Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987)

With 'The Little Mermaid' and 'Beauty and the Beast' Disney effectively kicked off the animation horse race that brought animated features out of the kiddie show doldrums. With that, lazy unimaginative studios like Filmation could no longer exist. There is justice in this world.You know Filmation, it's that studio that created all those tedious Saturday morning cartoons and managed to carry their Tarzan series for three seasons without creating a single new animated cell. Filmation's usual technique was to loop the same shots over and over and over and just change the dialogue. Their only memorable product was Fat Albert but that was because it had Bill Cosby behind it. Filmation was as welcome as flypaper spinning television shows into worthless cartoon shows like M*U*S*H (which was M*A*S*H with dogs) and Gilligan's Planet (with the castaways traveling through space). Yeah, I know Their last gasp for some kind of relief was 'Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night', an unbelievable animated toiletbrush which again sponges off someone else's success. In this case it's a sequel to Disney's Pinocchio, trying to continue the story even though there is no story to continue.It has been a year since Pinocchio has gotten his RB status and as the 'story' opens he is sent on a simple errand to deliver a jewel box and becomes fodder for a scheming raccoon. It's not that difficult for the raccoon to filch the box since Pinocchio insists on walking down the street with it held out in his hands but never mind. Shamed that he could have been such a moron, he runs away to the carnival and runs into a puppet master named Puppetino (don't ask) and we find out that the carnival is really a front for his schemes and scams and believe me you see all this coming from the moment Pinocchio steps out the Geppetto's front door. ovals. Along the way we meet other characters one just as innocuous as the last with names like Grumblebee and Gee Willikers and we meet the Emperor who is cross between Cherborg from Fantasia and that floating wizard head from 'The Wizard of Oz'. There are songs in the movie stitched together I think from cereal commericals, Christian rock albums and those tapes they make with music to put babies to sleep (it worked on me anyway). The prime top 40 wannabe here is 'Love Is the Light Inside Your Heart', a title so unmemorable that I had to look that title up for this review and check it twice as I was writing it down.I don't mean to beat a dead horse but I would have thought that Filmation would have learned it's lesson after it's execrable Snow White sequel 'Happily Ever After'. 'Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night', I swear could be chopped into three minute bits and injected into toy and cereal commercials and I guarantee that you would never know the difference.

Produced at a time when animation was in a serious slump, this rather curious feature, produced by Filmation Studios, attempts to make a sequel out of a now famous fairy tale, Carlo Collidi's PINOCCHIO. Walt Disney had made the story popular in his lavishly animated and emotionally powerful motion picture, and to this day it remains a masterpiece. Based on that, there is no way that this 1987 continuation could ever compare. Regrettably, the artistry in this movie doesn't live up to the original either. For a production made by 400 animators in three years at a cost of $8 million, PINOCCHIO AND THE EMPEROR OF THE NIGHT looks pretty shabby, no better than an average Saturday morning cartoon.There are also many instances where this movie attempts to steal thunder from the legendary Disney masterpiece, too. In place of Jiminy Cricket, we have a wooden-carved glowbug named Gee Willickers (voice of Don Knotts); a con artist raccoon named Scalawag (Ed Asner) and his pet monkey Igor (Frank Welker) in place of Honest John and Gideon (these characters shift into true allies in the movie); standing in for Lampwick is a pretty blonde named Twinkle (Lana Beeson) who serves as a sort of love interest for our hero. Finally, in the roles of the nasty puppeteer and nasty Coachman we have the shady-looking Puppetino as well as the titular villain, a sort of titanic, nightmarish robed demon with multiple arms and the booming tones of James Earl Jones. Unfortunately, these stand-ins could never hope to hold a candle to their predecessors or emerge as particularly memorable creations on their own. There's even a half-man half bumblebee who attempts to provide comic relief, but comes across as nothing more than a "buzzing" nuisance.Set one year after Pinocchio has become a real boy, this second chapter begins when a scary looking carnival comes into town. Our not so wooden hero runs away to the carnival after bungling a special errand for his father, Geppetto (he had been conned into giving up a precious jeweled box to Scalawag and Igor). In a rather frightening sequence -- one of the few that actually emerges as truly effective -- Pinocchio is transformed into a puppet again after being seduced to the carnival by the mustache-twirling Puppetino. Rather predictably, the Fairy Godmother (lamely voiced by Billie Lee Jones) rescues him, and the usual adventures ensue which lead up to the obligatory final showdown with the main villain.In addition to providing a rather uninspired plot, PINOCCHIO AND THE EMPEROR OF THE NIGHT unwisely also recycles concepts from the first movie; Pinocchio lies to his Fairy Godmother again and his nose grows, Geppetto sets off to find his missing boy, Pinocchio is still gullible enough to trust ne'er-do-wells Scalawag and Igor after they deceive him one time, and everybody ends up at an amusement park where naughty boys can do whatever they please. All are routinely and lifelessly presented, although the latter sequence is trippy and creepy enough to stand on its own; Pinocchio gets drunk in this scene, too. The scene where Pinocchio dances and sings with glittery showgirls is also pretty schizophrenic, but again, it brings up reminders about a similar and more believably executed scene from Disney's film. The movie is also handicapped with a rather dreary synthesizer-driven soundtrack and unmemorable songs; the Fairy Godmother's song is acknowledgingly nice, but nowhere near the same caliber of "When You Wish Upon A Star." Furthermore, of the vocal performances, only Scott Grimes as Pinocchio himself stands out, but a majority of the remaining cast are pretty much run of the mill (as mentioned, the Fairy Godmother is the worst offender--sounding totally lifeless and boring throughout). Even James Earl Jones, awesome a voice though he may have, doesn't have much to do with his scanty role of the Emperor of the Night.Taken on its own, this PINOCCHIO sequel is passable fare, although some sequences do come across as too frightening for youngsters (particularly the appearance of the central villain), and others ineptly silly for grown-ups. There are some creepy sequences and moments of genuine terror, but all in all, children and parents aren't likely find much magic within its 95 minute running time. In all fairness, PINOCCHIO AND THE EMPEROR OF THE NIGHT is not as disastrous as Roberto Benigni's travesty, but it lacks that certain special magic to achieve anything close to classic status. As it stands, it's only so-so.

