scottobear | recently read the original Pinocchio. (Reply)

The Adventures of Pinocchio - That kid was beyond horrible, and had a lot of nasty folks nearby.

Notably -

The Talking Cricket (il Grillo parlante) – The Talking Cricket is a cricket whom Pinocchio kills after it tries to give him some advice. The Cricket comes back as a ghost to continue advising the puppet.

The Master (il Padrone) – A man who wants to make Pinocchio’s hide into a drum.

Gepetto isn’t a kindly old man — he’s hot-tempered and grindingly poor. There is a talking cricket, but it’s not named Jiminy, doesn’t wear a top hat, and gets squished by Pinocchio 12 pages in when it tries to give him advice. This lack of sentimentality runs through the book, whose sense of reality reflects the harshness of life in Collodi’s Tuscany. This is a place driven by hunger, brutality, greed and social injustice.

Which isn’t to say that the book is depressing. In fact, it’s filled with wonderful surreal touches, many involving animals, like the huge snail that offers to let Pinocchio into his house then takes nine hours to reach the front door. A similar anarchic spirit infuses Pinocchio himself, who’s not the cute, anodyne figure we remember from the movie. He’s a selfish, unruly, sometimes cruel puppet — the very soul of childhood.