Once upon a time, there was a piece of wood...
Master Cherry struggles with a talking piece of wood, ultimately bequeathing it to Geppetto (nicknamed Polendina) so his friend can fulfill his dream of carving a puppet. As Geppetto chisels the shape of a boy from the wood, the puppet’s nose grows long despite efforts to cut it back. Laughing and mocking Geppetto throughout the process, Pinocchio steals his creator’s wig and runs off until a temper tantrum draws attention to the newfound father and son. With Geppetto arrested in the streets for suspected child abuse, Pinocchio returns home alone, killing an advice-giving Talking Cricket, failing to cook eggs when a chick hatches prior to the frying pan, futilely begging in the streets for food, and burning his feet off by resting them on a brazier as he sleeps.
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Giving
his puppet his breakfast pears, carving new feet, and trading his jacket
for a spelling book, Geppetto shows unconditional loyalty to Pinocchio when released.
But Pinocchio sells his spelling book to enter Fire-Eater’s puppet show. Pinocchio’s presence excites the other puppets and thus annoys the puppeteer.
Although threatening to use Pinocchio as firewood, Fire-Eater
sympathizes and orders the puppet Harlequin to replace Pinocchio as mutton
firewood. However, Pinocchio offers himself as a sacrifice, gaining Fire-Eater’s
mercy and allowing Pinocchio to leave with a gift of five gold coins. Pinocchio
meets a Cat and Fox, who convince Pinocchio to travel with them to the Field of
Miracles, where he can plant his gold to grow more. After eating and sleeping
at the Red Crawfish Inn, Pinocchio awakens to a dinner bill and the absence of
his friends. Setting off into the forest, Pinocchio meets assassins. Although
he hides his gold in his mouth and finds the Little Girl with blue hair’s hut,
Pinocchio is ultimately captured and hanged by the assassins. The Blue Fairy
nurses Pinocchio to health, showing him his coffin to scare him into taking medicine.
Pinocchio lies to the fairy about his gold coins, resulting in the growth of
his nose. Woodpeckers shave down the oversized nose. With Geppetto on his way to
the hut – since he was summoned by Blue Fairy – Pinocchio rushes out to meet
him, but gets led astray by the Cat and Fox again. Burying his gold in the
Field of Miracles, Pinocchio returns to find the Cat and Fox robbed him.
Pinocchio tattles to a judge, who throws Pinocchio in prison. Released on account
of the Emperor’s battle victory, Pinocchio meets a Serpent and gets caught in
an animal trap trying to steal grapes. Captured as a replacement watchdog,
Pinocchio barks when martens come to eat the chickens, so the grateful field
owner releases him. Pinocchio races back to the Blue Fairy’s house, which has been
replaced by her gravestone. Pinocchio weeps until a Pigeon brings him to the
shore to see his father get swept underwater in a homemade raft he built to
search for the puppet. Pinocchio swims out to him, but only finds an island. He
begs for food, passing up work opportunities until he settles on carrying a water
jug for a woman version of the Blue Fairy. In hopes of becoming a real boy, Pinocchio attends school. Pinocchio accompanies his schoolmates to
the shore to see a shark. The truancy results in the book-throwing injury of his
peer Eugene. Pinocchio is blamed for the accident and chased by the carabinieri’s
dog, Aldorno. Chasing Pinocchio into the sea, Aldorno flails and Pinocchio
saves him from drowning. Returning to the sea after the rescue, Pinocchio is
ensnared in a fisherman’s net. Just as he is about to be fried,
Aldorno rushes into the cave, snatches up the puppet, and brings
him to safety. Pinocchio returns to the Blue Fairy’s house and is told that he will soon be a real boy.
Rushing out to invite his friends to his transformation day, Pinocchio meets his
peer Lampwick who convinces Pinocchio to go with him to Funland, a
place of fun and no school.
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CLIMAX
After five months at Funland, Pinocchio and Lampwick awaken with donkey ears. Once fully disfigured, both are sold as donkeys. Pinocchio is sold to a circus manager. During one performance, Pinocchio sees the Blue Fairy in the audience and injures himself while jumping through a hoop. Since the injury makes Pinocchio no longer of use to the circus, the manager opts to resell him. Pinocchio
the donkey is sold to a buyer who wishes to make a drum out of his
hide. Thrown into the sea with a rock around his neck and a rope around
his ankle so he can be pulled up once drowned, Pinocchio emerges as a wooden puppet. The Blue Fairy sent fish to eat his dead donkey flesh, which left the
inedible wooden puppet he had been prior to Funland. Pinocchio flees from
the buyer by swimming out to sea. A shark (the “Atilla of Fish and
Fisherman”) swallows him, and Pinocchio finds his father – after more
than two years of separation – alive in the stomach. Since the shark
suffers from asthma and heart palpitations, he must sleep with his mouth open,
allowing the reunited family an escape route. When Pinocchio can't continue swimming with Geppetto on his back, the Tuna that had been in the shark
stomach with them rescues the family, aiding them to shore because the family’s escape
route allowed the Tuna his own freedom.
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FALLING ACTION
Arriving on shore, Pinocchio
and Geppetto stumble upon a straw hut in the middle of a field, which happens
to be the home of the Talking Cricket ghost who just inherited it from the Blue
Fairy goat. Pinocchio begins to work for a market gardener, Giangio, filling a hundred buckets of water in exchange for a glass of milk for
his father every day for five months until Geppetto regains his strength. At that workplace, he discovers the dying Lampwick the donkey. To take care of Geppetto and himself, Pinocchio
also weaves baskets, builds a cart so his father can get fresh air, studies his
reading and writing, and donates his forty pennies to the sick Blue Fairy
instead of buying new clothes.
RESOLUTION
With interest, the Blue Fairy repays Pinocchio’s gift of forty pennies. Upon waking one day, Pinocchio finds himself transformed into a real boy and the straw hut is now a decorated house, new clothes are laid out for him, and forty gold pieces are in his pocket. The wooden puppet – who Pinocchio used to be – is sitting lifeless on a chair.
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