Pinocchio, a 1940’s and the second Disney animated feature had its great impact on the animation industry. This fabulous looking animated feature not only had a great budget to start with but also had all of the talents of the time in terms of animating, character design, music and etc to work on a masterpiece. The success of the Snow White brought enough money and attention to the Disney studios to put Walt Disney under the pressure for making an even more astonishing work this time.
The original story was picked from Carlo Collodi’s series and developed further in terms of the plot and the characters. Then they got model makers to make 3D models in order to give the animators the ability to study the characters furthermore and got actors to act and be recorded in live action for reference of their movements. The most eye-catching aspect of Pinocchio’s production is by far it’s use of special effects.
The animation of the water and the waves in the whale sequence, for instance, became a great case study for the studio and they used it multiple times after in films such as the little mermaid. The attention to its sound design and music is the second influence it had on the future films to come and it won the academy awards for the best original score. Although one might say Pinocchio was not as big of a success for the Disney studios as their Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in terms of the profit, but the achievement in terms of the technique in all aspects, from the character design to the special effects and sound design taught them well enough of a lesson to make the work behind it worth its while and it sure served its industry for the years to come.
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Animation: Critical Perspectives 