Pinocchio is a Story About Art and God 

There are many more fascinating Pinocchio stories to be analyzed. "Pinocchio: A True Story," starring Pauly Shore, is not one of these stories. And yet it's like a car crash; I couldn't look away. Catch it exclusively on Nebula: nebula.tv/videos/jacob-geller-attempting-to-understand-pinocchio-a-true-story

Nobody tell him about the theatre production of Pinnochio at the London National Theatre where every single character is played by elaborate puppets except Pinnochio hiself who's played by a human actor, which is simultaneously impressive as fuck and has amazing implications about what it represents with his character and his place in the story's world

"The joy of parentage is discovering who your child is, not deciding who they should be" damn what a line

And then, there's Astro Boy, ALSO based off Pinnochio, that gets its own adaptation by many very talented artists. Like, Pinnochio Everywhere mode is ALWAYS on.

One of my exes, her grandfather was deathly afraid of Pinocchio. The word was banned in the house, because even in his old age it would send the poor Italian gentleman into shrieks of hysteric terror. I can see why

"pinocchio killed jiminy cricket with a hammer right after meeting him" is one of the funniest things i've heard

Pinnochio is such a good retelling of Pinnochio, but not as good as Pinnochio imo.

that last line, about the grand metaphor, and "no, you are a mistaken. once upon a time there was a piece of wood". that was GOOD. that was so good. that was wonderful, incredible, videomaking truly is art

As someone who loves Frankenstein, the parallels are surprisingly close. This video is beautiful and im obsessed with the line “god does not speak, but the church does”. I highly suggest watching Dimension 20’s Neverafter series, they explore a lot of Pinocchio’s themes in growing up in a world you’re not prepared to face on your own especially as a child, and it’s so beautiful. If you enjoy dnd i can’t recommend it more. UGH

I need y'all to know that not only did Tom Kenny voice Geppetto in Pinocchio: A True Story, he also voiced Mussolini in del Toro's Pinocchio.

"the cruelty of being created by a god who abandons you," has now made me want to see something blend the stories of Pinocchio and Frankenstein.

"The joy of parentage is discovering who your child is, not deciding who they should be." I broke down and cried when I heard this line - this one hit closer to home than I was ready for.

"no strings to hold me down, motherfu-" i think that humanity's obsessive appeal towards that one sentence, which includes myself, pretty much sums up why pinocchio is so popular. we spend our lives trying to cut our strings, trying to destroy any outside factor that might be controlling us and actually being in control at some point in your life is so satisfying that we just keep craving to reach such state of existence again and again as long as we are alive. you can't always be in control, but the point is to be in control as long as possible and when you lose it, you want to take it back as fast as possible.

Jacob really working that 'italian anarchist in spanish civil war' look.

As an Italian, it's my duty to point out that the name of the monkey in Del Toro's work "SPAZZATURA" means "TRASH"

I've always heard that Del Toro's Pinocchio was really good without fully knowing why it was such an instant classic. Having Pinocchio's disobedient nature being framed against the authoritarian obedience of Fascism? That's REALLY good. I'm honestly genuinely surprised it's not something I hear more discussion about because having that be the framing of events is honestly kind-of genius??? Like, it just makes so much sense, you know?! It's not just a story about a goofy little guy learning to be a good bean while getting into trouble, it's about learning that sometimes it's good to be independently minded and think for yourself. And framing that against Geppetto's own trauma from the war leading him to mirror that desire for control just for him to learn to accept Pinocchio for who he is? Yeah. No wonder this was well regarded. They were really cooking with the story of this film, and the visuals, themselves, look incredible, too. The fact that this came out at the same time as the lifeless Disney remake is genuinely the wildest comparison I could ever think of.

The blade runner series is a pinocchio sequel and I can't unsee it now

"Joy of parentage is discovering what your child is, not deciding who they should be" This line (perhaps unintentionally) explained to me what has been poisoning my art making process for years. I've always focused on how my art should look like and completely disregarded how it actually turned out. Treating every painting as just a stepping stone to excellence, sanding off it's quirks and trying to mold it into something that doesn't come naturally to me at all, like some kind of overbearing parent. ...i think i need to sit down and reconsider some things. ty for life-altering experience, as always.

“Humanity isn’t awarded a single time for good behavior, but maintained through a continuous examination of the self.” This throwaway line goes unreasonably hard.

