The Walt Disney film Pinocchio was released in February 1940, making this month the film’s 76th anniversary! In honor of the occasion, here are some fun facts about Pinocchio.
1. Pinochio was the first animated film to win an Academy Award in a competitive category. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) won an honorary Oscar two years earlier. The song “When You Wish Upon a Star” won the Academy Award for best original song and went on to become an iconic tune for Disney. The The American Film Institute ranked “When You Wish Upon a Star” seventh in their 100 Greatest Songs in Film History. The movie won the Oscar for best original score.
2. Pinocchio cost $2.8 million to make, and was one of the most expensive films produced at the time. The movie went way over budget, as it was initially expected to cost $500,000. The film did not make much money outside the U.S. with the outbreak of war in Europe and Asia. It took years for the movie to turn a profit.
3. Pinocchio’s nose growing as he tells a lie is one of the things people first think of when they think about Pinnochio. But did you know that it happens only once in the movie?
4. Pinocchio was the first animated film to win an Academy Award in a competitive category. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) won an honorary Oscar two years earlier.
5. The story is based on the Italian children’s novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, published in 1883.
6. Like a lot of fairy tales, Disney softened them a bit and took out some of the more harsh plot twists. In the original novel, Pinocchio threw a mallet at Jiminy Cricket, who was known only as Talking Cricket, and killed him.
Also, in the book it is a giant shark and not a whale that swallows first Geppetto, then Pinocchio. Anyone else get freaked out by the whale as a kid?
7. Pinocchio has been rereleased seven times in theaters since it was produced: 1945, 1954, 1962, 1971, 1978, 1984, and 1992.
8. The movie was originally going to take place around Christmas time, which meant that it would also be snowing. Walt Disney decided against that setting, though, because he did not want a holiday film and preferred that the movie be enjoyed year-round.
9. The whereabouts of the Pinocchio puppet made for the film were unknown for more than 50 years. When the phone company removed a bunch of wires, workers discovered the Pinocchio puppet in a Disney basement, stuffed in a cabinet.
10. We know that Disney has always included nods to other films and Pinocchio is no exception to that practice, even though it was only the second animated film released by Disney Animation Studios. When Jiminy Cricket opens a book to tell the story of Pinocchio at the beginning of the film, two other books on the shelf. Those books are titled Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan, signaling the discussions about adapting them that were already under way.
Source: Between Us Parents
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