I've been following up a few of the random ass childhood movies I remember here recently, and this is one of the epitomes of that list. (I'm going to call it Pinocchio 2)
A lot of these aren't worth rewatching. I'm sticking to the weird, unknown, offbeat. I'm sticking to those that sorta fit the blog. If ever an animated kids movie could be Grindhouse, it would be this one. First of all, Pinocchio and Geppetto look different. The animation is not as good. The blue fairy looks totally different. Jiminy Cricket simply isn't in the movie, replaced by Willickers.
The plot is another test of Pinocchio's moral code. He is a real boy from the onset, and it is his birthday. He asks Geppetto if he can deliver a shiny gold music box to the mayor, but of course he gets taken advantage of and the box ends up at the creepy carnival that's in town. Now Pinocchio feels it's his responsibility to get it back, even though the task may be more difficult and sinister than it first seems.
Produced by the smaller animation company Filmation, Pinnochio 2 here is a weird movie. The movie is not all over the map or anything, but it definitely has the 80's/90's aesthetic of being creepy and frightening at times. The puppets and the scene where the evil cohort Puppetino turns Pinocchio into a puppet are super creepy as fuck. There's also another nightmarish scene of Pinocchio getting drunk and warping into some evil universe. It's pretty offbeat.
I have mentioned in here the circumstances which I've seen some of the movies under. This one stands out again. I broke up with my recent girlfriend, after 4.5 years or so we called it quits. That was about a month ago, and this movie I watched with a new girl. We'd been having some sex all day, and then putting this on, I'm pretty sure she thought in a not insignificant way, 'who the fuck am I dating?' Pretty awesome.
Pinocchio 2 was a box office bomb and one of the last few projects made by Filmation. It has gained a cult following according to Wikipedia, and I think it deserves it. It's up there with the creepy animations that were so prevalent for a short time. I love movies like this, and it sure left an impression on me as a child. As I watched with Lindsey, I sang along to the last song, "You're a Star." I had not seen the movie in like 20 years, but all those lyrics came right back to me.
I highly recommend it, as a lover of the weirder darker side of animation. 4 stars.
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