For this month’s issue of Pinocchi-O-Rama, we’re going back to a “combo mix” of sorts.
We’ve seen live action adaptations, we’ve seen adaptations of the russian version of the novel, The Adventures Of Buratino/The Golden Key, we’ve seen musical adaptations.
So yeah, time to squish them all together for this 1975’s forgotten cult classic Soviet live action children musical TV movie adaptation of Buratino/Pinocchio shenanigans, made by Belarusfilm and released as a 2-parter, because media trends are cyclical after all.
Thankfully there’s no waiting for the climax as it’s almost a 50 yo adaptation, a fairly obscure one that thankfully can be found with hardcoded english subtitles on Youtube (fittingly spit in 2 parts, as well), and at the time of posting still is.
Pinocchio-meter:
It’s definitely one of those “children gather round!” type of movie, as in it start with what i assume was/is a popular song about Buratino as we see a slideshow of actual children drawings of the title character, it’s that kind of jaunty children film opening that sets the tone for fairytale time, down to direct talking at the audience to pay attention for what’s to come, here and there the narrator chiming in when some plot points are revealed.
there’s also some scenes/bits that feel almost random, as in after the intro scene of Giuseppe the woodcarver giving the living log to Papa Carlo, there’s a song about lampwickers, people that go around at night to light up street candles/lights… BUT THERE’S NO candlewick character in the Buratino version, so what gives?
Maybe a coincidence.
Most likely a coincidence, since the other musical number represent scenes and introduce characters you’d expect to see in Buratino’s escapades, like the leech salesman/con artist Duremar (which also happens to be an underling of Karabas Barabas, as noted in the review of 1936’s The Golden Key) and the old pond turtle called Aunt Tortilla.
Real Boy Ratio:
That aside, there’s not much to say about how much of the surface-level elements this adaptation uses, unless you want to be told again a list of characters and events that were in either the original Pinocchio story or the Golden Key/Adventures Of Buratino russian reworked version (which does basically becomes its own thing after the hanging incident about the golden coins).
Same goes for the actual “pulp” of the story and characters… aside from Buratino saying that he will become a real boy to Papa Carlo, which i understand it’s one of the main distinctive changes from the original Pinocchio book, as Buratino is rewarded by not always done what’s he told and is never baited into being a good boy with the promise of becoming a real blood and flesh human. Not that it actually leads anywhere in this case.
Guess the Adeptus Mechanicus did not podcast their propaganda in ol’ fantasy Sovietland.
So yes, the contents are about what you’d expect, without many surprises, which is not necessarily a bad thing, i mean, not all of this adaptations have to try and scramble into oblivion the source material, or try combining it with outlandish concepts (see Lies Of P being “Bloodborne but Pinocchio-ish”) and this one is clearly meant for children to see anew and for adults to revisit for nostalgia and whatnot. Alongside the hanging scene, because puppet trauma is forever.
After all, it’s a pretty good adaptation, with good acting by both the many Soviet character actors playing the adult characters and the literal “boys from Minsk” as either actual children or playing the parts of Karabas Barabas’ puppet ensemble, decent slapstick, quite enjoyable song & dance numbers that are pretty catchy but thankfully it never feels like they’re wrestling the standard narrative scenes for control, if anything they do are short-lived and make you wish they were a tiny bit longer, that or more evenly placed, as the second part of the movie is stuffed with them but the first one has surprisingly little.
Though don’t expect feature lenght-level usage of special effects, as they opt for a more utilitarian kind of make-up, costumes and scenographies, there’s nothing fancy like stopmotion or brief animation sequences that most likely were never considered, for budget’s sake at the very least.
For example, the Cat and Fox characters don’t have full face masks of a realistically crafted fox or cat, they just use more modest costumes and make up, like you can tell that character is the Fox because she has ginger hair and hangs around with “legally not blind Cat”, she doesn’t have “fox ears” or anything, or any animalistic cosmetic trait, like the Cat’s “whiskers” or the painted cat’s pupil on one of the glasses’ lens.
And the actor for Buratino/Pinocchio with the nose prop that accidentally makes him almost look like a live-action Beavis And Butthead characters.
Though sometimes they do cheapen out and instead of a puppet for an animal, they just use a stuffed bat toy and move it on strings like it’s the 1931’s Dracula movie from Universal.
It’s notable, but after all it’s not a huge issue, it’s a decently produced affair for a Soviet 1970’s TV movie, there’s some nice puppetry work after all (like the cricket playing violin in the house) and it’s fairly long too, like 2 hours (split in 2 parts as mentioned before), which is a lot for a Pinocchio… sorry, an “Adventures Of Buratino/Golden Key” adaptation.
Overall Evalution
Something about the russian derivated version of Pinocchio seems to be auspicious, as we yet again get another quality adaptation of Adventures Of Buratino/The Golden Key’s story, this time done as an extensive, 2 hour long 2 parter musical with Belarus and Soviet actors for TV, and which is – as far as i understand – regarded as a cult classic from people hailing from the ol’ “Sovietlands”.
Which is not really a stretch, given the good characterization and solid acting from the cast of children and regarded Soviet-era russian actors, the entertaining slapstick, the many charming musical numbers (though not divived evenly between the two parts) that do not “fight” the narrative for screentime, plus the fairly flowing direction and script that stick fairly close to the source material (since The Golden Key is Pinocchio but also not quite), and don’t offer much in terms of new stuff or little variations, but the execution makes for a good children musical TV film.
One that i wish had more budget, as the effects and make up are minimal, do not expect much in the way of fancy stuff like stopmotion, animated sequences or elaborated setpieces for underwater scenes, or masks for the actors, but again, it’s a TV movie from the mid 1970’s, so i can and will cut it some slack since the effects still do the job, and i like the jovial “meta ending” and tone.
This one it’s a bit harder to find but – as noted in the intro – you can find it subbed in english on Youtube for now, and regardless it shouldn’t be impossible to find if you dig a bit on the web.
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