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NOTE: This article is about the Coachman from the live-action version. The mainstream version can be found here: Coachman (Disney)
“
You won't be a puppet anymore. That's for sure.
„
~ The Coachman to Pinocchio, foreshadowing the potential fate that awaits him at Pleasure Island.
“
Let's move it, you scum! The sooner these donkeys get to the salt mines, the sooner I get paid!
„
~ The Coachman ordering his henchmen to take all the donkeys to the salt mines before he paid.
The Coachman is one of the three main antagonists (alongside Stromboli and Monstro) of the 2022 Disney+ musical fantasy film Pinocchio, the live-action/CGI remake of the 1940 traditionally animated classic film of the same name.
He’s a mysterious man who owns Pleasure Island, where he sends naughty boys and girls who don't like to go to school so they can eat junk food and do whatever they want. However, this is actually all a scam to transform those children into donkeys, whom the Coachman later sells into slavery and labor to "punish them for their bad deeds", in actuality, doing so for profit. He’s also based off his original incarnation of the same name.
He was portrayed by Luke Evans, who also played Owen Shaw in the Fast & Furious franchise, Driver in No One Lives, Gaston Legume in the live-action Beauty and the Beast remake and Ben Hawkins in Ma.
The mysterious owner of Pleasure Island, the Coachman is shown to be even worse in the remake than his animated incarnation. Kidnapping boys and girls under the allusion of having fun at his amusement park, he transforms them into donkeys and sells them off to work in the salt mines, the circuses and farms. Upon kidnapping Pinocchio, the Coachman uses the other children to pressure the reluctant puppet into falling into his trap, hoping to fetch a larger fortune by selling a wooden donkey.
Despite not being sadistic unlike his original version, the Coachman takes it up to eleven where he goes as far as to turn even good kids, who just want to have a good time, after succumbing to peer pressure into donkeys to be shipped into animal slavery. Being far younger here, he also puts on more of a charismatic Fagin-esque front rather than a kindly old grandfather act.
It's shown he's willing to not just lure, but outright steal kids off the road to be taken to Pleasure Island who may not necessarily be interested in the promises of food, fun and no rules. Pinocchio apparently has a conversation with him on the way there, where he explains his goal of wanting to become a real boy and the Coachman tricks him into thinking he may get his wish there.
Appearance[]
Unlike his original counterpart who is depicted as an elderly obese man with a demonic face, this version of the Coachman appears to be a lean and handsome young man with a moustache.
History[]
Pinocchio[]
The Coachman is the one who runs Pleasure Island and he goes on every night capturing naughty children, all boys and girls alike, as he escorts them into the said island to let them indulge their utmost desires of drinking, having fun, and destroying stuff, as well as breaking clocks, badmouthing, destroying a school building, and using dangerous stuff like fireworks. While they continue having fun at the seemingly innocent amusement park, they would horrifically transform into donkeys as the Coachman would have his vapor creatures store them in crates and traffick them to the salt mines.
He made his debut when he was capturing children the same night Pinocchio escaped the clutches of Stromboli, which he also captures the latter at that time. During the ride to Pleasure Island, they had a small interaction about going them going to the said island while the wooden boy felt pressured and said he doesn't trust him, leading him to sing how fun it’ll be while calling him a doubter in regards of not wanting any "transformative experiences". At the end of his song, when Pinocchio says yes, the Coachman proceeds to take all the children to Pleasure Island by boat.
As they arrived, the Coachman began influencing the children, though focusing on Pinocchio and Lampwick, into enjoying themselves while they can for a while, much to Pinocchio's surprise that he doesn't enjoy the misbehavior the children are doing, making him rather uncomfortable, let alone giving the two tons of root beer during their boat ride. While the transformation of the children becoming donkeys was complete, he had his creatures store them in crates, caging them up while tearing off their clothes to sever any chance of anyone recognizing them, as he has a few donkeys shipped to the salt mines with Jiminy Cricket experiencing the horrible odds of his actions before escaping.
Once Jiminy warned Pinocchio, who already has donkey ears and a tail, they escape just in time before the Coachman and his creatures found them. He attempts to have him seized and taken with the others before an already transformed and scared Lampwick blocked them with a table as Pinocchio and Jiminy make their escape to the depths of an ocean and survive back to shore, leaving a defeated and upset Coachman simply unsatisfied with the idea of having a wooden donkey "making him a bloody fortune" and not particularly concerned of a witness escaping, before turning his back to check on his donkeys.
The Coachman was never seen again after this and it's likely he continued running Pleasure Island, as well as capturing more children. However, through the interpretation of the viewer, given how Pinocchio informs Geppetto about his experiences at Pleasure Island as well as Geppetto becoming aware of the park being operational thanks to Sofia the Seagull, it’s implied that the father and son would rat out the Coachman's activities on the island, which may lead to his arrest and the freedom of the children.
