Pinocchio (1940) VS Pinocchio (Netflix)-Which is Better?

The Adventures of Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi’s children’s book from 1883, is often regarded as an Italian classic. The story, about a wooden puppet granted life, has been adapted to film many times. Chief among these is the 1940 Walt Disney classic, which is considered one of the company’s best. So when Guillermo del Toro decided to adapt the story for Netflix in 2022, people were skeptical. That version, thankfully, also ended up being fantastic.

Which begs the question: which is the superior adaptation? While it might seem unfair to pit them, let’s find out anyway! Reminder that, as per usual, there’ll be spoilers.

Let’s kick this off with…

Story:

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Despite taking different approaches, the basic premise of both movies is practically identical: Geppetto, a woodcarver and toymaker living in Italy, carves a human-like puppet shaped like a little boy. While he’s sleeping, a fairy appears and gives the puppet life. She then tasks a cricket to be his guide before leaving. When Geppetto awakes, he sees this puppet, named Pinocchio, waiting for him. From here, Pinocchio gets into shenanigans and learns that lying makes his nose grow bigger.

While a similar premise appears in both versions, the execution’s different. The Disney version is a straightforward fairy-tale, complete with all the inner workings: Geppetto’s a kind-hearted man who, despite having a pet cat and goldfish, creates Pinocchio to keep himself company. His puppet’s brought to life as a reward for bringing smiles to little children, especially since he never had children himself. Even Pinocchio’s conscience, a tiny cricket named Jiminy, takes on the role because he’s kind-hearted too. That, and he also recognizes the attached job security, which he needs.

The Netflix version takes a darker approach. Here, Geppetto loses his son, 10 year-old Carlo, to a bombing in 1916. Heartbroken, he turns to alcoholism and chops down the tree he’d planted for his son and turns it into a puppet. From here, a blue spirit takes pity on him and brings his creation, Pinocchio, to life, with Pinocchio’s conscience, a cricket named Sebastian, agreeing to help because said tree was originally his home. The story also takes place in Fascist Italy for much of its runtime, but given how demented the book was, that actually fits.

Even the main plot points are different. Both versions have Pinocchio leave school to become an actor, but the way they play out differs. For the Disney movie, Pinocchio’s tricked by a talking fox and is sold to a ringleader named Stromboli. In the Netflix film, Pinocchio’s tricked by the ringleader directly, a conman named Count Volpe, and agrees to travel with him provided he send half of the earnings to Geppetto. In both versions Pinocchio’s conned, but the Netflix version gives him more agency.

Another difference is the films’ respective climaxes. Both movies have Pinocchio search for Geppetto at sea, only to be swallowed by a creature with an enormous appetite. In both cases, Pinocchio finds Geppetto and they escape, only for Pinocchio to die. While this part’s similar, the minutiae are different: the Disney movie has Pinocchio and Jiminy traverse to the ocean floor, get eaten by a whale, conveniently named Monstro, find Geppetto, escape with the help of a fire and end up ashore when Monstro takes revenge. In the Netflix movie, Pinocchio stumbles upon the beast accidentally, finds Geppetto, escapes with the help of his nose, blows up the beast with a mine and dies saving his father. Both movies have Pinocchio given a human life as a reward, but the Netflix movie keeps it metaphorical, while the Disney movie makes it literal.

Outside of these “similarities”, the two movies are radically different. The two biggest deviations involve an addition for the Netflix movie, and the rewrite of a plot-point. For the latter, the Netflix movie gives Pinocchio a mortality arc, one where he keeps dying and coming back to life. It’s a neat idea, but it’s both under-utilized and overplayed. It serves little purpose other than to pad for time, and it’s abandoned after the third time when Pinocchio chooses to save his father’s life. The Disney movie doesn’t have this plot-line, but it doesn’t need it.

The latter difference involves Pinocchio’s relationship to Lampwick, or Candlewick. In the Disney film, Lampwick’s a runaway boy whom Pinocchio befriends on Pleasure Island. In the movie’s scariest scene, Lampwick then transforms into a donkey and loses his humanity. This scares Pinocchio, prompting him to leave Paradise Island. This can be read into as commenting on child slavery, something I’m amazed a Disney movie had the audacity to do.

