Respond to these rapid questions in our Pinocchio quiz and we will tell you which Pinocchio character you are. Play it now.
Following his viewing of Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” Russian director Sergei Eisenstein exclaimed that it was “the greatest film ever made.” High praise from a man whose film “Battleship Potemkin” was at the time ranked among the best of all time. Eisenstein recognized a new level of cinematic freedom in “Snow White” (1937): cartoons could represent any visual that an artist could imagine. They were no longer children’s shorts, but were worthy of being shown alongside realistic feature films.
“Fantasia” and “Pinocchio,” Disney’s second and third animated features, were released in 1940, and they are still widely regarded as the best of the studio’s animated features to this day. It’s possible that they’re so good because they arrived at the perfect time in the history of animation.
The early pioneers (Walt Disney and Max Fleischer in particular) discovered ways to make their characters appear to exist in a world with gravity and dimension, rather than simply as drawings on a computer screen. They spent countless hours experimenting with how an animated character should move, eventually discovering a new kind of stylized realism that conveyed conviction without being a literal representation of the real world. In the words of animation expert Ernest Rister, “I wonder if they realized that discovering a technique for infusing a drawing with a sense of weight and volume would someday be used to create killer bugs or a giant snake in the Amazon would be used to create killer bugs or a giant snake in the Amazon.”
A couple of innovations were prepared for the Disney animators to use when they returned to their storyboards following the commercial success of “Snow White.” One was the ability to imply that there was a space outside of the screen without violating any rules. Regular movies had characters who were only half-visible at the edges of the screen, who entered and exited at random intervals, and who were panning and zooming through additional space. Early animation tended to remain within the confines of the frame. When it came to “Fantasia” and, especially, “Pinocchio,” Disney was not afraid to step outside the box. For example, in the exciting sequence where Pinocchio and his father are expelled by the whale’s sneeze, then drawn back again, then expelled again, Disney was not afraid to step outside the box. In the distance, offscreen to the right, there is a tangible presence of Monstro the Whale.
In addition, Disney invented the “multiplane camera,” which allowed for three-dimensional drawings to be created. The camera appeared to pass through foreground drawings as it moved deeper into the frame, which was another innovation. There is an aerial shot of Pinocchio’s village in which the camera zooms past levels of drawings until it arrives at a closeup of Pinocchio and his friends. This was much more effective than simply using simple perspective to depict depth.
But you shouldn’t waste any more time and start this Pinocchio quiz.
The audiences for “Pinocchio” were not particularly interested in these innovations because they were drawn in by the strength of the narrative. The story of the little puppet and his journey to become a real boy is a triumph of narrative storytelling with a moral to be learned from. Is there a more memorable parable about the dangers of telling a lie than the one that has emerged from popular culture? The plot of the story is absolutely fantastic. Even though it contains elements that would later be refined into the Disney formula (such as Figaro the cat and Cleo the goldfish), its main story line is designed with almost diabolical cunning in order to reach children.
Pinocchio’s desire to become a “real little boy,” rather than just a wooden puppet that can walk and talk without the use of strings, is the key to the story. All children, on a very deep level, desire to be real, but they have doubts about their ability to do so. In the process of becoming, Pinocchio is left on his own for the most part, which serves as one of the film’s inspirations. He is provided with a father figure in the form of Geppetto, the kindly puppetmaker, but the old man is forgetful and prone to being distracted. And he has Jiminy Cricket, who applies for the position of Pinocchio’s conscience and is appointed to it despite the fact that he is not particularly qualified for the position. In essence, what Geppetto, the Blue Fairy, and Jiminy do is provide Pinocchio with a vision of the future—a goal toward which he should aim. However, the Blue Fairy warns him that she will only be able to assist him to a certain extent, and the other two are of little assistance.
Kids are well aware that they should be good and that they are vulnerable when tempted. Pinocchio represents them all as he embarks on his journey to school, allowing himself to be diverted by Foulfellow and Gideon. This is a surprising turn of events because the film has begun on a gentle, mellow note with “When You Wish Upon a Star” and Geppetto’s bedtime play with the puppet as well as his friendship with Figaro and Cleo, among other things. The magical visit of the Blue Fairy is awe-inspiring. Jiminy is a bright and bubbly new acquaintance.
