The Adventures of Pinocchio (1984)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio DVD-ROM Extras-Colouring Book
Rating
Year Of Production	1984
Running Time	98:33
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Jim Terry
Studio Distributor	Century Video Corp Warner Home Video	Starring	Danielle Romeo Lacoya Newsome Cindy Kozacik Tony Roscia Pearl Terry David Scott
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	Bullets

    If you thought that the Carlo Collodi story of Pinocchio was set in stone and was destined to be told in the same fashion over and over again then think again. While this story does have a Pinocchio, Geppetto and Timothy the Cricket, that is about where the similarities end, and this is something that is mentioned on the back cover as well. If I can remember correctly Pinocchio's nose grew each time he told a lie. In this version it turns into a branch complete with leaves whenever he fails at a lesson in life. You could probably consider this the Primary School version rather than the toddler version of the tale.

    Geppetto carves Pinocchio out of a solid oak branch with much care so that he will have someone to talk to and alleviate some of his boredom. He never expects the "toy" to come alive but by having it sit there in the house he can at least pretend. Because Geppetto is such a caring man, a local fairy decides to grant the wish that the toy should come alive. Geppetto is pleased and takes great care of what he considers to be his only son. But Pinocchio too soon gets bored around the house and ventures off and gets himself into a lot of situations which are downright naughty. His friend Timothy the Cricket teaches Pinocchio over time that he needs to start using his head and his heart in these situations and learn to treat people nicely and do the right thing.

    While this is not the familiar Pinocchio story, the movie's title is after all The Adventures of Pinocchio. As a result you get a short introduction to the character then he goes about he journeys and is taught valuable lessons after each situation. Personally I thought it was a nice way to approach many subjects and provides a subtle life lesson to the young audience. You could certainly do a lot worse that show this to your kids. My in-house 3 year-old reviewer has taken to it quite well and it now receives repeat viewings along with the more mainstream Dreamworks or Disney offerings.

    The animation was done in Japan in 1972 and this is clearly evident with the way in which the scenes and characters are drawn. There is no fluid Disney-styled animation here, and that's something that personally takes a moment to adjust to. One last thing, there is also a non-animated version with the same name available just to confuse things. This particular version is actually an English dub of the Japanese animated television series called Mock, Made of Oak that has been re-cut and made into a single feature film in 1984.

Video

    The transfer is animated but the style does not lend itself to producing sharp images. Don't expect to see any sharp images matching the more mainstream animated stories such as Lilo & Stitch, A Bug's Life or Toy Story. The picture is rather flat, without depth, and a lot of the background scenery is slightly blurred, no doubt as an attempt to try and give the illusion of depth of field. The image suffers from no transfer problems and is sharp in that regard. There is mild low-level noise.

    There is quite often an over-saturation of colour, but the actual colours used are muted and drab with no instances of bright bold colours being used. This is not uncommon with the animation style. Again, there were no irregularities with the colour rendition of this transfer - just don't expect any splashes of bright, primary colours, since there aren't any.

    There were no MPEG artefacts seen or film-to-video problems from this transfer. Film artefacts are common but small and not overly distracting.

    This disc is single layer so there is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are three audio tracks on this DVD. The default is an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. There are also an English Dolby Digital 2.0 and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0.

    Geppetto's voice was sometimes muffled, but the other characters' dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times.

    The musical score is by the Bullets. The theme is quite a bouncy song that suits the story well. It does get annoying after a few playings though because it seems to stick in your head for a few hours.

    The surround channels were lightly used for ambience, music and special effects. The main effect is the swish sound effect of the wand.

    There was no noticeable use of the subwoofer throughout this entire movie.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

DVD-Rom Feature

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

• Nothing

• Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack

    This is not my bag baby, but there are certainly worse movies out there that this for showing the kiddies.

    The video quality is blurry and of low quality. The animation style is not something that I find easy to watch.

    The audio quality is acceptable but there are very few instances where the surround channels get any use. The centre channel is the predominant device.

    The only extra is a DVD-ROM feature that will be of little interest to those using DVD players.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall