Lampwick

Lampwick is a supporting character in Disney's 1940 animated feature film Pinocchio, based upon the character Lucignolo ("Candlewick") from the Italian story Pinocchio by . Although not confirmed specifically, Disney chief animator Fred Moore is credited for the appearance of Lampwick. Moore, who was responsible for the character's story arc, is believed to have added the red hair and buck teeth as a caricature of himself.
==Background==
Lampwick is a tough, older boy from the streets, who becomes friends with Pinocchio on their way to Pleasure Island. Based on the description of him from the Coachman, he was most likely chosen to go to Pleasure Island due to his bad behavior. He laughs at all forms of authority, preferring to engage in vices such drinking, smoking, and vandalizing.
===Personality===
Lampwick is a delinquent, resenting, and rejecting all forms of authority. He prefers to spend his time engaging in vices and fully enjoyed the activities and events in Pleasure Island, gladly taking part in all of it. He even expressed his desire for a good fistfight. He was friendly towards Pinocchio however, acting as his best friend while they were at Pleasure Island, playing pool and taking part in other activities and even gives Pinocchio a friendly nickname. Thus, despite his numerous negative traits, Lampwick can be quite friendly and affable with children who share his interests, becoming Pinocchio's first human friend in his life.
Despite his friendliness with Pinocchio, Lampwick is rather disrespectful and rude towards Jiminy Cricket, even though the latter was trying to help. He also scoffs at the idea of a conscience and was more concerned with indulging in his own pleasures.
However, when he realized that he was transforming into a donkey, he displayed absolute terror and desperation, calling for help from anyone, including Jiminy and his mother. When his transformation is complete, he becomes completely hysterical and runs away braying in desperation.
In the 2022 remake, after being transformed into a donkey, Lampwick acts heroically, knocking over a pool table to stop the Coachman and his minions from capturing Pinocchio, which buys the wooden boy enough time to flee. Despite his shortcomings and tendency to engage in vices, Lampwick is shown to be willing to stand up and defend his friends.
He can be considered a jock as he was able to shoot a pool ball from an awkward angle and somehow was able to cause the cue ball to make a group of pool balls stacked on top of each other.
===Physical appearance===
As a human, Lampwick is a tall and slender boy immediately identifiable by his red hair and buckteeth. His outfit consists of a formal brown jacket and yellow vest with a green ascot over his white shirt, complemented by olive green pants with suspenders and a pair of brown shoes. He also wears a bowler hat with a single feather in it. Upon turning into a donkey, he loses these and his trademark red hair.
==Appearances==
===Pinocchio===
Lampwick meets Pinocchio on the Coachman's stagecoach, and the two quickly become fast friends. Though Lampwick has never been to Pleasure Island, he has heard great things about the fun they can have there. Pinocchio and Lampwick spent their free time roughing up other boys, smoking, eating, drinking beer, and playing pool. Lampwick was more experienced at these activities and goads Pinocchio into doing the same, such as vandalizing a model home, then praising Pinocchio when he throws a brick through a stained-glass window. At the pool hall, it becomes apparent that they seem to be the only boys left at the park, though Lampwick doesn't seem to care, and doesn't even suspect anything to be awry.
When Jiminy Cricket arrives at the island trying to convince Pinocchio to leave after scolding him for doing the wrong things again, Lampwick is quick to shoot him down, stating Pinocchio was foolish to "take orders from a grasshopper". Jiminy is insulted, but Pinocchio defends him, saying that Lampwick is his best friend. After Lampwick continues to harass him, Jiminy leaves the two boys in a huff.
In one of the more frightening scenes, while he and Pinocchio are playing pool, drinking, and smoking, he and Lampwick start transforming into donkeys. First, Lampwick grows donkey ears, a tail, and his head completely transforms. The transformation is not painful, as evidenced by Lampwick's ignorance of his condition. However, this also creates a paradox in the film: Pinocchio does notice when his ears and tail grow in, even though Lampwick does not. It is theorized that Lampwick's overly-intoxicated condition led to his ignorance of the changes.
When Pinocchio sees Lampwick's ears grow into donkey ears, he becomes suspicious and puts aside his own mug of beer. The transformation continues as Lampwick then grows a donkey tail (ripping through his pants), complete with a long hairy very dark tangelo tassel that sweeps across the floor, prompting Pinocchio to stop smoking. After Lampwick's head completely changes, Pinocchio laughs at him when Lampwick asks if he looks like a "jackass," because he literally does. Lampwick doesn't notice these changes until he accidentally brays like a donkey while laughing at Pinocchio, who had did the same thing by accident when laughing at him. He covers his mouth in shock and asks Pinocchio if that came out of him, to which Pinocchio nods. Lampwick then touches his mouth and notices it feels different, before rubbing his face and feels it covered in fur. Finally, he feels his ears only to find that they have grown longer. He immediately grabs them, sees this change and asks what is going on. When he sees that he is now half-donkey in a wall mirror, he realizes that he has been double-crossed and goes into a great panic, screaming for help.
