User Reviews

I'm a little afraid to watch Benigni's Pinocchio, because I think that Luigi Comencini has already reached the top in the human versions of this story. Great acting (especially the great Nino Manfredi, Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia and the superb little boy Andrea Balestri), great photography (just look at the wonderful still image of the final scene, with Pinocchio and Geppetto on the beach), and great costumes by Piero Gherardi (Oscar for Fellini's La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2). I think this movie is better to watch for grown-up people, who can fully understand the philosophical and moral implications of this representation. Definitely, a story that will touch you, and make you somehow richer inside. I expect wonderful things from Benigni, or maybe I just hope it, because this time I don't think he can do the best.

An Italian mini-series (but co-produced by several European TV stations) shot in the 1970s that tells the story of Pinocchio. This is a film faithful to the novel, with life actors, that goes far beyond the sweetened heartless and childish versions that Hollywood has been producing since the 1940s, as if all kids were simple-minded, and all children stories empty of meaning.

The film/mini-series has all the elements of the best Italian Neorealism, and, in fact, the background is an unsweetened sad and poor 1860s Italy, in which, however, magic and hope are everywhere, in the poorest of the settings, in the saddest most lonely heart. This magic and this hope carry the viewer along the harshness of Pinocchio and Geppetto's despair, separation, dramas, failure, and final success.

The characters, the mood of the movie, the dresses, the music are all fabulous, superbly constructed and presented. Most importantly, the characters are superbly played, very heartfelt, by all actors. Andrea Balestri and Nino Manfredi are unforgettable as Pinocchio and Geppetto, respectively, as well as Gina Lollobrigida in her tiny but important role as a the Fairy Azzurra.

This is a Pinocchio with heart, real heart. The story and the acting being heartfelt, the character of Pinocchio becomes real, believable, unquestionably human despite its wooden body.

This Pinocchio is not just for kids, although kids will like it, but for adults interested in new approaches to film making and to old stories being true to the original, not a pre-masticated version of the same.

If you haven't watched this, you should, because this is a fabulous piece of TV history and film making. In fact, the best Pinocchio ever made to the date. Forget even Begnini, still a pre-masticated version of the original for Hollywood.

It's simply a masterpiece to collect. The best Pinocchio movie adaptation ever made. A strict adhesion to the Collodi's text and several genial inventions like Franchi and Ingrassia as "Il Gatto e la Volpe" or Vittorio De Sica as "il Giudice" or the Gherardi's costumes and the unforgettable soundtrack. The original tuscan speech, unfortunately available on Italian version only I suppose, enhances the philological value of the film. By the Comencini's Pinocchio the Italian TV production, at beginning of 70's, reached probably its quality top, rarely confirmed later. Forgot Benigni and his "colossal-flop", manufactured for US market! Only Comencini and Suso Cecchi D'Amico, uo to now, have been really able to adapt the Collodi's tale for a movie.

First time I saw this series in the seventies I was fascinated by everything on it. I felt as if I was Pinocchio´s character and I felt the love of his golden heart father Geppetto (brilliant and sentimental performace by Nino Manfredi) and guided, protected and loved by the fairy (Gina Lollobrigida), in to me her most charming performace ever. Andrea Balestri (the human Pinocchio) performance was to me very nice; I remember the touching moments of him crying beside the fairy grave, and the happiness of him and Geppetto when they realized that Pinocchio would be human forever. Fiorenzo Carpi´s score is very nice, and I never forgot it.

This is a charming, funny yet dark adaptation of Carlo Collodi's story of Pinocchio. The basic plot will be familiar to anyone who's seen Disney's version, but the story is much richer than the cartoon format allowed for. The actors in this version are superb, particularly Manfredi as Gepetto and Franchi and Ingrassia as the cat and the fox. It's well worth renting, if you can find it -- and it's probably better for adults to watch with older kids, given that some of the villains in the story are portrayed in a pretty scary way that the Disney cartoon glossed over.

This is the 300 minutes version of the best TV-adaption ever made of "Pinocchio", a co-production of several European public TV-networks. Directed by Luigi Comencini, with Nino Manfredi as Gepetto, Andrea Balestri as Pinocchio and Gina Lollobridgida as the fairy. Great actors and a subtle poetry make this adaption a real masterwork of Italian television. The mini series consists of 6 episodes, each about 55 minutes long. See also "Avventure di Pinocchio, Le" (1972), there you have the very much edited one part-movie version, which in Italy (for example via internet) is available on VHS and DVD.

