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Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night

Play trailer Poster for Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night G 1987 1h 31m Kids & Family Fantasy Animation Play Trailer Watchlist
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43% Tomatometer 7 Reviews 61% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
Pinocchio falls into the clutches of evil carnival people who attempt to turn him back into a lifeless puppet.
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Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night

Critics Reviews

View All (7) Critics Reviews
Alexander Walker London Evening Standard This animated version of the spunky wooden puppet’s story has an easy-to-follow vigour and a surprising lot of narrative novelty even for people familiar with Disney’s classic. May 20, 2022 Full Review Tim Brayton Alternate Ending Despite all of its elements that are individually deranged and visionary and feel like they were wrenched out of the pitch-black recesses of some underground animator's brain, the thing as a whole feels like such yawning, uninspired hackwork. Rated: 2.5/5 Apr 14, 2024 Full Review John Coleman Observer (UK) Unfortunately the dialogue is nearly joke-free and the cheapo animation would have the Disney of that 1940 gem showing Mr. Scheimer the door. May 20, 2022 Full Review Tom Cassidy Common Sense Media A cross between a 1980s cute and cuddly Saturday morning cartoon and a 1970s psychedelic rock album cover nightmare, this animated adventure is an impressive piece of art. Rated: 3/5 Oct 13, 2021 Full Review Juan Carlos Coto South Florida Sun-Sentinel Throughout the film, Pinocchio acts in a manner convenient to the plot, but winds up looking like a downright blockhead, instead of a cartoon hero that a child can love or admire. Rated: 2/4 Aug 19, 2021 Full Review Richard Freedman Newhouse News Service Practically everything else in this Pinocchio is ripped off from somewhere. Rated: 1/4 Nov 4, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (22) audience reviews
Paul W Best pinocchio movie ever very unrated film of the late 80s from filmation Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/11/22 Full Review Audience Member One of Filmation's last works, indirectly caused by Disney catching on to what they were doing and suing, Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night has its problems. And it's not just the inevitable comparisons to the Disney magnum opus thanks to blatantly taking plot elements from it and having the side characters be obvious substitutes. But also because of that Grumblebee whose side of the story was clearly meant to be a backdoor pilot that never came into fruition. And yet, Pinocchio "2" is honestly better than it sounds thanks to much better animation than you'd expect from this company, actually really good musical numbers and remaining surprisingly dark (Pinocchio's transformation is quite a disturbing example of family-friendly body horror) whilst dealing with themes that the Disney movie never truly explored make this movie better than Disney's failed lawsuit would imply. That's the thing about big-screen animated movies in the '80s before The Little Mermaid; they weren't all classics like The Secret of NIMH but they were worth watching at least once for their more experimental nature and willingness to go dark in a manner that you don't see too often in modern animated movies that aren't made by the stop-motion masters over at Laika. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night" is one of those films that's unknown to most of the public (except for people who love the Pinocchio lore and want to watch every single movie released that's about Pinocchio). This is easily one of the darkest and weirdest interpretations of "Pinocchio" that I have ever seen and I was surprised that the people behind the "He-Man" and "She-Ra" series were behind this film! If there was an issue I had with this movie, it's that the plot is a bit too similar to the original Italian folktale, especially since this was supposed to be a sequel to the original folktale. Overall, "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night" is a great film to watch if you are a huge fan of "Pinocchio" in general! Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Not better than the Disney version of Pinocchio by any means, but it is still very entertaining. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member I watched this film a long time ago I was scared of the Emperor of the Night at the time but I like the film. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member Alas, despite cool musical numbers, Pinocchio & The Emperor Of The Night is a blatantly corny attempt to sequelize Disney's most beloved cartoon. What's corny about it? Well I'll tell ya. The animation, especially the whimsy and, let's be honest, yukky (that's the term I an't said in ages) character design of the title character. Most of it is also forgettable, especially all the other characters. Still it ain't as bad as the live-action ones (except A.I. if that counts!). Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night

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Movie Info

Synopsis Pinocchio falls into the clutches of evil carnival people who attempt to turn him back into a lifeless puppet.
Director
Hal Sutherland
Producer
Lou Scheimer
Screenwriter
Robby London, Barry O'Brien, Dennis O'Flaherty
Production Co
Filmation Studios
Rating
G
Genre
Kids & Family, Fantasy, Animation
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Oct 12, 2019
Box Office (Gross USA)
$2.7M
Runtime
1h 31m
Sound Mix
Surround
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