No Strings Attached

In Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio, the producers Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske create the film using cinematic, literary, and theatrical elements. This amusing plot expands your imagination and allows, even a high school student, to go along on Pinocchio’s immense adventures. Before viewing the film, I was unsure of how the analysis would go. To analyze an animated film seemed obscure to me, but after the viewing I realized the same techniques directors use in Hollywood today are much like the techniques directors Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske used in 1940 to make the now classic, Pinocchio.

Pinocchio is much like every other Disney movie that has been made, heart-warming, enjoyable, and family-friendly. The story is being narrated by Jiminy Cricket, a cricket that later as the story is told, becomes Pinocchio’s conscience. Pinocchio is initially a puppet, and then later becomes a wooden boy after his “father”, Geppetto, wishes for him to become a real boy. Pinocchio receives directions from the Blue Fairy to be a good, honest boy. If he succeeds at this, he may just become a real boy. Through a series of obstacles, Pinocchio finally realizes that he should have listened to his conscience all along.

One of the major elements used to create the warm attitude of this film is the music. The opening credits role with music playing that is believed to be non-diegetic sound, but as the camera fades to the first scene it is revealed that Pinocchio’s conscience, Jiminy Cricket, is singing the song all along. The use of diegetic sound is found throughout other parts of the movie as well. For example, when Pinocchio and the other bad boys go to Pleasure Island, diegetic sound is used then too. As they reach their destination to Pleasure Island, the noise of exciting music is heard that you find out as they exit the boat, is coming from a carnival that is being held. The music really relates to what is going on in the film at the current time and represents the mood being presented.

Another element that really stood out to me was the camera movement. Each scene fades in and out, making it very evident when the scenes are switching from one to the other. Before nearly each and every scene starts, an extreme long shot or long shot is used to depict where the setting is taking place. The camera then will move around either panning or tracking to give us as the audience a broader view of what is around. After establishing where the scene is taking place, the use of close ups is used frequently, especially when Jiminy Cricket is being shown, for he is only the size of a cricket! Most the scenes duration time was fairly long, taking the time to show details and to really elucidate what is going on, we need to remember while watching, it was made for a younger audience.

Overall, Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske, along with the help of Walt Disney, create a classic film for the whole family to watch. The integration of themes all relating back to the consistent theme, listen to your conscience, really speak to the audience in an indirect manner. The writer’s decision to include exaggerated lessons subconsciously traces the message into children’s’ heads leaving them with a little more moral than before. No matter how old I get, I know I’ll never be too old to sit back and enjoy a Disney classic.