Animation Celebration Saturday - Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night

Filmation, 1987
Voices of Scott Grimes, Tom Bosley, James Earl Jones, and Don Knotts
Directed by Hal Sutherland
Music and Lyrics by various

Filmation is known today primary for their action cartoons in the 1970's and 80's, including the wildly popular He-Man and She-Ra. By the middle of the 1980's, they had larger ambitions. This was to have been the first in a series of animated musical follow-ups to Disney fairy tales...but Filmation was already in trouble, even as this bombed at the box office. This and the Snow White sequel Happily Ever After would be the only ones that made it out before the studio closed. What happened? Let's begin in the swamp, as a bumblebee named named Lieutenant Grumblebee (Johnathan Harris) is awakened from his sleep by the arrival of a carnival train, and find out...

The Story: The carnival train belongs to The Emperor of the Night (Jones) and the puppet master Puppetino (William Windom). Pinocchio (Grimes) is now a real boy, and the Blue Fairy (Ricki Lee Jones) reminds him that he must learn to make his own choices. She gives him a new concience, a wooden glow-worm he names Gee Willikers (Knotts), to keep him on the straight and narrow. He's still easily swayed by con-men, though. The rascally raccoon Scalawag (Ed Asner) and monkey Igor (Frank Welker) trade a fake ruby for the jewel box the boy is supposed to deliver to the mayor. Geppetto is so upset over its loss, Pinocchio runs away.

He looks for work at the carnival, where he falls for a beautiful marionette named Twinkle at the puppet show. Puppetino uses an organ grinder to force him to dance and turn him back into a puppet. The Good Fairy restores him, reminding him not to take his freedom and ability to make choices for granted. Determined to make good, the boy tells his glow worm friend he intends to find the jewel box and return it to his father. Scalawag and Igor...not to mention Puppetino...still want to take him off the straight and narrow path and into their land of false fantasy. It'll take all the help of Lieutenant Grumblebee and his bug friends and a pinch of Blue Fairy magic to stop the evil Emperor and get Pinocchio back on track.

The Animation: Pretty decent for a low-budget animated film. There's some great effects, especially at the rainbow "Neon Carnival" and in the finale when Pinocchio goes up against the Emperor. Filmation always did create awesome, imaginative villains for their productions, and this one is no exception. The Emperor himself is an incredible design, with his flowing, changeable carmine cloak, four hands, and devilish face. Puppetino is equally impressive, and even scarier; his thick lips and purplish face looks like the stuff of a child's worst nightmares.

The Song and Dance: This is a weird one, but then, the Disney Pinocchio and the Italian book both are based on aren't exactly sweetness and light either. At the very least, it's more interesting and better-made than Happily Ever After. The animation is better and less stiff and Puppetino and the Emperor of the Night are nifty and genuinely frightening villains, especially for a cartoon from this era.

Favorite Number: "Neon Caberet" is the big number when Pinocchio follows Puppetino into the Land Where Dreams Come True, and it's a wild riot of brilliant colors and Art Deco-inspired design. Pinocchio performs "You're a Star" onstage to a delighted crowd, dancing with his beloved Twinkle...but the fantasy isn't as real or as enjoyable as he thinks...

What I Don't Like: I'd love to know what audience Filmation intended this for. Pinocchio is regarded as a children's story, but there's some truly nightmarish images in this film, especially Puppetino and his puppet show and with what the "Land Where Dreams Come True" turns out to be. The story is both overly complicated, and something of a rehash of the Disney film. (To the point where Disney sued Filmation for copyright infringement.) Gee Willikers is silly, annoying, and fairly useless, and the bugs he recruits to rescue Pinocchio (including Grumblebee) aren't much better. The sequence with them trying to escape a huge frog comes out of left field and seems to be there more to give them something to do than for any importance to the story. The music is dull, and the score is the tinny synthesizer music common in low-budget films during the 80's and 90's. There's the odd action finale that also seems out-of-place, both in the movie and in a Pinocchio story.

The Big Finale: Too weird to be a huge favorite, but it's apparently picked up a cult following in the past few years. If you like your animated fantasy on the dark-ish side or are a fan of Filmation's TV projects, you may want to give this one a shot at least once.

Home Media: To my knowledge, this is not on disc in North America. Your best bet is streaming; several companies have it for free, including Amazon and Tubi.

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