Pinocchio – Blu-ray Disc Review

March 4, 2009 – 7:32 PM - Posted by: Justin Sluss

Tags: BD-Live, Bonus View, Charles Judels, Christian Rub, Cliff Edwards, Dickie Jones, Disney, Evelyn Venable, Mel Blanc, Walt Disney

has an average rating of 7.7 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
DTS-HD 7.1 Master Audio & Mono
would have made Walt himself proud!
–
– 1940
– 88 minutes
– Disney
–
This uses 22.2GB for the movie out of 28.4GB total (on disc 1).
Street Date: March 10th, 2009

Overall Verdict – A MUST-OWN for all ages!

Buy it for $24.49 @ Amazon.com

— Review written by: Justin Sluss & Danielle Byington —

A Clip from the Film:

The Movie Itself was the second full-length animated motion picture from Walt Disney. The story was based on Carlo Collodi‘s character who first appeared in “The Adventures of Pinocchio” back in 1883. Walt Disney and his writers changed a few things about the original story such as the cricket that appears in the original 1883 publication, giving him a larger part and also a name “Jiminy Cricket“. He becomes our narrator to the Disney 1940 animated iteration of the story and went on to become one of the most iconic characters of the Disney films.

The film starts out with a wonderful musical number sung by Jiminy entitled “When You Wish Upon A Star” which would also go on to become one of Disney‘s most popular songs and pretty much anthem. As Jiminy is seeking warmth from the cold night, he comes across a woodworks shop, and seeing a warm hearth glowing from within, the cricket makes his way inside. Upon taking in the decor of the setting, Jiminy also sees that this shop is also home to the craftsman Geppetto, who is putting the finishing touch, a painted smile, upon a sincerely crafted marionette. It becomes a general assumption from this scene involving Geppetto performing a bit of a dance with the marionette, that the loving hard-working man has no children or descended family; just himself, his goldfish Cleo, and his cat Figaro. Further, Geppetto peers out of his window seeing a brightly shining star, that of which he wishes upon; he wishes that his dear creation, the marionette, would become a real boy.

While Geppetto is fast asleep, Jiminy is witness to the visit of The Blue Fairy, the ethereal being sent to grant the wish of the craftsman. She does give life to the wooden doll, though not completely; Pinocchio must prove himself worthy of being a real boy by resisting temptations of the real world, and presenting himself as a humble, and honest individual, with the guidance of his newly appointed conscience figure, Jiminy Cricket. Of course, once Pinocchio begins stirring about, Geppetto is awaken, and finds his wooden doll to be alive. After settling down from the excitement, all go back to sleep, with plans the next day to send Pinocchio to school, just like a real boy. Also in this moment, Jiminy lets Pinocchio know that if he needs his help or guidance, to whistle, hence the musical number “Give A Little Whistle“.

Morning comes, and Geppetto sends his son-like marionette off to school, lately followed by his conscience guide. As a living marionette walking to school is not difficult to notice, Pinocchio is spotted by Honest Jon and his sidekick Gideon. The two persuade the attention of the wooden boy, in a pursuit to sell him to a famous traveling marionette show run by Stromboli. This scene provides the audience with yet another popular musical number from the film, “Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee“. Jiminy was too late to catch up with Pinocchio and give him the proper advice for the situation, and so with the promises of being a famous actor in the touring performance, Pinocchio joins Stromboli’s act. However, Pinocchio soon wants to return home to his father, Geppetto, and in an effort to keep his newly found goldmine, Stromboli locks the living marionette in a birdcage.

Recalling Jiminy’s instructions for his assistance, Pinocchio whistles, and by chance, Jiminy is present to help him, though he can not unlock the cage. The Blue Fairy appears again, willing to unlock the cage, but wants to know what exactly Pinocchio has done to land himself in this situation. Not wanting her to know of his bad behavior, Pinocchio lies to the Blue Fairy, which extends to the growth of his nose, and continues to do so each time he lies. Explaining to him that this is happening for his dishonestly, he tells the Blue Fairy the truth. She unlocks his cage, but warns him of further misbehavior that will prevent him from becoming a real boy.

Attempting to return home, Jiminy becomes separated from Pinocchio again, who has yet again fallen to the pursuit of Honest Jon and Gideon, who are now gathering boys for a coachman who takes the boys to a place known a Pleasure Island, where the lads can misbehave all they want, drinking beer and smoking cigars. The down side to this pleasure for the boys is that their wild antics will turn them into donkeys, which the coachman sells for his own profit to work in mines. Jiminy catches up with Pinocchio just in time, as the marionette has grown donkey ears and a tail, now escaping with the help of his guide, again wanting to return home to his father. Upon actually making it home, they discover Geppetto, Figaro, and Cleo are all long gone, having gone searching for Pinocchio, and mishappeningly enough have been swallowed by a whale at the bottom of the sea. From here, Pinocchio makes a courageous journey to rescue his father.

