He is both a toy and alive: Pinocchio turned 90 years old
He is not a scientist, not a poet, but has conquered the whole world, he is recognized everywhere, everyone knows that his name is Pinocchio. This line from the famous song by Alexei Rybnikov reveals the path of not only the hero of the fairy tale Alexei Tolstoy, but also his predecessor, Pinocchio Carlo Collodi. The Italian wooden boy was a naughty doll, punished for lying and laziness. But in our country it has become a symbol of children's courage, freedom and truth. Pinocchio returns to the big screen, and Izvestia reflects on the wooden boy's path to children's hearts.
From Italian Pope Carlo to Russian Father Alexei
Almost 100 years ago, on November 7, 1935, the first part of Alexei Tolstoy's fairy tale "The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Pinocchio" was published in the newspaper Pionerskaya Pravda. Five months later, in the newspaper Izvestia, the story was listed in the "New Books" section of the Komsomol Central Committee. The price in the binding is 4 rubles and 50 kopecks.
Despite his impressive age, the favorite character of all children is actually much older. On July 7, 1881, Italian writer Carlo Collodi wrote about the adventures of the wooden boy. His "Adventures of Pinocchio" seem too dark for today's times. Wooden Pinocchio has to go a long way to become a good boy, simply a human being, both internally and externally. At first, he doesn't shine with intelligence, loafs, is lazy and shamelessly lies. The hero pays a heavy price for his misdeeds: he is captured, works himself to exhaustion, turns into a donkey, and even ends up in the belly of a giant fish.
In Russia, the story of the revived log appeared thanks to Alexei Tolstoy. His "Golden Key, or The Adventures of Pinocchio" is a free retelling of Collodi's fairy tale, and the hero's name, il burattino, means "doll" in Italian.
Illustration to the fairy tale by Alexei Tolstoy "The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio" by Leonid Vladimirsky
In the preface to the story, Tolstoy wrote that as a child he read Pinocchio and retold it to children he knew, inventing new adventures of Pinocchio. But the original in Russian was first published only in 1906, when the writer was already 23 years old. Obviously, this story is not a fact of biography, but a creative legend. In 1934, Tolstoy signed a contract to retell the tale, and two years later he presented a completely new work inspired by Collodi.
Tolstoy's story turned out to be more dynamic and bright: the edifying tone disappeared, the virtuous fairy turned into an elegant porcelain Malvina, and Pinocchio's story of growing up, which was a series of sins and ordeals followed by repentance, became an adventure tale about friendship and the search for the golden key for Pinocchio. Tolstoy's character does not dream of becoming a human being, because he is already a person: lively, resourceful, inventive, ready to selflessly help people. An ideal pioneer, whose "woodenness" only gives him strength.
A shot from the animated film "Pinocchio" by Walt Disney studios
Tolstoy removes the gloomy reality, adds optimism and light, remakes the story into an adventure story about friendship and resistance to evil. Instead of a lonely path to humanity, there is a path of collective action: Pinocchio, along with Harlekino, Malvina and Pierrot, helps free the dolls from the power of Karabas—Barabas, together they arrange a small revolution, just in the spirit of the popular plots of the 30s. Tolstoy's individual morality of Pope Carlo Collodi turns into a social allegory, where the collective, labor and justice are at the center.
Actress Faina Ranevskaya believed that real faces were hidden behind the fairy-tale characters. According to her version, Pinocchio is Maxim Gorky, Malvina is Lyubov Mendeleev, Alexander Blok's wife, and Pierrot embodies Blok himself. The villain Karabas-Barabas, according to Ranevskaya, is an allusion to the director Vsevolod Meyerhold. There were other interpretations: the prototype of Pinocchio could be actor Mikhail Chekhov, the founder of his own theater school.
Hunting squeaker and Italian nose
The wooden boy's journey to cinema began in 1911 in Italy with the first silent film adaptation of The Adventures of Pinocchio. The image gained worldwide fame in 1940, when the Walt Disney studio released its animated masterpiece. It was then that the nose, growing in proportion to the lie, became a cultural symbol, and Pinocchio himself became the embodiment of kindness and hope. Disney softened the severity of the original, turning the parable of wine into a touching story about faith and sincerity.
The Soviet public met Pinocchio on stage for the first time — on December 10, 1936, at the Central Children's Theater, where Natalia Sats staged The Golden Key. It was she who came up with the final scene, in which the golden key was opened not by the fictional Molniya Theater, but by the Central Children's Theater itself.
Izvestia published a note on September 5, 1937, in which the Hungarian writer Evgeny Heltai praised the performance of actress Klavdia Koreneva, "brilliantly performing the difficult role of Pinocchio without the slightest fatigue."
— I have seen few shows that can delight the audience as much as the play "The Golden Key". The production, the scenery, reminiscent of Walter Disney cartoons, the performance, everything about it is amazing," the Izvestia journalist quoted Heltai as saying.
