The Adventures of Pinocchio (lost unfinished Italian animated film based on novel; 1930s)

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The Adventures of Pinocchio 1936 still 1.jpg

A single frame from the film, based on the segment where Pinocchio gets hanged by the fox and the cat dressed in hoods.

Status: Lost

The Adventures of Pinocchio (Le Avventure di Pinocchio) was an Italian animated film directed by Raoul Verdini and Umberto Spano. The film was produced and created by Cartoni Animati Italiani Roma (or CAIR). It was both Italy's first animated movie and the first animated film adaptation of the Pinocchio novel. Were it finished, it would have become the first cel-animated feature film ever, beating out Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by one year.

Production

The film was to be made by "CAIR", and was commissioned by politician Alfredo Rocco in 1935. It was to be the first Italian animated movie and a faithful adaptation of the novel. It had an estimated budget of ₤1 million and plans for 110,000 drawings a year. Technical problems put a damper on production, and the company ran out of money to make the film. In the end, they left all the work unused.

Co-director Raoul Verdini later tried to complete the film and convert it to color. The attempts were unsuccessful, and it remained unfinished. Some people believe that what has been animated of the film still exists in the archives of the American Study, but otherwise, the film is assumed to be lost. What remains are a few stills and the script.

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