I think that when all of us were kids we had one or two movies that we loved so much that we sat down and watched them dozens of times. For me one of those movies was Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night, which is definitely a lesser known animated feature but all the same still holds up today. After ordering a copy from Amazon.com and watching it again all these years later, I was pleasantly surprised that Emperor entertained me even at my usually cynical age.Sure, you could nitpick that the animation is inconsistent, with some scenes appearing less detailed while others are excessively so, and that certain backgrounds are obviously repeated during chase scenes ala The Flintstones (it's even more pronounced here due to the visible line in the visuals), but frankly those didn't hamper my enjoyment of the film. The animation is usually quite vibrant and expressive, and the story takes the usual Pinocchio antics in a different direction by providing an actual villain in the uber-creepy Emperor (voiced by that staple of movie villains, James Earl Jones). In fact, much of the movie is downright dark, from the opening sequence where a demented carnival seems to set itself up to Pinocchio's transformation back into a puppet. I'm not saying any of this will scare kids today, as they've probably seen much worse, but it does give a good balance to the otherwise cheerful imagery.I can't get through this review without mentioning the handful of songs which are peppered throughout Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night. I can't get enough of "Love Is The Light Inside Your Heart," which is just a beautiful little pop ballad that I can't get out of my head because it's so memorable. True, the Fairy Godmother may sound like she's doped up during her speaking lines, but the song is great. "Neon Cabaret" is more of a background song than "Love," but it still has a nice little jazz beat that goes well with its scene, a night club where children basically throw back green alcohol (come on ya know it was alcohol) and go nuts. Finally there's "Your A Star," which while not a phenomenal song once again fits with the visuals of the sequence. Like I said before, much of the visuals of the movie are extremely well done and give the movie a vintage '80s feel I couldn't help but like.Now this is coming from a guy who's reviewed countless animated movie, but I think it's safe to say that young kids could still get a kick out of this movie. It's got everything the modern animated flicks have, but without the crass marketing. And the sidekicks aren't half as tiresome or irritating, with the only ones being a glow worm voiced by Don Knotts and a bee named Grumblebee. Some sections of the film may seem like filler, like the scene involving a toad and a city of insects which lasts a bit too long, but other than that I give Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night an enthusiastic recommendation. 3/4 stars

This film will go down as one of my all-time favorites. Filmation wasn't known for phenomenal animation, but after watching the Masters of the Universe series again, I wasn't expecting too much from them on THIS one- I was COMPLETELY blown away! The animation is PHENOMENAL, coming from Filmation. The Emperor looks awesome, and the music scores are EXCELLENT. In my opinion, this film never received the marketing blitz it truly deserved. Personally, I like THIS film better than DISNEY'S Pinocchio, and this film is actually not a continuation of the DISNEY film, but of the Adventures of Pinocchio animated series. Every time I see this film, I love it even more. A real winner in my book! :)