I remember very clearly seeing this in a theater. Wikipedia tells me Disney re-released it in 1984, which may have been when was taken to see it, though I feel that my brother was there and he would have been an infant at the time so it seems unlikely. Yet it seems the next reissue wasn't until 1992. It's possible that was the screening (my brother would have been 9), but that doesn't seem quite right either. In any event, I am confident that I haven't seen it at all in the last 17 years and perhaps not at all since that theatrical screening (whenever it was), though it seems pretty likely I did see it on home video or in a TV broadcast at some other point.

There is some measure of irony that I should re-watch Pinocchio on the cusp of Mitt Romney's appearance at the 2012 Republican National Convention. Romney, of course, has been characterized as "wooden" for years and I couldn't help but chuckle at the idea of the candidate being told by the Blue Fairy that he may one day become a real boy. The film is replete with potential political allegories, including the theme of navigating temptation, being on guard against exploitation and even that whole really freaky scene where exploited boys mutate into donkeys.

Though the film obviously engaged my inner political wonk, I found my attention even more captured by other parts of the film. The animation is nothing short of astounding. I think I favor the work on Dumbo by a hair, but there's no shortage of beautiful work to appreciate here. Check out those cuckoo clocks!

That whole Pleasure Island episode freaked me out as a child and I think it may have actually become even more troublesome to me as an adult. The Coachman was even more sinister this time through than the last time I watched the film. He made me squirm, and as an adult viewer I felt cheated and frankly alarmed that the predator is never apprehended or punished on screen. So far as we know, he's still out there preying on young boys!

It wasn't just that I've become more conscious of the dangers of child predators over the years. I found myself caught up in the emotional turmoil of Geppetto and Pinocchio's need for the parent/child relationship. Watching Geppetto embrace Pinocchio warmed my heart, just as seeing the old man despair at his son's absence broke it.

The episodic structure, inherited from the source material, does show some storytelling seams though I found there's only one jump that didn't work for me and that's the set up for the final set piece where Pinocchio discovers - by letter - that Geppetto has been swallowed by the whale, Monstro. The bridge to that scene is so abrupt and perfunctory that it doesn't feel an organic growth of the story. It's just, "Well, I guess we're off to find a whale."

That's really my only complaint, though, and I think part of why I can't seem to let go of that is that the rest of the film is so rich and meticulous that this one deficiency is distracting in its conspicuousness.

Well, two more days to fit in as much watching as I can. I've passed the 4 day mark, and I'd like to add another day to my watch time but I have to sleep sometime!