[MOVIE REVIEW] Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987)

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Title: Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night

Starring:  Edward Asner,  James Earl Jones, Don Knotts, and Scott Grimes

Genre: Horror / Fantasy / Fairy Tale /  Remake 

Company:  Filmation Associates

Directed by: Hal Sutherland

Year: 1987

MPAA Rating / TV Rating: Rated G

Buy on:  N/A

This movie is basically a sequel to the original “Pinocchio” and the movie starts off with Gepetto giving Pinocchio a jewel box to take to the Mayor. As Pinocchio goes to town to deliver the jewel box, he meets up with Igor and Scalawag, two con artists who eventually convince Pinocchio to give them the jewel box, which ends up getting Pinocchio into trouble with Gepetto.  Pinocchio was so upset about disappointing his father that he decided to run away and get the jewel box back.  It was then that Pinocchio ended up getting into all kinds of strange and frightening situations such as meeting the frightening Puppetino at the circus and eventually meeting up with the Emperor of the Night!

Now, when I heard that Filmation was making a sequel to the famous Italian classic "Pinocchio," I was quite surprised and satisfied with the results!  I loved the fact that there was a sequel to "Pinocchio" to begin with since I did wonder what Pinocchio's adventures would be like after he was transformed into a real boy and we managed to get one in this movie!  I honestly like the dark and edgy feel of this film as it really grabbed my interest and some scenes (like the infamous puppet transformation scene) had really stayed with me ever since I was little!  The voice acting was fantastic in this film as all the voice actors really gave everything they got for this film.  Probably my favorite voice acting was from James Earl Jones as the Emperor of the Night as he made the character extremely scary and mysterious and I was really interested in the character!  The animation is surprisingly better than what we usually get with Filmation as the characters move much fluidly and the action sequences were quite well done!

The only problem with this film was that it seemed like the plot was a rehash of the original Pinocchio story as we still get a storyline about Pinocchio trying to figure out what is right and wrong, having a conscience who would guide him and having two con artists scam him and get him into more trouble.  The only thing that was actually different in this story was the Emperor of the Night as he proved to be scarier than the previous villains in "Pinocchio."

Overall, "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night" is a great film for anyone who is a huge fan of Filmation's works and who wants to see how the story of "Pinocchio" would continue.