Hello & welcome back to our Christmas celebration here as we continue our look through Disney's Christmas Classics. We leave Never Land behind as we head to Geppetto's Toy Shop for this next story and I have a feeling that things are only going to get weirder from here on out. Let's begin.
The Plot
We open in the small village in which Pinocchio and his father live to start the story. And for context, in this story, our little wooden boy is still a puppet. His papa sends him off to be as it is a school night. Oh, and Jiminy acknowledges the readers kinda acting like the narrator for this story.
Jiminy informs the audience that he's Pinocchio's conscience and lets us know that Geppetto is helping Santa with the Christmas rush. Okay, question. How close is Santa's Workshop in The North Pole to wherever Geppetto's Toy Shop is? Okay, if we assume that the story takes place in Italy and Santa is travelling from The North Pole. It would probably take him a while or not as The Blue Fairy brings him to The Toy Shop at the end of the story. We then see Pinoke heading off to school and as he does J. Worthington Foulfellow spots him and gets an idea to sell him off to Stromboli as a live puppet without strings would be something that Stromboli would pay a fortune for. Yeah, it's that plotline from the movie with a Christmas makeover. However, there's one character missing?
Gideon is nowhere to be found in this story at all and as a matter of fact is never mentioned. Weird. Honest John sells the wooden puppet to Stromboli after he convinces Pinocchio that he doesn't need school and we get the No Strings sequence from the movie but with Pinocchio in a Santa outfit.
And from there, the story follows the familiar beats from the movie. Pinocchio tries to go home to help his Papa but he gets locked up in a birdcage by Stromboli. Geppetto is worried sick about where his son could be and Jiminy wishes on a wishing star to get help from The Blue Fairy and she does come to help. Then the oddest reveal happens. The other puppets that Stromboli has are also alive. I'm not making this up. Pinocchio tells The Blue Fairy that the other puppets are also captives that have been taken by Stromboli. Okay, why did Stromboli need Pinocchio then???? When he already had six living puppets. Was it because Pinocchio didn't have strings? In the movie, that makes sense because Pinocchio is the only living puppet that is known to exist but if you already have six other living puppets, who cares if they have strings or not? Ah well, The Blue Fairy saves the other puppets after Stromboli wakes up and tricks him into thinking this was all a dream.
And so, the other puppets return to Geppetto's Toy Shop and they are saved after The Blue Fairy goes to Santa in a dream and tells him about the puppets that wish to return home and Santa heads off with the other living puppets and takes them home.
I... I honestly don't know what to make of this one. It's not bad and coming from someone that isn't the biggest fan of Pinocchio, that is saying something but the reveal that the other puppets that Stromboli has are also alive really came outta nowhere. I like it more than this Pinocchio Christmas special.
My Final Thoughts
It's not bad and it is a bit meatier in terms of story compared to Peter Pan's Christmas Story and if you like Pinocchio, there's nothing wrong with checking this one out but the reveal of the other puppets being alive is just odd as is the exclusion of Gideon. Again, it's an entertaining little story that just had some odd decisions made. Join me next time as we look at Sleeping Beauty's Christmas Story.
No comments:
Post a Comment