Les Aventures de Pinocchio

This Comencini version of the adventures of Pinocchio is the most fateful to the original novel and also perhaps the best, including some of the biggest names in Italian comedy of the seventies, like Manfredi, Lollobrigida and Vittorio de Sica. The score of the film (by Nino Rita) is FANTASTIC: the themes are airy, elegant and memorable. The slow carillon in "Fata turchina", the coupled piano-harpsicord motif of "Birichinata" or the magic, slightly psychedelic mood of "Trasformazione di Pinocchio e Lucignolo", the askance tango "Il Gatto e la Volpe": just a few of the excellent episodes giving the LP its old-fashioned countryside charm. Fun for all family, and undeservedly little known of outside of Europe. A children classic with a subversive undertone that adults can appreciate.

When I was a child in the 70's I watched this beautiful version of Pinocchio on the German television for the first time. The series was broadcast on a few Sunday mornings in the '70's. I never saw such a realistic pinocchio-boy. It was fascinating to see how the wooden boy moved and how he walks and talks. In my childhood this boy of wood looks very realistic. I never forgot some fragments like the mysterious fairy and the boat by the water and the big whale. It was really spooky sometimes to watch but I didn't wanna stop watching! I loved it! But anyway I will warn children and other readers for watching Le avventure di Pinnochio alone. It could be a bit scary. One day, it was real tragic for me, the series suddenly stopped, it disappeared. Unfortunately I never saw it again on the television. I searched many times to this Pinnochio movie but didn't know any information about the subtitle or creator. Without the internet, I guess, I never discovered it. Finally this week I found at last the information I was searching so many years for. I was very enjoyed about it!! Now I can order this masterpiece of Luigi Comencini on DVD and watch it in my own Dutch language. I will always treasure this series from my childhood and I can't wait to see it again after more then 20 years.

This is a charming, funny yet dark adaptation of Carlo Collodi's story of Pinocchio. The basic plot will be familiar to anyone who's seen Disney's version, but the story is much richer than the cartoon format allowed for. The actors in this version are superb, particularly Manfredi as Gepetto and Franchi and Ingrassia as the cat and the fox. It's well worth renting, if you can find it -- and it's probably better for adults to watch with older kids, given that some of the villains in the story are portrayed in a pretty scary way that the Disney cartoon glossed over.

I'm looking for the maybe tenth time at television version of "Le avventure di Pinocchio" By Comencini, Rai is broadcasting it , on its satelite channel Raisat Album, with a maybe bit polemical intention... Here in Italy everyone in showbusinnes says "the Benigni's version is just made for americans..." well, anyway, I don't think americans (the ones who know the Comencini's version) can't make the incredible difference of interpretation between the two movies. The first one in a perfect neorealistic style, caring about every carachter, even the most little and caring much more about the key-words inside the Collodi's story. We mustn't forget the level of actors inside it! Not only Ciccio Ingrassia and Franco Franchi, not only Nino Manfredi, but also Vittorio de Sica as the judge! We mustn't forget the care of locations! Perfectly giving to the watcher the idea of an Italy post- 1861 unification, with all her hunger, he misery, her dignity. Everyone of us, looking to every version of a national tale shouldn't never forget the moment someone told it to him or her... The rest is silence...

It is always tricky and very hard to turn a (great) novel into a movie with good results. So many times the result is quite bad. But in this case this rendition of Carlo Collodi's wonderful novel (read it! And have your kids read it!) by one of the greatest Italian directors will leave you totally delighted and moved. The actors are superb and the atmosphere is absolutely perfect. Andrea Balestri (Pinocchio) is... well... THE perfect Pinocchio. Geppetto (the great Manfredi) is unforgettable, and so Lollobrigida, and so Franco Franchi e Ciccio Ingrassia and... well, try and find a copy: every effort you will make is worth, trust me. I have to say that Disney's version (after all a cartoon. A great one, but a cartoon) disappears if compared to Comencini's Pinocchio. I watched Comencini's Pinocchio when I was a kid and many times since then (I am Italian so I have had more opportunities to watch it) and I do think that this version is a masterpiece.