In the Original Story, Pinocchio killed Jiminy Cricket, Got His Feet Burnt Off, and was Hanged and Left for Dead
You probably already knew that Disney has a habit of taking dark, twisted children’s fairy tales and turning them into sickeningly sweet happily-ever-afters. Take Sleeping Beauty for example: it’s based on a story where a married king finds a girl asleep, and can’t wake her so rapes her instead.
The 1940 version of Pinocchio is no exception. The movie is based on a story that appeared as a serial in a newspaper called The Adventures of Pinocchio, written in 1881 and 1882 by Carlo Collodi. Jiminy Cricket appears as the Talking Cricket in the book, and does not play as prominent of a role.
He first appears in chapter 4 in which the truism that children do not like to have their behaviour corrected by people who know much more than they do is illustrated. Apropos, when the Talking Cricket tells Pinocchio to go back home:
At these last words, Pinocchio jumped up in a fury, took a hammer from the bench, and threw it with all his strength at the Talking Cricket.
Perhaps he did not think he would strike it. But, sad to relate, my dear children, he did hit the Cricket, straight on its head.
With a last weak “cri-cri-cri” the poor Cricket fell from the wall, dead!
You might be happy to know that Pinocchio did learn his lesson quite soon after that—or seemed to. While he didn’t seem to feel bad about killing the cricket (in fact, he later tells Gepetto, “It was his own fault, for I didn’t want to kill him.”), he did seem to regret not taking the cricket’s advice as he runs into more and more trouble. At last, karma catches up to Pinocchio and he gets his feet burned off.
As he no longer had any strength left with which to stand, he sat down on a little stool and put his two feet on the stove to dry them. There he fell asleep, and while he slept, his wooden feet began to burn. Slowly, very slowly, they blackened and turned to ashes.
Don’t worry—Gepetto forgives him and builds him new feet, which is really more than Pinocchio deserves. You see, when Pinocchio first became “alive” and learned to walk, the first thing he did was run off. What’s worse is that Pinocchio leads people to believe that Gepetto has abused him, which lands Gepetto squarely in prison.
You would think by this time that Pinocchio would learn to be a good, obedient little boy, but that simply is not the case. The Talking Cricket returns as a ghost to tell Pinocchio not to get involved with some people who claim planting gold coins will result in a tree of gold. Rather than apologizing for throwing a hammer at the poor bug, Pinocchio scoffs at the advice once again.
Pinocchio’s decision to continue to ignore the Cricket resulted in him finding more grief in the way of being hanged by the very people who had told him about planting gold coins:
And they ran after me and I ran and ran, till at last they caught me and tied my neck with a rope and hanged me to a tree, saying, `Tomorrow we’ll come back for you and you’ll be dead and your mouth will be open, and then we’ll take the gold pieces that you have hidden under your tongue.’
The hanging scene was actually where the story was meant to end. Basically, Collodi wanted to convey the message that children could face grave consequences for being disobedient. However, the editor of the paper requested that Collodi continue writing—perhaps wishing for a bit more of a happily ever after himself—and that’s where the blue fairy came in to save the puppet.
In the additional chapters, Collodi made it so that Pinocchio learned his lesson and decided to take care of his father rather than spend his time playing and running amok.
In the end, Talking Cricket had a chance at revenge, but didn’t take it:
Father and son looked up to the ceiling, and there on a beam sat the Talking Cricket.
“Oh, my dear Cricket,” said Pinocchio, bowing politely.
“Oh, now you call me your dear Cricket, but do you remember when you threw your hammer at me to kill me?”
“You are right, dear Cricket. Throw a hammer at me now. I deserve it! But spare my poor old father.”
“I am going to spare both the father and the son. I have only wanted to remind you of the trick you long ago played upon me, to teach you that in this world of ours we must be kind and courteous to others, if we want to find kindness and courtesy in our own days of trouble.”
“You are right, little Cricket, you are more than right, and I shall remember the lesson you have taught me…”
If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Feed), as well as:
- From Dream to 3-D Reality: The Fascinating Origin of Pixar
- The Origin of the Looney Tune’s “ACME” Corporation Name
- Who was the Real Mother Goose?
