What are some of the differences between the Disney movie Pinocchio and the original 19th-century bound book?”
The 1940 Disney version rightfully stands as the definitive American Pinocchio, but a new translation of the original 19th-century book has depths that no movie can express. Pinocchio_large Photo by Camera Obscurist. It’s tempting to read Geoffrey Brock’s new translation of Carlo Collodi’s 1883 novel Pinocchio and think less of the relatively sanitized story that Walt Disney brought to life in 1940. Collodi’s vision is satirical and frequently horrifying, whereas Disney’s indelible version is warmly populist and filled with whistle-worthy melodies. In the movie, the company’s second feature, we perhaps see the worst aspects of the Disney empire in embryonic form: a beloved world folk story digested and regurgitated as a mushy children’s tale full of easy moralizing and anthropomorphic sing-alongs. If McDonald’s had existed in 1940, Disney’s puppet would have been a Happy Meal toy (although probably not a popular one; the movie didn’t even recoup its multi-million dollar budget at the b
