Known and loved the world over, Pinocchio is the famous wooden puppet protagonist of the fairy tale novel written by Carlo Collodi between 1881 and 1883. Collodi’s masterpiece is not a simple fairy tale but a long and complex novel, considered a metaphor for the human condition. Translated into 260 languages, the book has made Pinocchio a universal cultural icon, in which the archetypal birth–death–rebirth motif structures the hero's growth into responsible boyhood.

Although part of a comedy, Pinocchio's adventures are not always funny. Indeed, they are sometimes sinister. The book depicts a world that includes injury, pain, and even death. The author also sought to portray the newly formed country of Italy, with its extreme poverty, lack of infrastructure, and newly developed judicial system.

Since its first publication, the book has inspired hundreds of new editions, stage plays, merchandise, television series, and movies around the world. Most people in the U.S. know the story of Pinocchio thanks to the 1940 Walt Disney animated film. The film, however, excluded parts of the novel and transformed much of its essence. The little wooden boy in the film, wearing Tyrolean clothing, is quite different from Collodi’s original character.

For Italians, the novel Le avventure di Pinocchio has exerted great influence on their culture and language. The book’s characters and their traits have become embedded in everyday language and iconography.

To prevent a child from telling a lie, mothers will say:
“Se dici le bugie ti cresce il naso come a Pinocchio!” (“If you tell a lie, your nose will grow like Pinocchio’s!”).

“Essere come il Gatto e la Volpe” (“To be like the Cat and the Fox”) describes a person who is a cheat and a fraud.

“Essere come Lucignolo” (“To be like Candlewick, Pinocchio’s lazy and mischievous friend”) points to a bad boy or someone who is a negative influence. In Tuscan dialect, it also describes a very slender person.

“Il Paese dei Balocchi” (“The Land of Toys,” or “Pleasure Island”) defines an imaginary place made only of games and entertainment, without rules or responsibilities. If a mother says, “Questo non è il Paese dei Balocchi!” (“This isn’t the Land of Toys!”), she wants to encourage a child to study and be dutiful.

“Fare il Grillo Parlante” (“To be like Jiminy Cricket, the savvy talking cricket”) is used—often ironically—to describe a person who intervenes in a pedantic way on every subject.

Pinocchio’s timeless qualities and charm are periodically revisited with new movies and TV series. Many movie adaptations of the original story exist. The highly rated Luigi Comencini’s Le Avventure di Pinocchio (1972) is widely regarded as the most faithful adaptation of the story, capturing the grimmer tone of the original book.

Other notable versions include Giulio Antamoro's silent film Le Avventure di Pinocchio (1911), the first movie version and also the most comical; Disney’s animated classic Pinocchio (1940); Luigi Martone’s Pinocchio (2019), with Oscar-winning Roberto Benigni as Geppetto; and more recently, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (2022), which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

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Article written by Valentina Andreucci in collaboration with the ICC Editorial Team