A frighteningly authentic live-action adaptation of Carlo Collodi's 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio includes scenes where Pinocchio is lynched by robbers and where Pinocchio kills Jiminy Cricket in a fit of rage.
While the classic 1940 Walt Disney adaptation of the book ignored such scenes to make its animation family-friendly, director Matteo Garrone makes no such allowances in following Collodi’s tone and content.
In the novel Pinocchio describes his lynching, saying “they ran after me and I ran and ran, till at last they caught me and tied my neck with a rope and hanged me to a tree, saying, ‘tomorrow we'll come back for you and you'll be dead and your mouth will be open, and then we'll take the gold pieces that you have hidden under your tongue.’”
In Garrone’s film, as in the novel, Pinocchio also burns his legs off, turns into a donkey, and has a brick tied around his leg before being flung out to sea.
Collodi describes the demise of Jiminy Cricket as follows: “At these last words, Pinocchio jumped up in a fury, took a hammer from the bench, and threw it with all his strength at the Talking Cricket. Perhaps he did not think he would strike it. But, sad to relate, my dear children, he did hit the Cricket, straight on its head. With a last weak ‘ cri-cri-cri’the poor Cricket fell from the wall, dead!”