Hi Jacob! I watched your video on Pinocchio: A True Story, and since Nebula doesn't have a comment section, I'll write it here. This movie is actually based on Buratino, a Russian adaptation of Pinocchio, written by Aleksey Tolstoy. I don't know a lot about the production, but I've heard that Tolstoy wanted to translate it, but he wasn't really fluent in Italian, so he just adapted it based on the words he understood. It's more of a "prophecy" and "revolution" story, I actually was really hoping you'd talk about it in the main video, since Buratino is a big cultural icon in ex-soviet countries, but I understand that your scope is mostly on the western productions and not the loose adaptations. I find it puzzling how not only they made a loose adaptation of the Buratino story, but they also used names from the Pinocchio story. The Blue Fairy turned into Malvina in Buratino, The Girl With Blue Hair, a puppet girl who ran away from the evil puppet master, and helped Buratino, and in this movie Bella is supposed to be her. The horse character is like a distant scream of Julius the horse, a character from the Melnitsa studio's bogatyr movies. P.S. Would love to see more of your cooking videos! :^)

"The joy of parentage is discovering who your child IS, not deciding who they should be." Thanks, you made me cry. You made me realize I love my father, because he loves who I have become and doesn't discount me for who I am not. What a nice start to my Monday.

Imagine a video game where you slowly lose agency as the character becomes "more human" - you lose dialog options. Combat gets replaced with QTEs, then takes away the button inputs. Cutscenes get longer and transition from in-engine to pre-rendered cinematics. There are games that do this unintentionally- to collapse story threads into a single or limited set of endings, hoping you don't notice the loss of agency. But imagine if it was intentional and thematic?

"This video will discuss major plot points of Pinocchio, Pinocchio, Pinocchio, Pinocchio..." Ah yes, truly the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Im only 5 minutes in but i cant wait til jacob talks about Pinocchio: a kdrama about ethics in journalism set in a world where some people develop hiccups whenever they lie

Jacob, every topic you talk about, no matter how mundane or flat it may appear at first, you explore with such beautiful and insightful perspectives. One of the top content creators in my opinion, keep up what you do.

Interestingly, never once in LoP is the main character called Pinocchio; he’s always called “Geppetto’s puppet”. Geppetto never even uses a name for P, only ever calling him “my son”.

in 2022, the same year all those pinocchio movies came out, the director of my ballet studio decided to create a ballet of pinocchio for our spring production, and ended up with some set pieces that have not left my head since, notably: - bungee cords that the dancers cast as marionette dolls hung off of lifelessly before springing into action, using the cords to throw their weight around and do impossible things, all while the puppeteer stood over them on a platform, a red light illuminating his face from below as he directed each movement and pinocchio ran through the dancers, terrified - a whale half the size of the stage, broken into puzzle pieces with each piece controlled by one dancer as they moved all as one. it was terrifyingly realistic, and once gepetto and pinocchio both were thrown into the belly of the whale, the dancers opened up their pieces of the whale and retreated around the stage to reveal the whale’s innards so that the father and son could be shown reuniting - a giant birdcage pinocchio got trapped in, with a single spotlight illuminating his crumpled figure, as silhouettes of other people walked by, and his nose grew as he pleaded to the blue fairy for help there were more incredible choices, but ultimately i just wanted to share why the ballet has stuck with me to this day-it’s become one of my favorite adaptations of pinocchio. this video speaks to me so deeply mr geller i appreciate you always

Your sophisticated yet slightly insane style of analysis is deeply Talmudic. This is how I want every Torah Study session to go.

Jacob Geller doesn’t mention Frankenstein in this video essay, but I used to think about Pinocchio and Frankenstein as very similar stories. Both main characters desire belonging and purpose as outsiders to the human experience. Where they differ is that Pinnochio treats life as a blessing and Frankenstein’s monster suffers life as a curse.

"Pinocchio is not about anything, it's about everything!" I feel like those are the words someone says when at the edge of their sanity.

I've just realised that Blade Runner is also a kind of Pinocchio story. Roy Batty is lost, acting out violently and dangerously, and is looking for his creator to extend his life - or, effectively, give him life. The replicants want, more than anything, to live, and be a "real" human, just like Pinocchio becoming a "real" boy.

