PATRIZIA BETTELLA

COLLODI'S PUPPET IN FILM:

DISNEY, COMENCINI, BENIGNI
Geppetto's
a
initial

wish in Collodi's Le avventure di Pinocchio was to build

wonderful puppet

who

could perform acrobatics and help him earn a

liv-

ing touring the world.

Ho pensato di fabbricarmi da me un
tali.

bel burattino di legno;

ma un
i

burat-

tino meraviglioso, che sappia ballare, tirare di scherma e fare

salti

mor-

Con
e

questo burattino voglio girare

il

mondo, per buscarmi un tozzo

di

pane

un bicchier

di vino 1

Since Geppetto created Pinocchio with performance and entertain-

ment

in

mind,

it is

not surprising to note

how much

interest the

boy-puptelevision

pet has attracted in cinema, theatre,

and

television.

Cinema and

have given Pinocchio undivided attention for almost a century. Data shows
that the story of the

adaptations, 2 to

puppet generated approximately twenty feature film which one should add the European co-production direct( 1

ed by Steve Barron
released in

996) and, of course, Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio,

attracts the

October 2002. Pinocchio the character

It
is

media and

continues to inspire cinema.

Fellini's

worth noting,
he

for example, Federico

predilection for Pinocchio

story of the puppet as a

Collodi's story in

although nightmare and

8.

may

have viewed the

the presence of motifs from

many

of his films. 3 Pinocchio has had a large impact in

Collodi, Le avventure di Pinocchio, p.

Data from Laura, "Pinocchio

nel

cinema mondiale."

^One

could mention the presence of a Collodian big fish/whale in Casanova, the

attraction for the circus

direct association of actor

and automata

in

numerous of

Fellini's films,

or the

La voce della luna. Bernardino Zapponi, screenplayer of La voce della luna, remembering Fellini's project for a film on Pinocchio said: "Fellini vedeva Pinocchio come un
Roberto Benigni to Pinocchio in
his last film

incubo, con un po' di antipatia per questo Ottocento toscano, un po' borghese"(cited in Giusti,

"Quando

Fellini cercava Benigni, " n.p.). In Fellini's last

is

film the protagonist, played by Benigni,

shown with
1,

a Pinocchio puppet.

Quaderni

d'italianistica,

Volume XXV, No.

2004, 9

Patrizia Bettella

America

as well,

particularly in popular cinema.

will

Besides Walt Disney's

Pinocchio,

which

be discussed in detail below, Pinocchio has been the

starring

subject of an

American musical

Danny Kaye

(1976),

it

has inspired

Steven Spielberg in his film ET-

the extraterrestrial child who became the

most famous puppet

a

in

1980s cinema

and more

recently Pinocchio

makes

comeback

in his film Artificial Intelligence

is

(200 1). 4 Pinocchio's appeal in

the mass media

tations
tries

confirmed by the phenomenal number of television adap-

which amount to a stunning four hundred versions in various counaround the world. The puppet's natural predisposition for entertainment, show, and acting is highlighted also in Walt Disney's version of
Pinocchio.

Honest John and Gideon

(the

Cat and the Fox), who

are respon-

sible for leading

Pinocchio astray and for enticing

him

to the theatre of

Mangiafuoco/Stromboli, are themselves typecast

thespian's life as

as actors

who promote
life's

"fun" through the popular tune "An

actor's

for

me."

The

first

cinematographic version of Pinocchio dates back to 1911 in

Turin, three years before the birth of Hollywood,

when

Italian director

Giulio Cesare Antamoro started the success of Pinocchio on the big screen. The role of Pinocchio in that film was not assigned to a cartoon, for car-

toons had yet to be invented, but rather to French comedian Ferdinand

Guillaume, also

known

as Polydor,

member of a famous

dynasty of clowns,

who was
try. 5

attracted to Italy

by the fame of Turin

as a city

of cinema indus-

From

the very beginning, then, cinema had highlighted Pinocchio's

affinity

with entertainment, his vocation for the circus and for the theatre.

Critics

have stressed the theatricality and the abundant use of dialogue in

all

the narrative scheme of the novel,

elements particularly suited to per-

formance. Fernando Tempesti, for example, has traced the origin of

Collodi's text in the popular Tuscan theatre of Stenterello. 6

The clownesque

Francis Ford
realized
it.

Coppola

also

contemplated a feature film on Pinocchio, but never

Fellini cercava Benigni," n.p.

See Giusti,

"Quando

See also in this

issue Beckett's observations

about Stanley Kubrick's interest in Pinocchio ("Le

pantin persistant"). For more on Spielberg's

AI

see

Demers, "Diventassi" and

Anselmi,
-'Other

"Ars bellica,

"both

in this issue.

important film adaptations of Collodi's Avventure di Pinocchio are

Umberto Spano and Raoul Verdinis le avventure di Pinocchio (1936), Giannetto

Guardone's Le avventure di Pinocchio (1947), and Attilio Giovannini's Pinocchio
e le sue

avventure (1954).

More

recently, before Benigni, Francesco

Nuti made
website

the

hardly successful

film

Occhio Pinocchio (1994). This

information on
Italica

Pinocchio's

flmography

was

collected

from

the

(www.italica.rai.it)

under the rubric "Speciale Pinocchio."

il

See Tempesti, "Chi era

Collodi,"

p.

87.

10

CoLLODi's Puppet in Film

aspect of Pinocchio and his

automaton movements attracted

for that part. 7

Fellini,

who

had long wished

Benigni
as the

to

make

a film

on Pinocchio and had thought of Roberto

most suited actor

This essay examines the three most significant adaptations of Collodi's

masterpiece produced for the screen in the past sixty years. Disney,

Comencini, and Benigni provide three

nist that reflect various

distinctive versions of the protago-

modes of

social

and

cultural practice. In Disney,

in

Pinocchio

is

and remains
is

a passive

and harmless puppet (toy-boy),

he
is

Comencini he
national
culture.

poor and

rebel child, in Benigni are the

an adult burattino.

