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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Television»Kids TV
    Kids TV TV Shows - 1970s 2 Mins Read

    Pinocchio

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    1 9 7 8 (UK)
    4 x 30 minute episodes

    This four-part series from the BBC Sunday Classics team was invariably going to draw comparisons with the 1940 Walt Disney movie, but this fresh adaptation was more grotesque – in keeping with the rather twisted premise of the original book.

    The central story is familiar – the lonely Geppetto grieves so much for his dead son that his wish for another is answered by the Blue Fairy, although her magic only extends to the woods and forests so all she can do is make Geppetto’s carved puppet come to crudely-animated life.

    Geppetto wants to love the boy, but Pinocchio often rewards his father with loud tantrums which the woodcarver patiently bears.

    By turns innocent and gullible or thoughtless and selfish, the puppet tries to become a real boy but is all too easily led astray by the conmen Mr Cat and Mr Fox, and the temptations of the idle life.

    The character of Pinocchio is a real puppet here, playing against a cast of actors, so the truly unnatural concept of a living puppet can never be forgotten (unlike in the animated Disney film).

    The brilliantly played Mr Fox and Mr Cat appear whimsical enough, if cruel, but there are more disturbing predicaments for the wooden boy.

    There is the antiquated psychedelia of the Land of Toys where Pinocchio and the lazy boys waste their days until they are turned into donkeys and a cruel circus act where the Ringmaster whips the wooden puppet donkey into ever more dangerous stunts.

    The production is imaginatively realised through illustrated backdrops and models.

    Pinocchio himself is a simple crude rod puppet, sometimes operated by a puppeteer out of shot and sometimes superimposed using Colour Separation Overlay (CSO).

    This is certainly the most creatively off-kilter production to have been made by the Sunday Classics Team and far more frightening than the bright and cheerful Disney animation.

    Geppetto
    Derek Smith
    Blue Fairy
    Rhoda Lewis
    Mr Fox
    Roy Macready
    Mr Cat
    Neil Fitzwiliam
    Pinocchio
    Rosemary Miller
    Cricket
    James Berwick
    Jailer
    Arthur Nightingale
    Constable
    Pat Gorman
    Lampwick
    David Lynch
    Innkeeper
    Dave Carter
    Wagon-driver
    Brian Coburn
    Old woman
    Molly Veness
    Sergeant
    Douglas Blackwell
    Schoolmaster
    Timothy Bateson
    Ringmaster
    Martin Friend
    Stableboy
    Alan Bodenham
    Judge
    Leon Eagles

    Video

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