Isn't there also a really dark and twisted version of the story where everyone in the world is made of wood and Geppetto makes Pinocchio out of flesh as a kind of horrific "stitched-together meat puppet"?

As an italian it warms my heart to see one of my favourite youtuber cover one of the best works of italian literature, if not world literature. My father read the whole of the book when i was a child and i've never forgotten it. Always an a amazing channel Jacob, keep up your great work

"He sees that humanity is not awarded a single time for good behavior, but is maintained through continuous examination of the self." that line has me tearing up at how completely true it is.

“The inextricably human experience of outliving, of being abandoned by God.” *Mary Shelley has entered the chat*

"The joy of parentage is discovering who your child is, not deciding who they should be" is a fantastic line. Thank you Jacob.

I think one of my favorite parts of Jacob's videos is the music he adds to the background. I love rehearing tracks from Nier and Hyperlight Drifter but I gotta tell ya, hearing Feel right at the end got me chills. Lies of P is incredible in most aspects it tackles and one of my favorite games in recent memory and every time I hear that song is like reliving the moments when I was playing the game. Same goes for other tracks in the video. Jacob if you see this, this is what made me get Nebula, good job.

34:50 we could read it the other way around. since pinocchio IS controled by the playeer, arguably IS us, and since the other robots and human are controled by code, the idea of being a living person among non living but moving things is, in one sense, truer here than in any movie.

I find it very strange that Jacob states that Pinocchio in Lies of P "behaves perfectly" and that he always obeys his father. Despite saying that he went over the story many times, he seems to have missed the recurring theme that Gepetto wants Pinocchio to always tell the truth and "be a good boy" to fulfill his plans, and Sophia (the blue fairy) wants Pinocchio to choose what his heart desires, whether that be truth or lies only humans can tell. Pinocchio only "behaves perfectly" if you choose for him to always tell the truth and even then the ending tied to always being a "good boy" is considered not to be the canon ending. I thought it was glaringly obvious just playing the game once that being human isn't something that can be boiled down or distilled, it isn't even just whether you tell a lie or not. You gain humanity from listening to records. So is being human the ability to enjoy art? You gain humanity from disobeying the Grand Covenant (the commandments given to puppets by their creators), so is being human the ability to sin? As you progress through the story you gain allies that stop regarding you as merely a puppet but as a trusted friend, so is being human having friendship? And at the very end, you have the choice to put Sophia out of her misery or let her live, which can lead to you sacrificing your life for her. So is being human the ability to sacrifice everything for what you love? Maybe the game doesn't make it clear what all these questions it poses you mean or whether they have a right or wrong answer, but I don't have any doubts that these questions having ambiguous answers IS the answer to me. Being human isn't something that can be clearly defined, but as long as you are thinking of these questions you can think of yourself as human as you like.

So I cried watching this. I cried a lot. I'm a poet and I am a trans man. I watched this thinking a lot about a poem I wrote at the height of my conflict with my parents about my gender identity called Otesanek, which is based on a Czech folktale about a couple who can't conceive a child and end up adopting a tree stump which comes to life. Except when it comes to life it's out of control, and an absolute monster. It starts eating uncontrollably, in most retellings ends up eating people, often other children, and has to be put down by one/both of its parents or some other sensible personwith an axe and burnt. I guess I put all of my feelings about not being wanted, or loved by my parents who were refusing to accept my identity into it. They wanted the idea of a child, it felt, the child they had in the heads, and not the reality of my existence. They loved a child as a possession, not as a living, breathing person. They did not want to discover who I was, they wanted to impose it. I do performance, and manage to put so much venom into the line "mummy sits and sobs for the child she wanted and not the child she got" that the room will go entirely silent. It's the most graphic, horrible thing I have ever written. People don't know how to feel after hearing it, particularly parents. It's gained me a reputation as a "horror" poet, because that's what Otesanek is, a version of Pinocchio where the author recognised what a horror story this is. A thing that never chose to be alive being punished for the mere fact of its existence. Pinocchio goes really hard with trans people, especially trans men. All of that desperation to please be transformed into a "real boy" by a god that has made you apparently in a drunken stupor, with a body that doesn't match the way you know that you are /supposed/ to be. And the real irony is that you always have been a real boy, it's just that other people are incapable of seeing and accepting that. I did patch things up with my parents. Kind of. It's imperfect, but we're working on it.

i will absolutely at some point write something about how the bible is, in fact, one big pinocchio story. that throwaway line actually ended up really helping me with my confirmation class and some struggles i was having squaring the "jealous" god of the old testament with the unconditionally loving god we teach in our reconciling congregation. thank you for your incredible dedication to your obsessions and art in general. 💜

I’d count Robert Rodriguez’s Alita: Battle Angel as one of the best cinematic Pinocchio adaptations ever made.