Pinocchio Quiz
And then Pinocchio is taken completely by surprise by the two con artists who supply him to Stromboli, the vile puppeteer. The film “I’ve Got No Strings” finds him in the role of an animated puppet song-and-dance man. Jiminy, who is not a gifted analyst, shrugs and concludes that, now that Pinocchio is a star, he no longer requires his services (“What does an actor want with a conscience, anyway?” he wonders). What is Jiminy’s excuse for not knowing how worried Geppetto will be? Perhaps crickets are incapable of comprehending human love.
Also, you will find out which character are you in this Pinocchio quiz.
Pinocchio attempts to escape, is captured by Stromboli and imprisoned in a cage, is visited by the Blue Fairy, and then (in one of the most memorable movie scenes ever filmed) tells her lies and discovers that his nose continues to grow and grow and grow. After a while, it begins to sprout leaves and develops a nest with two chirping birds inside. Looking away from the action will reveal children who are completely absorbed by the confirmation of their most irrational fears during the course of this scene.
Although the Blue Fairy intervenes, Pinocchio is thrown back into the soup, where he is captured by Foulfellow and transported to Pleasure Island, where little boys smoke, play pool, and are recycled into mules for the salt mines (“Give a bad boy enough space and he’ll soon make a jackass of himself”). They develop ears, hooves, and snouts as a result of the poisons in tobacco and their sins; how many children made the decision right then and there not to smoke?
Pinocchio and Jiminy manage to elude capture and return to Geppetto’s, only to discover (in a powerful and gloomy scene) that the old man has vanished from his home. Pinocchio feels abandoned, and the children in the audience’s eyes become large and moist as a result. The Blue Fairy, who is a deus ex machina to the end, sends a dove to deliver the news that Geppetto is held captive in the belly of Monstro the Whale, a deus ex machina to the end. This leads into the final, most exciting action sequence, in which Pinocchio finally proves his worth. The climax is a cascade of visual imagination that cascades down the page. Everyone remembers Monstro’s thrashings after Pinocchio sets a fire in front of him to make him sneeze, which everyone remembers. A lengthy and magical sequence, however, precedes the action, in which the puppet and cricket explore the ocean floor, encountering fish, sea flowers, coral denizens, and other delicately drawn creatures.
About the quiz
A parable for children, “Pinocchio” has inspired generations of children to remember the words “Let your conscience guide you” and “A lie grows until it’s as obvious as the nose on your face,” among other things. The film’s power is generated, I believe, by the fact that it is truly about something important. It is not merely a fabricated fable or a silly fairy tale, but rather a narrative with profound archetypal reverberations throughout history. This quality can be found in the films “Cinderella,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and “The Lion King,” as well as the scenes involving Dumbo and his mother.
Also, you must try to play this Pinocchio quiz.
What is it about the film that continues to hold such appeal even after we have grown up and learned, or ignored, the lessons it teaches us? It’s possible that this is due to the elegance of the drawing. Later Disney films would demonstrate a similar level of skill, but they would lack the excitement of discovery. Using thousands of individual drawings by dozens of different artists, is it possible to sense a collective creative epiphany emerging from the sands of time? Yes, I believe so. Disney’s devoted animators had been there from the beginning, when Mickey Mouse cartoons were viewed by Hollywood as kid’s entertainment purchased from a tin can on the corner of a side street. They had to have realized they were on to something special at the time. Their happiness fills the entire screen.
What the Disney studio did with its first animated features has had a lasting impact on the history of film. “I can’t tell you how many computer graphics artists today have the book Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life at their workstations,” Ernest Rister writes in a letter to the editor. “The same principles apply everywhere, and those principles were all discovered under one roof, decades ago by a bunch of young punks jazzed up about creating something,” he says, referring to everything from Jabba the Hut to “Toy Story.”
That is not a fabrication.
For more personality quizzes check this: Spell Quiz.
