PINOCCHIO - Blu-ray review

Walt Disney's "Pinocchio" (1940), a sequel?

In a way, that's how it was perceived. "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937) was an experiment in filmmaking that wagered everything Disney had on a bet that the American public would sit through a full-length animated feature--that it could hold their attention, adults as well as kids. Despite the Oscars and acclaim that "Snow White" won, the public was still skeptical that Disney could repeat its success. "Pinocchio" convinced them, and it remains one of Walt Disney's masterpieces, even in the age of CGI. There's such intricate detail in the drawings and backgrounds and such fluid animation and special effects that this film would be praiseworthy even if everything were computer-drawn. But hand-drawn, inked and colored, then photographed in sequence? It's an absolute marvel that proves, with every re-watching, just how far advanced Disney was compared to other filmmakers working in animation.

Now, the second-ever Disney animated feature becomes the second-ever Disney classic animated feature brought to Blu-ray, following on the heels of this past October's release of "Sleeping Beauty" (1959). And how does it look in Hi-Def?

Amazing.

"Sleeping Beauty" was chosen to launch Disney classic animation on Blu-ray for one reason: It was the only old masterpiece shot in widescreen. Studios aren't quite sure whether consumers will accept the square-looking 1.33:1 aspect ratio of the old films on Blu-ray releases, but Disney has obviously given it some thought. The viewing options on this title are either to watch with the dark bands on the left and right (rather than top and bottom, as with many widescreen presentations), or watch with Disney View (pictured to the left). They charged animator Toby Bluth with the task of designing matching decorative strips to act as a picture frame and "ease the eyes" into the smaller, squarer picture. It's nice to have the choice, because purists will want to watch it the way "Pinocchio" first looked in theaters, but those who want the entire surface of their widescreen monitors filled with color can choose Disney View. I watched it both ways, and I have to say that some of the panels actually enhance the viewing, while others are deliberately so subtle that they recede into the background (and you hardly remember you're watching a framed picture), and still others seem more jarring. Some of the best borders come when we're looking inside Stromboli's wagon and the borders are painted to look like outside edges of the wagon to cultivate the illusion that we're looking in. Same with the town and shots inside Gepetto's workshop, or night scenes. There are 16 sets of 2- and 3-dimensional borders which rotate during the course of the film. Highly textured scenes seem to provide the best opportunities for this interesting type of "edge enhancement," while glassy surfaces or open fields pose more difficulties. The borders for the undersea scenes were particularly distracting. But it does provide a different way of watching the film, and I can picture a lot of people choosing this option.

Either way, the focus is on the gorgeous artwork. Every frame is a marvel, with carvings on a cat's bed, even--the kind of attention to detail that all but died with 19th-century craftsmenship. The clocks in Geppetto's workshop are particularly impressive, but every scene has something to delight. In his review of the old edition of the DVD, John J. Puccio remarked that "Nothing before or since has matched Disney's second full-length animated feature for its style, refinement, detail, and texture," and I'd certainly agree that "Pinocchio" remains one of the studio's greatest artistic achievements. I'm sure the level of detail was an inspiration to animators who worked on "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "Beauty and the Beast," which are among the most detailed CGI efforts.

Though "Pinocchio" was based on an Italian children's book by Carlo Collodi, the Disney version has a real Black Forest look to it, and there are times when you can see similarities in design to that old Grimm Brothers' tale, "Snow White." But the pacing is quicker under the direction of Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske, who would also work together on "Fantasia" (1940), with Sharpsteen going on to supervise "Dumbo" (1941) and Luske directing "Cinderella" (1950), "Alice in Wonderland" (1951), "Peter Pan" (1953), and "Lady and the Tramp" from Disney's Golden Era.