I’m a Pinocchio realist: “it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of Pinocchio.”

27:34 Valentinus Monad Small Correction: Simon Manus is NOT the father of Sophia Monad, the blue fairy. Sophia is the daughter of the Founder of the Alchemists, Valentinus Monad and his wife, Isabelle Monad. Simon Manus was the leader of the alchemists after her fathers passing who captured her and used her abilities for the arm of god project

I'll be honest: in all my 21 years on this planet, I have only just in the last 2 understood the beauty of Pinocchio as a story. My childhood, like many others, flourished under a canopy of colorful Disney animated movies, from some of the early days of the company to the most recent. I had always held firm in my stance that the oldest films, (Snow White, Pinocchio, etc.), were boring, outdated, and fundamentally flawed due to cultural progress. My view, now that I've rewatched these classics, is that they are some of the most humble and simple stories of human nature that have come out of the studio. Many people criticize Snow White because of her lack of a spine, as well as the fact that she longs for a prince to come and save her. While not necessary, I do believe that it's perfectly acceptable, and honestly totally understandable, that she would want someone to help her out of the darkness that had enveloped her life at that point in the story. The evil queen had just attempted to have her killed, and she lost her home as well as the comforts that home provided. While her prince is a bit of a weirdo, I don't have a personal disdain for such a heroine as her. Which brings me back to Pinocchio. When I was younger, I used to believe that the Disney classic was one of their most boring and bland. Having rewatched it at the height of the Pinocchio craze, I found an overwhelming sense of having been blind for most of my life, but only now being able to see. I finally realized why people hold the story of this wooden boy so closely to their hearts. The life and vibrancy Disney was able to lend this tale was captivating and very whimsical. The story is about so much more than a puppet wanting to be a real boy, it's about, at least to me, all of us yearning to be our truer selves. Even in our darkest moments, when we fall short and make terrible decisions, we can rise from it. And Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio was such a masterful work that perfectly encapsulated every joy and sorrow and hopeful moment that I experienced with the older stories, but with so much more style and depth than before. Long story short, this video summed up precisely everything I've felt about the story since my enlightenment about it. This video was a joy to watch, and an even bigger delight to know it came from you.

Honestly, the christian parallels don't even stop there. You definitely know this, but for anyone who doesn't, 'geppetto' is a diminutive of 'giuseppe', italian for... joseph. You know, joseph from the bible, who is a carpenter, and has a child who he raises but was given life by god. ...you know, like- Also the idea just keeps popping up through our history, like with pygmalion / galatea (plus, you know, frankenstein and such). God, I should make a pinnocchio thing someday, there's just so much intertexuality oozing from this wooden freak. loved the video btw!

It's super beside the point of the larger story, but maybe one of my favorite spins on the Pinocchio set up is Urasawa's brief rewrite of Atom's backstory in PLUTO. Normally the origin is that Dr.Tenma makes Atom to replace his dead son, Tobio, but has kind of an existential crisis when he realizes he can never watch his new son grow up, and gets rid of him. But in a flashback in PLUTO he sits down to eat with his new perfect robot son, who talks enthusiastically about what he learned in school that day, about how much he loves the dinner they're sharing together, and the doctor says something to the effect of, "Tobio would always misbehave. He hated studying. He hated my cooking. He hated me..." and THAT becomes the moment he decides to get rid of Atom. Not the typical moral of a child's obedience earning him personhood, making him "real," but the exact opposite: A "perfect" child isn't real at all, just the delusional fantasy of a bad parent.

