Film

Pinocchio

Name: Pinocchio
Genre: Animation, Family, Fantasy
Released: 1940
Cast: Dickie Jones, Cliff Edwards, Christian Rub, Evelyn Venable, Walter Catlett

Other titles called Pinocchio: the 2014 series (SBS).

Walt Disney's second animated feature turns a simple wish — to be a real boy — into a gauntlet of liars, temptations, and genuine peril. It's gorgeous, funny, and unexpectedly frightening in places (the donkeys, the whale), with a moral backbone that never curdles into preaching. A gentle introduction to real stakes, made for children but not afraid to unsettle them along the way.

TMDb rating

3.6

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love old-fashioned hand-drawn animation where a wooden puppet's wobbly moral lessons play out with real menace and tender sadness, the kind of storybook that trusts children with fear.

Skip it if its gentle lessons arrive with a heavy hand and the episodic plot wanders, so if you want momentum or modern wit, it may drag.

What it asks of you: Roughly an hour and a half of patience with a slow build and a simple, sometimes unsettling shape, where the gentle moments sit beside stretches of genuine fright.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs1937

The film that started the whole enterprise — same hand-inked backgrounds, same eerie beauty lurking behind danger, and a villain arguably scarier than any conman Pinocchio meets.

But Slower and simpler, more a fairy-tale pageant than a character study; the innocent-girl-in-peril plot feels thinner by comparison.

The Wizard of Oz1939

Made the same year, in the same spirit — a naive protagonist wandering a garish, seductive world full of charming liars, learning who to trust the hard way.

But It's a live-action musical, so if the appeal was specifically the animation and menace, this trades some of both for songs and sets.

Dumbo1941

Disney's very next feature, shorter and sadder — cruelty, humiliation, and a parent's love distilled to their purest, most devastating form.

But Barely an hour long and thinner on plot; some of its imagery (the crows) has aged uncomfortably.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Pinocchio

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence2001

It's the same story stripped of safety nets: no cricket conscience, no fairy godmother guaranteeing a happy ending — just a created being wanting to be real and a world that may never let him.

Spielberg finishing a project Kubrick spent decades circling, this turns the exact same premise — an artificial child who must prove himself worthy of love — into a bruising, philosophical near-future fable with nowhere near as soft a landing.

But Punishingly long, relentlessly sad, and its final act splits audiences right down the middle between moved and furious.

Bambi1942

Trades conmen and puppet strings for the forest and mortality itself — gorgeous, quiet, and the Disney film most willing to let a child actually grieve.

But Very little dialogue and almost no comic relief; it's meditative rather than eventful, which can feel slow to restless viewers.

Fantasia1940

Made in the same studio the same year, but abandons story entirely for pure animated spectacle set to classical music — a reminder of how strange and ambitious this era of Disney really was.

But No narrative and no dialogue at all; without a story to hold onto, some segments will test a viewer's patience.

Alice in Wonderland1951

A similarly wide-eyed protagonist stumbles through a world of gleeful bad advice, shifting rules, and mild existential dread — funnier and weirder than people remember.

But Episodic almost to a fault, with barely any plot connecting one bizarre encounter to the next.

Sleeping Beauty1959

Disney's most visually lavish classic-era film — stiffer and more painterly, but with a dragon fight and a villain that still hold up as genuinely thrilling.

But Far more focused on romance and adventure than moral education; the title character barely gets to be a character.

The Jungle Book1967

A looser, funnier coming-of-age story about a boy figuring out who to trust in a world of charming predators — lighter on its feet than Pinocchio, with terrific music.

But Considerably less frightening and morally straightforward; if the appeal was the dread, this trades it almost entirely for charm.

Beauty and the Beast1991

A different spin on earning humanity through love rather than obedience — lush, confident, Broadway-scaled animation from Disney's next great era.

But Romantic rather than childlike in its stakes; it's aimed more at teenagers and adults than very young viewers.

The Golem: How He Came into the World1920

Both are acts of creation through magic — a fairy's spell, a rabbi's incantation — and both quietly ask what a created being owes its maker, and what happens when it starts to want more.

A century-old German Expressionist silent film about a rabbi who animates a clay giant to protect his people — moody, strange, and the visual ancestor of every story about a maker who brings something to life and then loses control of it.

But Silent, intertitled, and glacially paced by modern standards; its imagery aims for uneasy rather than comforting.

The Golem: How He Came into the World poster

Child's Play1988

Same setup inverted into nightmare: an inanimate figure comes to life and must choose between good and evil — except here the choice has already been made, and it's holding a knife.

Strip out the conscience, the fairy, and the happy ending, and what's left is a small figure that walks, talks, and menaces its owner instead of loving him — gleefully trashy, properly tense, funnier than its reputation suggests.

But It's a gory slasher about a killer doll, cheap-looking by design and totally uninterested in moral uplift.