this was meant to showcase Sandy Duncan's personality and talent rather than actually present the 'Pinocchio' story. but that's just fine. Disney did the story to satisfaction and Collodi's juvenile morality/horror tale always sort of repulsed me somewhat in the first place. this is definitely a brighter, happier version for children and is even a less heavy handed telling than the Disney cartoon.
'Pinocchio' is my favorite Disney cartoon feature but not necessarily my favorite children's story. as a story, i found Collodi's book to be overly moralizing and creepy, full of unappealing imagery that was more nightmarish than whimsical. people like to think of Collodi's pre-historic kiddie novel as a funny bunny elf story when in truth it's more like David lynch and 'Eraserhead', only a lot more of a drag.
Disney did his best to sweeten the story but it still came out kind of dark and brooding. although the design of Pinocchio himself was cuter and more appealing than the ugly original drawings in the book. the Sandy Duncan version is even more cute than Disney. Duncan's outfit is so colorful it's almost like a 'rainbow bright' version of Pinocchio.
and the songs by Streisand 'Color Me Barbra' song writer Billy Barnes, are even more happy, and upbeat than the most chippy of Disney music scores.
i remember seeing this show when it was first shown back in 1976. i recall being sort of interested, because i usually was in this kind of thing, but it didn't leave too much of a impression on me. i don't think it did much on anyone since it was never really reissued or shown again. watching it years later i find myself more nostalgic about things like this and in retrospect realize that the production itself is well produced and done with a certain amount of quality. especially for television at that time period.
the musical numbers, the sets and costumes are all real cute. so is Sandy Duncan. something she was did best. cute.