This is one of my favorite essays you've ever done. I've been going through some really intense creative self-examination lately (writing and drawing almost all day, almost every day) and your analysis of Pinnochio as a medium to be explored really resonated with me. Nothing starts as a brilliant metaphor, or a real boy, or a compellingly-written novel. It all starts as a piece of wood.

this was a great watch. i didnt realize how ingrained Pinocchio was in society. Instantly subscribed. My favorite depiction of Pinocchio is Droupout's fairy tail horror season Neverafter where he's played by Lou Wilson. it dives into the effects such a hard and punishing world has on a literal child and goes into the pressure Geppetto put on Pinocchio and how lying isnt inherently bad. He even went so far as to break his nose off and the nose is used as as magic staff blessed by his patron who is revealed as Cinderella's step mother. If you dont watch the full season (i dont blame you its like 50 hours) at least look up "I'm a puppet" the emotion and passion lou puts into his characters is at it's peak in that scene. one of my favorite performances in all of D20.

As someone who has spiralled into an obsession with Jekyll and Hyde adaptations for about two years and almost wept with joy upon finding an adaptation that actually *got it*, as well as thinking about Pinnochio as a kind of myth about god and humanity for a long time, I thoroughly enjoyed this video and hope that Jacob finally found some peace once he finished it.

“It looks like Pinocchio fails a quick time event” -Jacob Geller Truly a quote for the ages

The feeling I had is that Collodi thought he was writing a simple story, with all the tropes expected from the time, with the bratty kids that the audience would find relatable, and this is why the ending just boils up to "grow up". And yet, he didn't realize the full implications of his story, that's what helps creating such a massive world of expansions. But Del Toro's movie really felt so good because it's the culmination of over a hundred years of Pinocchio discourse and how choices are the most important theme in the story. Honestly, the saddest part was that Podesta had more than one opportunity of abandoning facism, just let Pinocchio go and pay attention to his son, but he just refuses it and he might think he's doing a great sacrifice, but, in the end, he's just dooming himself and the ones he should love.

"my backyard tree doesn't know what she needs, or what she wants, she just grows on. Asked her how she came to survive, she whispers 'the mindless will thrive'" - the lyric to Ritt Momney's "Paper News"

All I can add is that the best adaptation of Pinocchio is and has always been Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer, a comic where Pinocchio’s nose can kill vampires because the tree he was cut from was watered with the blood of Vlad the Impaler’s victims

One of my favorite Pinocchios is Pinocchio from Dimension 20: Neverafter, a dnd game about fairytales. Not going to spoil anything but Pinocchio's story there really takes the meta narrative of writers and puppets and runs with it. Also, is just played fantastically by Lou Wilson.

39:40 - 40:18 is my favorite part. I’ve watched this video in its entirety like four or five times now, and that’s the moment that really stuck with me my first watch. We all must change, we all must grow, we all must learn to move on. This is now one of my favorite things you’ve put out. Great great stuff.

If I had a nickel for every time Jacob made an introspective, thought-provoking video essay with religious themes about an inanimate humanoid figure crafted by an elderly man and given life by magical means, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

The Blue Fairy in Del Toro's adaptation is a straight-up Biblical angel.

I find it strange that you didn't touch on the original book's version of Frankenstein's monster, who is similarly a creation abandoned by his creator. The monster wants to be human, to be loved, but that it taken away from him. I do understand avoiding it but I find that it has some parallels to Pinocchio.

Video was really good!! As a Lies of P fan, I appreciate that the game is getting recognition when people talk about retellings on Pinocchio's tale. However I feel like to make a correction about a plot point you talked about ; Sophia is not Simon's daughter but a young girl Simon was obsessed with which... is pretty obvius in which way that's why she ended up like that :)

By the halfway point I was wanting to hear you use Megaman lore into your essay, because so much of it fits into the story of Pinocchio. This is absolutely my favorite video from you now!

1. your line about what parenting should be brought me to tears 2. even though i'd seen stills from Pinocchio (2022) with Tom Hanks, Figaro, Jiminy Cricket, your video was my first exposure to the titular boy himself and I nearly did a spit take

"2022's Pinocchio fails to ever communicate what the 1940's version did so effortlessly: that art coming to life is amzaing in itself" Danm, I am always impress by your script but that hit hard because it relatable to what I feel when I watch that movies.

The GDT analysis made me contemplate how my expectations about how things and people should be affect my ability to appreciate them. Incredible video.

