Once Walt Disney and his film studio made a name for themselves after making several animated movies, it's no surprise that other people wanted to capitalize on those properties by either making their own version or creating cheap knock offs. For Filmation Studios, the company had even more ambitious plans which was to make sequels to Disney's popular films. However, due to the massive legal advantage Disney probably had at the time, Filmation didn't get far in this. Despite this though, the studio did release two of the fifteen they had in their lineup. One of which was this movie. Some won't likely see this a legit movie to bother watching, yet there are components to this feature that make it worth at least one viewing. Of course the things that may make it worth watching could be for the wrong reasons.
The plot takes place after the events of the original Pinocchio story. Now that he's a real boy, Pinocchio's birthday has come and wants to help his father Geppetto (Tom Bosley) deliver a special package. On his travels though he comes across several obstacles in the forms of bandits Scalawag (Edward Asner) and Igor (Frank Welker), the carnival ran by Puppetino (William Windom) who has a more sinister boss known as the Emperor of the night (James Earl Jones). The script was written by Robby London, Barry O'Brien and Dennis O'Flaherty, who had credits to shows like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the less popular Ghost Busters show. Directing for the last time for this feature was Hal Sutherland, known for also working on Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Star Trek: The Animated Series.
For the story that's presented, it's not strong at all, but it's not terrible either. Due to Pinocchio's innocence, one could argue he's still very gullible. But after going through his first adventure before becoming a boy, you'd think he'd remember some things. The narrative just seems to have a number of useless characters. Most of which these characters have a parallel side plot that feel unnecessary as well. Aside from Pinocchio's fairy god mother (Rickie Lee Jones), there's Grumblebee (Jonathan Harris) and Gee Willikers (Don Knotts) who help, but it feels so small by comparison, no pun intended. The bandit characters Scalawag and Igor are also not that likeable. This is most likely due to them being able to persuade Pinocchio more than once to make a bad decision. It's cases like these that make the thin development of the characters feel that much more flimsy.
The same could be said for the villains and their motivations. Despite this though, the voice acting is performed well by everyone. Scott Grimes the voice of Pinocchio sounds good and would later go on to be voices for Steve Smith in American Dad and Kevin Swanson in Family Guy. Edward Asner would go on to voice J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man: The Animated Series and Carl Fredricksen in Up (2009). But the fact that this production was able to nab James Earl Jones and Frank Welker is amazing. Just considering how many credits Welker has and what Jones would best be known for less than a decade later under the actual Disney banner. The actor who steals the show was William Windom as Puppetino, this is due to the nightmare inducing design of the character and the memorable voice he was given.
For an animated film, the movie is decently produced. With supervising animators like Kamoon Song, Chuck Harvey and John Celestri, majority of the scenes have fluid and expressive movements. Unfortunately, some of the character designs are what gave young viewers such scarred memories. There are some fairly dark moments in this feature. Specifically, the first scene of the film and when Pinocchio first meets Puppetino. The music sadly is also largely forgettable despite having talents like Rickie Lee Jones doing a song. The score composed by Brian Banks and Anthony Marinelli who would a year later score for Young Guns, make adequate music. The problem is, the film itself isn't completely memorable and that's because of how stock the music felt. That's not to say it's boring, it's just not memorable.
This animated film hits straight down the middle. The story isn't very strong, the characters themselves don't develop much and the music is marginally forgettable. However, this film does deserve a view out of curiosity because of its decent voice cast, acceptable animation and uniquely disturbing character designs.
Points Earned --> 5:10
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