- 10 Interesting Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Walt Disney
- Cinderella’s Castle was Modeled After Bavaria’s Neuschwanstein Castle
Bonus Fact:
- When 11 year old Veronique Eldridge-Smith in 2001 was asked by her father, logician Peter Eldridge-Smith, to come up with her own version of the famous liar paradox (“This sentence is false.”) she became the first to propose the so called “Pinocchio Paradox.” In a nutshell, imagine a scenario where Pinocchio states, “My nose grows now.” If his nose then grows that means he lied when he said that… except, that his nose is growing, so what he said was true. But if it was true, then his nose wouldn’t grow, so the sentence is false.
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I homeschool my kids, and so I have read just about all the classics of children’s literature. There are many, many worthwhile books out there for children – but in my opinion Pinocchio is not one of them! I read it with my son when he was about 6 and I was shocked how disturbing, violent, and downright bizarre the story was. It is far, FAR weirder than the Disney movie. I have no idea why this book is considered a classic.
Well, no matter how gruesome it may be it qualifies as a classic since its, you know, classic
I read it (unabridged) when I was about 8 or 9, and I did find it confusing, but knowing now that it was a serial story makes a lot more sense.
I actually liked the “Faerie Tale Theater” adaptation better then the Disney one (actually, that goes for most of the stories).
i dont like the disney versions of most books anyway i prefer the classic more gruesueum versions (sorry about my spelling im only 13)
I think just about every father would prefer the original version of this story, simply because men like to drive home serious points to their kids. It’s every parent’s worst nightmare that his or her child might have to learn the hard way, and tragic stories (from a father’s perspective) show the consequences without the pain of it actually happening. Disney paints a much nicer picture because it’s purpose is to delight and sell its products.
It is a bit gruesome for today’s sensibilities, I can see why it is a classic in its original version. Looking at older stories, plays, and folk tales it is pretty clear the trope of being bad, having some trouble, finding redemption, and learning a conceptual lesson is a pretty modern concept. Most older (100 or so years) stories that I have seen the hardship experienced by the protagonist had to experience direct, brutal, and often irrevocable consequences before learning their lesson or being used as an example for the reader to learn their lesson.
I’d love to see a thorough analysis of if there is a definable turning point and what was going on at the time, like how the industrialization and rapid scientific progress (more likely the increased ability to communicate advancements) led to modern horror where humans or our inventions largely replaced the natural or mystical monsters.
Anyone have any early instances of the more happy and/or less brutal children’s stories? Based on absolutely no data I’m gonna guess the early stages of developmental psych, humanism, and weariness of the bleak early 1900s (industrialization’s side effects, WWI, dust bowl, great depression, etc), but just a guess probably pretty off base.
its not an essay
I have Grimm’s fairy tales. They are all GRIM!
My 10 year old daughter Google to find information on pinocchio, she became quite frighten, and slept in my bed last night. I prefer Disney’s version for my children. Child abuse can be done not just by hitting a child but with words or so called literature.
But if he said “my nose grows now” prior to his nose growing, it would indeed be a lie, and therefore it would result in his nose growing.
CLASSIC stories are called that because they are just that. DISNEY is always painting a pretty story, come on people, kids are too soft these days, they need to learn now how the real world is, before we have yet another kid killing his class mates, did YOU have a kid in your school with a gun in the 70’s or 80’s?
this was horibly good sorry butt i like this vergion better then the real storry becouse im scaired of bugs good job pinocchio butt sadly he did die so that sucks
Pinocchio doesnt die, hes saved by the fairy after he passes out
Wow, the cognitive dissonance here is stunning. Uh, this offends your delicate sensibilities? This is nothing compared to the exposure of violence, sexual deviation, and immorality you daily expose your kids to through video games, television, and your educational system via your sex education classes and “sensitivity” training. Children dressing up as drag queens, homophobia hour, how to put a condom on, and the latest computer game version of battling soldiers are cool, hip, and just peachy ok but a puppet killing another puppet with a hammer, well that is OUTRAGEOUS, you are all nuts.