These three renditions of Collodi's hero

product not only of different

and

social scenarios,

but also of different seasons in contemporary

well illustrated, Disney's film,

As Wunderlich and Morrisey have

released in 1940, effects an infantilization of Collodi's puppet,

making of
culture.

Pinocchio the most suitable hero for post-depression America and setting the
trend for the image of Pinocchio
still

dominant today

in

American
and

Comencini's television

colossal, created in the highly politically

charged
critiques

atmosphere of 1970s
the flawed
est in

Italy,

brings the focus

class

on children

issues

methods of middle

education. Comencini's particular interreal

an analysis of the problems of

children brings to a complete era-

sure of the fairy-tale dimension

a
as

and of the puppet, making of Collodi's hero

his teleromanzo. Benigni's film, instead,
oscillates

boy

in flesh

and blood throughout

product of early twenty-first-century culture,

between an accep-

tance of the morality espoused by Collodi at the end of the novel the puppet

must grow and become

good and

real

boy

and

the embrace of an

alternative scenario

where a grown-up-namely Benigni himself

not only

continues to be a child at heart, but also opts for the joyous rebellion of the

puppet. Needless to

say, this last

proposition has sparked fierce attacks on

Benigni's film, particularly in

North America.

Disney's Pinocchio: the

Toy-Boy

Walt Disney's Pinocchio, directed by Hamilton Luske and Ben Sharpsteen,

was released
in the

in

February 1940. Given the vast popularity of Collodi's book

interest in

United States in the 1930s, Walt Disney's

as

making

a film
it is

about Pinocchio developed possibly

early as

1937. 8 Although

'In an interview with Enzo Biagi ("Indovina chi Pinocchio," n.p.) Benigni himself says that ever since

he was child he had been identified with Pinocchio by

his

mother and

that great "maestro" Federico Fellini called

him

"Pinocchietto."

Disney's staff attended performances of Yasha Frank's play Pinocchio in Los

Angeles in 1937. Wunderlich notes that Frank's story line

is

very distant from

11

Patrizia Bettella

assumed by many that

it

was Disney's film which began the transformation

its

and trivialization of Pinocchio in America,

shows

expurgation of any disturb-

ing and troublesome aspects of childhood, sociologist Robert Wunderlich

how

the changes in Collodi's story took place well before Disney's

version, as the result of a simplified conceptualization,

and

social redefini-

tion of childhood in the United

States. 9

Disney's plan was to continue the

European

fairy tale tradition

inaugurated with the feature cartoon Snow

White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). After Brothers Grimm's Germany,

Disney naturally turned to Pinocchio's

Italy,

but

Italy

is

Europeanized in

many

aspects: the

mountain

village setting,

Geppetto

as a

clockmaker and
idyllic

even Pinocchio's costume, re-cast the Italian original in an

middle-class
fulfilled

Tyrol of

dreams. To

quote from Wunderlich:

is

"Unlike

Collodi's egoistic,

headstrong puppet, Disney's Pinocchio

the personifithe

cation of childhood innocence

and loving acceptance.

He

is

newborn

infant filled with wonder, maintaining a sense of wide-eyed

awe toward

any joy about everything around him" (Wunderlich, "The Tribulations,"

211). For Jack Zipes, Disney effects the Americanization of Pinocchio

through the techniques which are used in

classical fairy-tales (Zipes, 16).

all

of Disney's adaptations of

Disney simplifies the narrative structure of

Collodi's Avventure by condensing the story

and reducing Collodi's topol(or Pleasure Island),

ogy

to six different spaces: Geppetto's

home, Mangiafuoco's (Stromboli)

theatre

and wagon, the tavern, the Paese dei Balocchi

in

which

Disney becomes a huge American amusement park, the sea and

the belly of the

Whale (Monstro).
is

New value

is

attributed to theses spaces:

self- ful-

the only desirable place

filment,

Geppetto's home, locus of livelihood and

(middle-class

associated to the ideal of the family

American

Disney's plot, yet Frank's character revisions

ditions of Collodi's original

may have
p.

influenced Disney's ren-

("The Tribulations."

211). Wunderlich defines

Frank's play Pinocchio "the very antithesis of Collodi's vibrant character.

He

is

not headstrong but thoroughly docile and passive

cent and wishes

...

Frank's Pinocchio

is

inno-

harm

to

no one; he

is

incapable of being

mean

or ill-tempered."

("The Tribulations,"

p.

207)

^In the article "The Desecration of Pinocchio in the United States" Wunderlich

and Morrisey conduct

tions

a sociological/psychological study of the various adapta-

and

translations of Collodi's
in

book

to

examine the changes

later.

in the

concept

of childhood of children
is

America during the 1920s and

its

While

in Collodi the world

presented with

challenges and complexities, in

modern America
all

children are depicted in a simplistic and excessively positive way. Unlike in the
original Pinocchio, in

American

translations

and adaptations,

antisocial tenis

dencies are removed from the child and the image of the parents

idealized.

12

CoLLODi's Puppet in Film

dream). 10 Since Disney's film was influenced by the experience of the

depression and of the impending Second

World War,

the outside world

is

presented as particularly negative and hostile; for Pinocchio everything

outside the

home

constitutes a threat.

It is

not coincidental that in Disney's

reestablishment of the
Collodi,

version the story ends with the

homecoming and

happy

family,

while this does not happen either in

in Benigni.

or in

Comencini, or

To make
but with the

the

woody

puppet's

movements

less rigid

and more natural

legs,

Disney creates a half puppet, half boy, a toy-boy with typically woody
rest

of the body fully human. Moreover Disney places beside

Pinocchio Jiminy Cricket, in the role of the narrator, a character with

whom

the audience can identify

and

a sympathetic vaudeville
voice. 11

clown

charms the public and provides a didactic

liberties

Disney then takes

who many

with Collodi's original

story,

among them

the use of music (songs

like

"When you

wish upon a

star"

quickly became classics) to express the

optimistic philosophy of Disney, something that clashes with Collodi's

bleak Weltanschauung. Disney's film, in

office

fact,
Italy,

did not do well at the box

nor was

it

received positively in
released in 1947.
12

where

it

received negative

reviews

when

it

was

The main

criticism

was precisely the

distance from Collodi's original.

