A WHALE OF A SNEEZE

The music turns murky and ominous as the camera trucks into the depths beyond the underwater trench in which Pinocchio is searching. Gradually becoming discernible through the deepsea gloom, the immense and fearsome whale Monstro lies sleeping on the ocean floor, our first view of him, impressive and as yet placidly immobile. Although never specified, Monstro is probably some conglomeration of toothed cetacean species (Odontocetes), generally combining the physical and behavioral traits of the largest, a sperm whale, a humpback, a blue and others. The camera trucks right up to him and then inside, proceeding forward between his tonsils, revealing a football-field-sized hollowcavern, roofed with a spinal cord and ribcage but without viscera and only partially filled with seawater, whereon drifts the wreckage of a boat.

Geppetto sits on the boat’s railing, desperately angling for fish to eat, Figaro alongside him doing the same only using his little tail for a rod. As the starving old man comments to his kitten, if the whale does not open his mouth soon, they are doomed.

But luck is with him. Outside, a school of unsuspecting tuna swimming past the sly leviathan’s eye is suddenly startled when it opens wide, staring into their midst. Now for the first time we see this gigantic voracious creature start to move and it is quite a sight indeed! Writhing out of his sandy bed he slowly opens wide his humongous tooth-lined mouth and with his tail propels himself upward to engulf the entire school of tuna between his jaws. The fleeing fish surround Pinocchio, who starts paddling as fast as he can to join them in evading the monster’s gaping maw, even pulling hand-over-hand on individual fish to get ahead of them.

Pinocchio, tuna, and whale in quick succession all breach the ocean’s surface, flailing into the air above, the pursuit ending when the whale’s jaws clamp shut over his prey and he swallows them all. With a mighty splash, Monstro comes to rest satiated and afloat on the ocean’s surface. Somehow Jiminy has been trapped outside the whale and again using his bumbershoot as a parachute drifts down past Monstro’s huge (especially by comparison) eyeball and starts banging on his clenched teeth demanding to be admitted, “Ya big blubbermouth!” Gulls attack him and he takes shelter within a fortuitous bottle adrift on the tide.

Inside the whale a gush of fish-filled brine provides just the bonanza Geppetto was hoping for. He starts reeling them in and flinging them backward into a bin, where Figaro helps by batting them down with his paws. Here the entire screen is animated: in the background behind Geppetto, the whale’s distant spinal column and ribcage writhing spectacularly.

“For their version of Captain’s Courageous [1937] MGM had made a lot of rubber tuna to use in that film and now that they were finished with all those tuna they loaned them to the Disney Studio to use for the live action [reference] in these scenes as Geppetto is catching the fish.”[1]

Without realizing, Geppetto reels in Pinocchio clinging to the tail of a tuna, landing him in the larder with the other fish. When the boy spreads his arms and calls to his father, he is hit squarely in the face with the next tuna. So intent on staving off hunger by catching fish, Geppetto shouts “Not now, Pinocchio!”, but suddenly realizes his prodigal son has returned and hastens to embrace him. A joyous reunion ensues.

Pinocchio has plenty of explaining to do once his donkey ears and tail come to light and he lets out an involuntary bray, but Geppetto loves him unconditionally and all is forgiven. By way of dramatic “foreshadowing”, at one point or another in this scene each character sneezes. Indicating the raft he has built for escape Geppetto explains their predicament: when Monstro opens his mouth everything comes in, nothing goes out. “It’s hopeless,” the old man says and suggests building a fire to cook a tuna dinner. Pinocchio is suddenly inspired and begins stacking kindling on the deck. “No, not the chair!” objects Geppetto as Pinocchio smashes furniture for more firewood. “We won’t need it; we’re getting out!” the puppet explains, “We’ll make him sneeze!” “Oh, that will make him mad…” warns his father.

And indeed it does! But how to depict a furious whale’s sneeze? As Kaufman points out,

“By this point in the story the film has established a spectacular visual standard, and there’s no turning back.”[2]

The combined talents of Bill Tytla and Woolie Reitherman – both especially expert at animating gargantuan heavy forms – were commandeered to bring Monstro’s sneezes and his turbulent pursuit of his victims to the screen. In Fantasia Tytla animated the demon Chernobog and Reitherman, the Tyrannosaurus rex (probably simultaneous with their work together on Monstro!). Also in Fantasia Reitherman animated the Olympian gods Jupiter and Vulcan, using extreme perspective to indicate their immensity, a tactic he now employed also on this mammouth whale. To guide their drawing, the new Model Department came again to the rescue!

A miniature whale skeleton some 5 feet long was made, which the artists could twist and turn at will. The Model Department fashioned a rib cage and lungs which could be pumped to simulate actual breathing. Clay models were made and painted in oil so that the artists could study probable highlights and light changes on Monstro’s skin.[3]

Each cel depicting Monstro shows much attention to detail, including delicate crayon or pastel shading applied to frosty “wash-off cels” to establish the blockish bulk of his head and the blubbery folds of his lips and the wetness of his black skin. And of course in addition to the whale himself, the ocean waves, the tremendous splashing, sprays of foam and hovering seagulls, smoke emitting first from his spout above and then billowing out of his mouth – all these special effects needed to be layered onto each frame before photographing. New methods of depicting ocean waves were developed including cutting the waves out of blue paper and painstakingly shading them.

To help give depth to the ocean, the animators put more detail into the waves on the water surface in the foreground, and put in less detail as the surface moved further back. After the animation was traced onto cels, the assistant animators would trace it once more with blue and black pencil leads to give the waves a sculptured look.[4]

And then there was the question what exactly does a whale’s sneeze sound like?

These mighty sounds were actually combinations of many sounds – tympani, air hoses, “thunder screens” and other specialized props – recorded separately and layered onto the soundtrack over a period of months, carefully synchronized with the action onscreen.[5]

Thurl Ravenscroft (1914-2005) provided Monstro’s vocals, such as they are – mainly a whole lot of roaring and perhaps a bass line for the whale’s sneezes. Ravenscroft was co-founder of the Mellomen quartet, which sang backup for famed ’40s and ’50s vocalists including Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day, Bing Crosby and even Elvis Presley. Later the Mellomen sang in several Disney films, most notably as the impounded canine crooners howling “Home Sweet Home” in Lady and the Tramp (1955 – more later!). In shorts and features subsequent to Pinocchio, Ravenscroft’s deep resonant basso was perfect for a number of very minor Disney characters as well as for Stewpot’s dubbed singing in “Nothing Like a Dame” during the 1958 film version of Rogers’ and Hammerstein’s musical South Pacific. For 50 years of his voiceover career he growled for Kellogg’s logo mascot Tony the Tiger touting Frosted Flakes breakfast cereal: “They’re GRRRRRRREAT!”

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[1] Kaufman, J.B.: from the audio commentary on the 2010 70^th Anniversary Blu-ray release of Pinocchio.

[2] Kaufman, J.B.: op. cit., p. 253.

[3] Popular Mechanics Magazine: “Color Shooting in Fairyland”, 1940, Vol I, #73, p. 23.

[4] From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinocchio_(1940_film)#mw-head

[5] Kaufman, J.B.: op. cit., p. 150.