KING’S THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 283, 24 August 1940, Page 7

KING’S THEATRE

Walt Disney, in the words of “Vanity,.' “never lays an JXg,” and “Pinocelno, which has entered the second week ot an eminently successful season at the Kings Theatre leads tch fay in techmcolour innovations, is beautiful in its colour, and, above all, is human and moving in its theme. Large is the strange and enchanting array of fresh characters. Geppctto, the kindly, dodderin., old woodcarver, is very proud of his latest model, a puppet, boy whom he has christened I’inoechio. A hen he and Figaro, his comical cat, retire for the night, Geppctto sees the Wishing btar and tells Figaro that he would wish for Pinocchio to become a real boy. The Wishing Star becomes transformed into the beautiful Blue Fairy, who, unknown to the sleeping Geppctto, partially grants the wish and gives Pinoeetno life without making him a complete human being. The complete transformation can only be accomplished, she tells Pinocchio, when he proves that he is brave, unselfish, and able to distinguish right from wrong. Jiminy Cricket, with bi« usual iuterest in the doings of other people, has by now more or less introduced himself, and offers to be Pinocchios conscience. This offer is accepted by the fairv, .who dubs him “Sir Jiminy Cricket,’’ and admonishes Pinocchio to "always let your conscience be your guide.” , „ , Geppctto is overjoyed when he finds that his wish bus been partly granted, and sees Pinocchio off on his first day of school. On the way, however, Pinocchio is spied by J. Wnrthiugton Foulfellow and his eat. Giddy. Immediately they see the puppet, which is apparently walking without, benefit of strings, they see profit within their grasp. They persuade Pinocchio that the actor's life in the one ho should follow, and entice him away fiiom school and into the caravan of "Stromboli—the Great Puppeteer.” Stromboli proves anything but. a kind master, and Pinocchio's fate might have been most cruel if Jiminy Cricket, ever his guardian angel, had not intervened. Pinocchio’s troubles, though, nrc by no means over yet, and, his ideas of right and wrong still being slightly hazy, he gets once more into the clutches of Worthington and Giddy. Meanwhile, Geppctto, troubled by the disappearance of his beloved puppet, has set out to find him and has been swallowed by Monslro the 'Whale. When Pinocchio finds this out, he is very repentant, and he and Jiminy set out to look for Geppctto. Finally, through an act of unselfish devotion. Pinocchio manages to rescue the little woodcarver, and as n reward the Blue Fairy makes him n “real boy.”