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shadowkatTonight's episode of Once Upon a Time was written by Jane Espenson, and had Harry Groener and Carolyn Hennessy (two excellent character actors) playing Jimminy Cricket's parents. Jane is my favorite of the Buffy writers, I actually find her more interesting than Whedon and far more versatile. Jane has written everything, comedy, pure science fiction, fantasy, romance, comic books...and in various tv shows. She's more of writer's writer, not a director, actor, or producer like so many. Nor comfortable as show-runner.
And tonight's episode like much of her work deals with puppetry.
The story of Pinnochio often concentrates far too much on the boy, and not nearly as much on far more interesting supporting characters of Geppetto and Jimmny. The original version is not really a fairy tale in the same mode as the Grimm Fairy Tales but an actual story that someone wrote, much like Hans Christian Anderson wrote his fairy tales...and has long since fallen into public domain.
From Wiki: Pinocchio (IT: [piˈnɔkkjo]; UK: /pɪˈnəʊkiəʊ/[1]; US: /pɪˈnoʊkioʊ/) is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the 1883 children's novel, The Adventures of Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi, and has since appeared in many adaptations of that story and others. Carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a small Italian village, he was created as a wooden puppet, but dreamed of becoming a real boy. Pinocchio is often a term used to describe an individual who is prone to telling lies, fabricating stories and exaggerating or creating tall tales for various reasons.
And here's the book which you can read for free on the internet: http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/C_Collodi/The_Adventures_of_Pinocchio/
This version has pictures: http://www.childrensbooksonline.org/pinocchio/pages/002_pinocchio.htm
And here's the story of the author of Pinnochio:
In 1940, Pinnochio was made into a Disney film, perhaps one of it's best, in the film version Jimmny Cricket and the Blue Fairy are developed even more than in other versions.
Here's a video of The Disney Version, with Jimny and Pinnochio:
Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide or "Give A Little Whistle"
Once Upon A Time expands on this story, but instead of Pinnochio being the individual who is lost, Jimmny or his alter ego Archi. Archi is a man not a cricket, in both fairy tale flashback and real world versions. In the flashbacks, he's the child of a pair of traveling con men, whose motto is take from the unwary before they take from you. And...once again, the metaphor about evil parents is emphasized. Jimmny's parents tell him that he is straying, that they are his parents, he should use them as his conscience, not question their guidance. Just as Archie tells young Henry that he should trust his mom, Regina, and not question her. But Jimny does begin to question and wishes himself away from them. So he makes a deal with Rumplestilskin - and Rumple gives him a vial that he can use to change his parents - Rumple's price, that he gets the result. Rumple appears to be an odd curator in the fairy tale world, a sort of soul taker - the trickster or opportunist who you make deals with. Loki in the Norse Legends, Hades in the Roman and Greek, and here...Rumplestilskin. An imp.
A devil. In the tv series LOST - the character was smokey or the guardian of the island.
But his parents are quite good at sleight of hand and switch his vial with one filled with rain-water. Tricking him into giving Rumple's vial to the nice couple that take them in, conning that couple out of their worldly goods. The vial turns the couple into puppets. A nice symmetry - Jimny's parents are puppeteers, running a puppet show, which Jimmny helps operate at carnivals. They even state - oh, perhaps we can use them now in our act.
While this is going on in flashes, we get the front story, where young Henry has decided to search out the old mines - convinced there is something down there. Proof.
The mines have been opened up, along with a crater. We don't know how exactly, but it is strongly suggested that Emma Swan's decision to become deputy, refusal to use a uniform and pinning the badge to her belt buckle causes it. Every time free will is exerted - something changes.
And in the subplot...Mary M Blanchard becomes closer to David. Helping him at the hospital as a nurses aid volunteer. But she feels guilty, since he's married and his wife, Kathleen is so nice and loving. Emma warns her to stay away, getting involved with a married man is a bad idea, trust me. (Making me wonder about Henry's father again - was he married?) At the end of the episode, Mary M B, after learning that the only thing that feels real to David is her, and he remembers nothing else and nothing else feels real to him - its all alien, decides to turn in her resignation as a volunteer. Kathleen had shown up with David's favorite muffin. And Mary M B feels guilty and as if she is putting herself in a dangerous situation. Much like Lost before it, the writer's use subplots to build up to their next episode.
So Henry goes into the mines to find evidence to convince Jimmny and others that there is a curse, that the fairy tale world exists. He can't explain why he knows it is true...just that he wants and needs to believe there is something more to well this. (An interesting metaphor regarding how many people view religion or God. I was talking about Santa Claus recently with my mother...and how I found out the truth.