Evidence shows that Disney took the

Zipes outlines some key elements in Disney's reworking of

fairy-tales,

such

as

the reshaping of the classical tale to suit the basic format of the musical and

adventure

tale.

The
to

story

is

simplified in order to highlight the technical artistry audience's attention. Although changes to fairy-tale
definite typecasting of characters: clear-cut gender

and invention
roles associate

command
is

plots are few, there

more

women

with domesticity and

fair.

men

with action. Evil characters are

dark or black, while protagonists are

Zipes, "Towards a Theory," pp. 4-5.

Zipes points out that Jiminy Cricket

since, as

is

the major character in Disney's film

story.

omniscient voice, he frames and narrates the

His moral conall

science

is

imposed on Pinocchio and on the audience, hence Jiminy provides

the excitement and makes the story of Pinocchio the puppet uninteresting.
Zipes, "Towards a Theory," p. 17.

In a review published after Pinocchio'?, release in

Italy,

Gormo,

for example, says:

"Questo Disney
che

un'acquerugiola cheta,
tirolese,
il

pi che protagonista spettatore.

Il

Avessimo un burattino monello

il

americano, quel che volete!

c' soltanto

guaio

burattino quasi

non

c'

ed

monello neppure,

un

mellifulo

Giannettino da libro di lettura." Gormo, "L'ultimo Walt Disney," n.p. For

Disney's reception in the United States see Wunderlich and Morrirey's chapter 4
in Pinocchio Goes Postmodern. For

an evaluation of the positive qualities and for

American

critical

reviews of Disney's Pinocchio see Sachse, Pinocchio in U.S.A.

13

Patrizia Bettella

story of Pinocchio very seriously, he

13 the translations available at the time.

the automatism in the puppet's

knew Collodi's text directly through The comical effects derived from movements is transferred onto the ambisequences of the film: objects and peo-

ence in Geppetto's house in the

ple

first

pose, as are the

move mechanically and the Tyrolean music is well suited to the purmany ticking clocks and their onomatopoeic sounds. By

choosing a clockmaker's instead of a carpenter's shop, Disney can highlight the automatic and mechanic effect in gesture and movement, some of

which

is

displaced

on

objects rather than

film, in Disney's

on the puppet. Unlike

in

Comencini's and Benigni's

anthropomorphized animals

abound, a typical Disneyan procedure well suited to animation films. Disney effectively typecast minor characters such as Honest John and

Gideon
tants to

as

vaudeville
himself,

actors,

choice endorsed thirty years later by

Comencini
and Ciccio

who,

in his

TV film,

made

the Cat

and the Fox

assis-

Mangiafuoco and chose

for the roles

comic

actors Franco Franchi

Ingrassia. In Disney's film the categories

of good and

evil are

equally divided and clearly

forces

marked

in

an attempt to create a balance of

among which Pinocchio

is

finds himself. Characters then are unidievil.

mensional and markedly identified with either good or

As Annibaletto

and Luchi observe, there

tered by Pinocchio,

a progression in the negative figures encoun-

from Honest John and Gideon (Cat and the Fox), still in the comic tradition of vaudeville (pure comic), to Mangiafuoco (Stromboli), completely negative in Disney, up to the Coachman and
finally the

whale (Monstro), that represents an extraordinary degree of negits

ativity

bordering on the monstrous as

name

suggests (Annibaletto/

Luchi, 23). So in Disney's film Pinocchio faces a crescendo of negativity

that culminates in the climatic encounter with horror. Pinocchio does not

show any tension towards an objective, since there is always someone else making decisions for him. He effectively appears unchanged from beginning to end, like perfect, submissive, and compliant toy-boy. The cricket, which functions in Collodi as the conscience, in Disney becomes the narrative conscience;

Jiminy Cricket's actions do not change the situation. The

real

animated picture reinterprets the

reality, in

world by giving

a simplified vision

of

which moral values

fairy-tale films

are juxtaposed.

As Jack Zipes noted, Disney

technical invention;

commodifies

and

"sacrifices art to

innovation to tradition; stimulation of the imagination to consumption for

-'For

Collodi's novel in

more on Disney's sources and the various translations and adaptations of America see chapter 2 in Wunderlich and Morrisey's Pinocchio

Goes Postmodern.

14


CoLLODi's Puppet in Film

distraction" (Zipes, 8).

While

Zipes' opinion

is

shared by many, the cineis

matic achievement and quality of Disney's Pinocchio

unquestionable.

The
er
it

film

is still

appreciated today for spontaneity, inventiveness, technical

innovation, and a

memorable soundtrack,
reflects

so

much

so that experts considpassive,

one of Disney's masterpieces. Disney makes the puppet into a

pliable toy-boy

who

what Wunderlich and Morrisey

see as the

American accepted and sanctioned, and yet

simplified, view of childhood.

Comencini's Le avventure di Pinocchio: the Poor Boy

It is

hard to pinpoint precisely

if

and what impact Disney's animation

his version

pic-

ture

had on Luigi Comencini when he completed

of Collodi's

masterpiece. Since Disney's Pinocchio marks a milestone in the diffusion of

the character and story of the Italian

wooden puppet, Comencini may have

to correct. 14

viewed the famous cartoon

early years

as a

model

Comencini,

who

in his

had worked

as a film critic,

was very familiar with Disney's work

and had expressed

his negative

opinion on Disney's Snow White in a review

for

of 1939. 15 While Comencini

may have drawn on Disney

some

aspects

of Geppetto's character-the loving, tender, and indulgent parent

versions

fits

both

his version

of Collodi's hero could not be more distant from

fits

Disney's. If

Disney proposes the model of childhood that best

post-

depression America

domesticated and submissive view of boyhood

his film in post- 1968 Italy, presents
as a

Comencini,
a rebel

who makes

Pinocchio

as

and cheeky boy, who only occasionally appears

puppet.

