The Donkey Scene From Pinocchio

I have said before that Pinocchio is one Disney movie that I have a hard time sitting through as there are quite a few things that terrify me in this film. Originally, this was going to be a Top 6 countdown of the most frightful moments from this movie. Instead, I have decided to focus in on, the one scene that always freaked me out.

Let me set up the scene, Pinocchio has been away from home and he has been joined by Lampwick. They are at Pleasure Island. Here the boys can have as much fun as they want, drink beer, smoke cigars and play pool. But this comes at a price. Once they have their fun, this happens...



They are turned into donkies.  Now there are quite a few aspects of this scene that creep me out. Let's start with the very first thing that we see in this scene, the loading bay for the donkies. It's obvious they are scared but let's take a look at the very first doneky/former boy we see.

Alexander

Alexander is the first donkey/former boy we see when  The Coachman is gathering up donkies and he asks Alexander if he can still talk and he can. He cries and screams that he wants to go home to his mama. He is thrown into a pen with other donkies who can still talk.   The scary aspect here for me is the fact that  he can still talk and still has some recnogition of what his life was.  He knows that he'll never be human again. All the boys that were caught by the Coachman have now been turned into donkies  and they are now being shipped off to work for different things. Some specualte that the ones that could still talk were used by The Coachman to pull his car to bring new unexpecting boys to Pleasure Island.

The next aspect  that scared me was actually seeing the transformation. Such as the case with Lampwick. 

Here we see Lampwick as jsut a regular oridnary boy but soon the transformation starts and it creeps up on the boys unexpectedly.  Suddenly, Lampwick starts growing donkey ears and a tail.  Right before the transformation is complete though, we get this shot

From this shadow, we can tell that Lampwick's transformation is just about complete. The final effects are taking place and soon we will be a donkey but unlike Alexander, he will no longer have the ablitiy to speak After we see his shadow, we finally see Lampwick as a donkey.

Just seeing the transformation take place was frightening and something that always confused me. Well, two things why is it their clothes shapd around their nwo donkey bodies and still fit. Secondly if Pinocchio wasn't a real boy yet, then how come he was affected by the curse. I mean sure he misbehaved and okay, he did get the donkey ears and a tail but at this point in the film, he was still a puppet. Yes, The Blue Fairy had given him life but he wasn't a realy boy.

Finally, perhaps the creepiest aspect is The Coachman himself.

He is ruthless, cold hearted and will stop at nothing. He doesn't care about what the boys want. He let them have their fun, now he wants them to pay. And pay they will Because he strips them of their childhood and makes them his slave donkies.  But how, it is never truly expalined how he is able to turn all these boys into donkies.  That is perhaps the scariest part. Pleasure Island holds this curse but nobody knows how it came to be.

Thee you are these are just my thoughts on this scene from this film and why it gives me the creeps.  Honestly, if The Coachman tried to pull this off today, he would be arrested for Child abuse, I think.  What are your takes on this scene? Is it scary to your or is it not?  Are there scenes from kid's movies that scare you.