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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fantastic underrated 80's animated gem!,
By
This review is from: Pinocchio & Emperor of the Night [VHS] (VHS Tape)
A mysterious carnival comes to town, Pinocchio (voiced by Scott Grimes) just celebrated his first birthday as a human does an important assignment for his dad Gheppeto (Voiced by Tom Bosley) to bring a jewel box to the mayor. He foolishly makes one big mistake when he stumbles by a raccoon con artist named Scalawag (Voiced by Ed Asner) and his monkey assistant Igor (voiced by Frank Welker) for he trades the box for a useless fake ruby, it upsets his dad so much that he decides to run away to join the carnival. He falls for a lovely girl puppet named Twinkle (Voiced by Lana Beeson) and her puppet master Puppetino (voiced by William Windon) tricks him as he magically changes him back into a puppet, Pinocchio does escape the carnival to find the two scumbags that swindled him earlier to go after the traveling carnival and end up in the hellish, nightmarish and surreal realm of the empire of the night conducted by the evil Emperor (Voiced by James Earl Jones).
Highly entertaining, dark and well animated fantasy epic from Filmation (the makers of "He-Man", "Fat Albert", "Bravestarr" and "She-Ra") for i believe it's their best animated movie besides "Starchaser: Legend of Orin" and "The Secret of the Sword". Co-starring the voices of Don Knotts, Rickie Lee Jones and Jonathan Harris, this movie is a vast improvement over Filmation's previous animations besides "Starchaser" and has a couple of good songs like the haunting "Love is the Light Inside Your Heart" and the toe-tapping "You're a Star". I remembered seeing this movie when i was 5 back in 1987 when i lived in St. Louis on my last month living there before moving to Omaha, i saw it at a shopping mall theater after christmas at night and it sure scared the hell out of me even with that absolutely horrifying sequence where Pinocchio is tortured by Puppetino and slowly changes back into a puppet and some of the darkness that nearly got this a "PG" rating and the Emperor himself is quite a wonder to behold. This is a must see animated movie and a real cult animated gem from the 80's. Also recommended: "The Black Cauldron", "The Dark Crystal", "The Secret of NIMH", "The Last Unicorn", "Rock & Rule", "Wizards", "Aladdin", "Big Trouble in Little China", "The Secret of the Sword", "Tourist Trap", "Fire and Ice", "The Phantom Tollbooth", "Transformers: The Movie", "The Princess Bride", "The Wizard of Oz", "Hoodwinked", "Mulan", "Willy Wonka and The Chococolate Factory", "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory", "Return to Oz", "Sleepy Hollow", "Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs", "Treasure planet", "Titan A.E.", "Making Contact (a.k.a. Joey)", "The Flight of Dragons", "Pinocchio", "The Little Mermaid", "Oliver and Company", "The Great Mouse Detective", "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", "Willow", "Spirited Away" and "Shrek 1 & 2".
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Magic Within Us All,
This review is from: Pinocchio & Emperor of the Night [VHS] (VHS Tape)
I am a person who is usually feeling nostalgic for my childhood, and this movie brings it out of me with an explosion. This continuation of the Pinocchio saga calls forth a new array of characters, villains, and situations that our Little Wooden Friend must resolve in order to keep his freedom as a real boy. As he is the only toy in the world to become flesh and blood, this makes him a target for the dastardly Emperor of the Night, who can gain great power if he possesses Pinocchio. Doing so would eliminate the Blue Fairy and all that she stands for: love, freedom, and happiness. Of course, there is the little piece of guidance to help Pinocchio, in the form of a tiny wooden grasshopper (apparently, Jimmeny Cricket moved on to aid other perplexed puppets). But with a crafty racoon and his monkey sidekick in the way, Pinocchio's bound to sway in the wrong direction at least once--unfortunately, this may jeopordize his father Gepetto's life. Not to mention the deadly puppeteer and a beautiful young marionette under his control...who may be waiting for her own freedom...Sure, it's a children's movie, but its musical scores, animation, and overall work still have me longing to watch it every now and then. It's only a shame it's not as celebrated as the original story. Personally, I think I enjoyed it a little more.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Inconsistent, far from Disney, but pleasantly surprising at times.,
This review is from: Pinocchio & Emperor of the Night [VHS] (VHS Tape)
A year after Pinocchio's fairy godmother made him a real boy, he requests the task of delivering a special music box made by his father, Geppetto (Tom Bosley), for the mayor of their village. Of course, Pinocchio (Scott Grimes) gets sidetracked by a carnival and two greedy con artists, a raccoon named Scalawag (Ed Asner) and a monkey named Igor (Frank Welker). As you might expect from Pinocchio, he ends up trading the music box to the pair for a fake gem, and when he is scolded for his foolish mistake, he runs away so he will no longer cause trouble for his father. Pinocchio finds his way back to the carnival and a bit of trouble, but even that doesn't teach him a lesson. He soon is on a river journey with Scalawag and Igor to find the ship the carnival is traveling on, as it now carries the music box and also a beautiful, female puppet Pinocchio has grown fond of. But the carnival ship holds a mysterious secret! It's really the home of the wicked Emperor of the Night (James Earl Jones) who travels the land tricking children into giving up their freedom!
Made by Filmation in 1987, "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night" might be exactly what you expect in some areas, and a bit of a surprise in others. For one thing, the animation, for Filmation, is probably above what you'd expect. Granted, it's a bit inconsistent, as it gets much better in the 3rd act. In fact, the film itself gets must better, as the middle drags somewhat, in no small part due to the insect sidekicks that could easily have been written out of the film all together. In fact, meaning no disrespect to Don Knotts and Jonathan Harris, their wooden glow-bug and bumblebee characters really were the low points of the film. They simply were not necessary, and at times the movie focused on them entirely, never with very interesting results. The film boasts some original songs that aren't too shabby, but the general background music the rest of the time is nothing special. In general, it's a decent film, or it would be without the bug characters which I really feel were only included to remind one of Jiminy Cricket. In fact, the wooden glow-bug the fairy brings to life as a birthday gift for Pinocchio is named "Gee Willikers," another bit of expressive slang. The film also carries the stigma of appearing to be a wannabe sequel to the Disney classic. Of course, anyone can make public domain fairytale films, but it does seem suspicious that Filmation decided to start with sequel films rather than first trying their hand at something like Rapunzel or Little Red Riding Hood. Yes, another one they made was "Happily Ever After," a Snow White sequel. Clearly there was a hope here that doing a sequel story to something Disney had already done a successful original of might lead to higher ticket sales. Nevertheless, "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night" is worth watching for its highpoints, which include its musical numbers and its whole third act. None of it is at Disney's level, but it's a nice bit of animated, 80's fantasy entertainment, if you find that type of film entertaining in general.
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