Pinocchio Goes Platinum

To celebrate Pinocchio’s 70th anniversary, Disney presented our own Center for Puppetry Arts with a tiny handcrafted marionette to be put on display for the next several months.  School children were on hand to “oooh!” and “ahhhh!” appropriately and receive copies of the new Blu-Ray DVD, though were infinitely more captivated (as were we) by the 70-foot sub sandwich acting as a giant Pinocchio nose outside (for children not so thrilled with the Italian Sub - a nod to Geppetto - there were ham and cheese sandwiches also on hand).  In fact, the entire display was, in typical Disney-style, extremely tightly crafted, with every numerical and stylistic aspect connecting back in some way to the particular anniversary celebration in a sort of web of “minutia marketing.”  But “Pinocchio Day” is not over yet - for the rest of the afternoon, the Center will be open to the public for puppet making during a screening of the film.

The marionette itself, one of only 375 in the world crafted by master puppeteer Bob Baker, was made platinum through the painful-sounding process of electroplating.  Catch it while you can - in precisely 70 days, the puppet will pack its bags and make its way into the wide world.