I remember a kid at school telling me neither Santa nor God was real - these were fairy tales, he was cynical child, depressed, and somewhat nihilistic. Belief and hope falsities. I remember his attitude well. But I do not remember what my mother told me or how I found out. Just that it was important to me to keep my brother's belief in Santa alive as long as possible - I enjoyed the hope and joy in his eyes when he thought of St. Nick...and hope, is a precious thing. As the boy relates to Jimmny aka Archie - I need the hope. Today, someone told me why and how they meditate...they said they meditate against the backdrop of Manhattan, the backdrop of economic depression, the backdrop of a city bustling with self-interest over compassion, they meditate to find the better person within, the hope within. That inner voice. I think that is what Henry is doing, his mother, the Mayor is pushing him in direction he does not want to go...and in the flashbacks, we equally see Jimmny Cricket being pushed in the same direction by his parents, who in effect want him to become them. Their victory, their accomplishment is to create another version of themselves, someone who will take care of them and achieve their aims. Regina in much the same way views Henry - I'm your way to success. But Henry is his own person and fights against her. (She also is extremely bad at looking after this kid. You'd think she'd hire someone as a full time baby-sitter or chaperon? Considering the kid has a tendency to wander off at the drop of the hat and get himself into all sorts of trouble.)
Jimny and Henry echo each other. Jimny falls into the mines looking for Henry, and is rescued with him. Down there, he makes a decision and tells Regina, do your worst. Take away my job, take away my house, my livelihood...but I will do my best for Henry, I'll let my conscience be my guide. Much like the Disney song above. And he tells her that sooner or later she may find herself in a custody battle and what he states will be important, they will go to an expert. Regina backs up a step. She is losing ground. Time is moving forward. People are aging. They are waking up to their own free will. She can't control what they do any longer.
In some respects Emma Swan's arrival to Story Brook is similar to Flight 815's arrival to the Lost Island - things began to change when she arrived. I like OUAT better, it's less violent than Lost and less male dominated. This episode had male protagonists... but in reality they were two boys, struggling with their parents. There's a third little boy...and it's interestingly enough not Pinnochio but rather Geppetto...the toy maker, the child of the couple that Jimny's vial turns into dolls. Rumple/Mr. Gold has them in his pawn shop. We see them creepily displayed. And the episode does that horror element to it - typical of fairy tales. Fairy tales tend to be hybrids of horror, romance and fantasy. No one genre fits them.
Pinnochio often feels like a horror tale, frightening at times, uplifting at others.
It is much like this tale about a child finding its own way outside of its parents, finding its own conscience. Tonight I had chat with my mother, she didn't know how to explain God to her granddaughter, whose parents are not religious in any way and who is not getting any religious education or knowledge of God in school or elsewhere. And her grandkid has questions. Lots of questions. I told my mother that much like she did...her grandkid, my neice, would find her own way...figure it out. And not to worry. What will be will be. Que Sera Sera. I think this true with children...sooner or later you question what your parents teach what they expect, and break free.
I do not believe in the same things my parents do. I have found my own path. Much like Jimny/Archie and Henry have, as has Emma Swan - who is ironically the adult providing the advice and guidance to her mother. The roles change.
In Pinnochio...finding one's conscience, one's soul, is the journey. In this episode, the journey is more or less the same, but it is oddly Jimmny's, the conscience of Pinnochio and as Henry states, his as well, who has to find his own way. Yet, here Henry is Jimny/Archie's conscience, the child leads the man, not the other way around.
OUAT continues to impress me. It's innovative and different. Borrowing it's narrative structure heavily from LOST, it takes the best of that series and leaves behind the bits that bugged me and made watching grating at times.
This episode is different from the others in that...the flashback is better than the
real story, and far less cheesy. But that is in part due to Jane Espenson who is quite comfortable in a fairy tale world.
And tonight's episode like much of her work deals with puppetry.
The story of Pinnochio often concentrates far too much on the boy, and not nearly as much on far more interesting supporting characters of Geppetto and Jimmny. The original version is not really a fairy tale in the same mode as the Grimm Fairy Tales but an actual story that someone wrote, much like Hans Christian Anderson wrote his fairy tales...and has long since fallen into public domain.
From Wiki: Pinocchio (IT: [piˈnɔkkjo]; UK: /pɪˈnəʊkiəʊ/[1]; US: /pɪˈnoʊkioʊ/) is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the 1883 children's novel, The Adventures of Pinocchio, by Carlo Collodi, and has since appeared in many adaptations of that story and others. Carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a small Italian village, he was created as a wooden puppet, but dreamed of becoming a real boy. Pinocchio is often a term used to describe an individual who is prone to telling lies, fabricating stories and exaggerating or creating tall tales for various reasons.