It is always tricky and very hard to turn a (great) novel into a movie with good results. So many times the result is quite bad. But in this case this rendition of Carlo Collodi's wonderful novel (read it! And have your kids read it!) by one of the greatest Italian directors will leave you totally delighted and moved. The actors are superb and the atmosphere is absolutely perfect. Andrea Balestri (Pinocchio) is... well... THE perfect Pinocchio. Geppetto (the great Manfredi) is unforgettable, and so Lollobrigida, and so Franco Franchi e Ciccio Ingrassia and... well, try and find a copy: every effort you will make is worth, trust me. I have to say that Disney's version (after all a cartoon. A great one, but a cartoon) disappears if compared to Comencini's Pinocchio. I watched Comencini's Pinocchio when I was a kid and many times since then (I am Italian so I have had more opportunities to watch it) and I do think that this version is a masterpiece.

This Comencini version of the adventures of Pinocchio is the most fateful to the original novel and also perhaps the best, including some of the biggest names in Italian comedy of the seventies, like Manfredi, Lollobrigida and Vittorio de Sica. The score of the film (by Nino Rita) is FANTASTIC: the themes are airy, elegant and memorable. The slow carillon in "Fata turchina", the coupled piano-harpsicord motif of "Birichinata" or the magic, slightly psychedelic mood of "Trasformazione di Pinocchio e Lucignolo", the askance tango "Il Gatto e la Volpe": just a few of the excellent episodes giving the LP its old-fashioned countryside charm. Fun for all family, and undeservedly little known of outside of Europe. A children classic with a subversive undertone that adults can appreciate.

I first saw this fabulous series many years ago and was fascinated by the originality of the scenes and people. However, I was disappointed to see that the scene inside the whale was changed so that Pinocchio, the boy, did not accidentally expose his backside and genitals as per the version I had previously seen on tv. Regardless, I am happy to see the DVD again even though I couldn't understand a single word. The actors were so natural, I could make out the storyline enough to work out what was happening.

I'm looking for the maybe tenth time at television version of "Le avventure di Pinocchio" By Comencini, Rai is broadcasting it , on its satelite channel Raisat Album, with a maybe bit polemical intention... Here in Italy everyone in showbusinnes says "the Benigni's version is just made for americans..." well, anyway, I don't think americans (the ones who know the Comencini's version) can't make the incredible difference of interpretation between the two movies. The first one in a perfect neorealistic style, caring about every carachter, even the most little and caring much more about the key-words inside the Collodi's story. We mustn't forget the level of actors inside it! Not only Ciccio Ingrassia and Franco Franchi, not only Nino Manfredi, but also Vittorio de Sica as the judge! We mustn't forget the care of locations! Perfectly giving to the watcher the idea of an Italy post- 1861 unification, with all her hunger, he misery, her dignity. Everyone of us, looking to every version of a national tale shouldn't never forget the moment someone told it to him or her... The rest is silence...

When I was a child in the 70's I watched this beautiful version of Pinocchio on the German television for the first time. The series was broadcast on a few Sunday mornings in the '70's. I never saw such a realistic pinocchio-boy. It was fascinating to see how the wooden boy moved and how he walks and talks. In my childhood this boy of wood looks very realistic. I never forgot some fragments like the mysterious fairy and the boat by the water and the big whale. It was really spooky sometimes to watch but I didn't wanna stop watching! I loved it! But anyway I will warn children and other readers for watching Le avventure di Pinnochio alone. It could be a bit scary. One day, it was real tragic for me, the series suddenly stopped, it disappeared. Unfortunately I never saw it again on the television. I searched many times to this Pinnochio movie but didn't know any information about the subtitle or creator. Without the internet, I guess, I never discovered it. Finally this week I found at last the information I was searching so many years for. I was very enjoyed about it!! Now I can order this masterpiece of Luigi Comencini on DVD and watch it in my own Dutch language. I will always treasure this series from my childhood and I can't wait to see it again after more then 20 years.