Modjafocco is the main antagonist of the 2021 Russian animated fantasy film Pinocchio: A True Story. He is the greedy ringmaster of the circus, the boss of the Fox and the Cat, and Bella's adoptive father.
He was voiced by Dmitriy Iosifox in Russian and Bernard Carl in English.
Appearance[]
Modjafocco appears to be a short and round middle-age man with goldish brown eyes, sharp eyebrows accompanied by dark brown beard and a moustache. He wears a black top hat, a white t-shirt with crimson red stripes under a business suit with yellow buttons that is also crimson red, a goldish yellow collar with a red stone, lilac pants with purple stripes, and black shoes. He also shown to wear clothes that are entirely gold.
Biography[]
Modjafocco is first seen in a meeting with the Fox and the Cat, angered that their latest performances barely had any audiences, demanding them to find something new to win everyone over. When the Cat suggests shooting the Fox with blanks that he will catch with his teeth, he accidentally shoots at the roof of the tent when Modjafocco yells at him, causing a chain reaction that startles the horse carrying Bella's carriage.
Meanwhile, Pinocchio, who recently left his father Geppetto's house to see the world with his talking horse Tybalt, spots the carriage and convinces Tybalt to chase after it. Pinocchio hops on the horse and manages to soothe it before it blindly runs over a cliff. While at first startled by a wooden boy and a talking horse, Modjafocco saw potential in them and recruited them to his circus.
When the circus arrives in a town, Pinocchio manages to woo the audience with his acrobatics, impressing Modjafocco. Through a series of montages, the circus attracts a higher audience as Pinocchio performs, with Modjafocco awarding Pinocchio with five gold coins. At the same time, a higher crime rate of theft has been occurring through the villages the circus had been performing at, with Detective Broni suspecting the culprit to be Pinocchio.
One night, Modjafocco explains to the Fox and the Cat that because Pinocchio was their most popular icon, he cannot let him go and instead have him enslaved to the circus forever. Bella overhears their discussion and prompts Pinocchio to run away by rejecting his love for her. Pinocchio flees after Fantozzi tells Pinocchio of the fairy Lucilda who could turn him into a real boy, believing it would make Bella love him.
Modjafocco is outraged when he finds out Pinocchio escaped, threatening to strangle the Fox and the Cat for their incompetence. The Fox convinces Modjafocco that Pinocchio promised to return before the grand performance that night. Modjafocco then goes to Bella, informing her that she was just an indispensable part of their plan. Bella refuses to go with him, but Modjafocco orders her to follow his orders or else.
Pinocchio then returns that evening after outrunning Broni. Modjafocco was there when Pinocchio tried to look for Bella. Pinocchio threatened to expose his plan to the police, but they silence him by throwing him in a locked carriage, revealed to also contain Geppetto who went looking for his son. Modjafocco then orders Geppetto to construct an entire collection of living wooden puppets for his shows. Tybalt, after leaving Pinocchio when they had an argument earlier, confronts Bella and demands her to tell him the truth behind the circus. She tells him that Modjafocco, the Fox, and the Cat robbed people's houses while they were distracted by the circus. Additionally, Modjafocco was not her real father as he bought her from child traffickers who kidnapped her eleven years prior.
Tybalt and Bella then freed Pinocchio and Geppetto and they come up with a plan to expose Modjafocco. At the performance, Bella distracts the audience and Modjafocco while Tybalt goes to tell Broni. During her song, Bella exposes Modjafocco, the Cat, and the Fox as thieves, with Broni and his troops arriving to arrest Modjafocco. Modjafocco angrily blames Pinocchio and throws a nearby lantern at him, setting the entire circus tent aflame. Modjafocco then tries to escape during the panic only to be caught. After Tybalt forces him to reveal Broni was Bella's father, Modjafocco and his two accomplices are arrested for their crimes.
Trivia[]
- He is loosely based on Mangiafucco from the original Pinocchio story.
- Modjafocco's Russian voice actor Dmitriy Iosifox is the same actor who portrayed Pinocchio in the 1975 musical film The Adventures of Buratino.
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 Villains
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