And here's the book which you can read for free on the internet: http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/C_Collodi/The_Adventures_of_Pinocchio/
This version has pictures: http://www.childrensbooksonline.org/pinocchio/pages/002_pinocchio.htm
And here's the story of the author of Pinnochio:
Carlo Collodi is the pen-name of Carlo Lorenzini (1826-90). Collodi is the name of the little village in Tuscany where his mother was born. He was born in Florence, the son of a cook and a servant, and spent his chilhood as much in the rough and tumble of the streets of his native Florence as in the classroom. No doubt this stood him in good stead in his two periods as a soldier - once in 1848 when Tuscany rose in revolt against its Habsburg rulers, and again in the war between Italy and Austria in1859.
Collodi starded his writing career as a newspaperman: he wrote for other papers, and also started his own satirical paper Il Lampione (The Lanter) - but the government closed it down. Later he became a government official himself, working as a civil servant for the education department and trying to push through much-needed educational reforms.
In the 1850s, he began to have a variety of both fiction and non-fiction books published. Once, he translated some French fairy-tales so well that he was asked whether he would like to write some of his own. The result was his fist major success, Giannettino, which is a kind of educational fairly- tale. He now devoted himself to writing for children" becouse adults are too hard to please"!
In 1881, he sent to a friend, who edited a newspaper in Rome, a short episode in the life of a wooden puppet, wondering whether the editor would be interested in publishing this "bit of foolishness" in his children's section. The editor did, and the children loved it. The adventures of Pinocchio were serialized in the paper in 1881-2, and then published in 1883 with huge success. The fist English-language version was just as successful on its publication in 1892. The 1940 Walt Disney cartoon has ensured that the character of Pinocchio remains familiar: but the book is far richer in the details of the adventures of the naughty puppet in search of boyhood.
In 1940, Pinnochio was made into a Disney film, perhaps one of it's best, in the film version Jimmny Cricket and the Blue Fairy are developed even more than in other versions.
Here's a video of The Disney Version, with Jimny and Pinnochio:
Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide or "Give A Little Whistle"
Once Upon A Time expands on this story, but instead of Pinnochio being the individual who is lost, Jimmny or his alter ego Archi. Archi is a man not a cricket, in both fairy tale flashback and real world versions. In the flashbacks, he's the child of a pair of traveling con men, whose motto is take from the unwary before they take from you. And...once again, the metaphor about evil parents is emphasized. Jimmny's parents tell him that he is straying, that they are his parents, he should use them as his conscience, not question their guidance. Just as Archie tells young Henry that he should trust his mom, Regina, and not question her. But Jimny does begin to question and wishes himself away from them. So he makes a deal with Rumplestilskin - and Rumple gives him a vial that he can use to change his parents - Rumple's price, that he gets the result. Rumple appears to be an odd curator in the fairy tale world, a sort of soul taker - the trickster or opportunist who you make deals with. Loki in the Norse Legends, Hades in the Roman and Greek, and here...Rumplestilskin. An imp.
A devil. In the tv series LOST - the character was smokey or the guardian of the island.
But his parents are quite good at sleight of hand and switch his vial with one filled with rain-water. Tricking him into giving Rumple's vial to the nice couple that take them in, conning that couple out of their worldly goods. The vial turns the couple into puppets. A nice symmetry - Jimny's parents are puppeteers, running a puppet show, which Jimmny helps operate at carnivals. They even state - oh, perhaps we can use them now in our act.
While this is going on in flashes, we get the front story, where young Henry has decided to search out the old mines - convinced there is something down there. Proof.
The mines have been opened up, along with a crater. We don't know how exactly, but it is strongly suggested that Emma Swan's decision to become deputy, refusal to use a uniform and pinning the badge to her belt buckle causes it. Every time free will is exerted - something changes.
And in the subplot...Mary M Blanchard becomes closer to David. Helping him at the hospital as a nurses aid volunteer. But she feels guilty, since he's married and his wife, Kathleen is so nice and loving. Emma warns her to stay away, getting involved with a married man is a bad idea, trust me. (Making me wonder about Henry's father again - was he married?) At the end of the episode, Mary M B, after learning that the only thing that feels real to David is her, and he remembers nothing else and nothing else feels real to him - its all alien, decides to turn in her resignation as a volunteer. Kathleen had shown up with David's favorite muffin. And Mary M B feels guilty and as if she is putting herself in a dangerous situation. Much like Lost before it, the writer's use subplots to build up to their next episode.
So Henry goes into the mines to find evidence to convince Jimmny and others that there is a curse, that the fairy tale world exists. He can't explain why he knows it is true...just that he wants and needs to believe there is something more to well this. (An interesting metaphor regarding how many people view religion or God. I was talking about Santa Claus recently with my mother...and how I found out the truth.
