Pinocchio - The Disney movie where the villains get away with it

[thejboy88]

Spoilers below

So I was going through some old Disney movies the other day, and I started watching Pinocchio in particular. And even after all this time, I still love it to bits. But something occurred to me as I was watching it. Something that I hadn't thought about until very recently. The bad guys in the film, for all intents and purposes, get away Scott-free with all the crimes and atrocities they committed. None of them ever face the consequences or any kind of justice for their actions.

Take so-called "Honest" John and his cat companion. They sell Pinocchio to Stromboli, and then later to the Coachman, but neither of them go to jail or anything. In fact, we never see them again after they sell the kid the second time over, so they're probably off enjoying their ill-gotten gains with no downside whatsoever. And the Coachman himself? That guy turns literal boatloads of boys into donkeys and sells them off to salt mines, and will probably continue to do so to any other kids he finds in the future.

Stromboli? Sure, he loses his "little wooden gold mine", but he still walks free, AND with all that money Pinocchio got him for his first performance to boot. The only thing close to consequences any of these villains faces is when Monstro, the giant whale, crashes against the rocks at the climax of the movie. And even then, we don't know what that does to him. For all we know, it just gives him a mild headache, and he just goes off to continue to harass those at sea like he's been doing this whole time.

Maybe the original book was different, and these guys DID suffer for their actions. But as far as the movie is concerned, it remains the only Disney film I've yet seen where the villains were, for the most part, 100% successful in their evil schemes.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Maybe the original book was different, and these guys DID suffer for their actions. But as far as the movie is concerned, it remains the only Disney film I've yet seen where the villains were, for the most part, 100% successful in their evil schemes.

Hell in the original book Pinocchio kills Jiminy and is hanged halfway through (he gets better though).
On Disney villains getting away with it, there's the hunter that kills Bambi's mom, if you count that. And I don't remember the circus crew from Dumbo getting punished either but it's been a while.

 

[Fox12]

I think it makes the story better. Remember that Pinocchio is a fable to make kids behave (the book at least). So those dangers are still out there. The point is to tell kids that the world is dangerous, so they better behave or they'll run into trouble. If you skip school, you'll fall in with the wrong crowd.

The book was also much darker. Pinocchio kills jimminy cricket with a shoe for trying to tell him what to do.

 

[Casual Shinji]

In the book Pinocchio contemplates killing a boy for his heart, because he's under the believe that this'll make him a real boy. He also gets shot by Russians.

Watch the anime series by Saban to get a clearer picture as to all the dark shit that was in this story.


Don't let the cheery intro fool you.

 

[King Billi]

It fits with the themes of the story and still provides a valuable lesson, the bad guys are not there to be defeated they represent the dangers inherant in disobedience and making foolish decisions.

In real life we can't eliminate all the possible dangers out in the world but we can protect ourselves from them by not talking to strangers or stepping into a strange carriage.

I actually really love this film, certainly my favourite of classic Disney.

And as another contribution to the weirdness that is the source material... In the book, Pinocchio is not simply a puppet that is given life through magic, he was already a living, talking piece of wood that just happens to be carved into the shape of a puppet.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Ooooh, that's a good point. I didn't realize that, but yeah, they really DO get away with everything.

Maybe the original book was different, and these guys DID suffer for their actions. But as far as the movie is concerned, it remains the only Disney film I've yet seen where the villains were, for the most part, 100% successful in their evil schemes.

Hell in the original book Pinocchio kills Jiminy and is hanged halfway through (he gets better though).]

Of course he gets better. He's a puppet. It's reaaaally hard to kill an animated object. XD I don't see how hanging one would really do anything serious. Worst case is "oh no, the wood of my neck broke. Oh well, better get some duct tape" XD

 

[American Fox]

In the book, Honest John had gotten his tail cut off, and Gideon lost his eyes after the money tree incident.

In Sword and the Stone Mad Madam Mim only got a cold. The abusive foster father and brother got forgiven.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Even though the Disney folk took quite some artistic liberties with the Pinocchio source material - a children's novel - I still believe the movie is excellent and serves a number of purposes beyond merely planting kids in front of a screen for an hour and a half while you go clop and yiff and tumble in the sheets with your brother's wife.

What I still get from Pinocchio today is this: an entertaining, not overly complicated tale that invites me, without forcing me to do so, to provide further context to a mind that is still in the process of maturing. And it does its job amazingly well - which is even more fascinating when you think that it was released in 1940. That's 77 years ago, and even with its small (but substantial) differences to the original book, it is just about as timeless as the book that inspired it, with a core set of messages that can be considered intact and wholesome.

I believe it's something our mainstream creative industry is somewhat lacking these days - entertaining material that can be scary, shocking even, but with its heart in the right place. The vast majority of the more recent Disney or Pixar projects seem more focused on light entertainment slapstick, short-lived humoristic references (that will not be understood beyond a decade or two from now) and simple morals that might very easily get drowned out by the sensory overload of rainbow-coloured cuteness and monstrous depravity of any and all available antagonists and goons.

I was pleasantly surprised by, say, Zootopia, but I would maintain that there's just way too much stuff crammed into it before the eventual reveal and wrap-up.

RE: Pinocchio - I tend to think that it's OK the bad guys got away within the confines of the story - the focus is NOT on the bad guys. There will always be bad guys. Not wanting to be a bad guy and not wanting to mingle with bad guys is, methinks, a more important take-away than having the life and times of Stromboli and Honest John chronicled.

And that's exactly why I think Star Wars "prequel" trilogy was doomed from the get-go, beyond being poopy all around. That's also why I think, say, projects like Maleficent are a complete shit show and utterly unsuitable for kids, no matter the inspiration and intentions behind it. The hunter in Bambi may very well be the main antagonist, but he is us, he is one of us, and yet we'd all like to think that we are not like him. Some might go all-out on this idea, turn vegan and spread the latest New Testament. Killing dead Bambi's mother is a dick move and a traumatic experience - and yet, when I think back to the first time I saw Bambi, Cap & Capper, Mrs. Brisby etc. my mind is absolutely not focused on the bad bits.

There are bad, evil characters that transcend all and are easily immortalized in our minds. We don't need their back stories and their coming-of-age existentialist drama biopics. We can be fascinated by them in our own, adult time.

I do hope y'all read bedtime stories to your kids. Only when my grandparents started dying away did I realize what immense treasures of inspiration (and occasional nightmares) I owe to those private moments that just cannot be replicated by a talking fondleslab, a 4K TV or having tactile transducers fitted in your sofa.

 

[Tanis]

Disney taking something dark and lightening the shit out of it?
SAY IT AIN'T SO!

I mean, COME ON, this is DISNEY.

The darkest thing to come out of them was Song of the South.