WHAT’S THE STORY?

TODAY is the 80th birthday of Walt Disney’s Pinocchio, one of the best-loved animated films of all time and rated as a masterpiece of cinema by critics.

It was on February 7, 1940, that the premiere of the film took place at the Center Theatre in New York. It had a troubled start – Walt Disney had fallen out with distribution partners RKO, who wouldn’t let him have the adjacent Radio City Music Hall, so the premiere took place in the smaller venue. On the day itself, 11 people of short stature were hired to play characters from the movie. They proceeded to get right royally drunk and ended up fighting and rolling around in the buff before the New York police carted them off in pillowcases.

WHERE DID DISNEY GET THE STORY?

AN English translation of the novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, written in Italian by Carlo Collodi and first published in Pescia in 1883 – it had first been published in serial form in a children’s magazine – was given to Walt Disney by one of his animators, Norman Ferguson.

Disney fell in love with the story and it was decided that it would become the studio’s third animated feature film after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi, but the latter film was much delayed so Pinocchio became the second Disney animated feature.

The studio took the basic story and changed some characters and plot lines so that it is only just recognisable as Collodi’s tale.

In the book, for instance, the cricket – Disney himself coined the name Jiminy – is killed accidentally by Pinocchio and returns as a ghost, while the evil Stromboli is actually Mangiafuoco (fire eater) in the book. Pinocchio himself starts off as a right wee nyaff, as they might say in Glasgow, and the nose that grows when he lies is adapted from the book.

The basic plot of a puppet earning the right to become a real boy by doing good is still a powerful morality story for youngsters.

WHO STARRED AS THE VOICES OF THE CHARACTERS?

AMONG the many innovations in Pinocchio was the use of celebrity voices for some of the characters, the first time this was tried in animated films.

Pinocchio was Dickie Jones, 11, fresh from Mr Smith Goes To Washington, while Ukulele Ike, aka Cliff Edwards, played Jiminy. Arguably the greatest cartoon voice artist of them all, Mel “Bugs Bunny” Blanc saw his role as Gideon the Cat made mute in the final edit, apart from three hiccups.

WAS IT AN IMMEDIATE SUCCESS?

THE start of World War II in Europe hit Hollywood hard as its main overseas markets disappeared almost overnight. The Disney Studios were no exception to this blight and Pinocchio only started to make money when it was re-issued in 1945. Subsequent re-issues and video and DVD sales have made it one of Disney’s most profitable films.

IS IT TRUE DISNEY ARE DOING A LIVE-ACTION VERSION?

IT’S been on the production roster for years and may be out next year. It was hoped that Donald Trump would play a cameo role as Pinocchio’s nose, but the president’s schnozzle refuses to play ball with the lying expansion thing. Spoiler alert: we made up that last bit.