Pinocchio & Emperor of the Night
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VHS Tape Cover Information Actor: Pinocchio & the Emperor of the Night Edition: VHS Tape Audio: English (Original Language) Format: Animated, Color, NTSC Running Time: 45 minutes Release Date: 1995-10-05 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Publisher: Starmaker Entertainment Studio: Starmaker Entertainment |
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VHS Movie Reviews of Pinocchio & Emperor of the Night
Movie Review: Inconsistent, far from Disney, but pleasantly surprising at times.
Summary: 3 Stars
A year after Pinocchio's fairy godmother made him a real boy, he requests the task of delivering a special music box made by his father, Geppetto (Tom Bosley), for the mayor of their village. Of course, Pinocchio (Scott Grimes) gets sidetracked by a carnival and two greedy con artists, a raccoon named Scalawag (Ed Asner) and a monkey named Igor (Frank Welker). As you might expect from Pinocchio, he ends up trading the music box to the pair for a fake gem, and when he is scolded for his foolish mistake, he runs away so he will no longer cause trouble for his father. Pinocchio finds his way back to the carnival and a bit of trouble, but even that doesn't teach him a lesson. He soon is on a river journey with Scalawag and Igor to find the ship the carnival is traveling on, as it now carries the music box and also a beautiful, female puppet Pinocchio has grown fond of. But the carnival ship holds a mysterious secret! It's really the home of the wicked Emperor of the Night (James Earl Jones) who travels the land tricking children into giving up their freedom!
Made by Filmation in 1987, "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night" might be exactly what you expect in some areas, and a bit of a surprise in others. For one thing, the animation, for Filmation, is probably above what you'd expect. Granted, it's a bit inconsistent, as it gets much better in the 3rd act. In fact, the film itself gets must better, as the middle drags somewhat, in no small part due to the insect sidekicks that could easily have been written out of the film all together. In fact, meaning no disrespect to Don Knotts and Jonathan Harris, their wooden glow-bug and bumblebee characters really were the low points of the film. They simply were not necessary, and at times the movie focused on them entirely, never with very interesting results. The film boasts some original songs that aren't too shabby, but the general background music the rest of the time is nothing special. In general, it's a decent film, or it would be without the bug characters which I really feel were only included to remind one of Jiminy Cricket. In fact, the wooden glow-bug the fairy brings to life as a birthday gift for Pinocchio is named "Gee Willikers," another bit of expressive slang. The film also carries the stigma of appearing to be a wannabe sequel to the Disney classic. Of course, anyone can make public domain fairytale films, but it does seem suspicious that Filmation decided to start with sequel films rather than first trying their hand at something like Rapunzel or Little Red Riding Hood. Yes, another one they made was "Happily Ever After," a Snow White sequel. Clearly there was a hope here that doing a sequel story to something Disney had already done a successful original of might lead to higher ticket sales. Nevertheless, "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night" is worth watching for its highpoints, which include its musical numbers and its whole third act. None of it is at Disney's level, but it's a nice bit of animated, 80's fantasy entertainment, if you find that type of film entertaining in general.