Fairy tale · 声匠改编 · 4:13
Pinocchio
A wooden puppet who won't listen meets a Talking Cricket, a sly Fox and Cat, a blue-haired Fairy and a sea monster, and earns the right to be a real boy.
Narrator
Pinocchio
Geppetto
The Talking Cricket
The Fox
The Cat
The Fairy with Blue HairOther languages · 2 languages
About this story
The Adventures of Pinocchio is an Italian novel by Carlo Collodi, the pen name of Carlo Lorenzini, serialised in a children's magazine from 1881 and published as a book in 1883. It runs to 36 chapters, so this version keeps the core arc: Geppetto carves the puppet, the Talking Cricket warns him, the Fox and the Cat trick him, his nose grows when he lies to the Fairy with blue hair, he turns into a donkey, and he rescues Geppetto from the Terrible Dogfish. Collodi is darker in places; here the Cricket simply hops away instead of being struck by Pinocchio's hammer, and the robbers only chase him.
What it teaches
Pinocchio keeps choosing fun over school and fibs over the truth, and every shortcut lands him in deeper trouble. What finally makes him a real boy is not magic but honesty, hard work and caring for his father.
Suits
Ages 5–10
Tips for telling it
- Touch your nose every time Pinocchio tells a lie, and let your child spot the fibs.
- Give the Cat a lazy purr that repeats the Fox's best words.
- Afterwards, ask what changed in Pinocchio between the puppet theatre and the water wheel.
Questions people ask
- What is the moral of Pinocchio?
- Lies and shortcuts lead to trouble, while honesty, hard work and kindness make you who you want to be. Pinocchio only becomes a real boy after he works every day to look after Geppetto.
- Is the Pinocchio book different from the Disney film?
- Yes. In Collodi's book the cricket has no name; he is simply the Talking Cricket. And Pinocchio is swallowed not by a whale but by the Terrible Dogfish, a giant shark-like sea monster (il Pesce-cane in Italian). The named cricket and the whale were created for the 1940 Disney film.
- Does Pinocchio's nose grow when he lies in the book?
- Yes. When he lies to the Fairy about his gold coins, his nose grows so long that he cannot turn round in the room, and she sends woodpeckers to peck it back to size. It also grows on its own while Geppetto is carving him.
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