Pinocchio (1940) **Overall Synopsis**

Hmm, where to start with this...? Honestly, I don't know. After pouring out paragraphs with reviewing Snow White, which could easily make the Top Ten list of any Disney fan, Pinocchio in many ways might seem like a step down in all basic Disney elements. Well, let's just go with what we have, first of all.
The story follows the adventures of a little wooden puppet named Pinocchio, brought to life by a Blue Fairy, after his father wished upon a star for him to become a "real boy". Now, in itself, this is a strange wish for the father, Geppetto to make. Why on earth would anyone wish for a puppet to become real? If you think about it, it's actually a creepy prospect.

In Geppetto's case though, it does sort of make sense since we can see that he's lonely and unmarried, living only with his cat Figaro, and his fish Cleo. It would only be natural that he'd want a son, so of course the Blue Fairy grants his wish and brings Pinocchio to life.
Dancing around he edges of this main plot, we see a character called Jiminy Cricket, literally a cricket who acts as a conscience to the newly-born puppet. So what happens? Soon after being brought to life--the very next morning in fact--Geppetto sends Pinocchio to school, looking forward to a bright future ahead of them. In many ways, this doesn't make sense. Why would he send Pinocchio out into the world so soon? Is Pinocchio even old enough for school? Does Geppetto honestly expect the outside world to accept Pinocchio as their equal even though he's clearly as a phenomenon even to a life-size fox and cat whom he later encounters? Well, the audience can clearly define this as the mistake that started it all.
If not for two sketchy characters--a large fox named Honest John and his sidekick, Kitty--things could have gone as smoothly as planned, although we never know for sure. Pinocchio gets convinced into going the theatre, despite useless warnings by Jiminy to go back to school. Honestly, what kid would want to go back to school as opposed to becoming actors?  Well, acting turns out to be Pinocchio's downfall when Stromboli, the money-hungry puppet master, reveals his true nature and locks Pinocchio in a cage, outlining his future abused-life before him in just a few sentences.

The Blue Fairy and Jiminy Cricket--separately--then show up just on time and free Pinocchio, but not before the famous lying scene when his nose grows. And so thus, with a lesson learned, Pinocchio heads home, only to be caught by Honest John and Kitty once again. More forcefully this time, they encourage him on another reckless adventure, this time to a place called "Pleasure Island" with many other school bad-boys who usually skip. Here Pinocchio makes a friend, a delinquent who of course is anything but a good influence. Jiminy Cricket follows along, still trying to stop Pinocchio from doing bad things. We're given some pretty disturbing images of all the bad things boys can do, all leading up to a scene at a pool table where Jiminy makes his last desperate attempt to get Pinocchio to cooperate.
After Jiminy leaves in a huff, he finds out that the boys were actually brought to the island to be turned into donkeys for being bad boys. There are really dark messages that can be interpreted with this, but I won't get into those. Instead, I'll focus on the aspect of how Pinocchio discovers this for himself, and just narrowly escapes being turned into a donkey himself thanks to Jiminy's last minute return. They then escape the island and go back to Pinocchio's home, only to discover that Geppetto left earlier in search of Pinocchio. Like a ray of hope from heaven, a dove arrives with a letter explaining everything, and Pinocchio takes off in search of his father. The search leads him to the bottom of the ocean, where we get amazing 1940s' effects of being underwater. Considering the difference in years between The Little Mermaid and Pinocchio, one can't help but be impressed by this.

Pinocchio finally finds his father in the belly of a whale named Monstro, alive and well, and luckily not starving since Monstro's just opened up his mouth to eat several hundred fish. Geppetto insists that there's no way out of their current situation, but Pinocchio disagrees and rapidly starts a fire in hopes of making the whale sneeze. His plan is successful, but he's also successfully managed to get Monstro mad, which leads to a life-threatening climax in the ocean. Geppetto near the end is close to drowning, and so Pinocchio saves him, later crashing into some rocks and somehow dying.
Along with Jiminy and his pets, Geppetto goes back home and then cries at the loss of his only son. For some people this may be a tear-jerker, for others it might not be. But then we hear the Blue Fairy's voice repeating the lesson she meant for Pinocchio to learn from the beginning, and then as her gift to him for his courage, she brings him back to life and turns him into a real boy.

A joyful reunion and celebration follows, all ending with Jiminy singing the famous song "When You Wish Upon A Star", which is basically how the entire movie came to pass.
So, what do I have to say about Pinocchio overall? Well, it's definitely not bad, but at the same time, now that I look back on it, it's also not as innocent as I first perceived as a child. I don't really find it one of those movies you can go back on and enjoy, because as you get older you can just read into the darker elements of it and wonder how you didn't pick up on them as children.
For overall movie stats, I think:

Pinocchio Movie Stats

Animation: 9/10 impressive underwater effects considering the year, and a decent follow-up to Snow White
Story-line: 6/10 Not all that impressive overall, in that in some parts it can just get plain disturbing (the entire idea of "Pleasure Island")
Timing: 9/10; decent, just like Snow White
Characters: 7/10; not as great as Snow White; character analysis-es and relationship links below
Soundtrack & Details: 2/10 sorry, but not impressive at all in my opinion

Overall Total (/10): 6.6
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Further Movie Information Links

Prince and Huntsman **Character Analyses**

The reason I'm combining these two analyses is because each of these characters hold such little-to-no importance or impact on the film, that the individual character analyses wouldn't be long enough.