Comencini's Le avventure di Pinocchio, screenplayed by Comencini

with Suso Cecchi D'Amico, aired for the
first

time on RAI Italian National

TV on

8 April 1972.

16

Since

it

was a film mini-series

made

for state tele-

visionthe so-called teleromanzo, so popular in the

RAI productions of the

1960s and '70s it was directed to a mass audience, but was not conceived

Comencini may have been influenced

ed version of Pinocchio such
Verdini's.
-'In

also

by the previous

Italian

non-animat-

as

Giovannini's, Guardone's and Spano, and

we find some of his film reviews Snow White was reviewed in the journal Corrente on 28 February 1939. Comencini criticized it for being "opera d'arte. ... antithe appendix to Comencini's autobiography
for various journals. Disney's
artistica" (Infanzia, p. 193).

The
the

film

was created

as a television series in six episodes for a

duration of almost
it still

six hours.

The production

cost

more than one

made,
it

billion

lire,

making
in the

one of

most expensive

Italian films ever

was viewed

whole world

including China, Korea and Cuba.

15

Patrizia Bettella

mere entertainment. At the time Comencini's film was aired, RAI was still holding a monopoly in Italian broadcasting and was carrying out a
as

largely informational cultural

and educational mandate. 17 The

in the leading role
Fairy,
as the

cast includ-

ed famous
Italian diva
istic

Italian actors:

Nino Manfredi
Blue
a

of Geppetto,

Gina Lollobrigida

master of Italian neorealas

cinema Vittorio

De

Sica

in

cameo appearance

the judge;

immensely popular comic duo Franco Franchi

of the Cat and the Fox.
year-old boy

e Ciccio Ingrassia in the role

stellar cast

The only

exception to the

was the nine

chosen for

Andrea
in the

Balestri, a non-professional actor,

who was
five

the leading role of Pinocchio. This teleromanzo was a high-budget production,

is

two years and

making. Given

its

duration (over

hours) this film

destined to remain unique in the history of Pinocchio adaptations for the

is still

screen

considered the best film version of Collodi's masterpiece

film

ever

made.

Comparing Comencini's

with

Collodi's

original,

Alessandra Vitali states:

Un

eroe della libert, disponibile ad ogni richiamo della fantasia e

...

dell'avventura

e soprattutto

un bambino

in carne

ed ossa

...

questa

la

differenza fondamentale rispetto all'originale letterario

che

fa le

Avventure di Comencini un caso a parte nella storia delle

trasposizioni del

romanzo

di Collodi e

uno sceneggiato indimen-

ticabile. (Vitali, n.p.)

In Comencini's film, the adventures of Pinocchio are narrated alongside the story

of Geppetto, whose figure appears more prominently than

in

Collodi. In fact the director intended to feature the story of a father-son

relationship

and

to raise awareness

on education and on the condition of

children in contemporary Italian society.

late

The

political

movements of

the

1960s and early 1970s in

Italy,

culminating in the 1968 students

revolt,

marked

a period

of intense

social ferment, rejection

of authority,

and critique of bourgeois

the early 1970s,
story

society. In the politically

charged atmosphere of

Comencini

stressed the anti-authoritarian

message of the

and made the rebellion of the boy into the central theme of the
This
is

film. 18

why

rather than a professional actor, he chose for the role of

'See Dagrada, "Television and

Its

Critics."

"Ginsborg notes that

in the

period between 1968 and 1973 Italy witnessed the

most extraordinary

social

ferment and "the high season of collective action in the

Italy, p.

history of the Republic" (A History of Contemporary

298) The protests,

which began with the student

into factories

revolt

of 1968 in schools and universities, spread

It

and then into society

in general.

was

a time of high revolution-

ary potential which produced long lasting effects.

16

CoLLODi's Puppet in Film

Pinocchio Andrea Balestri a saucy, rebel child. 19

Comencini's preoccupation with children's

this film.

issues

is

not exclusive to

The

director,

who made
embraces

his artistic
this

debut with the documentary

just before his Pinocchio in

Bambini
the
analysis

in citt (1946),

theme

TV-documentary / bambini

e noi

(1970), where he conducts a social

vis--vis

of children's problems, takes unconventional positions

Italy. 20

child education,
still

and denounces the condition of poverty some children

endure

in

1970s

Comencini was

fascinated by the vitality of

children and by Pinocchio, a child who, in order to pursue any possible

adventure,

is

ready to reject any rule and disobey adults. 21 In Le avventure

is

di Pinocchio rebellion to adult authority

ridiculed as institutions

endorsed: police and school are

whose

traditional

methods of punishment and

view of the world and gives

education are an obstacle to the development of the child.

Comencini models
realistic

his film

on

his realistic

the story a distinctively late nineteenth-century Tuscan setting.

He

offers a

reading of the novel and highlights the plight of poverty and

life

hunger that subtends the

that the director
still

of Geppetto and Pinocchio, a predicament

sees afflicting

some children
favola.

in

contemporary

Italy. 22

As Comencini himself declared

considerato
il

in the interview for // Tempo:

"Non ho mai

libro di Collodi

una

Pinocchio un racconto congli aspetti

tadino e lo studio di un carattere con tutti

universali e tipici del-

Various

articles stress the

unruly temperament of Andrea

Balestri,

who was

selected for that reason for the part of Pinocchio.

Balestri: "Il

Comencini

said

about Andrea

suo carattere non

terribile,

semplicemente come quello del per"Il

sonaggio che interpreta." Cited in Danna,

naso di Pinocchio," n.p.