Overall, even amongst Disney “historians”, such as Leonard Maltin, the film is a classic on multiple levels, being purely iconic, even with its memorable musical numbers. Just as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” had proven critics wrong three years prior, as skeptics declared no one would ever watch a full length animated feature for reasons we would laugh at today, “Pinocchio” was even a “classic” in its own original release time, just as it obviously is today. Overall, the movie itself receives undoubtedly a “5 Star Rating“.

Video Quality on this release is in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte dual-layered Blu-ray Disc) in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio — which does include black bars on the side on a Widescreen display. You may ask yourself, “why is this not in the widescreen cinematic aspect ratio?” and you’d be quickly answered with “that’s how it was drawn, so hence it remains in it’s original aspect ratio” — just as I was told by Disney last year on a visit to the Studio. I had always loved the film, watched it probably 50 times as a kid on the Disney Channel and obviously on home video (VHS mainly). Now as I’m approaching my thirties in age I get to see the film in a way I never had before which is downright amazing and leaves me having to first start things off here by saying “Thanks Disney!” and secondly leaves me excited to see “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and other early Disney animated classics.

The amount of detail now present in the background artwork (especially) is jaw-dropping once you really start to pay close attention. The outlines of characters are very crisp and colors are very vivid for a film that is 70 years old in age in comparison to some of Disney‘s latest films with Pixar for example. As you can learn from the video commentary, actual make-up was used on the cells for the rouge we can see on Pinocchio’s cheeks; a highly interesting and unique detail that is significantly brought out in 1080p. Overall, this never before seen detail and visual brilliance for the classic earns itself a definite “5 Star Rating“.

Audio Quality on this release is presented in both DTS-HD 7.1 Master Audio and a complete restoration of the original Mono track in Dolby Digital 1.0 @192kbps. I’ll be the first to really straight-forward tell you I think 7.1 was extreme overkill for this film, having seen it many, many times in my youth and pretty much having the lines of dialogue memorized. I’ll sidetrack a tad bit from that and do a transition to something related to what I just said, dialogue which is delivered very clear throughout both the 7.1 and Mono sound mixes. Now back to this Surround mix. The dialogue and vocals during musical numbers are delivered from the front center channel with the Soundtrack and sound effects giving the front left and right channels a workout. The rear channels, both the middle and complete rears do not receive any real action at all throughout the entire film and really seem to me pointless. The sub (.1) presence on this Surround mix is pretty absent as well except for the climactic scene near the end of the film with the whale.

In all honesty — I can’t really say that this justified a 7.1 mix but maybe would have worked better as a 5.1 mix if they felt the serious need to do Surround sound. It’s obvious to say the purists (including myself) will find (or found) themselves listening to the restored original Mono recording over the 7.1 mix. With that being said I can’t totally demerit this score for audio quality based on it not “rocking out” my sound system. Given, it does deliver a pretty nice presentation even if it doesn’t have a whole lot of rear channels and bass action in the Surround mix. This is enough, especially with the combination of the newly restored Mono track to earn “Pinocchio” on Blu-ray Disc a solid “4 Star Rating” for overall audio quality.

Bonus Materials on this release are presented in both High Definition (HD) and Standard Definition video. Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo throughout almost all bonus materials, except where noted.

Disc 1 includes:

• BD-Live is included which allows users on a “Profile 2.0” capable Blu-ray Disc Player to access online content and use services via Disney‘s own personalized version. Disney includes options such as chat, video messages and even their rewards program online through their BD-Live network.
• Audio Commentary with Leonard Maltin, Eric Goldberg and J.B. Kaufman

• “Cine-Explore” is included which uses Bonus View (requiring a “Profile 1.1” or higher capable Blu-ray Disc Player) to deliver Picture-In-Picture video commentary throughout the film and even features video clips and still images on top of that. The video commentary is identical to the audio commentary listed above and includes the same group of gentleman — Leonard Maltin, Eric Goldberg and J.B. Kaufman. Interviews with former Disney animators are included here as well.
• “Disney View” also appears to be using Bonus View (requiring a “Profile 1.1” or higher capable Blu-ray Player) to deliver a set of themed sidebar pillars for this 4:3 (Full Screen) 1.33:1 aspect ratio Blu-ray Disc release. These custom paintings were done by Toby Bluth who has some information included about his art here. You can find 2 examples of the sidebar pillars below.

