Coachman (Disney)

"They never come back as...BOYS!"

- The Coachman '''"How would you blokes like to make some REAL money?"

- The Coachman  '''"QUIET! You boys have had your fun. Now pay for it!"

- The Coachman '

The Coachman is the tertiary antagonist in Disney's Pinocchio, and arguably its most evil villain. He is the owner of Pleasure Island, an amusement park located on an island. Seemingly a kind gentleman, he takes naughty boys to said island by the name of where they would be allowed to do many bad things such as smoking, drinking, and fighting without having to worry about adult supervision.

As the boys continued to engage in this misbehavior, the boys would fall victim to the curse of this seemingly innocent amusement park, gradually beginning to transform into donkeys. The Coachman and his henchmen would then gather the boys to ship them away to salt mines and circuses so that he could get rich.

To this end, the Coachman hires J. Worthington Foulfellow and Gideon (who both are deeply frightened by him) to lure such boys (such as Pinocchio and Lampwick) into his sinister trap, telling them that they will not need to worry about the authorities as the boys will not return as themselves and will therefore not leave behind any evidence that they had ever been to Pleasure Island.

Fortunately, Pinocchio was able to escape Pleasure Island after Jiminy Cricket alerted him what he was planning to the boys and alerted him of the situation, though not before developing donkey ears and a tail. Lampwick was transformed into a donkey and was presumably captured by the Coachman to sell into slavery.

He is shown to be served by silent ape-like creatures that lurk in the shadows. Although still a violent and cruel man, he is not quite as abusive as the Coachman (or Little Man) from the original book as he did not mutilate any of the boys (though he was abusive towards them in many other ways) - also unlike the book's "Little Man" The Coachman from Disney was large and intimidating.

Trivia

 * The Coachman is the closest thing to an actual main antagonist of the movie due to being more evil and having bigger plans than anyone else.
 * The Coachman does get his punishment in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System video game version of Pinocchio by getting kicked off a cliff by Pinocchio (aka the player).
 * It is also possible that his comeuppance in the movie is he had run out of stupid little boys, or to put in other words, his supply had dried up.
 * Though considered to be a Complete Monster and one of Disney's most evil villains, he can be considered moralistic in his own twisted way, as he teaches the boys a lesson about prolonged misbehavior.
 * It is possible that he is a magical creature like the Blue Fairy, only rather than teach the boys to behave better, he simply punishes them for their misdeeds.
 * The Coachman's fate is very similar to Stromboli's fate as they their fate is never revealed.