In the Netflix adaptation, Pleasure Island’s non-existent. Instead, Pinocchio befriends Candlewick, the son of Italy’s foremost Fascist general, while in a child soldier’s training barracks. The two then race to plant their teams’ flags at the top of the barracks in what can only be described as paintball meets capture the castle. When they decide to raise their flags simultaneously, Candlewick’s father hands him a pistol and orders him to shoot Pinocchio. Candlewick then stands up to his father, whereupon he and Pinocchio trap him in a net before the compound’s blown to smithereens. This entire segment’s unbelievably gutsy, elevating it beyond standard family fodder.

I’m giving this to the Netflix movie. No disrespect to Walt Disney, but del Toro went the extra mile.

Winner:

But a story’s only as good as its characters, which leads me to…

Cast:

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It’s difficult to overstate how different these movies are character-wise. The Disney and Netflix movies only share five characters in-common, and two have different names: Lampwick is Candlewick in the Netflix adaptation, while Sebastian J. Cricket is the former’s Jiminy Cricket. Even Monstro’s less a whale in the Netflix movie and more a leviathan. The only characters that are exactly the same are Geppetto and Pinocchio, even if their origins and personalities are different. So while not 1:1, I’ll compare these roles based on what they represent.

Let’s start with the most obvious two: Geppetto and Pinocchio. In both adaptations, Geppetto creates Pinocchio out of wood, but the reasons for why differ. For Disney, Geppetto makes Pinocchio to have a companion, despite already having a cat and a goldfish. We aren’t given much of a back-story, but we don’t need one. This is in contrast to Netflix’s Geppetto, who creates Pinocchio out of grief for losing his son. His attachment to Pinocchio, at least initially, is superficial, and he has to learn to accept him.

Pinocchio’s personality doesn’t differ too drastically in either versions. Both movies portray him as naïve and curious, but the Netflix version also has him expressing his limits. The Netflix Pinocchio doesn’t like watching his friends be exploited, which we see when he defends Spazzatura from Count Volpe and Candlewick from his father. In terms of agency and audacity, Netflix Pinocchio, while more rambunctious, has the advantage. Disney Pinocchio, however, remains static.

The remaining characters are quite different. For example, Lampwick, who goes by Candlewick in the Netflix version. He’s a rambunctious kid who’s turned into a donkey in the Disney film, while Candlewick has an arc as a bully-turned-friend who learns to stand up to his father. And while the Disney movie has Honest John, an ironically-named Fox who keeps tricking Pinocchio, and the devious Stagecoach, these are consolidated or merged into characters like Count Volpe or Spazzatura for Netflix. The Netflix film even adds another fairy who looks after dead people, and she plays an important role whenever Pinocchio’s killed.

The biggest deviation character-wise is the cricket. He’s Pinocchio’s conscience in both adaptations, but while Jiminy’s delighted, Sebastian only agrees because Pinocchio used to be his home. Both crickets are notoriously bad at their jobs, but Sebastian’s incompetence is more understandable because of his background. He’s a writer and adventurer, he only bumbled into this role out of pomp and circumstance. He never wanted to be Pinocchio’s guide, and it shows with how frequently he’s abused.

Both movies have excellent character rosters, but I’m giving this to Netflix for one reason: the Disney movie’s Stromboli. Not to downplay the “appeal” of his menace, but he’s a pretty racist caricature of a Roma man. The original movie even uses a racist and outdated term for him, and he does his community no favours. The Netflix movie combines him with Honest John into Count Volpe, removes the racism and lacks this issue altogether. It also has Spazzatura turn on him before Volpe’s blown up.

Winner:

But a cast is only as good as the movie looks, which leads to…

Aesthetic:

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Despite both movies being animated, their formats are different. The Disney movie, being drawn on hand-painted cells, is still breathtaking to look at 84 years later. That might seem like a given, but some of the later projects under Walt Disney were pretty cheap-looking. And while not everything’s cohesive, the Blue Fairy clearly looks rotoscoped and doesn’t mesh with everything else, for the most part it hasn’t aged. It’s also 90-minutes long, reemphasizing that economic storytelling is sometimes efficient storytelling.