Although Comencini

is

best

known

for inventing the genre

as Pane,

of "realismo rosa"
e fantasia

and

for

comedy

Italian style

with films such

amore

(1953),

Pane, amore e gelosia (1954), and Tutti a casa (1960), his predilection for child-

hood

is

evident in the recurrence of this theme in

many of his

films. Besides the

text,

documentaries quoted above and the adaptation of Collodi's

made
novel,

L'incompreso (1967),

taken from Florence Montgomery's

and

later

Cuore (1984), taken from

his better

De

Amicis'

novel.

Comencini eponymous Comencini

P inocchio

acknowledged that

understanding of children's psychology through the

documentary / bambini
(Comencini, Infanzia,
p.

e noi

was

crucial for the

making of

his

127).
are reported in the article "Il naso di Pinocchio

These statements by Comencini

rispunta su Raitre" by Maria Paola Danna.

In his autobiography Comencini describes the poverty of children in a

borgata, as he portrayed
Infanzia, pp. 123-127).
it

Roman

in the

TV documentary I bambini e noi (Comencini,

17

Patrizia Bettella

l'infanzia." 23

Although the film

is

not completely faithful to Collodi's

book,

it

often draws

on the

text for the dialogues

and preserves the Tuscan

fairy-tale aspects are

language used by Collodi. In Comencini's Avventure,

almost completely eliminated from the story: no more speaking animals

(the

Cat and the Fox

is

are

mountebanks working

for

Mangiafuoco), the

cricket

merely a shadow on the wall; characters are preeminently human,

therefore the allegorical

pears.

dimension brought by the speaking animals disapCollodi's hero a real

Comencini makes of
in

boy from beginning

to

end. While in Collodi the change from puppet into

for

boy

is

the final reward

after the
start

good behaviour,

Comencini the boy

boy
in flesh

is

immediately there,

Fairy turns Geppetto's

puppet into a boy. Almost from the very

Comencini shows

us a

and blood, who

his life
is

reverts into a

wooden

puppet only when he misbehaves or when

sive or protective process controlled

in danger, as a repres-

by the

Fairy. In

an interview the direc-

tor explains

how he

decided to change Collodi's plot by refusing to relegate

the transformation from puppet into a

boy

"Sarebbe stato quasi impossibile, allora, far recitare

il

film

come

fosse

un

attore;
si

...

nessuno
al

...

end of the story: un burattino per tutto avrebbe accettato e amato un

to the
il

bambino mai
si

visto che

presenta

pubblico proprio mentre

racconto

conclude." 24 In the teleromanzo the Fairy becomes Geppetto's dead wife

and embodies the educational moralism which Comencini intends to stigmatize. The Fairy's magical, though somewhat ominous, arrival is marked
by charming glockenspiel music but
cini's Fata will be revealed later as

also

by storm and thunder. Comena

more of

witch than a good

fairy.

Identical to the picture of Geppetto's

dead wife hanging on the

wall, this
real

Fata gives Pinocchio the rules to follow in order for

him

to

remain a
else,

boy: be good, obedient, and support his father in his old age or
revert into a puppet.

he

will

For Comencini the

Fairy's

conditions

amount

to

blackmailing the child, an attitude he sees reflected in the treatment of

children in Italian society at his time. 2,5

The

director's

program of high-

lighting children's issues brings to a rvaluation of Lucignolo.

The bad

^Excerpts

from

this interview are

quoted

in the

pamphlet accompanying the new

DVD

release

of Comencini's film (Multimedia San Paolo, 2003).

"Il

Comencini,
-'Comencini

mio Pinocchio."
L'opera di Collodi
...

states: "

mi apparve come
il

il

racconto di un colos-

sale ricatto fatto al

bambino

Decisi di sostituire

ricatto globale del libro

con

una punizione che colpisce

il

bambino ogni
che
..."

volta che disubbidisce o

non

tiene

fede agli impegni presi con la fata. Pinocchio nasce nel legno e la fata lo trasfor-

ma

subito in

bambino

a patto

(Comencini, Infanzia,

p. 129).

18

Collodi's Puppet in Film

boy,

who

in Collodi leads
is

Pinocchio into the temptations of the Paese dei

is

Balocchi,

given a

less

negative role here. Lucignolo

presented sympa-

thetically, as a true friend.

The

negative depiction of middle-class values

and education

is

embodied

in the character

of the

Fairy,

who

is

criticized

on various occasions and

at the

end

is

attacked by Geppetto for her methis

ods of child's education. 26 In

fact,

the Fairy

associated here with

snail,

two

ani-

mals of Collodi's original, the cricket and the

sively negative attributes.

which

are given exclu-

The
its

cricket,

who

is

reduced to a mere shadow on

are a

the wall, gives Pinocchio

words of wisdom that

sum of trite and

void moralities, to which Pinocchio responds by smashing the cricket and

the picture of the mother/Fairy against the wall.
insult

by temporarily reverting the boy into a

The Fairy punishes this wooden puppet. On various

calls

occasions Pinocchio himself curses the "fatina" and

her "cattiva." 27
is

When
who
boy's
is

the Fata

is

shown

in her fairy-tale

house on the lake she

accom-

panied by her shrewd, old, witch-like assistant the Lumaca, the hag-snail
artfully revealed as the Fairy's unattractive side. Eventually,

when

Geppetto meets Pinocchio

in the belly

of the big

fish

and hears from the

it

words about the

strict

treatment of the Fairy,

is

Geppetto

who

equates her with a witch. While

characters of Collodi's original

Comencini redeems some of the negative

by revealing

their humanity-the Cat and shown as partly victims of the same poverty and hunger which afflicts Pinocchio and Geppetto, Mangiafuoco is presented as more compassionate towards the boy, Lucignolo reveals to Pinocchio what friendship

the Fox, are

is

about

it is

the Fairy

who becomes

the catalyst for the negative side of

the story. In an interview about Comencini's film and his role as Geppetto,

Nino Manfredi pointed out this aspect of the fairy, as he saw it depicted in Collodi's text: "la Fata mi sta antipatica (sono convinto che Collodi fosse un misogino)." 28 The most notable discrepancy between Collodi's original and
Comencini's adaptation
is

in the ending. In the teleromanzo the final shift

Institutional

methods of learning
is

are questioned in a scene

where the teacher in

Pinocchio's classroom

shown imparting

ridiculous notions

and

inflicting dubiis

ous punishment. With his unsuited pedagogical methods the teacher

to be responsible for Lucignolo's

shown

and Pinocchio's removal from the classroom

and ultimately

for their escape to the Paese dei Balocchi.

