Pinocchio is a work by Carlo Collodi published in 1880 in Italy. It has come to be regarded as a children's classic and has been filmed over twenty times. Notable film versions include Walt Disney's full-length cartoon feature (see Pinocchio (1940 movie)), Aventures of Pinocchio, (1972) a film by Luigi Comencini, and a less successful live-action film in 2002 directed by and starring Roberto Benigni.

Collodi had not originally intended the work as purely a children's story: in the original version Pinocchio dies, hanged for his innumerable faults, and only in the later versions would the story be converted to the famous ending with the marionette transforming into a child. Many reviewers conclude that Pinocchio, rather than a children's tale, is an allegory of contemporary society, a look at the contrast between respectability and free instinct in a very severe, formal time. Behind the optimistic pedagogical appearance, the romance is a sad irony, and sometimes a satire, on that formal pedagogy and, through this, against the nonsense of these social manners in general. In style the story was new and modern, opening the way to many writers of the following century. Its Italian language is peppered with Florentinisms. Several of the book's concepts have become commonplace, particularly the proverbial long nose for liars.

Pinocchio had an immediate success, but in upper class families it was not initially regarded as suitable for "well-educated" children.

Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi wrote a famous Russian adaptation of the book, entitled The Adventures of Burratino (burattino is Italian for "puppet").

The Disney's homonymous animated film (first released on February 7, 1940), although a free interpretation of the Collodi's story, is considered a masterpiece of the art of animation and has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Pinocchio is Italian for "pinenut".

See also

• Jiminy Cricket
• Blue Fairy

External links

• Free eBook of Adventures of Pinocchio (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/500) at Project Gutenberg (translated from Italian by Carol Della Chiesa)

de:Pinocchio fr:Pinocchio ko:피노키오 it:Pinocchio nl:Pinokkio th:พีนอคคิโอ