Jeune boxeur et fleuriste, Chris Kronberger est fou amoureux de la médium Magda Berger. Mais, un soir, son compagnon magicien et ventriloque Hans est assassiné dans sa loge. Or, Chris est la dernière personne à l'avoir vu vivant, après avoir été surpris par ce dernier dans sa garde-robe. Il est aussitôt suspecté par la police mais il ne tarde pas à prendre la fuite. Chargé de l'enquête, l'inspecteur Kaufmann est secondé par Karin, la sœur du coupable idéal, qui refuse de croire en la culpabilité de son frère. Pourtant, le seul témoin du crime a mystérieusement disparu : il s'agit de Groog, l’effrayante poupée du ventriloque hypnotiseur assassiné.
The film begins as if it were a stage play presented by Mother Goose (and her wise-cracking, talking goose companion, Sylvester) about two nursery rhyme characters, Mary, Mary Quite Contrary and Tom the Piper's Son, who are about to be married. At the same time, the miserly and villainous Barnaby is hiring two crooks, Gonzorgo and Rodrigo, to throw Tom into the sea and steal Mary's sheep, thus depriving her of her means of support, and forcing her to marry Barnaby instead. (Mary has just come into a huge inheritance of which she is obviously unaware, but somehow–it is never explained how–Barnaby knows about it and intends to get it for himself.) After bopping Tom on the head with a hammer and tying him in a bag, the two henchmen, dimwitted Gonzorgo and silent Roderigo, pass by a gypsy camp. They decide to sell Tom to the Gypsies instead of drowning him in order to collect a double payment.
After singing the film's signature song "When You Wish Upon a Star", Jiminy Cricket explains that he is going to tell a story of a wish coming true. His story begins in the Tuscany workshop of a woodworker named Geppetto. Jiminy watches as Geppetto finishes work on a wooden marionette whom he names Pinocchio (a name his cat Figaro and fish Cleo both dislike). Before falling asleep, Geppetto makes a wish on a star that Pinocchio would be a real boy. During the night, a Blue Fairy visits the workshop and brings Pinocchio to life, although he still remains a puppet. She informs him that if he proves himself brave, truthful, and unselfish he will become a real boy and assigns Jiminy to be his conscience.
Créé et produit par Cartoni Animati Italiani Roma (CAIR ) et distribué par De Vecchi , ce dessin animé est basé sur le livre pour enfants Les Aventures de Pinocchio de Carlo Collodi. Le film a été conçu pour être le premier long métrage d'animation italien , mais n'a jamais été achevé. Si le film avait été terminé, il serait le premier film d'animation, antérieur à celui de Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains, et la première adaptation animée du film sur Pinocchio.
Une poupée de marin cassée se retrouve dans une décharge. Elle n'est pas seule et d'autres jouets cassés s'approchent d'elle. Insufflant par une chanson un nouvel espoir aux jouets, ils se rassemblent et se réparent avant de rejoindre un orphelinat tout proche où ils font alors la joie des enfants.
Stannie Dum (Stan Laurel) and Ollie Dee (Oliver Hardy), live in a shoe (as in the nursery rhyme There Was An Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe), along with Mother Peep (the Old Woman), Bo Peep (Charlotte Henry), a mouse resembling Mickey Mouse (and actually played by a live monkey in a costume), and many other children. The mortgage on the shoe is owned by the villainous Silas Barnaby (Henry Brandon), who is looking to marry Bo Peep. Knowing the Widow Peep is having a difficult time paying the mortgage, Barnaby offers the old woman an ultimatum – unless Bo Peep agrees to marry him he will foreclose on the shoe. Widow Peep refuses, but is worried about where she'll get the money to pay the mortgage. Ollie offers her all the money he has stored away in his savings can, only to learn that Stannie has taken it to buy peewees (a favored toy consisting of a wooden peg with tapered ends that rises in the air when struck with a stick near one end and is then caused to fly through the air by being struck again with the stick). He and Stannie set out to get the money for the mortgage from their boss, the Toymaker (William Burress). But Stannie has mixed up an order from Santa Claus (building 100 wooden soldiers at six feet tall, instead of 600 soldiers at one foot tall) and one of the soldiers, when activated, wrecks the toy shop. Stannie and Ollie are fired without getting the money.
Le père Noël et ses lutins se préparent pour le voyage de distribution des cadeaux de la nuit de Noël. Tandis que le père Noël finit de lire son abondant courrier, les lutins nettoient son traîneau, confectionnent les jouets. Ils travaillent en sifflant. Avant le départ tous remplissent la « hotte », des cadeaux marchant eux-mêmes vers l'immense sac.
The movie follows brilliant ventriloquist "The Great Gabbo" (Stroheim) who, as he spirals down into madness, increasingly uses his dummy "Otto" as his only means of self-expression—an artist driven insane by his work.