I caught this Italian version of Pinocchio on TV over the holidays. I had never heard of it before and I was suprised at how good it was - and especially at how cute the boy playing Pinocchio was. His name is Andrea Balestri and based on his IMDb filmography, he appeared in a few other Italian films in the early- to mid-1970s.

Apparently, there is a 303-minute version of the movie, which was originally made as a mini-series. But the version I saw was the movie-length one, which is also (supposedly) available on DVD.

I would love to find a copy of the full-length version.

Here are a few images I got from Boy Actors of Europe. There are a few more at this URL: (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)

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No, I didn't. I was at my mother's place and I missed the first few minutes anyway. I wish the longer version was available somewhere. I'd really love to see it.

A few caps from episode 1:

This is a very well made series and I'd imagine it has been remastered. The quality of the film is first class.

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I have found the full 300 minute version on DVD, But it does not have english subs 

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I was going to tape the whole series but after watching and taping episode one...  I missed the first half hour of the second episode so I didn't bother taping the rest. Hopefully they will do a repeat.

However I have been watching it each week and continue to be impressed by the detail and the locations. I've never read the full version of the book, and am only familiar with the shortened disneyfied kids books. I'm assuming the filmakers have been very faithful to the book, it certainly looks that way.

This story seems to be directed at adults much more than kids, it's too detailed and way too long to have been written especially for kids.

The style of direction is very Italian and I'm sure many audiences used to a diet of American TV and films would find it difficult to get into. However it is easily the best version of Pinocchio I've ever seen.