Pinocchio

Some films you think you know well, until you revisit them, and are struck all over again by that sense of wonder that moved you in the first place. This is the case with all of Disney's early feature-length cartoons: they have enthralled us for so long that we take them for granted. There is just such a magic in this tale of the little wooden boy, whose nose grows when he tells a lie and who is instructed to follow his conscience. Meanwhile, Jiminy Cricket, Figaro, Geppetto and Monstro the Whale, and even those arch-felons who lead wayward boys to Pleasure Island, have all become a part of 20th-century mythology. The score, which includes the song When You Wish upon a Star that became Disney's anthem, is magnificent, as is the artistic technique and use of early Technicolor. Oh, and children will enjoy it, too.