“Pinocchio: The Signature Collection” is the definitive version of “Pinocchio” on Blu-ray to own! A timeless classic, “Pinocchio: The Signature Collection” is highly recommended!
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TITLE:Â Pinocchio: The Signature Collection
YEAR OF FILM: 1940
DURATION: 88 minutes
BLU-RAY DISC INFORMATION: 1080P High Definition 1:33:1, 1080p High Definition, English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio (DTS-HDHR), Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish and French
COMPANY: Disney
RATED: G
RELEASE DATE: January 31, 2017
Supervising Director: Bill Roberts, Ben Sharpsteen
Sequence director: Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney
Produced by Walt Disney
Music by Leigh Harline, Paul J. Smith
Featuring the Voices of:
Mel Blank (voice of Cleo, Figaro and Gideon)
Cliff Edwards (voice of Jiminy Cricket)
Dickie Jones (voice of Alexander, Pinocchio)
Christian Rub (voice of Gepetto)
Walter Catlett (voice of Honest John)
Frankie Darro (voice of Lampwick)
Charles Judels (voice of The Coachman/Stromboili)
Evelyn Venable (voice of the Blue Fairy)
Now a part of the celebrated Walt Disney Signature Collection, the timeless story of PINOCCHIO inspires a new generation with its masterful animation, award-winning music, unforgettable characters and exclusive, all-new behind-the-scenes Bonus Extras! With his faithful friend Jiminy Cricket by his side, Pinocchio embarks on fantastic adventures that test his bravery, loyalty and honesty until he triumphs in his quest for his heart’s desire: to become a real boy.
A timeless classic that has been entertaining audiences for over 75 years, Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio” receives the Signature Collection Treatment on Blu-ray.
Released back in 1940 and is a animated musical fantasy film based on the Italian children’s novel “The Adventures of Pinocchio” by Carlo Collodi. The film is also the second animated feature produced by Disney after their successful release of the 1937 animated film, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”.
The film was a box office success as the two million dollar film would go on to make over $84 million.
“Pinocchio” begins with a wood carving puppet maker named Gepetto (voiced by Christian Rub) creating a wooden puppet of a boy which he names Pinocchio. Living with Gepetto is his pet cat Figaro and his goldfish Cleo but for Gepetto, he dreams that his Pinocchio can come to life.
Meanwhile, a cricket named Jimini Cricket (voiced by Cliff Edwards) stays at Gepetto’s place and watches as the Blue Fairy comes during the night and grants Gepetto’s wish and makes Pinocchio come to life.
Of course, Pinocchio (voiced by Richard Jones) is not to knowledgeable of how people live and what is right and what is wrong but the Blue Fairy chooses Jimini Cricket to become his consciousness and to help steer him to make decisions that are good. And if Pinocchio can prove that he can learn to be good and unselfish, he can become a real boy and Jimini Cricket can get the gold badge that he has desired.
When Gepetto awakes and discovers that his puppet has come alive, Gepetto is overjoyed and surprised that his dream has come true. Very quick to get Pinocchio ready for his new life, Pinocchio’s first goal is to go to school.
But unfortunately, Pinocchio befriends to con men (or animals) J Worthington Foulfellow (voiced by Walter Catlett) and Gideo the cat (voiced by Mel Blanc) who pretend to help Pinocchio and pretend to be his friend and lead him to a different path, despite warnings from Jiminy Cricket.
Pinocchio learns the hard way that not everyone he meets are good people but most of all, he learns a hard lesson about making good and bad choices, lying and eventually, having to make the right choices to save himself from harm.
VIDEO:
So, far the Walt Disney Blu-ray disc animated (as well as theatrical) releases are among the best in picture and audio quality.
“Pinocchio” (1940) is a much older release, this film presented in multiplane Technicolor just looks absolutely fabulous on Blu-ray.
For nearly a year, an expert restoration team digitally scanned 380,334 frames of four and half miles of 71 year-old film negative, cleaning 126,778 frames, realigning each scene, removing dirt, scratches and dust and matching colors to the original cels and backgrounds. The clarity of “Pinocchio” is just amazing and I was just impressed how clean the animation was.
From the details of the backgrounds to the vibrant colors used, picture quality was just spectacular.
AUDIO:
“Pinocchio” is presented in English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and French 7.1 DTS-HDMA and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital. The film features crystal clear dialogue and musical score.
So, for those who have been enchanted with songs such as “When You Wish Upon A Star” to “I’ve Got No Strings”, fans of Disney composer Leigh Harline, Ned Washington and Paul J. Smith are going to enjoy how beautiful the music sounds on their home theater setup. The music from “Pinocchio” earned the film two Oscars in 1941 for “Best Music, Original Score” and “Best Music, Original Song” for “When You Wish Upon a Star” which would become Disney’s anthem.
Subtitles are presented in English SDH, Spanish and French.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“Pinocchio” comes with the following special features:
- The Pinnochio Project “When You Wish Upon a Star†– (3:03) Featuring the making of “When You Wish Upon a Star” sung by YouTube music stars JR Aquino, Tanner Patrick and Alex G. Music by Tanner Patrick and music producer Philippe Saise.
- When You Wish Upon a Star Music Video – (2:49) Featuring JR Aquino, Tanner Patrick and Alex G.
- Walt’s Story Meetings: Pleasure Island – (7:14) A voice recreation from the transcript of story meetings preserved by Walt Disney Archives.
- In Walt’s Words – Pinocchio – (4:48) An audio recording with archived video sources of Walt Disney discussing “Pinocchio”.
- Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in “Poor Papa” – (5:18) A classic animated short featuring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
- Audio Commentary – Audio commentary with Leonard Maltin, Eric Goldberg and J.B. Kaufman. A very informative and also enthusiastic commentary in which the three discuss their feelings of the film, what scenes touched them and also some informative facts about the film. The optional video commentary allows people to have a picture-in-picture display in which you can watch the three discuss the film and then also some interviews with the original crew involved with the film.
- No Strings Attached: The Making of Pinocchio – Witness the behind-the scenes magic that transformed Carlo Collodi’s popular book into a classic animated film. About an hour long and very informative featurette about how the film cost Disney over $2 million to make but the film didn’t do well in the box office until later as the music became a big part of Disney and people started to discover it’s technical, artistic and musical merit and having become a Disney masterpiece.
- Deleted Scenes – In the Disney vault, storyboards for deleted scenes and an alternate ending were found. Without spoiling any of these, the following scenes are:
– The story of the Grandfather Tree – Kindly Geppetto tells Pinocchio about the Great Pine Tree from which Pinocchio is descended.
– In The Belly Of The Whale – The most elaborate of Pinocchio’s deleted scenes that remain in the Disney Archives, these recently discovered storyboards reveal a different version of Geppetto inside Monstro.
– Alternate Ending – A recently uncovered set of small storyboard panels reveal plans for a different version of Pinocchio becoming a real boy. - The Sweat Box – The Sweatbox was a small projection room at the Disney studio where Walt critiqued story reels, rough animation, and dailies of films in progress with his anxious artists. This piece traces the history of the Sweatbox and brings to life this important part of Walt Disney’s artistic process.
- Geppettos Then And Now – A look at the art of toymaking as it has evolved into the 21st Century. A fun featurette showcasing those who make toys, those who still carve wooden puppets to those who have created the Wall-E robot toy and I-Sobot.
- Live Action Reference Footage – Older footage of how live action was used in the film, especially with the movements of Jimini Cricket.
- “When You Wish Upon a Star†– An music video starring Meaghan Jette Martin (Camp Rock) performing an all-new version of “When You Wish Upon A Star!â€Â
- A Wish Come True: The Making of Pinocchio – (5:06) The original making of “Pinocchio” special feature.
- Storyboard-to-Film Final Comparison – (3:56) Featuring a storyboard segment (shown at the top) and the final animated version shown at the bottom.
- Song Selection – This section allows the viewer to listen to the music portions from the film.
EXTRAS:
“Pinocchio: The Signature Collection” comes with a slipcover, a DVD version of the film and a Disney Digital HD code.
For those who have never owned “Pinocchio” will surely enjoy this Blu-ray release of “Pinocchio: The Signature Collection”.
A film which many of us grew up with as child and learning about the love between Pinocchio and his creator/father, Geppetto but also learning a major lesson about lying and also promoting Disney’s “Making Your Wish Come True”.
A timeless classic, this film which is over 75-years-old looks and sounds fantastic on Blu-ray. And to have a such an important classic animated film released on Blu-ray to look this spectacular is impressive but to go back into the sealed archives of Disney and to find any video or any type of existing artwork or storyboards was quite insightful.
Learning how Walt Disney wanted to immediately change his version of “Pinocchio” from Carlo Collodi’s original 1911 story “avventure de Pinocchio” (which featured an unlikeable, wiseguy Pinocchio and dark stories about abductions and murders) to learning also how strict Walt Disney was in making sure his staff knew what he wanted and did all he can to bring the best out of them.
Now, as a parent, I did watch this film with my child. For those who are not familiar with the classic Disney films, although Disney films are rated G, Disney films from the past versus a Disney film like “Wall-E” or a modern Disney animated film that is generally fine for children will need to know that back then, Walt Disney’s animated films were created for people of all ages and not just children (which was discussed on the commentary).
So, therefore Walt Disney’s first film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” had darker content. Disney’s second film “Pinocchio” has its share of scenes that may make some parents uncomfortable. For example, in one scene, Pinocchio follows a wiseguy who likes to smoke and thus Pinocchio starts smoking a cigar (and of course getting sick by it), scenes with beer drinking and then of course, a scene where the word “jackass” is used a few times. Some may feel the content is inappropriate for their children, so I will leave that up to the parents discretion.
I know the biggest question from Disney fans is whether or not they should splurge on this Blu-ray version if they owned the fantastic 2009 “70th Anniversary Platinum Edition” on Blu-ray.
When it comes to the film and lossless audio, the 70th Anniversary version has the original theatrical soundtrack, the Signature Collection doesn’t, but it offers a French 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack and a Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack which the 2009 version didn’t have.
“Pinocchio: The Signature Collection” also comes with four newer special features and the special features are not spread on two Blu-ray discs like the 70th Anniversary Platinum Edition. The special features are nearly alike with the exception of the lack of inclusion of the video picture-in-picture video commentary and the remote control games that were popular in the late 2000’s.
So, unlike the “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Signature Collection” which I did gripe a bit because it had less special features compared to the 2009 Platinum Edition, this time around, there are more special features that come with the “Pinocchio: The Signature Collection”.
So, “Pinocchio: The Signature Collection” is the better version of the two. So, it is worth upgrading to, if special features are important to you. Otherwise, I’m sure hardcore Disney animation fans will most likely want to own both Blu-ray versions but for those that are primarily wanting this for the film on HD and don’t care for special features can stick with their 2009 Platinum Edition Blu-ray release.
Overall, “Pinocchio: The Signature Collection” is the definitive version of “Pinocchio” on Blu-ray to own! A timeless classic, “Pinocchio: The Signature Collection” is highly recommended!
