast, Shrek, Cinderella, and Finding Nemo.) It will be interesting to see how the rankings change in years to come as other excellent animated features (e.g. Ratatouille, Wall-E, and Bolt) begin to attract more attention and appreciation.I look forward to watching Pinocchio for many more years to come, hopefully with great grandchildren and their parents as well as friends. My guess is that, however technologically advanced our society has become by then, the magic dust of Disney's animated film classics will continue to be as potent as ever.