Haha looks like Bellamarie you found the big difference between the Disney adaptation and the original - no Jiminy Cricket all dressed in waistcoat and top hat, except as the ghost of the 'talking cricket' that Pinocchio took care of, right off when he was alone in the shop.
Some of what was in the annotated remarks is that stories for children were a new phenomenon in the nineteenth century. Early in the century the Grimm brothers published their collection of folk stories that were not considered just for Children and then just past mid century there are the books of Lewis Carroll. His most famous being
Alice in Wonderland. Suggested is that these stories were as interesting to and read by adults rather than exclusively for children.
But the big bit - in the nineteenth century stories were still depending upon the Classics and the Bible for their parables, analogies, metaphors and symbols especially among Italians whose story telling is mostly oral and steeped in Biblical events and figures. In the Italian culture a 'good story' always contained humor.
I read that storytelling is a folk art in the Tuscan countryside, and has been for centuries. Collodi, pseudonym of Carlo Lorenzini, was born in Florance, the heart of Tuscany. Another article says, the structure of Pinocchio with his variety of incidents, and tongue-in-cheek wisdom is written within the tradition of the Odyssey, the Aeneid, and the Divine Comedy. We read the Odyssey here on SeniorLearn and yes, the story moved along incident after incident but without the humor that would make it a 'good story'.
But get this - the story has been compared to the myth of
Pygmalion and Galatea. This myth has been used over and over in literature and in the theater - Bernard Shaw well known
Pygmalion became
My Fair Lady. Where as here in Pinocchio we have Mastro Geppetto falling in love with his wooden sculptured boy which is closer to the myth of Pygmalion sculpting Galatea.
http://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/myth-of-pygmalion-and-galatea/Then get this - I was amazed - mouth gapping amazed - in the 1970s, filmmaker and playwright Giuseppe Bertolucci puts together a production of Pinocchio.
Benigni whose first success was in a film written by Giuseppe Bertolucci, wanted to bring to the screen the Biblical elements of the tale ("a little child shall lead them") as exemplified in Pinocchio, and given his great love for and knowledge of Dante, using a similar humor to Pinocchio, he writes, acts and produces,
Life is Beautiful!!! Can you believe - remember it was that WWII story of an Italian Jewish family in the concentration camp where he successfully keeps hidden his young child as if playing a game waiting for the tanks and when Benigni won the Oscar he jumps on the back of his seat.
Can you believe all this... in Italy
The Adventures of Pinocchio by Collodi is considered a masterpiece.