"Pinocchio" won Oscars for its music, including Best Original Song for "When You Wish Upon a Star"--the Jiminy Cricket ballad that became the theme for Walt Disney enterprises. And of course Downtown Disney's "Pleasure Island" nightclub area for adults also takes its name from this film. But we learn on one of the excellent bonus features that "Pinocchio" wasn't even slated to be the studio's second feature film. "Bambi" was penciled in next, but because Walt Disney couldn't figure out how to tell that story, he put it on the backburner and went with a story they knew how to tell. Interestingly, the original drawings of the main character were so disappointing--unsettling, even--that Disney briefly halted production. Eventually, Disney's view prevailed that the character should look less like Collodi's original wooden puppet and shed Collodi's bad boy behavior. As a result, Disney's Pinnochio is more rounded and warm, more simple and naïve than he is willfully naughty. And that was just settling on the character. It took eight writers to craft a screenplay that pleased Disney.

By now most everyone knows the story of how toymaker and clockmaker Geppetto carved a boy-sized marionette and wished that little wooden-head could become a real boy. Enter the blue fairy, who grants Geppetto's wish in stages--bringing the puppet to life, but having him first serve a wooden probationary period until he can prove himself worthy of being a flesh-and-blood boy. Deputized to serve as Pinocchio's conscience is a little cricket named Jiminy (voiced by Cliff Edwards), who entered the shop just to warm up.

Collodi's tale involved "cruel and vicious moralizing," according to some of Disney's current animators, and while Disney's "Pinocchio" is still one large cautionary tale--tell a lie and it grows until it becomes plain as the nose on your face; act naughty and you become a jackass--the cuter and simpler character makes those lessons easier to swallow. Just as the animation and detail enrich the plot, so does character. "Pinocchio" has an emotional content that draws people toward it.

As Pinocchio (voiced by Dickie Jones) heads for school and is easily distracted by Honest John (Walter Catlett), the conniving fox, and Gideon (Mel Blanc), his brainless feline sidekick, we're almost as incredulous as Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards)--though we're one step ahead of Jiminy in knowing that he's headed for trouble. Sure, "Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee" (an actor's life for me) is a catchy tune, but as Pinocchio follows them to a "career" as a puppet with no strings for the cruel Stromboli (Charles Judels), it later falls to Jiminy to set him free. Heading home, though, he's distracted again by the same characters, who this time convince him to go with the Coachman (Judels again) to Pleasure Island, where there are no adults and no rules, and kids can do whatever they want--even drink, smoke, shoot pool, and vandalize. Yeah, this is a film that couldn't be made today, and Disney runs a brief PSA before the main feature showing Pinocchio turning green from smoking and warning against it. No PSAs are run to say you shouldn't vandalize or drink beer if you're only a kid.

Disney animated features thrive on villains, and "Pinocchio" offers a string of them, with Stromboli and the Coachman every bit as menacing as Monstro the whale. More importantly, perhaps, the three villains and three episodic adventures gave Disney animators three different chances to show what they could do. Just when you think the feat of animating a complete puppet show with such a robust Gypsy villain is the nadir, along comes that potpourri of sights and sounds at Pleasure Island, and an even more wonderful animated world under the sea as Pinocchio attempts to rescue his "father" from the bowels of the whale. "Pinocchio" had it all, which is why it became a classic in the first place, and why it remains one of Disney's all-time greatest achievements.

Video:
And boy, does it look astounding in Blu-ray. First of all, the colors are richly saturated except for when they're deliberately muted during night scenes at Pleasure Island. Secondly, the grain is cut to practically nothing, with the Blue Fairy scenes perhaps the grainiest--and then we're not looking at the grain, we're marveling at how early animators managed to have those stars on her gown twinkle off and on like Christmas tree lights. Disney used an AVC/MPEG-4 codec, and the level of detail is superb, with no apparent DNR or edge enhancement and no transfer artifacts. The biggest surprise, though, is that there's more of an illusion of 3-dimensionality than in the previous release. This is an all-new digital restoration and "Pinocchio" has never looked so grand. After seeing it once, I had no problem watching it again with Disney View. It's that amazing to see. As I said, "Pinocchio" is presented in 1.33:1 aspect ratio, and you have the choice of watching with or without the Disney View borders.

Audio:
The audio is going to please Disneyphiles too, because you can choose between a digitally restored original theatrical Mono soundtrack or an English 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio (48 kHz/24-bit). I watched both, and I have to say that I absolutely prefer the 7.1 track. It really fills the room with sound, and the rear speakers have something to do in almost every scene. Subtitles are in English SDH.

