For this second major feature by Disney Pinocchio (1940) starts with the same idea of the book, still as an introductory element in the movie, but this time it is all animation, unlike Snow White that the first shots where live-action. Another deviation is that the first character is the good character of the movie: Jiminy Cricket, who is mostly an analogous scheme. Pinocchio really is a morality story more than geared toward entertainment (although it is a lot more exiting than Snow White). After the introduction of Jiminy Cricket, we get the whole creepy dance sequence with Gepetto and the cat and the fish, Gepetto then, instead of praying to god, he prays to a star. Which is very angelic but really is a very basic theological concept, not confined with religion, maybe this was a way for Disney to try to appeal to a broader audience. The fairy (mostly monochromatic) grants the wish and brings Pinocchio alive. Really, Gepetto only has Pinocchio for an evening after falling asleep and sending him off to school before Pinocchio gets lost, so Gepetto was mostly in love with the idea of a son than with the son itself.
The next day Pinnocchio goes off to school, and we see the whole town dressed in a very deliberate complementary orange and green scheme. This is when we get the introduction of our first two bad guys. The fox and the cat dressed in opposite triad schemes, these to are the physical representation of their personality. And what I like a lot about Pinnocchio is that we go into this world were everything out of the ordinary, or fantastical, is explained. The film does explain that people become physical metaphors of their actions, so its not uncommon to see the fox and the cat running around most of the time. So, Pinocchio happily follows the dark side of the f.. sorry the easy path and does his thing and gets imprisoned by the very "tasteful" caricature of a gypsy.
After being helped by the fairy again, the very white fairy, he then goes back to his house but gets sidetracked by the bad influence again (even tho he was already told by Jiminy not to) and goes off to hell. Then again, after giving into temptation, he turns into what he is behaving as. After that, again, rescued by Jiminy, he goes off to find his dad which has gone looking for his idea of a son, and of course he takes the cat and the fish with him, which in a modern setting could translate into "friends" or "FRIENDS."
The next sequence, the underwater sequence, is my favorite in the movie. It must have been a groundbreaking animation achievement. It really looks like that was the foundation for Disney's next movie: Fantasia. It looks like it started the Pixar's tradition of introducing characters from their next movies (Pinocchio's little infatuated fish friend). And again, the movie establishes the rules of the world when Jiminy Cricket gets trapped in a bubble while in the ocean, the bubble starts to fill with water, the bubble pops, and Jiminy panics, but then remembers that he can actually breath underwater. It's those little details that make Disney fantastical worlds so believable. Then cut to Gepetto inside the whale Monstro's gut starving to death, but somehow breathing, but as established earlier, air must not be as important in that world.
After Pinnocchio and Jiminy get swallowed, and Gepetto fished them out, Pinnocchio gets the idea to sneeze their way out (he did have this experience when he got sick while smoking). And then, the whole wonderfully drawn chase by monstro, the effect of the water splashing all over, layed out on top of the original drawing (the precursor of digital ambient effects). After which, Pinnocchio dies. And like all good Jesus figures, the son of the carpenter resurrects because of his good deeds and becomes real. Gepetto of course celebrates with a dance.
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