Pinocchio is a Story About Art and God

There are many more fascinating Pinocchio stories to be analyzed. "Pinocchio: A True Story," starring Pauly Shore, is not one of these stories. And yet it's like a car crash; I couldn't look away. Catch it exclusively on Nebula: nebula.tv/videos/jacob-geller-attempting-to-unders…

"The joy of parentage is discovering who your child is, not deciding who they should be" damn what a line

Nobody tell him about the theatre production of Pinnochio at the London National Theatre where every single character is played by elaborate puppets except Pinnochio hiself who's played by a human actor, which is simultaneously impressive as fuck and has amazing implications about what it represents with his character and his place in the story's world

And then, there's Astro Boy, ALSO based off Pinnochio, that gets its own adaptation by many very talented artists. Like, Pinnochio Everywhere mode is ALWAYS on.

One of my exes, her grandfather was deathly afraid of Pinocchio. The word was banned in the house, because even in his old age it would send the poor Italian gentleman into shrieks of hysteric terror. I can see why

Pinnochio is such a good retelling of Pinnochio, but not as good as Pinnochio imo.

"pinocchio killed jiminy cricket with a hammer right after meeting him" is one of the funniest things i've heard

that last line, about the grand metaphor, and "no, you are a mistaken. once upon a time there was a piece of wood". that was GOOD. that was so good. that was wonderful, incredible, videomaking truly is art

"The joy of parentage is discovering who your child is, not deciding who they should be." I broke down and cried when I heard this line - this one hit closer to home than I was ready for.

I need y'all to know that not only did Tom Kenny voice Geppetto in Pinocchio: A True Story, he also voiced Mussolini in del Toro's Pinocchio.

"Joy of parentage is discovering what your child is, not deciding who they should be" This line (perhaps unintentionally) explained to me what has been poisoning my art making process for years. I've always focused on how my art should look like and completely disregarded how it actually turned out. Treating every painting as just a stepping stone to excellence, sanding off it's quirks and trying to mold it into something that doesn't come naturally to me at all, like some kind of overbearing parent. ...i think i need to sit down and reconsider some things. ty for life-altering experience, as always.

As someone who loves Frankenstein, the parallels are surprisingly close. This video is beautiful and im obsessed with the line “god does not speak, but the church does”. I highly suggest watching Dimension 20’s Neverafter series, they explore a lot of Pinocchio’s themes in growing up in a world you’re not prepared to face on your own especially as a child, and it’s so beautiful. If you enjoy dnd i can’t recommend it more. UGH

Jacob Geller doesn’t mention Frankenstein in this video essay, but I used to think about Pinocchio and Frankenstein as very similar stories. Both main characters desire belonging and purpose as outsiders to the human experience. Where they differ is that Pinnochio treats life as a blessing and Frankenstein’s monster suffers life as a curse.

"the cruelty of being created by a god who abandons you," has now made me want to see something blend the stories of Pinocchio and Frankenstein.

“Humanity isn’t awarded a single time for good behavior, but maintained through a continuous examination of the self.” This throwaway line goes unreasonably hard.

"no strings to hold me down, motherfu-" i think that humanity's obsessive appeal towards that one sentence, which includes myself, pretty much sums up why pinocchio is so popular. we spend our lives trying to cut our strings, trying to destroy any outside factor that might be controlling us and actually being in control at some point in your life is so satisfying that we just keep craving to reach such state of existence again and again as long as we are alive. you can't always be in control, but the point is to be in control as long as possible and when you lose it, you want to take it back as fast as possible.

Im only 5 minutes in but i cant wait til jacob talks about Pinocchio: a kdrama about ethics in journalism set in a world where some people develop hiccups whenever they lie

As an Italian, it's my duty to point out that the name of the monkey in Del Toro's work "SPAZZATURA" means "TRASH"

Jacob really working that 'italian anarchist in spanish civil war' look.

Great video! I might be a little late to the party but I'd like to mention something about Lies of P. The primary theme of the story, which I feel you overlooked, was lying. Its specifically in dialogue with the Disney movie which says that if Pinnochio wants to be a "real boy" he has to be obedient and moral and specifically not tell lies. Lies of P, on the other hand, spends most of its time questioning the purpose and value of lies. Most NPC interactions go more favorably if you lie, pretty much everyone is lying or being lied to about something. The two main villains want to create worlds where lying is no longer possible; Manus can literally read minds and wants to "ascend" humans to be like him and the other would enforce obediency by replacing the world with machines. The way you get the best ending, or at least the one where P demonstrates the most agency, is by lying, disobeying, and sometimes doing morally questionable things in addition to just being a decent person. The lies are what makes P eventually turn human, which is the opposite of the movie because it suggests that lying and disobedience are fundamentally human traits. To live a life of constant truth and obedience isn't human, its just a being a puppet.