It's Pinocchio's first Christmas since becoming animated. Geppetto buys him an arithmetic book as a present. Pinocchio sells the book to buy Geppetto a present but he's tricked out of the money by Fox and Cat. After getting tricked, he joins Maestro Fire-Eater's marionette show. He runs away with the marionette Julietta. Lady Azora and Talking Cricket try to get him to be good as he tries to bring Julietta to life.
Rankin/Bass mixes the Pinocchio story with a Christmas Santa. Pinocchio has always been one of the more frustrating kiddie character. He is infuriatingly naive and always goes down the wrong road. He befriends the wrong people and keeps disobeying Geppetto. He's a bratty clueless little boy. For the obvious reason, he really fits the stop-motion animation world. I'd do without the flashback and simply do the story from the beginning. It would help define this away from the Disney version right from the start. Santa does not necessarily fit and this may work better without him. He comes in like a cameo appearance. This is a fine adaptation and a fine Christmas special.
Rankin/Bass mixes the Pinocchio story with a Christmas Santa. Pinocchio has always been one of the more frustrating kiddie character. He is infuriatingly naive and always goes down the wrong road. He befriends the wrong people and keeps disobeying Geppetto. He's a bratty clueless little boy. For the obvious reason, he really fits the stop-motion animation world. I'd do without the flashback and simply do the story from the beginning. It would help define this away from the Disney version right from the start. Santa does not necessarily fit and this may work better without him. He comes in like a cameo appearance. This is a fine adaptation and a fine Christmas special.