The Adventures of Pinocchio

The Adventures of Pinocchio is a 1972 Italian five-part miniseries directed by Luigi Comencini, which originally aired weekly on Rai 1 between April 8 and May 6, 1972. Based on Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel with the same name, the miniseries received a large critical success, and had an average of twenty-one and a half million viewers during its first airing. All the episodes together make up 280 minutes of runtime. An extended cut of the series, totaling 320 minutes of runtime divided into six episodes, first aired in France on Première chaîne de l'ORTF between December 19 and December 31, 1972. Also, a 135-minute edit of the miniseries was released as a theatrical film in Italy on December 21, 1972, and later released in other countries. Plot First episode In a small 19th century mountain village in Tuscany, the caravan of the famous puppeteer Mangiafuoco arrives for its spring tour in the region; his two musicians, the Fox and the Cat, are tasked with heralding his arrival. A promotional poster inspires the widowed and financially struggling carpenter Geppetto to create a puppet for himself and make his own living as a traveling puppeteer. He visits his more well-off neighbor Mastro Ciliegia (who just had a strange encounter with a log of wood) and asks for a log to make a marionette. Ciliegia offers the magic log, but Geppetto refuses, suddenly the wood flies at Geppetto striking him. Geppetto (thinking Mastro Ciliegia has thrown the wood at him) attacks him, they then calm down and Geppetto takes the magic log.