I had never paid much attention to the whole Pinocchio story which was originally published in a serial form in Italy as "The Story of a Puppet" starting in July 1881. While this feature length movie, almost 2 hours long, is faithful to the whole Pinocchio story it does leave a few things out and makes some minor changes. It is very well done using actors in costumes and makeup to approximate the wide range of characters. It was obviously made in Italian but the movie we watched is dubbed in English.

Woodworker Geppetto is very poor, always resorting to begging or offering to do menial tasks in exchange for food and/or supplies. He looks to a local carpenter for a piece of wood to make a marionette, he is given one that seems to have a mind of its own and moves across his workshop floor. Eager to get rid of it the wood is then carved into a figure that is the size of a 9-yr-old boy. A heartbeat is detected and soon the wooden boy begins to talk. When he is given arms and legs he begins to go on his own, eventually getting into a number of different difficult situations. His ultimate wish is to become a real boy.

My wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library.