Pinocchio watches the whole thing, but has no idea what to do and can only watch while frozen with fear. Lampwick begs Pinocchio to help him, unaware that Jiminy, having learned of the island's curse, was already on his way. Then, Lampwick's hands form into hooves, along with his feet as he grows reddish-brown fur over the rest of his body. Lampwick cries for his mother, but it was no use and he is forced onto four legs and his transformation into a donkey is complete. He screams for his mother one last time before his ability to speak goes away entirely, and begins braying. He runs around in a great panic, destroying the pool hall with his hind legs while shaking his clothes off, and flees the scene braying in terror. Jiminy only arrives moments later, in time to save Pinocchio, who had only grown donkey ears and a tail, but too late to offer any help to Lampwick, who is now trapped on the island.
===Who Framed Roger Rabbit===
Lampwick makes a cameo in the film in a Toontown poster advertising for smoking cigarettes with his donkey ears and tail from the original Pinocchio film.
===House of Mouse===
Lampick is seen in the episode "Jiminy Cricket", sitting along with Honest John and Gideon.
===Pinocchio (2022)===
Lampwick appears in the live-action adaptation of the original 1940 movie, portrayed by pre-teen actor Lewin Lloyd. In this film, Lampwick is the one who drags Pinocchio onto the ride to Pleasure Island when Pinocchio was on the crossroads trying to get home to Geppetto after escaping from Stromboli. Compared to his animated counterpart, this Lampwick is a little more meaner to Pinocchio as he constantly mocks Pinocchio for having a conscience.
As Pinocchio is captured and placed onto the Coachman's carriage, Lampwick encounters Pinocchio and makes fun of him for being a puppet as Lampwick tells him that he and the other children are being brought to Pleasure Island, the place where children are free from law doing everything they want to which as the Coachman briefly stops his wagon, Lampwick participates during the musical number "The Coachman to Pleasure Island" with the other children where Pinocchio feels unsure about this at first which Pinocchio decides to go to Pleasure Island with the children, just as he takes Pinocchio and Lampwick there.
As Lampwick and Pinocchio arrive at Pleasure Island, the Coachman greets the children who arrive in this place. Lampwick then shows Pinocchio of the things what the naughty children are doing just as Pinocchio denies, telling him that he might upset Geppetto if he were there. After a trip around Pleasure Island, Lampwick enters a bar playing billiards where he talks with Pinocchio who replies to him where the children are at which the two are unaware that the children are being turned into donkeys. However, Lampwick tells him why he never smashed any of the clocks they saw earlier at Pleasure Island which Pinocchio replies that he wants to be a good boy, not a naughty boy. Just as Jiminy enters the bar, he attempts to warn Pinocchio about the dangers of Pleasure Island only for Lampwick to knock him down a grate leading him the area of children who were turned into donkeys are being sold by the Coachman to the salt mine. Just like his animated version, he is transformed into a donkey but when the Coachman comes to collect Pinocchio, the donkey Lampwick kicks a pool table to stall him to buy Pinocchio enough time to escape with Jiminy.
It's unknown what happened to him after that, either the Coachman got him and sold him to the salt mines or he managed to escape.
==Disney Parks==
As part of the Disney Dreamers Everywhere special event in 2013, Lampwick appeared alongside Pinocchio, Geppetto, Honest John and Gideon as a walk-around character for a special meet and greet at Walt Disney World. He also has been seen with one of The Stupid Little Boys, sporting donkey ears and tail for the Disneyland Main Street Electrical Parade. Other than that, he hasn't been a meetable character.
==Gallery==
==Trivia==
*Lampwick ('Lucignolo') had a somewhat larger role in the original story of Pinocchio in that it is he, and not the Fox and the Cat (the original counterparts of Honest John and Gideon) who tempts a reluctant Pinocchio into going with him to Pleasure Island (here called 'Toyland'). In the book, he was sold to a farmer. Pinocchio later gets a job as a farm-boy at the same farm and recognizes his former friend. Unfortunately, by this point, he shortly died afterward from being worked to death.
*In the book, it was mentioned that his real name is Romeo, but was called Lampwick for his slender appearance.
*As he transforms into a donkey, his clenched fists turn into hooves. However, in real life, a donkey's hoof only corresponds to a human's middle finger, which is considered offensive to most people.
*As shown in some early concepts/sketches of Lampwick after transforming into a donkey, he was originally supposed to escape Pleasure Island with Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket, but was captured by the coachman or his minions and advises to Pinocchio to escape without him. That scene can be overlooked in this picture where Walt Disney appears looking at the storyboard. Some storybook adaptations keep this concept.
*Lampwick doesn't appear on Once Upon a Time. However, when Pinocchio comes with the baby Emma Swan in the Land Without Magic, the character of Gordie serves as an allusion to him. It is he who entices Pinocchio to stray from his path to protect Emma and leave the orphanage, similarly to how Lampwick leads Pinocchio astray in the film.
*He can be heard whistling "Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee" as he plays pool in one scene.
*In the more lighted hearted book adaptation he does not get turned into a donkey. He also takes a similar role to the cat and the Fox from the original story that inspired Honest Johnna and Gideon, who stole Pinocchio’s money. In this case, he stole a bag of candy. Unlike the cats do fox, let alone himself in the movie he got away.
*Lampwick is shown to be a highly skilled pool player, as he demonstrates several advanced trick shots while casually conversing with Pinocchio. Perhaps an allusion to pool hustling.
*He nicknames Pinocchio "Slats" in both versions, a reference to his wooden nature.
== Variants ==
* Lampwick (Pinocchio 2022)
es:Polilla
fr:Crapule
it:Lucignolo
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