PINOCCHIO
1940
Pinocchio begins with the producer name and the opening credits in coloured lettering, which continues the same throughout the whole of the introduction sequence. The lettering is easy to read, therefore children who are learning or can read, will be able to recognise the letters and/or words quite easily. Also, the background for these slides is made to look like wood- one of the main aspects of the film. It is illustrated with images to do with the film, such as scissors and cotton wool reels, which have been supposedly ‘carved out’ of the background of wood. The soundtrack music during this is soft and calm, and is a song about ‘wishes’- which children can easily relate to, as when you’re young, you believe in making wishes on stars- just as the song says. After about a minute, the opening credits come to a close by a fade transition. The next scene starts with the movie name, written on a book. The audience are attracted to this out of the whole mis-en-scene as it is the first thing that the fade fades out of. The rest of this shot includes other books, with titles that the audience should be able to relate to (current childrens’ films), such as ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Peter Pan’. The attention is then drawn to a small character, the first we are introduced to, as he makes slight movements to catch the eye, and a spotlight is then focused on him. The camera then slowly zooms in to the character, and we can see that he is the voice of the song that we thought was a soundtrack. He looks like a friendly character, which children will like. There is the aspect of fantasy, as he is able to talk, and do such strange things for such a small creature (such as opening the big book). He tells a story in which it is told in the book, creating surrealism. Most children read, or get read, books often, and know that they only consist of pictures and text, and that movement/video inside a book is practically impossible. This is another childrens’ convention- children like to read or be read books, and that is exactly what ‘Jiminy Cricket’ does at the start of this film, as well as singing- children also enjoy being sung to. It then goes onto describing a village at night; "sleepy, old town". 'Jiminy' is then in the frame, and there is a point of view shot as he bounces towards the toyshop. The shots of inside the toyshop would really interest a child, as the majority love toys, but have probably never been in a toyshop. As 'Jiminy' says, "being in a strange place like that, [he] didn't know what to expect!" The audience may be feeling the same. The humour is aimed at children- when he warms 'himself' up infront of the fire (which most children will also be able to relate to). The shot of the clocks, the shot of the music boxes, and the shot of the selves of toys, will be inspiring to children as they will be able to recognise the objects, but may not be lucky enough to have the experiences from them. The puppet is then made the main focus, something quite special to children. The cat which then appears, 'miaowing', and the fish in the fishtank, allows the audience to connect them to some of the everyday animals which they may have in their lives themselves. Painting of the puppet happens, which is something nearly all children love doing. As the last lines have been pained on the wooden puppet, creating a smile, every other character smiles, somewhat bringing a smile to the audiences faces, too. This is just the childrens' conventions in the opening sequence of this movie, but I believe that the animation cartoon is the best way for a film to attract children; it makes it a lot more interesting to watch.
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