Disney Studios changed
and transformed the messages of the original Pinocchio story, as written by
Italian author and journalist Carlo Lorenzini (under the pen-name Carlo
Collodi).
Lorenzini's works were criticizing the social
and political situation in Europe at that time, and his books were often
allegorical stories meant to satirise Italian and European society.
His book 'Le Avventure di Pinocchio' (The Adventures of Pinocchio), in 1883, was recognised as an allegory about human
nature.
As is always the case, the American entertainment industry and in this specific case, 'Disney Studios', when making the film in
the late 1930s, made an effort to transform the story of Pinocchio and change
the messages of Lorenzini's original story.
Thus, while the original is essentially a
social satire focusing on education and industrialisation with messages of the
type:
- humans are generally deceitful and
duplicitous beings, but they can change if they try
- those who were not prepared for the new world
of industrialisation could end up becoming harmful actors in that world, like
Pinocchio
- those children, like Pinocchio, who do not go
to school will become morally compromised individuals, that is, they will be
treated like this wooden hero, who we see, for example, even the fairy advising
him to go back to school and stop being so lazy
in the story shaped and presented by Disney Studios, the social messages/comments have been removed, e.g. the fact that in
the original story, Pinocchio kills Jiminy Cricket, and the story becomes a
fairy tale that ultimately doesn't resemble the original (dark) social satire
at all.
