In the new “Pinocchio” available on Disney+, director Robert Zemeckis pays homage to some studio characters through a scene.
At Disney, winks, or also called easter eggs, aren’t just for Marvel movies and series. In Robert Zemeckis’ Pinocchio, a few surprise characters and references make an appearance. Most are in the workshop of Geppetto who spends his days making clocks.
When Jiminy Cricket enters the puppeteer’s house, the latter is already making his puppet. Suddenly, all the clocks hanging on the wall start ringing. For Geppetto, it’s time to go to sleep.
His various works reproduce the emblematic figures of the Disney studio, such as Donald Duck, Maleficent and Princess Aurora, but also and above all Woody, the cowboy from Toy Story, voiced by Tom Hanks. An obvious tribute to the actor who appears here in the guise of Geppetto.
Check out the scene here:
It is also impossible to miss Roger and Jessica Rabbit, both from Robert Zemeckis’ classic, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, released in 1988. But that’s not all. Another short sequence, still with the clocks, shows other characters, such as Rafiki and Simba from The Lion King, Snow White and the Witch or even Dumbo.
In 2004, when the director released The Polar Express – also with Tom Hanks -, a sequence paid homage to Pinocchio. When the little boy follows the conductor of the train, he discovers a car full of rusty and abandoned toys, including many puppets. One of them is none other than Pinocchio with his nose broken.
Warner Bros. Plan taken from the film “The Polar Express” by Robert Zemeckis.
Coincidence? Maybe not. The same sequence features Scrooge, the character of Charles Dickens, adapted five years later by Robert Zemeckis for the cinema in Scrooge’s Funny Christmas with Jim Carrey. Everything seemed already written.
Pinocchio is available on Disney+.