How Pinocchio learned to speak French

February 1940. Pinocchio has just been released nationwide. That was the time to repeat an international success. I don't know if Disney had plans to repeat the process used two years before with Snow White: hiring French-speaking actors to make a French version in the studio, or hire local talents.

Then the war came. 
 On the film's Blu-ray edition, if you switch the to French track, the main and end title is sung by an unidentified singer, not from any verion released in France until then. Yet the quality of the recording and the singing itself indicates that this is not a new version. No information has transpired and no other extract either from what may be a version recorded especially for Quebec. Maybe J.B. Kaufman's upcoming book will shed some light on this.

Anyway, the planned June 14 Paris release was postponed until better days.

When the war ended, the only Disney film available was Snow White (I plan to write an article about this release), but the studio has made and released several features in the USA. For a French release, these films needed a French adaptation, but also a proper distributor.

Not until May 27, did RKO film SA really presented 7 features in Paris (among which Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion), thereby marking their return on the French scene. However, Pinocchio was the first French version recorded after the war and it enabled them to present the film a little earlier. 

 

RKO trade ad (detail)

According to press articles found by Sébastien Roffat, Georges van Parys, who had kept a copy of the film in English, started working on it with a moviola to decipher the music and write new sheet music for an adaptation. From October 1944, they started to record the voices, and by January 1945 according to an article of the time, the tracks had been sent to New York to be mixed to the music and effects track. Again, new visual elements with French writing would be filmed at the studio.

According to Le film français, a corporate newspaper, this French version was  presented as La merveilleuse aventure de Pinocchio [The Wonderful Adventure of Pinocchio] (even though the title card reads just "Pinocchio" and the film is known as such today), May 22, 1940 at the two theaters where it would be projected for an exclusive run simultaneously: at the Empire, and at The Rex.  

Between July 19 and 25 and July 3 and 9, the film is announced in English for its fifth and eighth week.

Finally, it went in general release on October 2, 1946.

The French track was praised by Disney himself and by the press of the time : "The French version is pleasant and spoken by good voices." or "The dubbing is of an exceptional quality".

In this version, Jiminy is called "Criquet" whereas he will be called "Grillon" later and then "Cricket".

When the film was re-released in 1975, the soundtrack was re-recorded with new actors. Since then, the old version was not used and was therefore never released on home video.

Thanks to my friend Rémi (blog Dans l'ombre des studios), François Justamand (La Gazette du doublage), Gilles and Christian, we have gathered extracts of it as well as three other "lost" versions of Disney Features. That enabled them to identify the voice actors presented here:

Original French version (1946) :

Dubbing : RKO ²

Artistic direction : Daniel Gilbert ²

Musical direction : Georges Tzipine ? ³

Adaptation : Jean Cis & Louis Sauvat ⁴

Pinocchio : Renée Dandry ²

Jiminy Cricket : Camille Guérini ²

Geppetto : René Genin ²

Foulfellow : Jean Davy ²

Stromboli : Fernand Rauzena ³

The Blue Fairy : Simone Gerbier ³

Lampwick : Linette Lemercier ²

Talking statue at the fair : Zappy Max ²

Poupée russe : Lita Recio ³

Singer (Main Title) : Jean Lumière ²

? : Marcel Raine ²

? : Jean Daurand ²

List made by Olivier Kosinski (Grands Classiques Disney), François Justamand (La Gazette du Doublage), Greg Philip (A Lost Film)  & Rémi Carémel (Dans l’ombre des studios). This was checked by several specialists but errors may persist

Sources : ¹Chrisis2001 / Disney Central Plaza,

²F. Justamand / La gazette du doublage  (Thanks to Linette Lemercier & Zappy Max),

³Rémi / Dans l'ombre des studios (Thanks to Bastoune, Mark Lesser, Jean-Pierre Nord, Olivier Constantin, Anne Germain & Jean Cussac),

⁴VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray

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That's all for today folks!