Commentary: Bob Iger and the inevitability of the comeback of the Disney juggernaut
The new movie adaptation of the classic animated movie is coming to a theater near you in 2019.
But it’s not the first movie version of “Pinocchio” to arrive in theaters.
An earlier version aired in 1925 on a CBS anthology series called “The Passing Show.”
The show was canceled after only a season. However, CBS used its “The Passing Show” to adapt the book “Pinocchio” and made a movie.
And of course it was the same movie “Pinocchio.”
But how did the show come into production?
The show’s stars, The “Gorgeous Geisha” Mary Maccoy and The “Sage” George Kirby, appear to have been approached in Hollywood or at the suggestion of another producer, or just from the producers themselves. There are no other details to flesh out. The series began as a radio series, and as such it also had its own studio.
And it had the same music.
But there’s a key difference. The show was made from the original book by Hans Christian Anderson, and the producers used animators like George Stevens and Walter Lantz. (Stevens did not direct “Pinocchio” and Lantz was not credited on either version of the show.)
But the cast had some say in the matter.
Buster Keaton was the famous, very funny writer. The original book was adapted under his direction.
And so the show’s story and lyrics and music were drawn from the original book and from the original animators.
That’s how Disney first came into being.
And that’s how the film remake should come into being.
However, it’s hard to imagine this version of “Pinocchio” coming to the theaters in 2019.
Even though Disney has been doing this for decades, and producing animated movies and TV series like “Beauty and the Beast” and “Aladdin” for decades, the company had no plans for a sequel, let alone a movie version.
The company does have some plans for a new “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie, however, which is