Pinocchio

   

      Well number 2 of 50 feature animations are completed. Again like Snow White, I don't think there's much sense in re-telling the storyline of the wooden puppet that becomes real. For being the second movie I think they did a huge jump in their animation ability from 'Snow White' to 'Pinocchio', you have a lot more characters and much more elaborate backgrounds. Try making a movie with kids smoking cigars now-a-days, lol, boy the censors would of had a field day back then with this one. What's sad is on the re-release they had to add a clip at the beginning warning of the dangers of smoking, I don't think this is gonna make kids wanna go out and smoke. I mean come on Pinocchio turns green and ill and turns into a donkey for smoking, if that ain't enough reason not to smoke way is. What's interesting is how big of roles characters from this film actually play apart in the whole Walt Disney Company and music. I think more is used from this film than any of the others, you have "When you wish upon a star" which is used in every park and has become thee song for Disney, Jiminy Cricket is the symbol for Disney's environmentality and recycling efforts, Monstro and the underwater scene play a large part in Fantasmic and the Blue Fairy has been present in nighttime shows at the parks world wide. I'm sad that here in WDW we actually don't have 'Pinocchio's Daring Journey', the dark ride from Disneyland, I've heard wonderful things about that ride. We do however have 'Pinocchio's Village Haus', which is interesting because instead of comparing the film to a ride or attraction, you have to compare it to a eatery. Last night while we were at the Magic Kingdom, we actually ate in the Village Haus and I made sure to make a mental note of things, knowing I would be watching the film this morning. For capturing the essence of an animated film into a restaurant, it really does play off well. From the German architecture to the lay out of the rooms. When you delve into the design of the restaurant it is really interesting, because if your just eating there your not going to catch on right away that each room is dedicated to a specific character and the main ordering area is actually designed to represent Stromboli's stage, complete with a second floor eating area where Stromboli would of controlled the Marionette's. I think with Pinocchio it's this film that kinda set the stage for Disney Animations to tell a story, but, at the same time have a deeper meaning and have a moral to the story. Also watching these films have gotten me into learning more about the animation process as a whole, for Stromboli's wagon and blue fairy they used the process of Rotoscope alot and I did not know what that meant, but have seen the term used many times. Here's a link to Wikipedia about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping. When you see how they used gadgets like that and the processes it took to make these movies, it wasn't easy and there is a lot of work put into making Animation happen, you really start to take on a new appreciation for the art form. It's hard to find fault at all with Disney, no matter what they do you really have to dig deep to find a problem, throughout their history Disney has always made a great production from beginning to end. I think the key to Disney's Animation success is not in the stories, but in the characters, I feel that is what Disney has always excelled at more than any other studio and that's creating a character you can connect with and care what happens to them. Next up will be 'Fantasia' which also has a lot of use in the parks and will be fun to blog about. I've come to some deciding factors with the now Disney project, not only will I be doing the main 50 animated features, I'm adding into the chronology of them, the Pixar movies (which have become so tightly linked to Disney its hard not to count them) and the Disney ToonStudio movies (which for those that tried to forget are all those sequels that Disney tried to cash in on and movies inspired by there cartoon franchises). I didn't want to include the sequels and all but when you talk about watching all the full length animated Disney movies, you kinda half too because they are after all full length and it was Disney artists and story tellers that made them. Outside of Pixar and ToonStudios you also have their straight to home video movies like Ducktales: The Movie and A Goofy Movie that also deserve to be worked in. See you for the Fantasia blog.