The Netflix movie’s stop-motion animated, with CGI and matte paintings for the backgrounds. Stop-motion’s time consuming and tedious, hence why many ventures are so short, but this two-hour experience has a Netflix-sized budget and The Jim Henson Company behind many of the designs. It, therefore, looks amazing, even if its colour palate’s murky and desaturated. I especially like Pinocchio’s design, which looks like it was designed by a raging drunk. It’s missing an ear and has many imperfections, and whenever Pinocchio lies his nose grows like a pine tree. A lot of thought went into this world and its characters, and I think it’ll age well too.

If I have any issues with either film, it’d be with the Disney movie. Despite being a tightly-written story, the pacing and editing can feel lopsided. Some scenes, like the one where Jiminy yells at everyone to be quiet so he can sleep, drag on, while others, like the dénouement, are abrupt and rushed. The scene transitions are also really awkward with their fades to black, and you get the sense that there were missing reels. I know that hand-painted cell animation is costly, especially in 1940, and that Disney was experimenting, but the pacing and editing can’t be ignored. The Netflix movie might be longer, but it’s also better-edited and paced.

The Netflix movie wins.

Winner:

Speaking of presentation, it’s time for…

Sound:

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Both movies have advantages here. The Disney movie, being from the 1940’s, feels like a radio drama, right down to its performances. This definitely dates it, but it also makes the experience timeless. It adds to the fairy-tale vibe as well. That alone gives it a leg-up on the Netflix film, which is less effective by feeling more contemporary.

Vocally, both adaptations do their jobs. I like that the voice of Pinocchio in the Disney movie’s done by an appropriately-aged boy, while Monstro’s noises are matched to Thurl Ravenscroft of Tony the Tiger fame. But the real star is Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket. He’s not only the narrator, he’s Pinocchio’s conscience. He’s the POV character, and he lets us know it. He also gets the movie’s best song, one that’s become Disney’s official anthem.

The Netflix movie’s no slouch either, though. Not only is Guillermo del Toro regular Ron Perlman here, but so is Netflix regular Finn Wolfhard. The movie also has Tilda Swinton, Cate Blanchett and Christoph Waltz in major roles, while Sebastian J. Cricket’s voiced by Ewan McGregor. But the real stars are David Bradley and Gregory Mann as Geppetto and Pinocchio. Mann also voices Carlo at the beginning, emphasizing the parallels between him and Pinocchio. There isn’t a bad vocal choice here.

Sadly, while both movies also have excellent scores, the Netflix film pales to the Disney one with its songs. Perhaps it’s been in the public consciousness for over 80 years, but every song in the Disney movie, even the dance Geppetto and Pinocchio share, is a banger. The Netflix movie’s musical numbers, courtesy of Alexandre Desplat, aren’t terrible (save “Everything is New to Me”), but with the exception of “My Son”, which doubles as the film’s motif, none are as instantly-hummable as your standard fare from Walt Disney. Perhaps in 80 years that’ll change, but for now…I’m giving it to the Disney movie. Sorry.

Winner:

Time for the final category!

Entertainment factor:

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This is a really tough call. On the one hand, the Disney movie’s iconic for a reason. Like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, it progressed the medium of animation leaps and bounds beyond what it was capable of. It also introduced techniques made possible by the technology of the time, and most of it holds up now. The movie itself is also really good! There’s a reason why many animation buffs consider it one of Disney’s best, even if Stromboli’s still racist…

At the same time, the Netflix movie’s also impressive. Whether it’s the stop-motion artistry being possible because Netflix gave del Toro a massive budget, or the 2-hour runtime allowing for more complex themes, this is an achievement in its own right. Guillermo del Toro’s filmography’s inconsistent, but his take on Pinocchio’s up there with Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water as one of his best. Not all of it coalesces, the songs being its biggest folly, but it more than compensates with its themes of grief, loss of innocence, the pains of growing old and the dangers of authoritarianism (in this case, Italian Fascism). It also portrays Benito Mussolini as a diminutive man-baby with a fragile ego, which gives it points in my eyes!

Your mileage may vary, but I think the Netflix movie’s the superior offering overall.

Overall winner:

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next time!