Stromboli

Movie

Pinocchio (1940)

Occupation

Showman Puppeteer

Hobbies

Eating fine foods and drinking fine wine Making money Performing shows

Personality

Stromboli seemed like he was a cruel, selfish, greedy, but slightly moody puppeteer (and for the most part, he was). At first, Stromboli portrayed himself as a large, but friendly man but later on, however, he was revealed to have another side to him, as a manipulative and obnoxious psychopath, and revealed to Pinocchio that he would use his chopped-up body as firewood once he was done with him. He does have a bad temper and often curses in the Italian with a stereotypical Italian accent whenever he loses it. That gives a comedic side, along with shaking his giant rear end awkwardly when he says “Constantinopalee!”, even when his true intentions are revealed. So Stromboli fits the classic bill of psychopathy: seemingly charming, but being greedy, violent, ruthless, and egotistical underneath his exterior. Though he did not possess many of the features many later Disney villains would possess, Stromboli managed to terrify many generations with his murderous and infanticidal declarations, hot-blooded temper and even his sinister laugh.

Biography

He learned of a living puppet named Pinocchio from Honest John and Gideon. To that end, Stromboli planned for Pinocchio to perform in his show, which Pinocchio did with glee (in his famous "I have no strings" melody). With the show declared a success, Stromboli received lots of money and paid Honest John and Gideon a miserable percentage of it. However, after the show had finished, Stromboli showed his true nature when Pinocchio wished to return home to Geppetto (though he promised to be back in the morning). Stromboli declared Pinocchio belonged to him now and locked him up into a birdcage, planning to tour the world to make money from his performances and chop him into firewood when he became too old to perform or if Pinocchio refuse to work. A horrified Pinocchio begs for his freedom, but he is violently silenced when Stromboli roars at Pinocchio to shut up, shaking the whole wagon and threatening to knock him silly. After bidding Pinocchio good night, Stromboli laughs maniacally as he exits, starting up his caravan for his next performance as Pinocchio demands for release. Eventually, Pinocchio was freed from the cage by the Blue Fairy and Jiminy Cricket. Stromboli is not seen again for the remainder of the film, following this encounter, but he most likely reacted in anger and desperation after realizing that Pinocchio has escaped and had a less successful marionette show afterwards.

Nickname

Mangiafuoco

Appearance

Stromboli is an obese Italian-Romani man and has black, balding hair. His beard is black as well. He has tan skin and his lower lip is pink, while his upper lip is red.