Pleasure Island (Pinocchio)

**Pleasure Island** is a cursed island that appears in the 1940 film *Pinocchio*. It occupies an amusement park headed by the Coachman, which is designed to turn mischievous young boys into donkeys.

## Background

Pleasure Island is a theme park located on an island, where it is accessed by ferry. According to the Coachman, it is specialized to serve "stupid little boys" who are disobedient and play hooky from school. It is implied to be illegal and extremely notorious, as hinted by J. Worthington Foulfellow.

The Coachman runs the island and takes all the bad boys he has collected (or others he hires for the job just like Honest John and Gideon) from various towns and villages to the island, where the boys are free to do whatever they please, such as smoking, drinking alcohol, fighting, wrecking the place, and other deeds that good children wouldn't do. Food, alcohol and tobacco are made freely available on the island. The boys are also free of the law and any parents or cops who could stop them from being naughty. Essentially, the island is designed to be the perfect paradise for bad boys.

However, unknown to the boys, Pleasure Island actually serves as a trap. Once the boys have spent enough time being bad, they begin to succumb to a horrific curse that exists over the island (presumably placed via ancient dark magic rituals by the Coachman himself) which turns them into donkeys due to making complete "jackasses" of themselves and behaving like destructive animals. The boys first grow donkey ears, then a tail, their head turns furry with donkey hair, their laughing becomes braying, their hands and feet become hooves, they lose the ability to talk (though some donkeys like Alexander can still talk), and then finally go on all fours. The donkeys are then rounded up by the Coachman and his minions and inspected. Those who can no longer talk are stripped of their clothes and thrown into crates and then taken back to the mainland via ferry and are finally sold by the Coachman into hard labor in salt mines, at the circus, at the farms, and possibly other places for money. The few donkeys who retain their voices however are not shipped with the others and are presumably kept by the Coachman until they too completely lose their voices or are possibly disposed of to prevent them from warning other victims who come to the island.

The exact way the curse is placed over the island or how it turns the boys into donkeys is unknown, though it appears that it only takes effect once the boys have committed enough bad behavior. There appears to be no way to stop it once the transformation begins and appears to be permanent, as even remorse for their actions doesn't reverse the effects and Pinocchio's donkey ears, tail, and bray in his laugh did not disappear until he was later revived by the Blue Fairy. It appears to work slower for some individuals as both Lampwick and Pinocchio showed no effects of the curse until long after the other boys possibly due to the fact they relaxed for a while playing pool. It also remains unknown how some of the boys are able to retain their voices while others aren't, though it possibly depends on the severity of their misdeeds. It is apparent that the curse can only work on transforming the boys while they’re on the island, as after Pinocchio escaped, he underwent no further transformation.

## Role in Sora’s Adventures

The island appeared in Sora's Adventures in Prankster's Paradise as Pinocchio and his friends will stop the Coachman and his Heartless after Pinocchio had performed his Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony.

## Trivia

* The Blue Fairy's magic appears to be the only way to undo the curse of Pleasure Island as Pinocchio's donkey ears and tail completely disappeared when he was revived by her into a real boy.
* Apparently, it is not just bad boys from Pinocchio's village that go to Pleasure Island, as the ferry that took Pinocchio and Lampwick to Pleasure Island was full of other boys.