The Golden Ass/Metamorphoses/Pinocchio?🎥📚

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

I've recently read/listened to The Golden Ass (AKA Metamorphoses) and watched the three different Pinocchio movies in the trailers above, which were based on the story 'The Adventures of Pinocchio' written by Carlo Collodi, who obviously draws inspiration for the donkey/Isis/blue fairy parts of the story from The Golden Ass, which I could never see Disney turning into a children's movie.

Literature and History Podcast Episode 73:
 The Golden Ass (Apuleius' The Golden Ass)

The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

According to Wikipedia -

"The Metamorphoses of Apuleius, which Augustine of Hippo referred to as The Golden Ass (Asinus aureus), is the only ancient Roman novel in Latin to survive in its entirety.
The protagonist of the novel is Lucius.

At the end of the novel, he is revealed to be from Madaurus, the hometown of Apuleius himself.

The plot revolves around the protagonist's curiosity (curiositas) and insatiable desire to see and practice magic. 

While trying to perform a spell to transform into a bird, he is accidentally transformed into an ass.

This leads to a long journey, literal and metaphorical, filled with inset tales. 

He finally finds salvation through the intervention of the goddess Isis, whose cult he joins."

SHWEP Episode 73:
Ineffable Initiations and Golden Asses:
 Apuleius of Madauros and the Metamorphoses

I was only ever familiar with the 1940 Disney version of the Pinocchio story until these new movies hit the streaming services in the last year or two.

I was really looking forward to seeing what Robert Zemeckis would do with the new Disney version, and while I didn't think it was as bad as the Rotten Tomatoes scores for the viewers and the critics alike, with the twin scores of 27%, I didn't think it was a better movie than the original 1940 animated one.

But I couldn't help thinking that Robert Zemeckis was still alluding to the same 9/11 themes in Pinocchio as we examined in our BTTF predicts 9/11 video of Joe Alexander's.

42 Minutes Episode 109: Joe Alexander

The Twin Towers were 110 stories high weren't they not?

And Pinocchio is made from a pine tree, right?-)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Jiminy Cricket

The Walk (2015)

"According to Nielsen, Pinocchio was the 6th most watched program across all platforms during the week of September 11, 2022."

Pinocchio (2022 live-action film)

Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)

And let's not forget the 2001 version of Pinocchio more or less, called A.I. Artificial Intelligence that Kubrick wanted to make, but died in 1999, so Spielberg made it for him, although probably not the way Kubrick would have told it and shot it?

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

The Secret Life of Puppets and AI?🤖📱📲

In 'The Secret Life of Puppets' Victoria Nelson mentions Cupid and Psyche, which is a sub-story in 'The Golden Ass' and while I was aware of that story, I didn't realize it was part of 'The Golden Ass' until I listened to the book recently.

 I have read a book about Cupid and Psyche years ago, which I wrote about in this old post -

A Live Buddha at the Gas Pump?

The funny thing is that Disney re-wrote the story to make his film and filled it with even more nods and winks to 'The Golden Ass' than the Italian author did.

There was no wishing on a star ... or Venus ... in the book version, nor a goldfish named Cleo(patra) who lives in a castle like a queen would.

Although the blue fairy seems to be the queen of heaven/Isis.

The Blue Fairy/Queen even knights Jiminy Cricket, making him Sir Jiminy Cricket in both Disney movie versions.

I'm not sure if those frogs under Cleo's fishbowl are a shout out to Kek or not either:-)

Chaos Magick?

There are also plenty of feathers around in the 1940 version, as in quill pens (which could also be a shoutout to Thoth and writing) and the feather in Pinocchio's hat, which may allude to Maat's feather and the weighing of the heart against the feather.

There is also a scene where Lampwick asks Pinocchio "who's the beetle?" in the pool hall when referring to Jiminy Cricket, which could be a shoutout to the scarab beetle?

Even in the scene where Pinocchio sings 'I've Got No Strings' he starts the song from the top of stairs that look like an unfinished pyramid/or cliff of the Fool and falls on his face.

The audience does throw money at the no stringed puppet after his song, although gold coins, not one-dollar American bills;-)

So, food for thought or just the musings of an ass?

The Actor/Actress and the Über-Marionette ... or Living Doll?🎥🎭🎬