First let's start off with the Huntsman, a man with no name except as stated later by DisneyWikia, Humbert.

Alright, so let's start off with what we know about him. Well, we know that he's kinder than he looks, and that he wants to help Snow White escape and that he cares about Snow White as "the little princess", but what else do we really know about him?
In all honesty, if it wasn't Snow White's story, then I think that this guy could have gotten a bigger role. There's so much for what we could've found out about him. I mean, did anyone ever pose any questions like: How long has he been around the palace? Where's he from? How good is he at hunting? Did he have some loyalty to Snow White's late parents and does that make up part of the reason why he can't kill her and ends up betraying the Queen, at possibly the cost of his life? If he escapes from the Queen, what does he do afterwards? Could he possibly have gone to the Prince's kingdom and told him about Snow White was? Are there any other circumstances revolving around him?
My point is, that there's a lot that could have been revealed about him that just wasn't, but nor did it need to be since it was Snow White's story.

Next we have the Prince, who in some ways is even more unimportant than the Huntsman, especially considering that he isn't even given a name.

Would anyone like to know a secret? This guy was actually originally planned to be the film's deuteragonist but ended up only having a minor role because he was the toughest character to animate. Now, this comes off as a surprise after the brilliant designs we got with the Seven Dwarfs and the Evil Queen, but it isn't hard to believe when you look at it from a different standpoint. Being the general love-interest of our first Disney heroine, it's automatically implied that he's attractive, strong-looking, etc. Seeing as it was Disney's first movie, maybe he found it hard to animate such a man and still make him look, well, manly. The Prince is also not given a name, probably because his appearance doesn't cause much of an impact other than serenading Snow White and getting her to fall in love with him. He serves a purpose in the film by bringing Snow White back to life in the only possible way, but take that away and all you've got is a decently good guy who's just...there. Not a memorable character because he didn't get the chance to be, but on the bright side he is ideal for Snow White as a character.

Prince and Huntsman Character Scores

Design: 5/10 decently good I guess, but of no importance
Personality: 1/10 they barely get any!
Actions: 7/10 both serving decent importance in the movie
Lovability: 4/10 the Prince gets to be the love interest and the Huntsman might have some angst going on, but what else is there?
Realistic-ness: 10/10 we have no reason to argue otherwise. They just have some basic human characteristics corresponding to a situation, so there's literally nothing un-realistic about them

Overall Score (/10): 5.4

The Evil Queen **Character Analysis**

The Evil Queen: Easily one of Disney's scariest villains by design. Especially considering that she was Disney's first villain, she's pretty impressive as villains go.
Ok, so what is she basically? A vain woman who wants to make sure that no one--especially her stepdaughter--surpasses her in beauty, and will go to literally any lengths to ensure that her title is kept. It is both her design and her actions throughout the film that make her evil rather than her specific personality or motivation. Unlike the usual Disney characters, villains have to be judged in an entirely different way because they're not meant to be lovable, they're not meant to be too relatable, because the movie is just supposed to make us want to hate them.
So, what do I think of the Evil Queen? Well, as a child she ruined the movie for me because in her Hag form, she was literally my only fear, so I could never watch Disney's masterpiece properly. As I got older--and slightly more used to her appearance--though, I began to see her for what she was.
Her motivation isn't great at all, in that she can actually reflect the vanity of many women who just want to stay on top. In this sense, there's nothing noticeable about her. But in her actions however, they are nothing but evil and intimidating! Take a look at the scene when she commands the Huntsman to take Snow White to the forest and kill her, you can just tell that she's serious and that she hopes that he'll succeed. In some ways Disney didn't make it as gruesome as the original story when the Queen actually wanted to eat Snow White's heart, but just the fact that she wants it to be "doubly sure" is scary enough.

Her turning into the Old Hag and then coming up with the poisoned apple idea is more scary in the way it is presented to us through her design. What gets really creepy is when she talks to herself and actually visualizes what will happen if she succeeds: Snow White getting buried alive and whatnot. The fact that she relishes in some thoughts is enough to make anyone quiver.
So, why is she so great as a villain? Her design, as some argue, makes up the majority of what makes her bad, but I disagree against this. Her design is one of her biggest assets, but as more and more of her evil personality comes out, it also proves her to be evil. So while her motivation is her weakest point, it does show just how much of an extremist she can be. All in all, scary stuff to deal with and a great villain for Disney's first movie.

Evil Queen Villain Scores

Design: 10/10 professionally done and enough to scare anyone
Motivation: 3/10 one of the worst ones and somewhat controversial considering she makes herself ugly in order to obtain the title of being the most beautiful
Actions: 9/10 sinister and goosebumps worthy. The only problem I find in her actions is that she didn't choose to kill Snow White in a more gruesome way than with a poison apple
Success-Rate: 10/10 because she did actually manage to kill Snow White before she herself died, so technically she realized her goal
Realistic-ness: 8.5/10 not the most realistic in what she does, but realistic in that a lot of women deal with vanity and jealousy on a daily basis (the media doesn't help much)

Overall Score (/10): 8.1