Pinocchio (1993, VHS)

Many movies mean a great deal to me, but one that holds a special love in my heart is Disney s classic, Pinocchio. The reason for this is that one of the first phrases my autistic son spoke was No Tricks Now spoken by Jiminy Cricket.

What s the story about

Pinocchio was created as a wooden puppet by a man named Geppetto. Geppetto wishes on a star for a son. A beautiful fairy comes that night to his home and makes the puppet, Pinocchio, come to life.

After he comes to life, she explains to him what is happening and that if he proves himself truthful, brave, and other things that he will one day be a real boy. Of course, Pinocchio doesn t know anything about the real world and is very innocent. That s why Jiminy Cricket was appointed to become Pinocchio s conscience in order to help him.

Like most of us though, we often do not listen to our conscience telling us the right thing and we wind up in trouble just like Pinocchio does. He has to go through the ordeal of confessing after telling a monstrous lie that makes his nose grow as long as a tree limb as well as trusting people who has no business being associated with instead of doing the right thing going to school like Geppetto told him to do.

Eventually, Pinocchio finds himself in a terrible place called Pleasure Island where he is able to be as bad as he wants drinking beer, smoking cigars, and destroying property. But how can he be a real boy doing these things? Soon, he finds himself in more trouble than he can handle and eventually escapes to come home.

Upon returning home, Pinocchio and Jiminy find that Geppetto has left with his pets, Cleo the goldfish, and Figaro the cat, to find Pinocchio. Through a message from the sky, they discover that Geppetto has been swallowed by a huge whale, Monstro, and they are in dire straits.

It is up to Pinnochio to try to rescue him, but he s just a wooden puppet. Will he ever become a real boy? Will Geppetto be saved? All of these things make for an exciting moving that will keep you on the edge of your seat!

What I Like About This Movie

I like Pinocchio for many reasons.

The first reason is that it shows consequences for lying in a way that most children can understand. When Pinocchio s nose grows more after every lie, it is like the fib growing bigger and bigger in the Veggietale movie, Larry Boy and the Fib from Outer Space, which also grows the more that is added to the lie.

The second reason why I like this movie is that it proves rather dramatically that you should not listen to strangers. Every time Pinocchio trusts one of these persons that he does not really know instead listening to his conscience (Jiminy), he gets into big trouble. Not only this, but that trusting others and disobeying also affects other people (Geppetto being swallowed by the whale)

The next reason why I like this movie is that it shows how bad it is to smoke in general and drink liquor. After all, the characters at Pleasure Island who did these things turned into jackasses after misbehaving and doing these things. While it is true that this is not going to happen to a real child, it does give a dramatic example about it.

Finally, I love the music from this movie very much. One of my most favorite songs comes from this movie and is as follows:

When you wish upon a star,
Makes no difference who you are,
Anything your heart desires,
Will come to you.
If your heart is in a dream,
No request is to extreme,
When you wish upon a star,
as dreamers do.
Fate is kind,
She brings to those who love,
The sweet fullfillment of their secret longing.
Like a bolt out of the blue,
fate steps in and sees you through.
When you wish upon a star,
Your dreams come true.

I ve always been a dreamer and believer that dreams do come true, so this song has special meaning for me.

What I Don t Like About This Movie

Actually, I like most of it. The main thing that I don t like about the movie is that now I am on my second child and I ve probably listened/watched this movie at least a hundred times.

So, my only complaint is that I am getting TIRED of it!

My sons impressions

This is a great movie adventure for boys as well as a good learning tool. Both of my sons have enjoyed the escape from Monstro and have yelled at the whale constantly over the years. We all watched this movie a couple of nights ago and I had forgotten how exciting the scenes were to be honest with you.

May be I had enough of a cooling off period to watch this movie again after it being in the box for so long.

My Suggestion

Pinocchio is a wonderful movie to purchase for younger children, eight and under. Disney makes wonderful movies that last literally forever even if you don t take care of them properly. Our copy is now at least ten years old and has been through every kind of weather condition possible including extreme heat and freezing cold and still plays flawlessly.

The excitement of this wonderful tale as well as the lessons that it teaches make Pinocchio a wonderful addition to anyone s video library. I will forever hold a special fondness for this movie because of the fact that my son first spoke using this movie's script, and I highly recommend it.