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A wooden boy! Look, Giddy. Look! It's amazing.... a live puppet without strings! A thing like that oughta be worth a fortune to someone. Now, let me see. That's it, Stromboli!
„
~ Honest John about Pinocchio.
“
If we play our cards right, we'll be on easy street! Or my name isn't Honest John!
Honest John Worthington Foulfellow, also simply better known as Honest John, is the secondary antagonist of Disney's 2nd full-length animated feature film Pinocchio, which is based on the 1883 Italian novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by the late Carlo Collodi.
He’s a cunning fox who, along with his associate Gideon, are the reason why Pinocchio didn't go to school and why Geppetto went to look for him on Pinocchio's second day of his life, tricking Pinocchio into selling him to Stromboli. He’s also a temporary minion of the Coachman, later accepting his offer to take naughty boys to Pleasure Island.
He was voiced by the late Walter Catlett in the original film, Alan Dinehart in An Adaptation of Dickens' Christmas Carol, Performed by The Walt Disney Players, and Corey Burton in Disney On Ice.
Honest John is a tall, slender red anthropomorphic fox with a very pale yellow face and muzzle, moderate orange eyes, a green shirt, very light yellow opera gloves with a small hole near the pinky, deep green stirrup pants, a blue cape with a red interior, a black cravat and an old gray top hat.
Personality[]
Honest John has typical popular traits of fictional foxes such as sneaky. He’s also very intelligent and misleading. He has taken the "easy way" to success and is somewhat undereducated and illiterate, despite his appreciation for school as a "noble institution".
He also has no immunity to the scam himself, as Stromboli bought him Pinocchio for much less than a live puppet would be actually worth, although he doesn't seem to mind the amount of money. Being persuasive, he can convince anyone to do what he wants. His plans are reliable and intelligent but are often inadvertently close to being spoiled by his sidekick, Gideon. He's also easily tempted to kill to earn much more money than usual, and is largely without conscience, fearing only extreme penalties from the law.
However, he reacted in horror to the Coachman's plans to force the boys into slavery and to go far beyond the limits of the law, revealing that his immorality had a certain limit or at least is unwilling to do certain actions when their potential legal consequences or risks are high enough, although it didn't stop him from sending Pinocchio at the Coachman's island (albeit that he did this likely because of the Coachman's intimidation as opposed to greed or a lack of empathy). He also seems to sympathize with Pinocchio after hearing that Stromboli had locked the puppet in a birdcage, but only briefly (more likely to play on the boy's sympathies).
Biography[]
Pinocchio[]
Honest John is a sly fox who first appears strolling down the street with Gideon when they see that Stromboli has come back to town and recalled how they once tried to trick him by making Gideon look like a puppet. They then come across Pinocchio. Realizing that he is a living and breathing puppet, they decide to get rich by tricking Pinocchio into thinking they are friends and leading him to Stromboli.
They later meet the Coachman in the "Red Lobster Inn" and the Coachman discusses his plans to send naughty boys to Pleasure Island. Honest John is shocked by this and is horrified when the Coachman tells them they never return as human boys. Nevertheless, Honest John and Gideon obey the Coachman's orders, this time out of fear and not out of money.
During their desperate search for naughty boys in the late evening and with no one around in the streets, luckily the duo encounters Pinocchio again, and they pretend to be doctors, convincing the wooden boy that he has an "allergy" that can only be cured by a visit to Pleasure Island. They give him a "ticket" (a simple Ace of Spaces card, quite likely used to cheat/trick in their scams) and bring him to the coach for Pleasure Island at the crossroads singing on the way.
Honest John and Gideon aren’t seen again for the rest of the film, but in a deleted scene, they are arrested by the police for their dishonest actions (it is not clear, however, if it is for the Pleasure Island business probably witnessed by the local villagers or for their petty crimes on a daily basis), which can also be easily deduced by the viewers, since Pinocchio came back from Pleasure Island as Honest John feared could happen and he's an inhabitant of the same village. However, considering that in the script and in book and comic book adaptations and in the book Mouse Under Glass it’s clearly specified that Geppetto went to search for Pinocchio on Pleasure Island and Honest John and Gideon were the only ones who knew about Pinocchio's whereabouts on said island (possibly along with other villagers who could have heard Honest John singing the song about Pleasure Island in the late evening while taking Pinocchio to the coach for it out of town, another sign of John's stupidity[1]), it can be inferred that they were arrested offscreen or wanted by authorities for that and running from the law in fear.[2]
SEGA game[]
Honest John appeared in the first level, where he grabs Pinocchio's book and threw it out.