– “Music & More” –
• “Music Video” (3:15 – HD) if you actually want to call it that, for a cover, again if you would actually call it one of the film’s unforgettable song “When You Wish Upon A Star” performed by Meaghan Jette Martin who I’m told is popular from Disney‘s “Camp Rock” film(s). Kids in their tweens to early teens might enjoy this but adults like myself will be utterly disappointed by this train wreck of a tribute. Worth noting (sadly) is that this receives Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround @448kbps.
• “Disney Song Selection” allows you to watch your favorite songs and sing along with on-screen lyrics in an almost Karaoke style. The songs featured here include “When You Wish Upon A Star“, “Little Wooden Head“, “Give A Little Whistle“, “Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee“, “I’ve Got No Strings“. The on-screen lyrics option can be disabled if you’d just like to watch a specific song which is nice to see included.
– “Games & Activities” –
• “Pinocchio‘s Matter of Facts” allows the user to learn facts about the film and other related subjects as you watch the film. Think of this of a pop-up trivia track, of sorts.
• “Disney Smart Games: Pinocchio Knows Trivia Challenge” is similar to the previous feature but it instead lets you put your trivia knowledge to use in a fun little game.

Disc 2 contains:

– “Games & Activities” –
• “Pinocchio‘s Puzzles” is hosted by our pal “Jiminy Cricket” and features some wooden puzzles that you are to assemble.
• “Pleasure Island Carnival Games” lets you take a virtual trip to the island and rescue the kids by defeating “The Coachman” from the film in a set of traditional games one would find at a carnival. Sadly, most of the controls on these games use areas of your Blu-ray Disc Player‘s remote control like the numeric pad which can easily lead to you hitting the “Eject” button by mistake.
– “Backstage Disney” –
• “No Strings Attached: The Making of Pinocchio” (56:04 – HD) includes interviews with Disney animators, historians and film critics all discussing the making of this classic 70-year-old animated film. This proves to be an absolute treat for fans of all ages and is a definite MUST WATCH. In fact, give a clip from this featurette below a watch to give you a taste of what to expect.

• “Deleted Scenes” (10:35 – HD) includes a total of 4 scenes, one of which is storyboards for an alternate ending to the film. These prove to be worth the watch to the extreme fans of Disney, like myself. This has an introduction which explains why these sequences (deleted scenes) are only in storyboard form and explains how Walt Disney arranged his films.
• “The Sweatbox” (6:25 – HD) sheds some light on one of Walt Disney‘s original forms of honing the creativity of his staff of animators in the non-air conditioned theaters on the Studio lot. Here Walt would watch the work that his animators would bring him daily and make suggestions. This process is very similar to how Pixar does things today, so it’s obvious to say it has inspired others over the years. Below, thanks to our friends at Disney you’ll find a clip from this featurette.

• “Live Action Reference Footage” (9:57 – HD) were used by the animators to help them inspire to draw things like inanimate objects, human movement animations, physical human facial expressions and even actual sets on a soundstage. This proves to be worth the watch probably to only the most die-hard Disney fans. A narration is included since this video doesn’t contain an audio track which is very enlightening to Disney fanatics.
• “Pinocchio Art Galleries” feature a collection of images that range from visual development, Gustaf Tenggren art, character design, maquettes & models, backgrounds & layouts, storyboard art, production pictures and even live-action reference still photographs. Again, this is probably best left to the fans and not the casual viewer who might grow a little bored with this feature. Personally, I think it’s great to see all of these still images compiled in the bonus materials.
• “Publicity” gives you a collection of trailers for the film. The original trailer from 1940, as well as the ones 1984 and 1992 re-releases are included. These run roughly around 2 minutes each and are in Standard Definition video.
• “Deleted Song” entitled “Honest John” (HD) is included. This consists of an audio recording and fixed image of the character throughout. This proves to be rather interesting to me, but probably not something that every viewer will enjoy. Lyrics to this song were by Ned Washington and music was by Leigh Harline.
• “Geppettos Then and Now” (10:57 – HD) takes a real life look at the craft of making wooden toys such as puppets like “Pinocchio” all the way up to the current toys of today which are more technology driven. This may prove enjoyable to some kids and adults but the majority will probably end up skipping this featurette.

Disc 3 contains a DVD in Standard Definition of the film itself with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound.

In closing, Disney has done a well-rounded job in general for these supplements accompanying what is basically the 70th anniversary of this film; however, I have to say I was expecting the possibility of some episodes of the Jiminy Cricket hosted show, “I’m No Fool“. Overall though, new audiences and previous fans of Disney classics in general will really find the supplements worth watching and intriguing, especially in regard to the in depth look at the process of animation for the film decades ago, such as the featurette “The Sweatbox“, discussing the directions given by Walt Disney in a description we could only know had we been there.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

Screenshots:

NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.

•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•  
•