Pinocchio ~ Disneys Best Feature

It's a familiar story... A wooden puppet, Pinocchio, is brought to life by the Blue Fairy, with the promise that he can become a real boy if he proves himself worthy. Pinocchio is led astray by the wicked Honest John and his companion Gideon, who turn him over to an evil puppeteer, Stromboli. Pinocchio is sent to Pleasure Island, where wicked boys are turned into donkeys, but he escapes with the aid of his friend and conscience, Jiminy Cricket, and eventually redeems himself by saving his father, Geppetto, who has been swallowed by Monstro, the whale. The Blue Fairy rewards Pinocchio by turning him into a real boy.

From the original story by Carlo Collodi, the film is felt by many film historians to be the most technically perfect of all the Disney animated features. And it truly is. It is the quintessential Disney film. It embodies the pure craftsmenship and devotion of artists working ONLY on one feature at a time. It was the time of new ideas and camera shots, angles never put on screen and a young Hollywood ripe with talent. It was when Disney's "Nine Old Men" were in their 20's, and hungry to please.

And please they did. Pinocchio is now out on DVD in a brilliant remastered print. I bought it with great anticipation the day it came out and sat that evening in the La-Z-Boy and marveled at the subtle magnificence of the painted woodwork in Geppettos shop... How it opened with the signature theme song "When You Wish Upon A Star"... with Jiminy Cricket sitting on a window sill by candlelight watching the night sky... The perfect voice casting of each character...the incredible world party soundtrack... the scenarios the puppet would get himself involved in.. one after another, warning that the world is a dangerous place that awaits you the moment you leave your doorstep.

Pinocchio was an innocent, left to partake in a world he had no idea existed and trusting everyone in his path. It also has some of the scariest scenes in animation history. With the Coachman capturing the boys and turning them to Jackasses, Monstro the Whale gobbling the makeshift raft Geppeto used to find his boy... Disney warns that the tamest of stories can become a nightmare with one wrong turn of the road.

Off the heels of the incredible success of Snow White, it was the Disney Company's second feature and remains arguably the hallmark of animation to this day... and in my mind will always be.

The Incomparable Mary Blair

Disney fans know her by name. Her art is integral to the Disney animation legacy. For more than a dozen years, an unassuming, quiet-spoken woman dominated Disney design. The stylishness and vibrant color of Disney films in the early 1940s through mid-1950s came primarily from artist Mary Blair. In her prime, she was an amazingly prolific American artist who enlivened and influenced the not-so-small worlds of film, print, theme parks, architectural decor, and advertising. At its core, her art represented joyful creativity and communicated pure pleasure to the viewer. Her exuberant fantasies brimmed with beauty, charm, and wit, melding a child's fresh eye with adult experience. Blair's personal flair comprised the imagery that flowed effortlessly and continually for more than a half a century from her brush. Emulated by many, she remains inimitable: a dazzling sorceress of design and color.

Admiring her work, Walt Disney appoints her artistic director of Saludos Amigos (1943), then The Three Caballeros (1945). During the next decade, she assumes the post of artistic director for the main projects of animated films. She abandons her favorite technique, the watercolor, for the gouache. It is on Alice in Wonderland (1951) that her influence is most significant. She realizes hundreds of preliminary studies, which are of use as base for the decorators. After the conception of Peter Pan (1953), she leaves Disney studios to dedicate herself to painting. In 1963, Walt Disney asks her to come back to assure the artistic creation of the attraction It's a Small World, intended for the international fair of New York (1964-65). This famous attraction is finally brought back to Disneyland in 1966. Marie Blair continues her creation work for the Californian Park and realizes mural frescoes for the Inner Space Building and the Circle-Vision Building of Tomorrowland.

While Mary Blair may not be a household name to many outside the Disney forums, I feel it is of great importance to recognize such a creative, inspiring talent that has quietly touched so many with wonder and effortless imagination.

Cheers Mary Blair!