Product: Pinocchio
Rating: 5.0
"Little puppet made of pine, awake. The gift of life is thine."
In PINOCCHIO, Walt Disney's first feature-length cartoon since his historicSNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS(1937), the artwork amazes, one of its wonderful songs, "When You Wish Upon a Star," won an Oscar, and the story of a marionette come to life who must resist temptations (with the help of a cricket conscience) if he's to become a real boy, positively charms. Artistic highlights are the brief wagon on a rainy night scene and the longer "Gepetto in the whale" sequence.Pinocchio is voiced by Dckie Jones, who starred inOLIVER TWISTin 1933. Cliff Edwards, the voice of Jiminy Cricket here, was a popular 1920s recording artist known as 'Ukulele Ike.' Edwards is credited with inventing a style of jazz singing called 'scat.' Cliff referred to it as 'effing.'The original Popeye, gravel-voiced William Costello, is probably heard as a statue, although IMDb assumes it's his FLEISCHER replacement, Jack Mercer. In his only Disney picture (not counting "Roger Rabbit"), Mel Blanc's sole contribution is a hiccough (all his dialogue was cut).Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 IMDb viewer poll rating.(7.7) Pinocchio (1940) - uncredited voices of: Dckie Jones/Cliff Edwards/Mel Blanc/Frankie Darro/Don Brodie/Walter Catlett/Marion Darlington/Evelyn Venable/William Costello