Extras:
Another wow. Disney finally came up with a package that's worthy of one of their all-time greatest titles. The three-disc Blu-ray set is loaded. It features a DVD that includes the full-length film and a pop-up trivia way to watch (with 5.1 Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix) and an all-new music video. The first Blu-ray disc contains the feature and options to view with Disney View borders or without, and with or without Cine-Explore--a picture-in-picture commentary track that offers film historial Leonard Maltin and newer animators J.B. Kaufman and Eric Goldberg talking about the film as pop-ups reveal early designs and sketches. It's a pretty solid commentary without too many pauses, but I personally liked hearing what actual crew members had to say about it. This disc also has a music video from Meaghan Jette Martin ("When You Wish Upon a Star") and an option to view the songs with or without lyrics onscreen. The non-Profile 1.1 trivia track is here for those with older players, and a trivia challenge will keep Pinocchio's nose from growing. The usual trailers for upcoming movies and Blu-rays are also included.

Disc two is another BD-50 crammed full of stuff. But I have to say right now that until the studios stop messing around with BD-Live and other bells and whistles and get down to the business of playback and delays, Blu-ray is still going to be a medium in jeopardy. The bonus features on this disc are divided into two sections: Backstage Disney and Games. A nearly hour-long making-of feature is almost as rich as the film itself, with copious amounts of archival materials to augment discussions by current Disney animators and Maltin. Once you click on a menu item in the Backstage Disney section, it only takes eight seconds to load and four to reload back to the menu after you quit. That made navigating and watching the bonus features a real pleasure. Aside from the making-of biography there's two storyboard-art deleted scenes and an alternate ending, theatrical trailers, an art gallery, a 1947 promo recording of "Honest John," and several shorter bonus features that are quite good. "The Sweatbox" is only six minutes long, but boy does it give you vintage footage and an explanation of how things went down in the tiny projection room as Disney watched dailies with his crew. Two storyboards and actual transcripts from the meetings are used to illustrate (the later re-enacted, since the principles are dead). A 10-minute Live Action Reference Footage feature is also fascinating as we watch an adult dressed in Jiminy Cricket garb going through his paces and learn a lot in 10 minutes about how movies used to be made. You'll hear terms like "Movieola" and "Photostat" and gobs more. Same with "Geppettos Then and Now," which offers a short (11 minute) look at toymakers today who are still crafting toys by hand.

But click on games, and you click on frustration. Instead of taking eight seconds to load, every time you select something the screen goes blank and then you get a loading symbol and it goes blank again--and this all takes anywhere from one minute to three. This means that when you click on the Pinocchio's Puzzles so your little one can pick the right shape to fit in a highlighted space, it's taken that long to load. And when you click "quit" to go back to the menu to do something else, it's another long loading process. What's worse is that if you click on the Pleasure Island Games, where you have to go through four levels (different carnival games) in order to rescue the kids from the Coachman, every stinking time you click on a game it takes one to three minutes to load, and every stinking time you complete that game and you're ready to move on the next it takes another one to three minutes to load. That might not sound like much, but it was enough for me to give up after the first level-especially when the game itself seemed way too hard. You had to press a number button that corresponds to a numbered target in a shooting gallery that I swear was only up for a two-second count, and you had to press ZERO to reload after every shot--hit or miss. Because of the load-time for Blu-rays I think eventually studios will come to realize that they're not player-friendly and concentrate on making movies, where a three-minute delay to get started seems like a small price to pay.

That said, those who have a Profile 2.0 player and an Internet connection will be able to chat onscreen while watching the movie in synchronization, record a video message over one of several clips from the film, and compete with other players in a real-time online trivia game while watching the movie.

Bottom Line:
"Pinocchio" looks fantastic in 1080p High Definition, and this three-disc package is a nice one. If it wasn't for the darned load-times on the games I'd say it was one of the best Blu-rays of the year. Even so, it's a must-have for Disney fans and Blu-ray lovers.