The Coachman is the tertiary antagonist of Disney's 1940 animated feature film, Pinocchio. He is the mysterious, sinister, shadowy owner of Pleasure Island, where he sends "stupid little boys" who don’t like to go to school to hang out and do whatever they want. However, this is all actually a ruse to transform those children into donkeys and sell them into slavery and labor on the black market.
History[]
Background[]
Personality[]
The Coachman is amongst the most sinister, diabolical and dangerous Disney villains with absolutely no redeeming qualities and is rather infamous for wicked actions and delight in torturing children for wealth. He is an evil, greedy, malevolent, menacing old man who takes pleasure in destroying children’s lives. He is also incredibly sadistic, heartless, unsympathetic and cruel whipping his goons and selling young boys that come to his island into slavery so that he can make money off of them. He enjoys their pain and justifies his action by claiming their slavery as (according to him) payment for their bad behavior displayed on Pleasure Island despite him encouraging said behavior in the first place. It is clear that he does this as profit, as the transformed donkeys end up in jobs at circuses or salt mines.
He was capable of politeness to convince people to follow him in his plan as seen with Honest John. Even then, this becomes overshadowed by his two-faced way of doing so and lack of remorse for his various crimes.
As horrible as he is, he could also be considered moralistic in his own dark and twisted way. He teaches the boys he takes from the towns he visits a pricey lesson for prolonged misbehavior. He does not appear to be a kidnapper nor force the boys to accompany him to Pleasure Island and instead prefers to entice them to go there on their own accord and misbehave to their heart’s content, all whilst knowing this will lead them into his hands, thus sealing their own fate. Also, compared to Stromboli, the Coachman appears to be slightly less greedy and when Honest John shows him the “abundant” amount that Stromboli paid them for Pinocchio, he seemingly feels that the duo have been deceived on this matter. As such as he offers them a substantial amount of gold for helping him pick up boys to lure to Pleasure Island, which far exceeds what Stromboli gave them for Pinocchio. However, this possibly out of pragmatism rather than generosity, in order to secure the services of those who aid him in his wicked plans. It’s really doubtful that he paid them all that money just for Pinocchio. Outside of this, he shows no compassion for anyone as even if he did care enough about them to be upset that they got cheated, he shows that he is much worse than whoever scammed them. This makes the one time when he shows any standards invalid. He is also not above intimidating those whom he hires to do his bidding. This is seen with him frightening both Honest John and Gideon with his intimidation and warning them not to double cross him.
The Coachman is good at keeping his real name and his operation on Pleasure Island a secret, able to keep any children from escaping that is until Pinocchio arrived on the island. His origin, real identity and reason on why he kidnaps children is shrouded in mystery and darkness. He is smart enough to avoid getting caught or arrested and not to reveal illegal business that he runs leaving no trace or evidence leading back to him. He also allows rumors of the “wonders” of his island to be spread to the public and thus entice troublesome boys, like Lampwick, into the trap; exemplifying his devious cunning.
He seems to specifically target disobedient, selfish boys who wish to indulge in trouble for pure enjoyment, probably because, as evidenced by calling them “stupid". He views those types of boys as especially gullible and easily tempted. He obviously enjoys taking advantage of them for that, with no care whatsoever for the disproportionate amount of suffering he inflicts on them for their actions.
Physical appearance[]
The Coachman is a tall, overweight man with fair skin, pale blonde hair, a pink nose, and green eyes. He wears a flat gray hat with a tan hatband and a red and yellow feather on the right, a red, double-breasted, long-sleeved coat with gold buttons, bluish grey pants, black boots, a purple scarf and beige driving gloves. He is often seen carrying a long, black whip.
Powers and abilities[]
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differences between the source material[]
- In the original story, the donkey transformation takes roughly five months.
- In the original Italian story of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, the Coachman was usually referred to as “The Little Buttery Man” (“L’Omino di Burro”), and he actually drove a large wagon instead of a coach. He was also described as a fat little man who resembled a walking butterball (hence his name), with a small round face like an orange, a red cherry-like nose, and a mouth that was always smiling sweetly. He spoke in a soft, purring voice “like a cat trying to ingratiate itself into its’ owner’s good graces.” He was also rather effeminate in manner, clucking like a mother hen and addressing his prospective young passengers as “my dears” and “my darlings.” Yet for all that he was even more devious and sadistic than his Disney counterpart, as displayed when he bites one of his boy-turned-donkeys’ ears off while pretending to kiss him.
- He, unlike the Coachman (or Little Man) from the original book, did not mutilate any of the boys (though he was abusive towards them, and was willing to put many of them through deadly situations by selling them to the salt mines). Another difference is that this version was large and more intimidating, even if at the beginning, he just looked like a kindly old man. Otherwise, he is largely the same character from the book.