'In Collodi and in Benigni's film Pinocchio weeps for the death of the Blue Fairy

and wishes he had died

so good. In

in her place, since

he was such a bad person and she was

Comencini

instead, Pinocchio calls the Fata "cattiva" three times

is

when he

finds out that she

dead.

Bevilacqua "Nino Manfredi," n.p.

19

Patrizia Bettella

of the puppet into a

real

boy happens

inside the belly of the big fish. 29

fish has

While

for

Geppetto the stomach of the

life,

become
real

a sort of artificial
free

paradise for comfortable, sheltered

with plenty of

time to read

books, become educated, and fantasize about the

the

world, for Pinocchio

boy no

artificial life,
reality.

or

book adventure can

it is

replace the excitement of

experiencing

Here, then,

stand the deficiencies of a fake

who makes the adult underworld and who forces his father to rethe child

emerge from the

belly

of the big

fish

and begin

new

life.

Comencini

uses

Collodi's story to carry out an investigation into the status of childhood,

family relations, and education in contemporary society; the poverty of late

Ottocento Italy
still
1

is

a subtext for

an analysis of the condition of indigence that

plague poor children of his time. In Comencini's Italy of the early

is

970s Pinocchio

a rebel child

and

poor boy.

Benigni's Pinocchio: the Burattino

Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio

offers yet a different

and much debated

as a

ver-

sion of Collodi's hero. In Benigni's film the carved piece of wood appears

from the outset

as neither a

puppet nor

a child,

but looms large

grown-

up man,
fully the

albeit

with the soul of a puppet.

The movie

follows quite faith-

path traced by Collodi. Pinocchio goes through various scrapes

for his actions

from which he grows and learns to take responsibility

to care for his parents

and

(Geppetto and the

Fairy). In short

he becomes a

"ragazzo perbene." However, at the end of the film, after the successful

transformation into a well-behaved person, while Pinocchio goes to school,

his

cone-capped shadow reflected on the school's external wall takes a sep-

arate path

and runs away following the blue butterfly seen

finale suggests that this

in the

opening

scene.

The

Pinocchio

oscillates

between the "ragazis

zo perbene" of Collodian
Benigni's

memory and

the adult/child puppet that

own

personal version of Collodi's hero. Rather than being judged

this interpretation

with reservations or rejected,

of Pinocchio

as a adult/

child/puppet should be accepted as yet a different portrayal of Collodi's

hero,

more

in line

with Benigni's idea of Pinocchio

as the perfect incarna-

tion of the puppet, the clown, the burattino.

Benigni's Pinocchio

was released

in Italy in

October 2002 and on

version. 30

Christmas day 2002

in

North America

in a fully

dubbed English

^Even

within the film

it is

debated whether the

fish

is

a shark or a whale. This

is

definitely a critical

commentary on

Disney's choice of highlighting the Biblical

subtext by changing Collodi's "pescecane" into a whale.

Screenplayed by Benigni and Vincenzo Cerami, the film

stars

Benigni

as

20

CoLLODi's Puppet in Film

Both

in Italy

and around the world the film was accompanied by

advertising.
it

great

publicity

and

The most

expensive production ever in the histo repeat or even surpass Benigni's

vita bella (1997).

tory of Italian cinema,

exploit with

was expected

academy- award winning La

The

film,

which

in Italy

was appreciated by the public but not particularly by

fiasco in

critics,

was a complete
critics. 31

North America, both

at the

box

office

and among

Benigni, a self proclaimed Pinocchio, the actor already designatFellini as

ed by Federico

Pinocchio incarnate, in the sense of the pure

literal a

comic, was criticized by some for giving too

text,

reading of Collodi's

blamed by others for missing Collodi's social denunciation of the

Italy,

poverty in post-Unification
ness of ribald provocateur,

accused of lacking the typical audaciousfor being too old for the role. 32

and mocked

The

polemics and politicization surrounding both the making and the distributing of this film have polluted the
air so

much

that

it is

hard to regain a

balanced view on Benigni's work. 33 While issues relating to the reception

of Benigni's film in America

will

be fully explored in other

articles in this

volume,

my

observations

may

contribute to a

negative evaluation of the film

more objective perspective. presented to North American viewers

Pinocchio, Nicoletta Braschi as the Fairy, Carlo Giuffr as Geppetto, Peppe

Barra as the Cricket,

Kim

Rossi Stuart as Lucignolo.

cinema and

televison stars lent their voice for Benigni's film.

Famous English-speaking Glenn Close's voice

and Regis
Filbin for the
bellica, "in this

was used

for the Blue Fairy,

John Cleese

for the Cricket

Circus Master. For more on Benigni's Pinocchio see Anselmi, "Ars

issue.

'In
by

Italy the success at the

box

office in the first days after

its

realease did

not

translate into

an equally positive reception

among

critics.

The

positive reviews

Lietta

Tornabuoni and Mariuccia Ciotta contrast with Roberto Fedi and

Piero Cudini's slating reviews. Reviews by Washington Post Stephen Hunter,

New

York Times Elvis Mitchell and The Globe

chastise this film as

and Mail Jennie Punter unanimously

one the worst and most boring films ever made.

'For
cle.

harsh criticism of Benigni's Pinocchio as boring see Cudini's review. For

idea of Benigni as a perfect

Fellini's

embodiment of Pinocchio

see Giusti's arti-

3^In

Italy critics

seem

to be divided in

two

factions, those

who

love Benigni

and

his films,

and those who hate him. The fact by Medusa Film, a company owned by prime minister and media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, has outraged many left-leaning viewers and intellectuals who have
that the film was distributed
his conservative

in Italy

always appreciated Benigni for his open and sharp criticism of Berlusconi and

government. For Benigni's comments on the matter see

his

interview with Davide Grieco.

