Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night

One of Filmation's last works, indirectly caused by Disney catching on to what they were doing and suing, Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night has its problems. And it's not just the inevitable comparisons to the Disney magnum opus thanks to blatantly taking plot elements from it and having the side characters be obvious substitutes. But also because of that Grumblebee whose side of the story was clearly meant to be a backdoor pilot that never came into fruition. And yet, Pinocchio "2" is honestly better than it sounds thanks to much better animation than you'd expect from this company, actually really good musical numbers and remaining surprisingly dark (Pinocchio's transformation is quite a disturbing example of family-friendly body horror) whilst dealing with themes that the Disney movie never truly explored make this movie better than Disney's failed lawsuit would imply. That's the thing about big-screen animated movies in the '80s before The Little Mermaid; they weren't all classics like The Secret of NIMH but they were worth watching at least once for their more experimental nature and willingness to go dark in a manner that you don't see too often in modern animated movies that aren't made by the stop-motion masters over at Laika.

"Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night" is one of those films that's unknown to most of the public (except for people who love the Pinocchio lore and want to watch every single movie released that's about Pinocchio). This is easily one of the darkest and weirdest interpretations of "Pinocchio" that I have ever seen and I was surprised that the people behind the "He-Man" and "She-Ra" series were behind this film! If there was an issue I had with this movie, it's that the plot is a bit too similar to the original Italian folktale, especially since this was supposed to be a sequel to the original folktale. Overall, "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night" is a great film to watch if you are a huge fan of "Pinocchio" in general!

Not better than the Disney version of Pinocchio by any means, but it is still very entertaining.

I watched this film a long time ago I was scared of the Emperor of the Night at the time but I like the film.

Alas, despite cool musical numbers, Pinocchio & The Emperor Of The Night is a blatantly corny attempt to sequelize Disney's most beloved cartoon. What's corny about it? Well I'll tell ya. The animation, especially the whimsy and, let's be honest, yukky (that's the term I an't said in ages) character design of the title character. Most of it is also forgettable, especially all the other characters. Still it ain't as bad as the live-action ones (except A.I. if that counts!).

While not matching the standards of the 1940 classic, Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night is a decent piece of animation that stands on it's own right.

It should be noted that while Disney's Pinocchio was made 47 years prior to Filmation's movie it was and still is visually superior to Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night, and remains the best big screen adaptation of Carlo Collodi's classic story. Full review at <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank"target="_blank" href="http://hotdogsinthedark.com/?p=3081">Hot Dogs in the Dark</a>

Hm. Let's see. The bug character has the name of an exclamation. Yep! Official Disney rip-off folks! And why is James Earl Jones in this?

i remember i watched this movie when i was a kid, and scarred for life. i was so scared because the movie is so dark and a bit twisted. i like it, but i don't think i wanna watch it again and experience the horror. they should make more movie like this -- today's children movies are so safe and tad boring. this movie is very cruelly dark but surely not boring.

oh come on i'm not five!