Trivia[]
- The reason the kids turn into donkeys is because donkeys are a symbol of ignorance, hence the derogatory term “jackass.” By shunning schoolwork in favor of Pleasure Island, the kids go from metaphorical “jackasses” to literal jackasses.
- Charles Judels, the voice of the Coachman, also did the voice of Stromboli, although he voiced the Coachman with a Cockney accent instead of an Italian one to make a difference.
- The Coachman might not be human, but could very well be a demon in disguise or least has magic since he is clearly responsible for the transformation of all the boys who went to Pleasure Island, and Pleasure Island itself may be a result of that magic. Some possible hints at this being:
- The demonic face he makes when revealing his plan, his shadowy minions who may not be human either,
- The fact that he has four fingers on each hand, while every other human character in the film has five, even Pinocchio when transformed into a real boy.
- In folklore, demons actually lure victims into damnations by playing off their desire for quick and easy pleasures, just as the Coachman does.
- Furthermore, he tells Honest John and Gideon to meet him at the crossroads and part at midnight.
- In many old folklore, an individual someone could meet at the crossroads normally at midnight would by the devil himself, to sell their soul to him or to improve their talents (or gain a talent).
- In annotated English edition of the original novel, the Coachman has been compared to Mephistopheles, the demon prince in the classic tale of Dr. Faustus. He boy victims, Faustus, in effect sell their souls to the Coachman for a life of unlicensed pleasure and, like the devil, the Coachman is there at the end to foreclose the deal.
- The Coachman is the first darkest Disney villain to appear, and the first among several Disney villains who kidnap innocent children and intend to harm them for financial gain and /or sadistic pleasure, along with Madame Medusa, Professor Ratigan, Bill Sykes and Percival C. McLeach.
- The Coachman did get his comeuppance in the Genesis and SNES Pinocchio video game, where Pinocchio kicks him down a cliff to his presumed death. Furthermore, in the final movie, the Coachman never notices Pinocchio’s escape, but in some adaptations and scrapped ideas he sends his minions to chase him. This idea was later used in the video game.
- There was a deleted scene where the Coachman was going to notice Pinocchio and Lampwick (who was intended to join Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket) trying to escape from Pleasure Island, sending his goons after them. However, they just capture Lampwick. Afterwards, the Coachman hires Honest John and Gideon on one last time to bring Pinocchio back to him so that “the law doesn’t learn of their business.” This would ultimately result in the duo’s arrest (though it is unknown for what).
- According to one of the books of Pinocchio, the Coachman’s real name is “Barker,” although it is not sure if this is his real name or just an alias. Also, in another book adaptation of the Coachman hires Foulfellow and Gideon to bring him one more child in exchange of gold instead of more children (and doesn’t make sense) like in the film and the other book and comic adaptations, and doesn’t frighten or threaten the two crooks to convince them this time. In a comic book adaptation of Pinocchio, the Coachman makes his offer to Honest John and Gideon after eavesdropping on a conversation they were having about their sale of Pinocchio to Stromboli, rather than listening to John tell the Coachman himself.
- His character may have been created as a contrast to the Blue Fairy. Rather than teaching children how to behave better as she does, he simply encourages them in the opposite path and punishes them for their misdeeds. Some fans have speculated that he is a magical creature like her, but this is only speculation.
- Out of all the antagonists in Pinocchio, the Coachman is so far the only one who never interacts with Pinocchio formally or personally as for him he is just one more boy among all the other boys he collected and captured. This doesn't counting their interactions in deleted concepts, in the video game, or even the live-action remake. He never notices Pinocchio’s escape in the film.
- He is the only antagonist of Pinocchio and one of the very few Disney Villains to seemingly and/or actually win and not face any punishment for his crimes. This was probably because Pinocchio escapes from him rather than defeating him, due to not wanting to be turned into a donkey and also find Geppetto.
- John and Gideon were implied to be arrested, escape from the police in fear, or suffer the same fate as their original counterparts offscreen after informing Geppetto about Pinocchio’s presence on Pleasure Island and never got a second chance.
- Stromboli’s fate is unknown, except for losing forever his “little wooden gold mine” and surely reacting in total rage and desperation for noticing it too late and probably even going to bankrupt or still continuing his stage shows without Pinocchio.
- Monstro crashed into the rocks, though it is still unclear if he dies or just gets badly injured by the crash.
- The sadistic image of the Coachman makes a nod to the monstrous ogre called the Green Fisherman from the book “The Adventures of Pinocchio” by Carlo Collodi.