I remember a kid at school telling me neither Santa nor God was real - these were fairy tales, he was cynical child, depressed, and somewhat nihilistic. Belief and hope falsities. I remember his attitude well. But I do not remember what my mother told me or how I found out. Just that it was important to me to keep my brother's belief in Santa alive as long as possible - I enjoyed the hope and joy in his eyes when he thought of St. Nick...and hope, is a precious thing. As the boy relates to Jimmny aka Archie - I need the hope. Today, someone told me why and how they meditate...they said they meditate against the backdrop of Manhattan, the backdrop of economic depression, the backdrop of a city bustling with self-interest over compassion, they meditate to find the better person within, the hope within. That inner voice. I think that is what Henry is doing, his mother, the Mayor is pushing him in direction he does not want to go...and in the flashbacks, we equally see Jimmny Cricket being pushed in the same direction by his parents, who in effect want him to become them. Their victory, their accomplishment is to create another version of themselves, someone who will take care of them and achieve their aims. Regina in much the same way views Henry - I'm your way to success. But Henry is his own person and fights against her. (She also is extremely bad at looking after this kid. You'd think she'd hire someone as a full time baby-sitter or chaperon? Considering the kid has a tendency to wander off at the drop of the hat and get himself into all sorts of trouble.)
Jimny and Henry echo each other. Jimny falls into the mines looking for Henry, and is rescued with him. Down there, he makes a decision and tells Regina, do your worst. Take away my job, take away my house, my livelihood...but I will do my best for Henry, I'll let my conscience be my guide. Much like the Disney song above. And he tells her that sooner or later she may find herself in a custody battle and what he states will be important, they will go to an expert. Regina backs up a step. She is losing ground. Time is moving forward. People are aging. They are waking up to their own free will. She can't control what they do any longer.
In some respects Emma Swan's arrival to Story Brook is similar to Flight 815's arrival to the Lost Island - things began to change when she arrived. I like OUAT better, it's less violent than Lost and less male dominated. This episode had male protagonists... but in reality they were two boys, struggling with their parents. There's a third little boy...and it's interestingly enough not Pinnochio but rather Geppetto...the toy maker, the child of the couple that Jimny's vial turns into dolls. Rumple/Mr. Gold has them in his pawn shop. We see them creepily displayed. And the episode does that horror element to it - typical of fairy tales. Fairy tales tend to be hybrids of horror, romance and fantasy. No one genre fits them.
Pinnochio often feels like a horror tale, frightening at times, uplifting at others.
It is much like this tale about a child finding its own way outside of its parents, finding its own conscience. Tonight I had chat with my mother, she didn't know how to explain God to her granddaughter, whose parents are not religious in any way and who is not getting any religious education or knowledge of God in school or elsewhere. And her grandkid has questions. Lots of questions. I told my mother that much like she did...her grandkid, my neice, would find her own way...figure it out. And not to worry. What will be will be. Que Sera Sera. I think this true with children...sooner or later you question what your parents teach what they expect, and break free.
I do not believe in the same things my parents do. I have found my own path. Much like Jimny/Archie and Henry have, as has Emma Swan - who is ironically the adult providing the advice and guidance to her mother. The roles change.
In Pinnochio...finding one's conscience, one's soul, is the journey. In this episode, the journey is more or less the same, but it is oddly Jimmny's, the conscience of Pinnochio and as Henry states, his as well, who has to find his own way. Yet, here Henry is Jimny/Archie's conscience, the child leads the man, not the other way around.
OUAT continues to impress me. It's innovative and different. Borrowing it's narrative structure heavily from LOST, it takes the best of that series and leaves behind the bits that bugged me and made watching grating at times.
This episode is different from the others in that...the flashback is better than the
real story, and far less cheesy. But that is in part due to Jane Espenson who is quite comfortable in a fairy tale world.
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no subject
Date: 2011-11-29 12:28 am (UTC)I sort of like how they are rewriting the Disney version. And I liked Jimny ...an improvement on the original.
So, no, it isn't really product placement. Mickey Mouse? Maybe.
(As opposed to Grimm which does do product placement - references to i-phone, ipod and ipad all within one episode.)
And yes, great to see Harry Groener again. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2011-11-29 02:50 am (UTC)I wonder if this is a redemption story as well? I have the feeling that the curse might only end if Regina can regain her connection to humanity and learn to love again. Time will tell.
It was great to see Harry Groener again!
no subject
Date: 2011-11-29 05:10 pm (UTC)Been wondering much the same thing. This week's episode was definitely a redemptive tale or journey towards redemption.
Not sure where they are going with Regina. According to what I've read...in order to be victorious or "win" - Regina has to find happiness or a way to fill the void left by her curse - in short she has to prove that she could enact the curse and be happy as a result.
The irony is her happiness hinges on her relationship with Henry, and her ability to connect to him - which she can't do, in part, because of the curse. Breaking the curse may ironically be her only way to achieve her aims.
She can't love Henry, until she learns to put his needs or someone's needs before her own.
This series reminds me a great deal of LOST in some respects, the narrative structure and the
redemptive story telling arcs.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-29 04:13 am (UTC)Thanks for the meta. :)