Trivia[]
Much like other live-action/CGI remakes of other Disney Villains, this Coachman is almost the same as his original animated counterpart, though with a few differences in regards to how he handles getting visitors for Pleasure Island, to the point that one can argue that the live-action Coachman is actually far worse than the animated one:
In the original film, the Coachman was shown to be an elderly man (or maybe a supernatural entity posing as a man; as shown when he scares Honest John and Gideon by saying that the stupid little boys never come back as BOYS!!!) with an intimidating behavior, counting with a evil grin. In the remake, the Coachman is depicted as a far younger man, though he’s still implied to not be human given how he suddenly appears at different spots in Pleasure Island.
In the original film, the Coachman's Minions are never actually revealed and they are depicted as ape-shadowed. In the remake, much like the SNES video game adaptation of the original film, the Coachman's Minions are depicted to be vaporous mist-like beings, further suggesting that the Coachman isn't a normal human.
In the original film, the Coachman recruited Honest John Worthington Foulfellow and Gideon to collect any kids who could be interested in skipping school to visit Pleasure Island. In the remake, it seems like the Coachman himself collects the kids by inviting them to come with him, never seen interacting with Honest John and Gideon at all.
In the original film, the Coachman only took "stupid little boys who like to play hooky from school" to Pleasure Island. In the remake, perhaps for the sake of diversity, the Coachman also takes naughty girls in addition to naughty boys to Pleasure Island. In the animated classic, only "stupid little boys" were carried by the Coachman to be taken to Pleasure Island because boys were more willing to engage in bad behavior, violence and delinquency. Additionally, it also seems like the Coachman likes to convince some well-mannered and obedient children to go to the island as well by persuading his passengers to peer-pressure them or performing a musical number as he does upon finding Pinocchio after he runs away from Stromboli's carriage.
In the original film, the Coachman allowed the kids to drink beer, eat whatever they want, smoke cigars, break things and fight amongst themselves. In the remake, while he does allow kids to break things and eat whatever they want like in the original, the Coachman doesn't give them cigars (due to the 2007 prohibition by Disney to not feature smokers in their films anymore, being this also the reason for which Cruella De Vil wasn't shown smoking in her 2021 eponymous film, though doesn't explain Mr. Caterpillar smoking its iconic opium in 2010 film Alice in Wonderland), offers them to drink root beer instead of actual beer and doesn't incite them to cause any fights.
In the original film, the Coachman sold the kids, once transformed into donkeys, to salt mines and circuses after stripping them from their clothes. In the remake, the Coachman sells the kids, once transformed into donkeys, solely to salt mines and they are already unclothed by the time he is seen locking them up in crates.
In the original film, the Coachman kept a few donkeys that could still talk, like Alexander, separated from the rest for undisclosed purposes (likely bad, without a doubt). In the remake, the Coachman doesn't keep any talking donkeys because all the donkeys lose their ability to speak.
The decision to bowdlerize or downplaying the Pleasure Island scenes to remove any references to smoking and alcohol was criticized by fans, since it removes the anti-smoking and anti-drinking message of the original movie and makes the kids' fates even more of a disproportionate retribution since it's less "juvenile delinquency" and more "typical child behavior".
In a deviation from the original film, the Coachman does interact with Pinocchio in the remake. In the animated film, while the Coachman sat along with Pinocchio in his carriage while on their way to Pleasure Island just like in the remake, the two never directly interacted with one another and the Coachman wasn’t even aware of Pinocchio's existence, seeing him as just another "stupid little boy who likes to play hooky from school".
Interestingly, some deleted concepts for the original film intended for the Coachman and Pinocchio to interact, there even being a subplot of the coachman sending his henchmen after Pinocchio and Lampwick and later hiring Honest John and Gideon again to retrieve Pinocchio for him to make sure he doesn't alert the authorities, but these ideas were scrapped by Walt Disney.
This live-action version is clearly more motivated by greed than the original animated counterpart, as his reaction at Pinocchio's escape confirms.
The Coachman is Luke Evans' second role in a Disney live-action remake, having previously played Gaston LeGume in the 2017 Beauty and the Beast remake.
He’s the first incarnation of any Coachman from Pinocchio stories to bring little girls to Pleasure Island and curse them to become donkeys along with little boys he has kidnapped in every story.
Pinocchio by Winshluss: Stromboli.inc(Mr. Stromboli) | Nazi clowns | Geppeto |Geppeto's wife | The organ collector | The Mutant dogfish |wonder and el baron | The seven rapists