Jiminy Cricket

Jiminy Cricket is the deuteragonist of of the 2022 live-action remake of Pinocchio.

He is based on both the character from the original story by Carlo Collodi and the character of the same name from the 1940 animated film.

Role in the film[]

Late one night in a small Italian village, Jiminy enters the home of widowed elderly woodcarver Geppetto, and stays there to stay safe and to warm himself up.

Later that night, The Blue Fairy appoints Jiminy the responsibility of being Pinocchio's conscience to teach him right from wrong. After a few days, Geppetto decides that the time has come to send Pinocchio to school. However, Pinocchio is soon approached by con-artist fox "Honest" John and his cat partner Gideon. Honest John convinces Pinocchio that he should live a life of fame in order to truly be a real boy, when he really plans to sell him to the puppet master Stromboli in exchange for money. When Jiminy, with the help of a seagull named Sofia, convinces him to continue going to school, Pinocchio is thrown out by the headmaster on account of being a puppet. Pinocchio decides to go to Stromboli's after all with Jiminy unable stop him when Honest John places a glass jar over him. At Stromboli's theater, Stromboli's coach ends up freeing Jiminy from the jar, and when he enters the coach, he manages to help Pinocchio escape when Pinocchio has him reach the keys to the lock on the cage by telling lies to make his nose grow long. Geppetto, Figaro, and Cleo go out to look for Pinocchio when he fails to come home for dinner.

When Jiminy, who got separated from Pinocchio again, makes it to the island, he soon finds out that the boys and girls there get turned into donkeys and the Coachman sells them to the salt-mines with help from his fog-like henchmen. Pinocchio witnesses Lampwick get transformed himself at a billiard hall and he and Jiminy escape the island before the Coachman and his goons can get them, but not before Pinocchio gains a donkey's ears and tail.

Pinocchio and Jiminy make it back to Geppetto's, but find that he's not home because Sofia gave him a flyer of Pleasure Island to let him know where Pinocchio is and that he sold all of his clocks to buy a boat to go there. While trying to find Geppetto, Pinocchio reunites with Fabiana and Sabina, who tell him that Stromboli has been arrested by the Carabinieri for the abuse of his exploited employees and they have taken over his puppet show. They offer Pinocchio to join them, but Pinocchio declines, wanting to save his father, which makes his donkey parts disappear. Sofia pulls a rope for Pinocchio to hold out to the sea, where they soon find Geppetto in his boat. Just as they reunite, they are swallowed by a giant sea monster named Monstro. They take refuge in a giant boat in Monstro's stomach, and Pinocchio gets the idea to make him sneeze by starting a fire within him. The plan is successful, and Monstro sneezes them out, but he gives a chase that ends with him and the group crashing on dry land and seemingly killing Geppetto.

Believing his father has died, Pinocchio cries over him and a magic tear falls from his eye on Geppetto reviving him. Geppetto then tells Pinocchio that despite being a puppet, he has proven himself to be a true boy at heart for all that he's done and they depart for home. Meanwhile, Jiminy Cricket says in his narration that stories have been told of Pinocchio's becoming a real boy, but Jiminy doesn't confirm if they're true or not, despite a subtle hint being shown otherwise, but what matters is that Pinocchio has the heart of a real boy – brave, truthful, and unselfish – and that he's fully real to his loving, proud father Geppetto.