The Adventures of Pinocchio

Pinocchio reflects that the cricket was just trying to intimidate him. He believes that assassins must be an invention of mothers and fathers in order to control their children.

Suddenly, two hooded figures appear from the bushes and demand Pinocchio’s money. He refuses but screams when they threaten to kill his father after they kill him. This causes the money he has hidden in his mouth to rattle. The two assassins try to pry Pinocchio’s mouth open but cannot. Pinocchio bites off the hand of one of the assassins; he is shocked to see that it is a cat’s paw.

Pinocchio runs from the assassins, who chase him through the woods. Pinocchio manages to leap across a puddle, but the assassins fall into it. Pinocchio taunts them and keeps running.

Pinocchio comes across a cottage and begs to be let in, but a little girl at the window with a white face and blue hair tells him that she is dead, as are all the occupants of the cottage, and she cannot let him in.

The assassins catch up with Pinocchio and hang him from a tree by his neck, confident that when they return the next morning, he will be dead. Pinocchio is slowly strangled. He mournfully longs for his father.

The girl who claimed to be dead is actually a powerful forest fairy. She summons a falcon to rescue Pinocchio, who is almost dead. The fairy then summons a well-dressed poodle to bring Pinocchio to her.

The poodle drives a glass carriage pulled by mice to retrieve Pinocchio and brings him back to the fairy’s cottage. The fairy summons a team of doctors—an owl, a crow, and a cricket—who give vague opinions on Pinocchio’s state. The cricket says that he knows Pinocchio and that he is disobedient and has broken his poor father’s heart. Pinocchio starts to cry, which leads the doctors to conclude that he is alive.

The fairy tells Pinocchio to drink medicine or else he will die; Pinocchio refuses, as the medicine is bitter. Pinocchio promises that he will have the medicine after he has had a sugar cube, but he continues to refuse to take the medicine even after eating numerous sugar cubes.

A group of four black rabbits comes to take Pinocchio away, explaining to him that he will soon be dead. Pinocchio finally has his medicine, and his condition quickly improves.

Pinocchio tells the fairy about the events with the assassins. When the fairy asks where the remaining four gold pieces are (they are in his pocket), Pinocchio says that he has lost them in the forest, and his nose grows. He then says that he accidentally swallowed them, and his nose grows even more. The fairy laughs, telling him that his lies are obvious.

Seeing Pinocchio’s distress at his long nose, the fairy summons woodpeckers to shorten it again. The fairy suggests that Pinocchio and Geppetto can live with her; she has sent for Geppetto. Pinocchio excitedly walks down the path to go meet him.

He runs into the cat and the fox. The cat’s paw is in a sling; the fox explains that he was attacked by a wolf. The cat and fox convince Pinocchio to go with them to the Field of Wonders, which is only a few miles away. They travel through the City of Simple Simons on the way; the streets are filled with desperate and bedraggled animals who have sold their fur and colors. The only signs of wealth and decadence are in the coaches filled with foxes, vultures, and hawks.

At the cat and fox’s instructions, Pinocchio buries his gold in the field and waters it.

Pinocchio excitedly returns to the field after having walked around for 20 minutes, as the fox and cat advised, but he does not see a gold-growing tree. A parrot sitting on a tree nearby explains that Pinocchio’s gold was stolen by the fox and the cat.

Distressed, Pinocchio goes back to the City of Simple Simons to report the crime. The city’s judge, a gorilla, sentences Pinocchio to go to prison for not being wise enough to avoid robbery. He stays there for four months until the emperor decides that all the prison inmates should be freed as part of a celebration. Pinocchio must claim to be a thief, rather than someone who was robbed, in order to be freed along with the others.

Pinocchio runs back toward the fairy’s cottage. It rains, and he treks for days through the mud, reflecting on his foolishness; he decides that he should listen to his elders in order to avoid further trouble.

He comes across a serpent lying across the road. When the serpent doesn’t respond to his request to pass, he tentatively steps over it, but the serpent suddenly rears up, sending Pinocchio flying into the mud in fright. The serpent laughs so much that it bursts an artery and dies.

Pinocchio continues on his way but is caught by a farmer’s trap set for weasels when he goes to take grapes from a vine.

Pinocchio begs a passing glow worm to release him. The glow worm condemns Pinocchio’s attempt to steal grapes.

The farmer comes and ties Pinocchio with a collar and a chain, instructing him to be his watchdog. Sad and cold, Pinocchio reflects that he deserves to be punished for being a disobedient vagabond.

Pinocchio is awoken from his sleep in the doghouse by the sounds of whispering. It is a group of weasels. The weasels explain the arrangement they had with the old watchdog, Melampo, whereby they would steal seven chickens and give him one for his breakfast. But Pinocchio barks like a dog once the chickens are in the coop, alerting the farmer of the weasels’ break-in. The farmer catches the weasels. He is so grateful to Pinocchio that he sets him free.

Pinocchio runs to the fairy’s cottage, hoping to find his new sister, the fairy, and his father, Geppetto, but instead he finds that the cottage is empty. The fairy has died, killed by the grief of Pinocchio’s departure. A pigeon arrives and explains that Geppetto, having searched the whole of Europe for his son, is setting off in a boat to the “New World” to look for Pinocchio. The pigeon offers to fly Pinocchio to the seaside so he can be reunited with Geppetto. They stop overnight in a pigeon coop. Pinocchio eats chickpeas, which he thought he hated but realizes that he likes.

Finally, they reach the shore of a huge ocean. Pinocchio sees Geppetto in a tiny boat far out in the rough sea. He waves at him, and Geppetto sees him; Geppetto starts back to shore but is capsized by a huge wave. Desperate to save his father, Pinocchio jumps into the water and begins to swim out to sea.

Pinocchio swims all night through the rough seas looking for Geppetto. Eventually, he is washed onto a sand island. He speaks to a passing dolphin, who tells him that Geppetto was likely eaten by the Terrible Shark.

Pinocchio follows a path on the island and reaches the Land of the Busy Beas. Pinocchio asks a few passing people for food, and they offer to give it to him in exchange for his work, but Pinocchio says that he does not want to pull a cart or help lay bricks. Eventually, he agrees to help a woman carry a jug to her home. In return, she feeds him a feast. Pinocchio suddenly realizes that the woman is the fairy, and he cries with joy at being reunited with her.