One of my personal favourites from Golden Films alongside Thumbelina and The Little Mermaid, and one of their most touching. Like the other animations from the studio, it does deserve to be judged on its own merits rather than to the book and Disney film(both of which are among the best of their respective mediums), that way it deserves a fair chance. The story is timeless and deeply moving, here it doesn't suffer from over-simplification and the ending is incredibly heartfelt without being too cloying. I did like the animation here, it is not the best animation I've seen but it is at least colourful and some evidence of fluency. And the music is wonderful, with a great theme in All For Me and All For Free and some well-incorporated classical music favourites like Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, Saint Saens' Carnival of the Animals, Ride of the Valkyries and Flying Dutchman Overture by Wagner, Debussy's Clair De Lune and Grieg's Piano Concerto. The script is humorous and charming, again not suffering from over-simplifying, and the characters especially Pinocchio and the Blue Fairy are endearing. The voice acting I had little problem with either, Jim Cummings voices a fair number of characters including Geopetto and Puppet Master and do a splendid job. Overall, a really touching Golden Film animation and deserves to be better known. 9/10 Bethany Cox
Review of Pinocchio
