10 Fascinating Facts About Disney's Pinocchio

Aside from Mel Blanc, the film had a pretty star-studded line-up for 1940. Prolific child actor of western films Dickie Jones was cast as the title character and would be the last surviving cast member until his death in 2014.

Cliff Edwards, otherwise known as “Ukulele Ike” and the man that penned the number one charting “Singin’ in the Rain” in 1929, was the voice of Jiminy Cricket and in the process giving him another smash hit single. Walter Catlett played Honest John, Charles Judels as both Strombolli and the Coachman, and the Columbia Pictures logo herself Evelyn Venable as the Blue Fairy.

All were prolific actors in the late 30s to early 40s and the voice of Geppetto was no exception. The Austrian-born Christian Rub had performed in around 120 films throughout his career, both credited and uncredited. And his role in Pinocchio was one of his most memorable to date, not to mention the most troublesome for the people involved behind the scenes.

According to reports from the people who worked on the film, Rub was very vocal about his support of the Nazis and his constant glorification of Adolf Hitler. It got to the point where many of the crew members wanted some measure of revenge for his constant ramblings, and one day they got it.

It was usual to record footage of the actors performing the film for the animators to have a reference, and as Geppetto was directly based on Rub’s appearance, he was acting out a lot of his scenes for real. As punishment for his Nazi-sympathizing, while filming the scene where Geppetto is inside the giant whale, the boat rocks from the whale eating an enormous amount of fish. As such, the boat Geppetto is on rocks in reaction.

The grips for the platform representing the boat were told to give Rub “a ride he’d never forget” shaking the stage much harder than intended.