Pinocchio et l'Empereur de la nuit

This film will go down as one of my all-time favorites. Filmation wasn't known for phenomenal animation, but after watching the Masters of the Universe series again, I wasn't expecting too much from them on THIS one- I was COMPLETELY blown away! The animation is PHENOMENAL, coming from Filmation. The Emperor looks awesome, and the music scores are EXCELLENT. In my opinion, this film never received the marketing blitz it truly deserved. Personally, I like THIS film better than DISNEY'S Pinocchio, and this film is actually not a continuation of the DISNEY film, but of the Adventures of Pinocchio animated series. Every time I see this film, I love it even more. A real winner in my book! :)

If I'm not mistaken, I think it's just about my one-year anniversary here at IMDB. Now I'm sure my raging fans (all two of you) are well aware that I can't get enough of weird cartoons. I happened to run into "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night" in the bargain bin of a thrift store recently, bought it remembering only that I had rented it several times as a kid, and came away concluding that it's going to take one heck of a cartoon to beat this one!

This movie is crazy. It's like somebody wanted to do an animated film of _Faust_, got bored with it, and decided for the heck of it to throw Pinocchio and Gepetto in it (other characters from the _Pinocchio_ story show up in poor disguises). Pinocchio's adventure leads him from an evil carnival to a freakish neon Hell populated by small children and lastly to the domain of a quadrimanous Satan. Along the way, he has run-ins with a wooden insect, a monkey who is eerily prescient of JarJar Binks down to the last stupid big tooth, and a pretty girl puppet owned by Satan's minion. This last character (the puppet, not the minion) is the focus of a crush from Pinocchio, and I guess this is supposed to be romantic but it comes across as very creepy. (I mean, he's a real boy lusting over a *doll* people; look at the looks he's giving her!)

This is a very trippy movie. On that level, it isn't half bad. I actually rather enjoyed it.

A creepy mysterious carnival comes to town, Pinocchio (voiced by Scott Grimes) has just celebrated his first birthday as a human has been given a special assignment from his dad Gheppeto (voiced by Tom Bosley) to return an important jewel box back to the mayor and has been granted the power of freedom from his Fairy Godmother (voiced by Rickie Lee Jones) as he must be responsible for it or else he'll end up a puppet again. He gets swindled by a scandalous Raccoon named Scalawag (voiced by Ed Asner) and his monkey assistant Igor (voiced by Frank Welker) for a worthless fake ruby, it upsets his dad so much that he decides to run away to join the carnival for he falls for the hypnotic singing of a beautiful female puppet named Twinkle (voiced by Lana Beeson) over there and is tricked by the evil Puppetino (voiced by William Windon) as he is magically changed back into a puppet. However, Pinocchio does escape as he looks for the two scumbags that swindled him for they go after the traveling carnival to get the box back and end up in the nightmarish Las Vegas-esquire hellish realm of the empire of the night ruled by the evil Emperor (Voiced by James Earl Jones).

Co-starring the voices of Jonathan Harris and Don Knotts, this is a highly underrated and hugely entertaining animated fantasy from Filmation (The studios behind "He-Man", "Fat Albert", "Star Trek Animated" and "She-Ra") for i believe this is their best movie besides "Starchaser: Legend of Orin" and "The Secret of the Sword". The film does have a few good songs such as the haunting "Love is the light inside your heart" by Rickie Lee Jones, the upbeat "Neon Carbret" and finally the most fun song of all "You're a Star".

I remembered back in 1987 when i was 5 on Christmas night when i lived in St. Louis, my mom took me to see this movie at a shopping mall theater and it sure scared the crap out of me. But now i love it for it's one of my favorite animated movies ever! the animation is just breathtaking here considering it's an improvement over any Filmation animated effort and the film really gets dark with such moments like the absolutely horrifying sequence where Pinocchio changes back into a puppet as he's surrounded by puppets for it will scare the hell out of kids considering it almost escape the "PG" rating plus the Emperor himself is quite an awesome villain here.

If you love animation and good fantasy stories then this is a must see! it's a rare forgotten 80's animated diamond in the rough.

Also recommended: "The Black Cauldron", "Rock & Rule", "Fire & Ice", "Wizards", "The Dark Crystal", "Aladdin", "Big Trouble in Little China", "The Phantom Tollbooth", "Transformers: The Movie", "The Wizard of Oz", "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs", "The Great Mouse Detective", "Sleepy Hollow", "The Corpse Bride", "Willy Wonka and The Chocholate Factory", "Return to Oz", "Oliver & Company", "The Little Mermaid", "The Last Unicorn", "The Secret of NIMH", "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory", "Mulan", "Spirited Away", "Making Contact (a.k.a. Joey)".

I saw this movie when I was about 10 or so and I absolutely loved it. The animation was fantastic and I actually thought it was better than the Disney movie. The story was very involved, but not too hard for a kid to follow. I hope to find this movie on DVD.

Don't be put off by those who would label this little gem a Disney ripoff. In a time when very few animated features were being produced, Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night is a surprisingly nice little animated film. From the opening moments, you can see that this was intended to be something special. There is some great animation, such as the ending on the Emperor of the Night's ship. There are some dark, genuinely frightening moments such as James Earl Jones as the titular Emperor and his macabre carnival, or a scene which has Pinocchio transformed back into a lifeless puppet. There are comical moments with Gee Willikers the wooden glowbug and Grumblebee. There are also bizarre, surreal scenes, notably a sequence where Pinocchio is tempted in a dream-like land by the Emperor and his minions. The song in this scene, "The Neon Cabaret", is jazzy and upbeat, and it enhances strange mood. Don Knotts, James Earl Jones, Ed Asner, and Jonathan Harris all give wonderful voice performances to their respective characters. Rickie Lee Jones as the Fairy Godmother tends to grate though.

The overall impression is that of a very ambitious production. The film moves along at a good pace and boils to a great climactic finish. Definitely worth a look!