Pinocchio dans l'espace

wow i was beginning to think i'd imagined the whole thing. i actually did see this in the 70's as a child , i was beginning to think this was some sort of shared delusion with my brother.....i'm glad it's real ;)

Buried in the annals of my childhood fears is this movie that I saw when I was too young to experience anything except sensual sensation. I don't even remember the plot except that there was a horrible space whale with a weird thruster thing instead of a blowhole and terrible martian space monsters that absolutely scared the crap out of me. The whole film is extremely frightening and disturbing.

I like it :)

I saw this on the big screen. It changed my life. Well, OK. Perhaps I would have become a Sci-Fi fan anyway, but at age six, this was the coolest thing I had ever seen. I should note that when this came out, I still thought Clutch Cargo was at least moderately cool. Years after I had seen it, I had dreams about it. As an adult, I remembered this little tale whenever I saw a reference to "Pinocchio". (Disney tosses them around like beads at Mardi Gras) It was so obscure that I thought I might have dreamed it up myself. I was excited to have unearthed this gem and bring it into the light of today. I think it might be fun to see this again just for the nostalgia. Then again, I've listened to some of the music I liked so much back then and found it just... scary. Perhaps this should remain wrapped in the rose colored cloak of the past as my first full length, animated, Sci-fi feature film. For that alone, I'll give it six stars.

...despite the fact that they made him a blonde... It's true that while this film is a visual departure from the Disney version (as it should be, IMO), it does have some elements that make it enjoyable nonetheless. The songs ("In the Little Toy Shop", "Goody Good Morning" and "Doin' the Impossible") are very decent and fun to listen to. Then there's the combination of a classic fairy tale and the space age (Pinocchio saves the Earth from Astro the flying whale). Throw in Arnold Stang (Nertle the Turtle), some scary intergalactic mutants, an atomic blast, and you've got...well, a decent 60's animated movie about a puppet saving the world.

I'm transferring my VHS copy of this film to DVD right now and I'm re-appreciating the hard work to make this above average animated sci-fi fantasy. Great character design reminiscent of the Fleisher era Popeyes. Lots of imaginative monsters. The animation is never lazy, lots of full character shots of walks and runs and good "acting" to go with the voice track. I mistakenly thought this was an example of the early Japanese animation like Astro Boy. It's actually French-Belguim. I saw this when it came out in the sixties when I was about 12 or 13. At the Knob Hill theater in Oklahoma City. Probably co billed with something like Hercules vs The Vampires.