Pinocchio

Fictional Puppet

Pinocchio is the fairy-tale boy whose nose grows longer with each lie he tells. In the story by Carlo Collodi, Pinocchio is a marionette carved from wood by the kindly bachelor Geppetto. Good-hearted but lazy, Pinocchio leaves home and has many difficult adventures before being reunited with Geppetto and becoming a real boy at last. The most famous sequence in the book occurs when Pinocchio lies to a good fairy and finds his wooden nose growing so long that he can't get out of the house. (Woodpeckers later fly in the window and peck his nose back to normal size.) The tale of Pinocchio was begun by Collodi in 1881; its popularity was given a boost when Walt Disney made it into a popular 1940 animated film. The story has been filmed many other times, including a 2002 live-action version starring 50-year-old Oscar-winner Roberto Benigni as Pinocchio.

Extra credit: The 1940 version of Pinocchio introduced another popular Disney character, Jiminy Cricket, and the tune "When You Wish Upon a Star."

Pinocchio appears with Cleopatra in the loop Big Noses.

Other fictional characters: Pippi Longstocking, Harry Potter and Robin Hood.