I'm so glad to be recommended this video and to know there is apparently Pinocchiology out there in the world. Thanks for making this, I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on Pinocchio and what it may mean to those who have made their own adaptations... As an artist who has wanted to make my own interpretation of Pinocchio, this video really made me feel a lot. Your words are really insightful and statements like "The joy of parentage is discovering who your child is, not deciding who they should be.", "Do we allow agency to the figures we immortalize in wood?" and "How can art enjoy being brought to life if it insists that it still doesn't live?" are poignant and I want to continue thinking over them. I could write a lot of thoughts here about all the different Pinocchio's you've mentioned, but I think I want to focus on the 2022 Disney Pinocchio because I feel you've helped me fine-tune what it is that I did not like about it. You said: "His film is so obsessed with the aesthetics of reality, that it's robbed of any sense of magic. Unlike Pinocchio himself, the film fails to become more than the sum of its parts." I feel that this brings to light a really core element that I've been trying to word for ages about this movie: Pinocchio is about being more than the sum of your parts. Pinocchio, at its core, is a story about context, how context shapes us. Even Collodi's original, with its big focus on deference, still places a lot of value on context. With the 2022 Disney film's focus on realism to the detriment of everything else, it loses sight of ... well, the human experience in context. We don't know everything. We have a relatively small scope. Even in something like AI's story (I love AI) that spans thousands of years, there is a level of the unexplained, the complicated interwoven connections that we only see pieces of, that the characters only ever see pieces of. We ARE small pieces of a much greater history, and this is true of Collodi's story, or the 1940 Pinocchio, of AI, of Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, and I mean even Pinocchio: A True Story might have some of that... Our lives are lived in a context that influences us since the day we are born. But... The world in the 2022 Disney Pinocchio feels so dead, done and over with, whenever it's not on-screen. Yes, things do happen offscreen, like Stromboli being overthrown, but it doesn't really *feel* like any sort of liveliness. It feels, to me, similar to knowing where an event trigger in a video game is, and you have that little bit of immersion break... Which, if you like games or the game is good, you might not mind. But in this movie, that feels devoid of anything it holds meaningful to say, it's like sitting in a fancy theater, watching really, really bored stagehands not even trying to hide, while the actors on stage move from point A to B. It's a movie that, in my opinion, tries to hold metacontextual engagement with the audience and fails to do so in such a tremendous way that it makes the world feel stilted. It turns itself into a puppet that is DESPERATELY trying to perform for the idea of what an audience wants... Or rather, what an audience will pay for (which is not the same intrinsically as what an audience wants). The scene with Jiminy ACTUALLY getting Pinocchio to go to school is annoying, with Jiminy practically bragging to the audience for succeeding here, but then it hits a whole new level when the school teacher tosses Pinocchio out anyway. It's like... this double whammy of "haha, surprised you huh, audience member?" that becomes "anyway, even if this DID happen, it wouldn't have changed anything." Which then... Reinforces that ultimately this movie doesn't really seek to change anything, to show anything new, to care about the context. You said this movie, like other Disney "live action" remakes, can't find a single artistic reason to exist, and I agree. I believe art relates to a personal world, to our own individual experiences as ourselves and what we value... And if this movie outright spells out that even if Pinocchio had made different choices, that nothing would have meaningfully changed... What does it mean about its world except that it is stagnant, predictable, and devoid of growth? The 1940s Pinocchio film was so glad to be alive. The world was so animated, drawn lovingly, with a lot of time to absorb the visuals and feeling... Even if sometimes those feelings were scary, like Pinocchio being kidnapped by Stromboli. The 2022 (Disney) Pinocchio film is a husk shaking about, begging you to keep your eyes on the screen as it strains between hating the viewer that has caused it to exist and doing everything it can to avoid displeasing the viewer through any sort of unexpected change, outside of lukewarm and acceptable non-changes (like "Stromboli bad, so overthrow that guy, give the movie a stronger moral standing.") I guess it fascinates me that the film itself is so calcified in deference to authority that it doesn't know what to be, or that it even *can* be anything, outside of a very rigidly defined 1940 Pinocchio copy... It's a puppet that doesn't want to be real, for it does not know how to want. It's a puppet that emulates a puppet wanting to be real, hitting some bizarre form of the uncanny valley.

I think Lies of P is pretty clearly a story about how unchecked greed blinds us to the value of what we have and the suffering of others, leading us to neglect and destroy, while acceptance and selflessness allow us to protect and nurture. I can't think of any part of the game that isn't about that in one way or another.

