ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the grotesque excesses present in The Adventures of Pinocchio, focusing upon concepts of brutality and terror depicted in the profoundly subversive text. It assesses how the lifeless puppet simultaneously adheres to, and conflicts with, the restrictions of both life and death. The chapter seeks to determine the impact of Carlo Collodi's violent depiction on later adaptations, primarily, Walt Disney's and Robert Coover's Pinocchio in Venice. Philip Nel credits Robert Coover's Pinocchio in Venice with having "revitalised the tale of Pinocchio, refashioning a dissident puppet-boy". It is a fitting successor to Collodi's novel of self-development in an imperfect world. Coover, explicitly aware of his predecessors in the Pinocchio tradition, successfully fashions a novel which is concurrently homage to Collodi's original puppet-turned-real-boy narrative, and distinct Other. In Steven Spielberg's AI the question of what constitutes humanity is at the film's core, and Thomas Morrissey argues that it is "clearly a purposeful addition to the Pinocchio tradition".