21

Patrizia Bettella

doubtlessly derives from the fact that the

North American
is

release

was

edit-

ed and fully dubbed.

The version
is

in English

in itself problematic; besides

the fact that the dubbing

out of synch, the choice of the voices, often

is

attached to easily recognizable actors,

ly so for

completely inadequate, particular-

Pinocchio and the

Fairy.

Furthermore, a great deal of Pinocchio's

comic vein springs from the use of and play on words starting with the Tuscan accent and language, which Tuscan actor Benigni is best suited to
convey

but

all

this

is

lost in the
it

evident

when one compares

it

dubbed version. These problems are quite to the Italian version and considers how
it

much
film

better

would had been had

simply been given English

subtitles. 34

Comencini's film, an inevitable model for any contemporary

Italian

least in

maker exploring the Pinocchio plot, differs from Benigni's Pinocchio at some fundamental points. While Comencini makes Collodi's story
it

into a realistic "racconto contadino"and presents

as a social

denunciation

of the rights
his interview

of children, Benigni thinks of his Pinocchio

with Davide Grieco Benigni
states:

as a fairy-tale. In

"Ho

cercato di restare

fedele al mistero del libro che poi,

non esageriamo insomma,

una

favola."

Furthermore, to Comencini's Pinocchio/the poor child, Benigni opposes

Pinocchio the man/puppet.

The

idea of an adult playing the role of a

child/puppet has outraged many,

who

refused to accept a

grown-up man
to acknowl-

acting like a boy-puppet. 35 However, Benigni does not

seem

edge the negative connotation normally associated with the term puppet in
the sense of a stringed marionette. For him, Pinocchio does not
passivity

embody
a buratvitali-

and compliance of the toy-boy,

poor boy,
la

la

Disney, nor does he personiis

fy the essential
tino,
ty,

Comencini, but rather the puppet

leads to irreverence

the expression of a child-like, though ageless individual

whose

search for freedom, joy

and pleasure

and

rebellion.

In short, Pinocchio the burattino coincides perfectly with Benigni's

comic

persona.

In

an interview with Enzo

Biagi,

the Tuscan actor/director

lei

responds to the question "Chi Benigni?" with: "Io, se

mi

dice che

Benigni un buffone, un burattino, un comico, un clown, mi fa un complimento. Io vorrei tanto che

the puppet
is

mi

si

chiamasse cos." (Biagi, n.p.) Pinocchio

the buffoon, the burattino

which Benigni

strives to

be in

many of his

film personae.

As Marcia Landy has noted,

in the tradition

of

^ For speculations about and reasons for the discrepancies between English and
Italian subtitled versions

of Benigni's Pinocchio released in North America, see

Anselmi,

"Ars bellica"

this issue.
"It's

^See, for example, Mitchell:

hard to

tell

what's sadder, Geppetto's belief that

Pinocchio

is

a child puppet or n.p.

Mr

Benigni's need to play one." Mitchell,

"How

Many Actors,"

22

CoLLODi's Puppet in Film

other comic actors, like Charles Chaplin, Jerry Lewis and Tot, "Benigni
has a clearly defined persona that carries over from film to film"(Landy,
119).
all

The Tuscan
from
vita bella.

actor himself admits that there

Piccolo Diavolo io

is

a bit

of Pinocchio in

his films,

Johnny

Stecchino, to II Mostro

and even

in

La

Benigni reveals in an interview to Davide Grieco:

le

"Ho
//

sempre

fatto

Pinocchio in tutte

cose che

ho

fatto. Il Piccolo

Diavolo era

Pinocchio,

...

L'ho sempre rincorso Pinocchio. In fondo lo era pure

Mostro, lo era Johnny Stecchino, era

un

po' Pinocchietto anche quello della

Vita bella se vogliamo." (Grieco, n.p.)

An

adult

man who

plays the role

of a child-puppet and longs to remains such throughout the film

may have

sparked disapproval, but the childish and puppet-like nature of Pinocchio

reflects perfectly

the essence of Benigni's persona, a puppet, a burattino,

is

who,

like a

clown,

ageless.

Benigni's distinctive

embodiment of Collodi's hero

as

an adult/puppet
in this film
is

brings to the fore the character of the Fata Turchina,

who

given space to shine as a positive force.

By

highlighting the Fata Turchina

the Tuscan director sets this philogynist Pinocchio in opposition to Disney,

Comencini, and Collodi. 36 In the book, the Fatina does not appear
chapter sixteen, she
tion
is

until

an afterthought exhumed from the

fairy-tale tradi-

when Collodi

is

asked by acclamation to resurrect his dead puppet and

continue with the adventures of Pinocchio in the serialized children magazine. All three film adaptations introduce the character
earlier

of the Fairy

much

than Collodi's original. In Disney and Comencini she appears durfirst

ing Pinocchio's

night in order to lay

down

the rules for the successful

transformation of the

wooden puppet

into a boy. In Benigni, however, the

Fata not only appears earlier than in Collodi and in the other two films,

but she takes centre stage in the prologue scene, precisely with the
tale arrival

fairy-

of a stagecoach pulled by white mice and driven by Medoro.

is

From
it

the very start the Fairy the Blue Fairy

it

inextricably connected to the blue butter-

fly. It is

who

grabs for a

moment

the blue creature

and sends
vil-

off to fly until

touches the very log which, rambling through the

lage,

wreaking havoc everywhere and creating comic scenes, ends up in

Geppetto's shop to be carved into Pinocchio. That same butterfly will be

seen in the epilogue, bene,"
still

when

the

longs to

fly freely

shadow of Pinocchio, finally a "ragazzo perand wander around. Hence, the butterfly is

^"While the misogynist treatment of the Fairy

above, for Disney, suffice
the
it

in

Comencini has been discussed

view of

to say that the fairy reflects the patriarchal

is

American bourgeoisie. She

hair.

depicted as a sex object with blonde rather than

blue

Her appearances

are drastically reduced,

and her educational

task

is

shifted to the male-gendered character of the cricket.