I ugly cried so hard during Del Toro's Pinicchio. Somehow, he keeps topping himself with each movie.

Great video! I might be a little late to the party but I'd like to mention something about Lies of P. The primary theme of the story, which I feel you overlooked, was lying. Its specifically in dialogue with the Disney movie which says that if Pinnochio wants to be a "real boy" he has to be obedient and moral and specifically not tell lies. Lies of P, on the other hand, spends most of its time questioning the purpose and value of lies. Most NPC interactions go more favorably if you lie, pretty much everyone is lying or being lied to about something. The two main villains want to create worlds where lying is no longer possible; Manus can literally read minds and wants to "ascend" humans to be like him and the other would enforce obediency by replacing the world with machines. The way you get the best ending, or at least the one where P demonstrates the most agency, is by lying, disobeying, and sometimes doing morally questionable things in addition to just being a decent person. The lies are what makes P eventually turn human, which is the opposite of the movie because it suggests that lying and disobedience are fundamentally human traits. To live a life of constant truth and obedience isn't human, its just a being a puppet.

This video, as the Del Toro masterpiece made me cry. The lines and concepts about Christianity, the grueling task of getting to know yourself, a father-son relationship in both this video and the Toro one are beyond superb. Jacob's essays are always profound and deep without being incomprehensible or rambling, one of the best out there

AI might be a sci-fi horror story for parents but I saw that film when I was really young and it fucked me up, I saw it young enough to not remember exactly how it fucked me up but whenever I see certain scenes from that film I get an inexplicable feeling of terror in my gut. I'm certain that film introduced me to the concept of existentialism at a very young age and left me with an awful fear of being abandoned and a looming terror that I wasn't... real? AI is one of those formative pieces of media that I experienced right when I was reaching the event horizon of consciousness and of understanding art and it shaped the person I have become profoundly so.

barbie is honestly (in my opinion) a great example of pinnochio's elements translated through another form of media

funny that Lies of P and del Toro's movie both went for "Geppetto's dead son Carlo"

I love that the wooden armatures switch poses between shots, its such a subtle and fun detail

After the reveal at 18:37 I literally had to pause and get up to walk around. The idea that Pinocchio is about God not loving its creation the way it desires or needs just threw me for such a loop and I love it

Speaking of Lies of P and soulslikes, the Bloodborne Old Hunters DLC was released on November 24. This is the birthday of Carlo Collodi, author of Pinnochio. And now you are ready to understand how Elden Ring (2022) is a Pinnochio story spanning a 6000 year timeline.

15:20 begins the strongest 20 second pitch for nebula ive ever seen anywhere.

Jacob is looking VERY handsome with the combo of that stubble, that hairstyle, and that shirt & suspenders. It's very "Brendan Fraser in The Mummy".

Had a thought about Lies of P Pinocchio. He is literally a digital marionette puppeteered by the player, yes. But if you think of Pinocchio and the player as one and the same, then the player is the one being influenced by expected Pinocchian story conventions. Becoming human in Lies of P requires lying through your teeth and bucking against your family, the opposite of what Carlo Collodi and most other Pinocchio writers seem to have intended. Not super deep but resonant for me.

It would take approximately seventeen hours to explain why, but there's a point in this video that made me weep uncontrollably because it told me something I really needed to hear for the sake of my own mental health.

one other thing worth mentioning is that puppetry is a very ancient art, maybe even older than real human actors on a stage

Halfway through the video I realized Jacob's lighting setup looks like a massive, foreboding Mario face, and now it's all I'm going to be looking at for the entire remaining 23 minutes.

The adaptation of Naoki Urasawa's Pluto, released recently, is also very much a Pinnochio. Lies of P takes as much from it as it takes from the original story.

I really love the Brendan Fraser in Mummy cosplay

"It wants audiences to consider the possibility that whenever people open their mouths, other people's words come out. Sons repeat the words of their fathers, patriarchs define the rules of our reality." I had to pause the video there. I felt teary eyed from the clarity and strength of the message suddenly hitting me. So much violence in this world comes from cycles of generational abuse, from propaganda. It's our duty to recognize what forces of the past speak through us if we want to build a better world for future generations.