Actress Klavdia Koreneva in Pinocchio makeup, center, Spanish writer Maria Teresa Leon (second from left) and director Natalia Sats (second from right) among the audience at the Golden Key anniversary performance in honor of the first anniversary of the Central Children's Theater in a new building on Sverdlov Square. February 5, 1937
In 1939, director Alexander Ptushko, together with Tolstoy, shot the first feature film with elements of puppet animation. And in 1959, the color cartoon "The Adventures of Pinocchio" was released, the script for which was written by the writer's wife Lyudmila Tolstaya together with Nikolai Erdman. The voice of the hero was given by the actress of the Moscow Art Theater Nina Gulyaeva.
The Pinocchio doll from the 1939 film The Golden Key by A. Ptushko at the Obraztsov Puppet Theater
— Mom was 28 years old at the time, and her voice sounded like she had just turned seven. I was born much later, and when I saw the cartoon, my mother was already 40. Of course, I couldn't believe that the woman who drives me to eat porridge in front of school in the morning with a slightly hoarse voice is a perky Pinocchio," Gulyaeva's son, actor Vyacheslav Nevinniy, told Izvestia.
Soon Tolstoy's story was heard in operas, ballets, puppet shows and dramatic performances. "Pinocchio" has been staged at the Sergei Obraztsov Puppet Theater for more than 70 years. It was created by playwright Ekaterina Borisova and director Emil May, and in 1972, Obraztsov released an updated version with a new voice of the hero. He hid a squeaker in the doll's mouth, a hunting pipe that gives the sound a special intonation.
Actor Vyacheslav Glushkov as Papa Carlo in the production of the puppet show "Pinocchio" at the Puppet Theater. Obraztsova
The real All-Union fame came to Pinocchio after the release of Leonid Nechaev's two-part musical film "The Adventures of Pinocchio" (1975-1976). The film stars Vladimir Etush, Rolan Bykov, Elena Sanaeva, Vladimir Basov, Rina Zelenaya and Nikolai Grinko. The role of Pinocchio was played by Dmitry Iosifov.
— I had a huge number of shooting days. About 90. And every time they stuck my nose on. The make-up artists worked for several hours. It was important not just to attach it, but to make the borders completely invisible. Few viewers realize that the length of the nose varies from frame to frame. Pinocchio's voice is long at the beginning of the film, but it gets shorter and shorter towards the end. It was a very sophisticated technology that did not exist in the Soviet Union at all. Therefore, the material was ordered in Italy. But it was the hardest thing for me to sit through this time: especially in the heat, when the tip of my nose was already itching from the glue. It was the biggest challenge," Dmitry Iosifov shared in a conversation with Izvestia.
Today, Iosifov sees that film as a children's adventure, and he is still friends with Roman Katz, who played Pierrot: now he lives in Israel, works as a pediatrician and brings up four children.
The Gloomy Seeker and the Fabulous Log
Over the years, the image of the wooden boy has evolved along with the era. Pinocchio became less and less "sinful" and more and more romantic: in Steve Barron's film (1996) he is a sincere seeker of truth, and in Matteo Garrone's version (2019) he is a melancholic thinker, again close to the darkly poetic Collodi.
It was in this vein that Guillermo del Toro created his stop-motion version of Pinocchio in 2022. His film is not a remake of Disney, but a poetic interpretation of an Italian fairy tale, reinterpreted through the experience of the 20th century. The action takes place in fascist Italy, where the main theme is not obedience, but resistance. Pinocchio del Toro does not turn into a human being — he is inherently human: in his naivety, spontaneity and sincerity. So unexpectedly, the images of Pinocchio and Pinocchio converged in the 21st century. The film won the Oscar for Best Animation and became one of the most profound interpretations of the Pinocchio myth.
A shot from the movie Pinocchio by Guillermo del Toro
Exactly 50 years after the release of the Soviet film, on the first day of 2026, Russian viewers will see a new story about a wooden boy — the film "Pinocchio" directed by Igor Voloshin. According to the director, this is not a remake of a Soviet painting, but an independent work inspired by both Collodi and Tolstoy.
The authors of the film emphasize that for the first time the main character will appear on the screen in the form in which he was created on the pages of the original source. Not a boy in plastic makeup, not animation, but a wooden doll. This has become possible thanks to modern and very expensive technologies.
In a conversation with Izvestia, Voloshin admitted that the creators of the painting wanted to preserve the atmosphere of fairy tales and kindness. Although for the director himself, this film goes back to the Gospel.
— For me, this is the highest manifestation of the spirit in the gospel reading. "Pinocchio" is a truly biblical story. The hero goes from inanimate nature, which, acquiring a spirit, becomes a human being," Voloshin told Izvestia.
The main role is played by young actress Vitaliya Kornienko, using motion capture technology. The script was written by Andrey Zolotarev, Aksinya Borisova and Alina Tyazhlova. The film will feature famous songs by Alexei Rybnikov, including the legendary "Boo-ra-ti-no!"
— A real gift to the author is to preserve his work. Everything has changed, but my music remains. Although I had to finish writing new music for an hour," Rybnikov said in a conversation with Izvestia.
Composer Alexey Rybnikov and director Igor Voloshin
Today Pinocchio and Pinocchio are not just heroes of children's literature. These are cultural archetypes in which the themes of truth and falsehood, guilt and forgiveness, freedom and submission are intertwined. The wooden boy has long grown out of a children's fairy tale — he became a philosopher and a prophet, the speaking voice of the era and simply a favorite of all children of many generations.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