23

Patrizia Bettella

granted special importance as symbol of unfettered

flight,

tinged with

echoes of Calvinian lightness. Unlike Collodi, Disney, and Comencini,

Benigni's Pinocchio
is

an adult, or rather an ageless puppet, and not a

wooden puppet who

puppet.

turns into a real boy. In Benigni's film the acquisition

at the

of the qualities of the "bravo ragazzo"

end

still

leaves space for the

Pinocchio's search for freedom

and

his attraction to nature are

two

ele-

ments

in Collodi's text

which the Tuscan director has espoused

for his ver-

sion of Pinocchio. In the book, during the conversation with the cricket,
to the insect's exhortations to get educated, find a job,
values, Pinocchio

and respect family

opposes his philosophy of

life:

"e io, a dirtela in confi-

denza, di studiare

non ne ho punto
su per

voglia e

mi

diverto pi a correre dietro

gli

alle farfalle e a salire

gli alberi a

prendere

uccellini di nido."
in

(Collodi, 18) Benigni expands

on

this declaration

made by Pinocchio
and
as she
is

Collodi's text, uses a butterfly to symbolize freedom,

links the blue fly-

ing creature to the Blue Fairy's

power

to give

life,

the one

who

sends the butterfly flying and touching the magical log which will

become
life:

Pinocchio. Benigni shows the newly formed Pinocchio wandering freely

around green open

"che bellezza
il

spaces,

embracing the birds on a

s

tree,

and praising

mondo, questa

che

vita."

This declaration evokes the

Blue

Fairy's
is

statement in the opening scene,

the
si

when

she

tells

Medoro

that

giving joy

most beautiful thing one can do: "Dare

al

allegria la cosa

pi bella che
film

possa fare

mondo." These words

recall Benigni's

previous

La

vita bella. In the

Oscar-winning movie the preoccupation with

the child's survival

and the task of disguising the cruelty and horror of the

child's life

Holocaust from the

experience

is

given to the father figure,

the

played by Benigni. In Pinocchio, instead,

Fairy,

it is

mother
and

figure, the

Blue

who

strives to secure the child/puppet's survival

to dispense relief

and
pet,

joy.

Moreover, in the film the Fata has very deep feelings for the pupshe praises twice for his beauty; in fact she never loses sight of

whom

him. In the end,

when Pinocchio becomes

a "ragazzo perbene"

and

is

comthe

plimented by the Fairy for abiding by familial and societal

rules, to

Collodian words of Pinocchio, "com'ero buffo quando ero un burattino,"

Benigni's Fata juxtaposes "era

un

bel burattino." In the final flight of the

blue butterfly one can see the Fairy's endorsement of freedom and endless

adventure embraced by Pinocchio's cone-capped shadow.

The

alternative

message accepted by the Fairy

is

that the

puppet

is

"depositario di anti-

conformismo
his

e libert"

(Tornabuoni, 41).
Benigni

Commenting on
"il

the Fairy, in

interview with Grieco,

il

states:

personaggio della Fata

...

Turchina

pi complesso di tutta

la storia,

a parte Pinocchio

il

per-

24

CoLLODi's Puppet in Film

sonaggio pi moderno
lei

...

appartiene a domani, oggi stesso. Addirittura

nelle braccia di Lucignolo." (Grieco, n.p.)

che

manda Pinocchio
last

For

Benigni the Fairy holds a subtle sadness because she knows that Pinocchio's

beauty cannot
look
for
at
it,

very long, she

reach
it"

knows

that "happiness
it is

is

there,

we can
long
will

but

we cannot
Turchina
it is

(Bruni, R7) yet

our duty to search

last as

it.

The Fata

tries to

make

the beauty of the puppet

as possible

because

the puppet

whom
is

she loves, but she

knows she

not succeed. Benigni's Pinocchio, then,

for

the ageless burattino

life

who

longs

an always elusive happiness which can make

beautiful. This festive,

is

exuberant, child-like burattino, although not everybody's favourite,

the

Pinocchio that Benigni has presented us with.

This

article

proposes a comparative analysis of the three most imporsix

tant cinematic adaptations of Le avventure di Pinocchio in the past

decades. Each film version of Collodi's classic presents a Pinocchio suited

for a different socio-cultural scene:

From

Disney's toy-boy for

American
ani-

post-depression era, to Comencini's poor boy of politically charged 1970s

Italy,

to Benigni's ageless burattino for the present time.

As Disney's

mated

picture, Comencini's teleromanzo,

and Benigni's film have shown,

distinctive cinematic ver-

Collodi's original continues to generate

new and

sions of a classic that has reached iconic proportion

University

ofAlberta

Works Cited

Some newspaper and magazine

cate that there
is

articles

were downloaded from Internet sources

citations n.p.
is

and did not appear with the page number. In those

used to indi-

no information about the page number.

Luchi
Francesco.

Annibaletto,

Stefano,
1

"Pinocchio

da Collodi

Disney

Comencini" pp.

9-34

in Pinocchio sullo schermo e sulla scena. Atti del

Convegno

Internazionale di Studio del 8-9-10 novembre 1990, ed.

d'Arcais. Florence:

Giuseppe Flores
Italia,

Fondazione Nazionale "Carlo Collodi ", La Nuova

1994.

Anselmi, William. "Ars

bellica,

or

How Spielberg read

Pinocchio to Benigni in the

Land of the
Quaderni

Free."

Quaderni

d'italianistica

25 .1 (2004): 93-118.

Beckett, Sandra. "Le pantin persistant et proteiforme: rcritures de Pinocchio."

d'italianistica

25 .1 (2004): 43-70.
figlio.'"

Bevilacqua, Alberto.

"Nino Manfredi: 'Pinocchio mio

Corriere della Sera

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