Word: pinocchio
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...Pinocchio (Disney-RKO) is the world's third full-length cartoon movie.* It is Disney's second, and in every respect except its score his best. In craftsmanship and delicacy of drawing and coloring, in the articulation of its dozens of characters, in the greater variety and depth of its photographic effects, it tops the high standard Snow White set. The charm, humor and loving care with which it treats its inanimate characters puts it in a class by itself...
Since the Disney studio works as a collective enterprise (1,200 people worked two years to produce Pinocchio), it is difficult to evaluate Walt Disney's exact share in the picture. Disney himself always says "we" instead of "I" in talking about his productions. But the producer's hand is apparent in Cleo, the coyly diaphanous goldfish; in the fluffy antics of Figaro, the kitten; above all in the creation of Jiminy Cricket...
...little puppet is Jiminy Cricket, his conscience, "that still, small voice that nobody listens to." This worldly but goodhearted little insect, topped by a grey topper and swinging an umbrella ("a genuine Chamberlain" which he sometimes uses for a parachute), comes to work late the very first day, fails Pinocchio when he needs his conscience most, despairs when Pinocchio despairs, is chirpingly cheerful when the puppet is. He is a fresh little fellow, too, who always calls Pinocchio "Pinoak," yells, "Break it up, boys," to the marine life that gets under his feet. When Monstro the Whale sneezes catastrophically, Jiminy...
...cartooning, technique is almost as important as inspiration. Articulation in Pinocchio is much better than in Snow White, and the animals are better articulated than the human characters...
...technique has added one new effect to Pinocchio that Snow White did not have-terror. The peeping eyes in the night scenes in Snow White were scary, the beautifully drawn buzzards (of which Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art now owns one sketch) were ghoulish. But in Pinocchio the plunging, charging whale, Monstro, is terrifying...