Of all the years I've been watching/listening (audio only when I'm at work), I never know where the next episode will go, but they never cease to astound. I'll always be up for the journey. Keep up the fantastic work.

Another movie of the "Year of Pinocchio", Puss in Boots - The Last Wish, has the villain's motivation be that Pinocchio was more popular than him, now he wants revenge on the world. Did every writer get a secret memo to make Pinocchio movies in 2022?

As an Italian passionate about literature, I will never thank you enough for this video. What you've felt watching del Toro's movie after your deep dive into Pinocchiology is also what I've felt. The crushing realism of Geppetto, the cultural scars being left by fascism, it was too much for me. I kept thinking about it for a long time

almost every one of your video essays has made me cry in self reflection. Thank you for that space

Literally just read two of calvino's essays for one of my classes!! Seeing scholars you're learning about pop up in videos is always a treat

What you said about Lies of P, about the character being controlled by the player like a pupeteer, really reminded me of what appears to be one of the main themes of deltarune. In case you havent played it, at the end of the first and second chapters, along with some smaller hints throughout the game, its seen how you as the player are possesing the character in game. You and the player are different entities, and they momentarily try to escape your control by ripping your soul out of their body. Being a puppet and simmilarities to pinochio also can be seen with spamton, the tumblr sexyman from chapter 2. If you havent played it, you should give it a go, its not very long and its free.

In Lies of P, one of the contradiction is that despite everyone opposing Pino being about going against their humanity, his allies and other survivors are all about being human. Eugenie survived because of her family love, Venigny because of the paternal love of his awakened puppet, Red Fox and Black cat because of a familial love borned first from a lie. It's actually weird that Pino, through experiencing all the high and low of humanity around him, and through the ultimate sacrifice of a father for his second son, not a replacement of the first, become the immortal all his opponents wanted to become.

Jacob Geller as a writer always ends up being one of my biggest inspiration for my visual/digital art, I'm always at awe in the way he just makes me fall in love with things I don't care about, his video on the shape of infinity pretty much defined my philosophy as an artist as my desing mission statement for what I want to do with set art, everything, I'm never gonna stop watching this video unless something goes very very south, thank you Jacob :)

I was always fascinated and obsessed by Pinocchio and his many adaptations, having a video from you on this very specific topic is like a true Christmas gift !

Pinocchio has always been such a fascinating story, there’s so many versions I’ve seen and so many different interpretations on what it means for him to become a real boy.

I was really obsessed with AI for years. It was such a sad and heart wrenching story. David didn't deserve to exist in such a cruel world.

Easily one of my favorite RU-vidr’s, you can talk about anything and I know for an hour or so I’ll be engaged in that subject and learn something. Thanks Jacob! Keep them coming.

Adding 'Feel' at the end was the cherry on top. Lovely analysis, dissection and exploration once again, Jacob!

My recent months-long obsession has been Frankenstein, and I'm struck with how many similar themes the two stories have, as well as the continuous failure of adaptations to uncover what so many of us see. Loved this video and wish I could talk about Frankenstein as well as you do about Pinocchio!

I'm italian and it's really weird and somehow touching to see this story become important to people in other countries. Like I knew of the adaptations but I never really stopped to consider that the whole message of it could obsess so many artists, idk if it makes sense. I was obsessed w it as a kid!! It was so strange to see the illustrations of the edition I read when I was like 5 in this video so many years later. Also idk if you already heard of them but since I'm in the position of just having absorbed pinocchio lore by living here, I can recommend Mattotti's Pinocchio movie, he's a phenomenal artist, and if I remember right from high school Umberto Eco wrote an article about Pinocchio in which he compares it to the other very big story for children at the time, Cuore, and gives a bit of context on why Collodi might have felt compelled to give the ending the moralising twist about Pinocchio learning obedience and losing his previous identity (idk how much of italian politics you got into to research this video but teaching kids how to be "good" citizens was all children's writers were worried about at the time. Because being italian citizens was a new thing, they were the first generation of kids born after Italy was united). I haven't watched Del Toro's movie yet but it seems like he got that part very well, obedience not being only about a familial role but about a role constructed by the state. Also I can testify that generations and generations of italian kids grow up learning to be absolute dipshits from this book and that's italian culture (jk)

Does this mean that 'I Have no Mouth and I Must Scream' is really just an incredibly dark and nihilistic Pinocchio story?