Film and Radio Guide (Oct 1945-Jun 1946)

November, 1945 FILM AND RADIO GUIDE 35 A GUIDE TO THE SCREEN VERSION OF THE WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO Walt Disney* s Technicolor Cartoon Fantasy PREPARED AT NEW HAVEN STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE, UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF DOROTHY McCUSKEY THE WONDERFUL ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO. Cartoon production by Walt Disney. RKO Radio. Highly recommended for all ages. Pinocchio, (pin-oke-io), the story of the mischievous marionette who l)ecame a boy, has been a folklore classic of Italian literature for hundreds of years. In the 1890’s Carlo Lorenzini, under the pen name of C. Collodi, wrote the story in a version illustrated by Attilio Massino, who gave the wooden boy the physical form we have come to associate with Pinocchio. When Walt Disney and his staff began to plan their treatment of the legend, two chief problems faced them. One was the physical form of Pinocchio himself, and the other was how they would adapt the story. The answers to these problems had to be not in terms of readers, but of “see-ers,” for the animated cartoon is primarily visual. There were two schools of thought in the studio, one favoring the grotesque type of character and the other leaning toward roundness and cuteness. Pinocchio staited out with a long nose, a peaked cap, ungloved hands, and dwarf shoes. Then he acquired regular shoes; lines became bolder, and details simpler. The shoestring necktie became a big round one, and the hat evolved to one like a child’s. Finally the new round Pinocchio appeared with button nose, bulgy cheeks, big eyes, large ears, four-fingered, gloved hands, Tyrolean hat (very jaunty) — a lovable marionette ready to become a real boy. The story underwent similar changes. Unnecessary characters disappeared, and incidents kept were chosen because they had possibilities of humor and because they would animate well. Characters became individualized, like the Fox, who is now J. Worthington Foulfellow, alias “Honest John.” The Cricket, too, who spent much of his time as a mere voice in the original, now emerges as Jiminy Cricket, the “Official Conscience.” Geppetto joins our gallery of favorite charocters. Pinocchio has emerged from the children’s classes and the juvenile book where he has hidden for many years, and now proves his universal appeal. HOW WALT DISNEY'S PINOCCHIO WAS MADE Can you imagine how many drawings two million are ? That’s how many individual drawings went into the making of the final 300,000 drawings that appear on the screen in Walt Disney’s “Wonderful Adventures of Pinocchio.” What we see as a flash on the screen is really a foot of film made from sixteen drawings. The story of the making of a Disney feature film is thus one of infinite patience and amazing technical knowledge and skill. When “The Wonderful Adventures of Pinocchio” was chosen as the next feature-length Disney production, the story crew went into action and, after months of conferences, a rough script was prepared. Adapters broke it down into sequences, animators made figure drawings illustrating the story from beginning to end, and dialogue was prepared. Then the sequences were divided up among five directors who made a rough timing of the picture, and began to work with the musical director about what kind of music was suitable for each part. Then the scenic artists began to work, and the dialogue was recorded. Walt Disney and the director went over all steps of the work, and finally it was put together on one big time-chart. Meanwhile, the character men were busy. They drew and consulted, drew and consulted, until finally even the goldfish and sea-horses had personality. Figaro, the cat, held up the production a while. First, he was just a plain garden variety of cat, and then one day an animator produced the lovely, fluffy kitten that everybody knew was just right. Monstro the Whale was quite a problem for the animators, too, because nothing so large had ever been used. His size was finally emphasized by very careful perspective. He was drawn to the scale of a three-story building and everything else was in proportion. Did you notice Jiminy Cricket on the whale’s eyelash? To help the animators, there is also the model department which makes real, working models of all the properties drawn by the artists. They made the toys in Geppetto’s shop, and a tiny coach complete with lights. More than that, they ran it over a road with bumps (made of sponges) so that they could see just how it rocked over bumps. The model department made a miniature whale skeleton five feet long that the artists could twist and turn, and even fashioned a rib cage and lungs that could be pumped to look as if the whale were really breathing. When the backgrounds are finished, the music, dialogue, and sound effects recorded; then the animator is ready to begin drawing the sequences of action. The cutting department prepares for him a chart which shows, in terms of a single frame of film, the length of each word, the intervals between words, the vowel and consonant sounds, accents, inhalations, and exhalations. The animator draws from this pattern. If the character says “hello,” and the cutting department