SNES game[]
Honest John will try to use his cane when Pinocchio runs to try and make him trip, taking some life off of him.
House of Mouse[]
Honest John appears in the cartoon series along with many other Disney characters. He usually sits with Gideon. He is used as an example of temptation by Jiminy in Jiminy Cricket. In Pete's One Man Show, a life-sized cutout of Foulfellow and other characters were used to trick Pete into thinking that it was a full house. He also makes a cameo appearance in Mickey's House of Villains, but he doesn’t take part in the takeover.
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days[]
Honest John and Gideon were originally set to appear in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, due to their popularity, in a Pinocchio-based world. The idea was dropped due to space restrictions.
The character is credited with singing Disney's first villain song, "Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee".
Honest John is pictured on one of the 10 USA non-denominated commemorative postage stamps celebrating "Disney Villains", issued as a pane of 20 stamps on July 15, 2017. The set was issued in a single sheet of 20 stamps. The price of each stamp on the day of the issue was 49 cents. The other villains depicted in this issue are the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Lady Tremaine from Cinderella, the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, Captain Hook from Peter Pan, Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmatians, Ursula from The Little Mermaid, Gaston from Beauty and the Beast and Scar from The Lion King.
Honest John and Gideon didn’t appear in the non-Disney "sequel" Pinocchio and Emperor of the Night, but were replaced by a Raccoon and a Monkey named Scalawag and Igor.
While he showed some willingness to murder for profit, it is debatable on whether or not he has actually done it before nor if he would actually go through with it.
Although their ultimate fate in the film is left to the interpretation of the viewers, like for the rest of the other antagonists, it is suggested that Honest John and Gideon suffered some sort of comeuppance offscreen during the days Pinocchio stayed on Pleasure Island, since Geppetto, before being swallowed by Monstro the whale, sailed to said island after learning that Pinocchio was taken there, and the only people who could knew that were Honest John and Gideon and probably some villagers who heard the already notorious crooks singing loudly the song about Pleasure Island in late evening while taking Pinocchio to the coach. There are few clues that suggest that Honest John and Gideon got a final comeuppance off-screen like the other villains (except for the Coachman), whether they got arrested or have been running from the law:
Geppetto found out of Pinocchio's location on Pleasure Island, and the only ones who could know this were the aforementioned two crooks or the villagers who may have heard them taking Pinocchio to the coach at the crossroads (in an early draft and concept art, Geppetto turned to the police and a gendarme while searching for Pinocchio in the streets).[3][4][5]
Alternatively, Pinocchio escaped from Pleasure Island, the only boy who made it, and this was the biggest fear of Honest John back at the Red Lobster Inn.
The Blue Fairy transformed Pinocchio into a real boy as a reward for being "truthful". There's no scene on-screen in the movie that shows this, so this implies that Pinocchio told Geppetto the whole story of his misadventures off-screen while in the Monstro's belly before planning to escape. In fact, various events happen off-screen in the movie and in many films of the Walt Disney's era, usually to focus as much as possible on the protagonists.
The film doesn't make it clear for what purpose Honest John would try to pass Gideon off as a puppet by attaching strings on the latter. However, there are three possible explanations:
They worked for Stromboli before getting fired, like in many other successive adaptations, and John tried to use Gideon as a marionette during a show (this would also explain their vaudeville appearance and Honest John's singing charismatic and singing skills, in addition that they seem to know very well Stromboli's true nature).
They desperately tried to compete with Stromboli, but not having the ability to put up a puppet show they tried to pass Gideon off as a marionette.
They planned to sell Gideon as a marionette with strings. How John would have planned to get Gideon back (if ever planned) is a mystery. A concept art showing Honest John and Stromboli moving an off-screen marionette alone in the same room may be a confirmation of at least one of the three above.[6]
He can be considered the first male Disney Villain in the Disney Animated Canon as he is introduced before the other villains and basically the entire movie's plot can be tied back over to the anthropomorphic fox.
↑David Koenig, Mouse Under Glass: Secrets of Disney Animation and Theme Parks. ISBN 0-9640605-0-7 "Geppetto, Figaro and goldfish Cleo, sailing over the choppy Sea to rescue Pinocchio, take a short cut through the Narrows; it's dangerous but they have to get there quickly. Within sight of Pleasure Island, Geppetto says, Nothing can stop us now!, when they are swallowed by Monstro, guardian of the Terrible Straits."
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