Okay, I'm gonna stray a bit from current releases back to some older 'gems.' I personally really enjoy well done animation and since I grew up in the 80s, I thought I'd mention a couple of overlooked childhood favorites. Now, people who know my tastes might think that I'm going to talk about An American Tail, Secret of Nimh, or maybe the Black Cauldron (all of which are overlooked and very good). But I'm guessing that most people who read this are somewhat familiar with those three movies (or at least are aware they exist).
The first movie I'm going to discuss is the sequel to Pinocchio (not those Disney awful DVD ones). You weren't aware of the 1987 sequel to the classic Pinocchio. Y'know, the one where Pinoc befriends Don Knotts, drinks absinthe and is tempted by the devil. Bringing us to the Filmation Production of...
Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night, Animated, run time of 1 hour, 30 minutes
This film was released on Christmas day of 1987 and completely bombed in the box office, making under 4 million with a budget of 8. The production company, Filmation, was famous for the He-Man/She-Ra TV series, the 1960s Batman/Superman cartoons, and the animated Star Trek. Most of the animation was very simple and repetitive, but the writing was above average for the cartoons of their time. Pinocchio was the big budget attempt to rival Disney and Don Bluth and after it tanked, the production company went under.
Why did it fail so badly? It opened opposite Good Morning Vietnam and Moonstruck, which didn't help and I can see where people would rip it to shreds on being a ripoff of the original Disney version. The film I see as more of a reinterpretation of the original source material then a knock off. Besides its small theatrical success, it has yet to be released on DVD. However, industrious folks on YouTube have posted it, so if you want to watch it after I'm done chatting, click here: YouTube - Pinocchio and The Emperor of the Night part 1.
Why do I like this movie? The combination of being truer to the darker tone of the original story (in the book, Pinocchio kills Jiminy Cricket with a hammer early on), the really surreal imagery, and some very strange yet beautiful animation. If you've seen the Disney Pinocchio, you know most of the major plot points in this one. One of the reasons why this a very imperfect movie is the hammering of the moral message of "freedom of choice." I realize its the backbone of the story but everytime the characters talk about that issue, it just seems clunky. I realize that this is from the people that brought us He-Man and therefore aren't particularly subtle, but the preachyness stood out to me.
The animation is fairly uneven, especially in some of the early expository scenes. The highlight for me comes in the latter third. The Disney version is famous for the transformation into a donkey, but I think what happens in this movie comes across as even more disturbing and twisted and I'll leave it at that. The animation of the titular Emperor is stunning; he may be the most intimidating and evil antagonist in a movie 'for the kids' (on par with the Horned King in Black Cauldron). There are some songs in the movie, most of them forgettable (the first one sung by the Blue Fairy is particularly kind of lame) but I did like the "Your a Star" number (a lot of the Youtube commentators mentioned it as their favorite part of the film).
Voice acting.... Scott Grimes plays Pinocchio, he's not really a household name, but he's had reoccuring parts on ER, Party of 5, and Band of Brothers and he does a good job being the plot catalyst (and isn't as irritating or helpless as similar characters in other animated movies). Jonathan Harris (Dr. Smith from Lost in Space) grumps and humphs his way as the pompous Lt. Grumblebee (the most disposable character in the movie).
Ed Asner is recognizable and hits the right notes as the conniving raccoon con artist Scalawag (if you've seen Up, he plays the primary old man) and Frank Welker (who does a ton of animal voices and is the original voice of Megatron from the 1980s Transformers) does an odd quasi-mexican voice for his monkey sidekick, Igor. I will point out that these characters are an overall improvement to me over their Disney fox and cat counterparts, having even somewhat of a character arc.
Two vocal performances elevate this from middling throwaway to obscure classic. Don Knotts plays the unfortunately named Gee Whilikers (yes, Disney copyrighted Jiminy Cricket). I'm not sure if Knotts did any other animated roles of note, but he is perfect as the plucky conscience. The character with his bug eyes, hat, and scarf even physically resembles Knotts a bit. The booming voice of the Emperor of the Night is none other than James Earl Jones. Obviously, I don't need to discuss the merits of having a villain voiced by Jones, but he makes the Emperor even more threatening than his nasty animation alone.
Overall, there is a fair amount of filler in the story (the whole sequence at Bugsburg sticks out like a sore thumb to me), some sloppy animation, and a corny "message." However, the more creepy surreal parts, the Emperor of the Night himself, and the fairly ballsy idea of having a movie about Pinocchio being tempted by Satan is why I like it quite a bit. So if you have a spare hour and don't mind 80s animation, click on the link and check it out.
I give it a solid 7 out of 10 and that's all I have to say about that.
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