Watch Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night For Free

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

With 'The Little Mermaid' and 'Beauty and the Beast' Disney effectively kicked off the animation horse race that brought animated features out of the kiddie show doldrums. With that, lazy unimaginative studios like Filmation could no longer exist. There is justice in this world.You know Filmation, it's that studio that created all those tedious Saturday morning cartoons and managed to carry their Tarzan series for three seasons without creating a single new animated cell. Filmation's usual technique was to loop the same shots over and over and over and just change the dialogue. Their only memorable product was Fat Albert but that was because it had Bill Cosby behind it. Filmation was as welcome as flypaper spinning television shows into worthless cartoon shows like M*U*S*H (which was M*A*S*H with dogs) and Gilligan's Planet (with the castaways traveling through space). Yeah, I know Their last gasp for some kind of relief was 'Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night', an unbelievable animated toiletbrush which again sponges off someone else's success. In this case it's a sequel to Disney's Pinocchio, trying to continue the story even though there is no story to continue.It has been a year since Pinocchio has gotten his RB status and as the 'story' opens he is sent on a simple errand to deliver a jewel box and becomes fodder for a scheming raccoon. It's not that difficult for the raccoon to filch the box since Pinocchio insists on walking down the street with it held out in his hands but never mind. Shamed that he could have been such a moron, he runs away to the carnival and runs into a puppet master named Puppetino (don't ask) and we find out that the carnival is really a front for his schemes and scams and believe me you see all this coming from the moment Pinocchio steps out the Geppetto's front door. ovals. Along the way we meet other characters one just as innocuous as the last with names like Grumblebee and Gee Willikers and we meet the Emperor who is cross between Cherborg from Fantasia and that floating wizard head from 'The Wizard of Oz'. There are songs in the movie stitched together I think from cereal commericals, Christian rock albums and those tapes they make with music to put babies to sleep (it worked on me anyway). The prime top 40 wannabe here is 'Love Is the Light Inside Your Heart', a title so unmemorable that I had to look that title up for this review and check it twice as I was writing it down.I don't mean to beat a dead horse but I would have thought that Filmation would have learned it's lesson after it's execrable Snow White sequel 'Happily Ever After'. 'Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night', I swear could be chopped into three minute bits and injected into toy and cereal commercials and I guarantee that you would never know the difference.

I grew up watching the Disney film, and also love the book by Carlo Collodi. This is a wonderful underrated gem from 1987, that is a lot of fun. If I had to decide which is better, Disney's "Pinocchio" or "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night", the Disney film but only marginally.For one thing, the animation is very impressive. The backgrounds are surprisingly detailed and the character movements are convincing. The animation on the Emperor of the Night is absolutely brilliant. Also, the songs are fun and memorable. "Love is the Light Inside Your Heart" is not only haunting but a genuine tearjerker. "Neon Cabaret", while more a background song is also great, while "You're a Star" is wonderfully upbeat.Other advantages are an engaging, dark and heartwarming story that keeps to the spirit of the book, a strong script and good characters, including the hilarious Igor and Puppetino(the part when he turns Pinocchio into a puppet was quite frightening). Pinocchio is engaging enough, and the Emperor of the Night while very intense is a great villain. Oh and the Good Fairy is gorgeous.The voice acting is top notch, you don't hear much of James Earl Jones but once again he does an awesome job as the voice of the Emperor of the Night. Tom Bosley is surprisingly good as Geopetto, while William Windom is unrecognisable as Puppetino. Also Frank Welker deserves credit for his hysterical performance as Igor. In conclusion, this is wonderful and something quite special. 10/10 Bethany Cox

I think that when all of us were kids we had one or two movies that we loved so much that we sat down and watched them dozens of times. For me one of those movies was Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night, which is definitely a lesser known animated feature but all the same still holds up today. After ordering a copy from Amazon.com and watching it again all these years later, I was pleasantly surprised that Emperor entertained me even at my usually cynical age.Sure, you could nitpick that the animation is inconsistent, with some scenes appearing less detailed while others are excessively so, and that certain backgrounds are obviously repeated during chase scenes ala The Flintstones (it's even more pronounced here due to the visible line in the visuals), but frankly those didn't hamper my enjoyment of the film. The animation is usually quite vibrant and expressive, and the story takes the usual Pinocchio antics in a different direction by providing an actual villain in the uber-creepy Emperor (voiced by that staple of movie villains, James Earl Jones). In fact, much of the movie is downright dark, from the opening sequence where a demented carnival seems to set itself up to Pinocchio's transformation back into a puppet. I'm not saying any of this will scare kids today, as they've probably seen much worse, but it does give a good balance to the otherwise cheerful imagery.I can't get through this review without mentioning the handful of songs which are peppered throughout Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night. I can't get enough of "Love Is The Light Inside Your Heart," which is just a beautiful little pop ballad that I can't get out of my head because it's so memorable. True, the Fairy Godmother may sound like she's doped up during her speaking lines, but the song is great. "Neon Cabaret" is more of a background song than "Love," but it still has a nice little jazz beat that goes well with its scene, a night club where children basically throw back green alcohol (come on ya know it was alcohol) and go nuts. Finally there's "Your A Star," which while not a phenomenal song once again fits with the visuals of the sequence. Like I said before, much of the visuals of the movie are extremely well done and give the movie a vintage '80s feel I couldn't help but like.Now this is coming from a guy who's reviewed countless animated movie, but I think it's safe to say that young kids could still get a kick out of this movie. It's got everything the modern animated flicks have, but without the crass marketing. And the sidekicks aren't half as tiresome or irritating, with the only ones being a glow worm voiced by Don Knotts and a bee named Grumblebee. Some sections of the film may seem like filler, like the scene involving a toad and a city of insects which lasts a bit too long, but other than that I give Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night an enthusiastic recommendation. 3/4 stars

I watched this movie when I was little (can't remember exactly how old I was), and I just recently got hold of a copy and thought I'd watch it again (brings back memories, ya know).It's supposed to be a sequel to Disney's Pinocchio. The characters are similar to the ones in the Disney movie - all except for the Emperor of the Night (I don't know where they got him from). He seemed a little bit too much to throw into this story (and he might be a little too scary for the really young ones). I mean, what kind of demonic overlord would want anything to do with an has-been puppet? (The story tries to explain this, but doesn't do a very good job.) Anyway, the kids will probably enjoy it, so rent it for them if you get the chance (if there's nothing better to get, that is).