Pinocchio : Special Edition

Starring: Christian Rub, Cliff Edwards Director: Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske Original UK Premiere: 1940 Dvd Release: 3rd March, 2003 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: Animated, PAL, Restored, Special Edition, Region 2 Encoding

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Pinocchio is the second animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. It was produced by Walt Disney Productions & was originally released to theatres by RKO Radio Pictures on February 7, 1940. Based on the book Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, it was made in response to the enormous success of Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs. The plot of the film involves a wooden puppet being brought to life by a blue fairy, who tells him he can become a real boy if he proves himself worthy by learning courage, kindness & honesty. Thus begins the puppets adventures to become a real boy, which involves many an encounter with a host of unsavory characters. // Walter Catlett as J Worthington Foulfellow a .k .a. Honest John. Charles Judels as Stromboli & The Coachman. Tale of a Puppet by Carlo Collodi. The film was supervised by Ben Sharpsteen & Hamilton Luske & directed by Art Babbitt, Norman Ferguson, T Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Jack Kinney, Eric Larson, Fred Moore, Wolfgang Reitherman, Bill Roberts, Frank Thomas & Bill Tytla.

This legendary animated feature is surely beyond criticism by now and, furthermore, its unlikely that well see such forceful narrative in a kids cartoon ever again. Disneys treatment of Collodis story of the little wooden puppet who wants nothing more than to be a real boy is always guaranteed to have audiences entranced. While some of the movies success is derived from its liberal use of the kind of imagery no childrens film-maker would even attempt to get past the storyboard stage today, a mysterious island where children smoke cigars, get drunk & turn into donkeys, a monstrous, malicious sea-creature which is devoid of any trace of cuddliness & a pair of villains who routinely abduct children, to give just a few examples, the characters are depicted with the finest attention to detail, most of the songs have become classics in their own right & the graceful, stylised animation positively glows with fine detail. Essential family viewing.

Cliff Edwards, also known as Ukelele Ike, was a United States singer & musician who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s & early 1930s & also did voices for animated cartoons later in his career. Clifton A Edwards was born in Hannibal, Missouri. He left school at age 14 & soon after moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he entertained as a singer in saloons. As many places had pianos in bad shape or none at all, Edwards taught himself to play ukulele to serve as his own accompanist. He got the nickname Ukelele Ike from a club owner who couldnt remember his name. Edwards played on Vaudeville circuits. He made his first big hit in 1918 at the Arsonia Cafe in Chicago, Illinois where he introduced a tune by the clubs pianist, Bob Carleton, Ja Da. The tune, Edwards & Carleton made a hit. Vaudeville headliner Joe Frisco hired Edwards as part of his act, which played at The Palace in New York City, the most prestigious theater in Vaudeville & then in the Ziegfeld Follies. Edwards made his first phonograph records in 1919. He recorded early examples of jazz scat singing in 1922.

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