When You Wish Upon a Star – History and Meaning
When You Wish Upon a Star was written by Ned Washington and Leigh Harline for the 1940 Disney movie Pinocchio, where the character Jiminy Cricket sings it at the beginning and end of the movie. Washington was a prolific lyricist on songs for film, and Harline was a staff composer for Disney. >>
The song is about how dreams can come true, as Pinocchio is able to transform from a wooden doll to a real boy. Disney used the song in many promotional campaigns as it represents the feeling they want their guests to have when they visit the Disney theme parks. It was used in the opening sequences of Disney anthology television series and in Walt Disney Pictures’ opening logos. The ships of the Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Wonder and the Disney Magic, use the iconic first seven notes of this melody as their horn signals.
Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards was the voice of Jiminy Cricket and performed this song in the movie. Edwards was a popular singer and actor in the ’30s and ’40s, also providing the voice of Jim Crow in the Disney move Dumbo.
This won the 1940 Oscar for Best Song.
In Sweden, Norway and Denmark, the song has become a Christmas song, often referring to the Star of Bethlehem. The Swedish language version is called “Ser du stjarnan i det bla,” roughly translated: “Do you see the star in the blue sky,” and the Danish title is “Nar du ser et stjerneskud,” which sort of means “When you see a falling star.”
The movie Pinocchio plays a small role in the plot of Steven Spielberg’s film Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, and John Williams’s score for that film quotes “When You Wish Upon a Star.”
When You Wish Upon a Star – Various Versions
Glenn Miller, Rosemary Clooney, Eddie Fisher, Little Anthony and The Imperials, Stevie Wonder, Louis Armstrong, Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Olivia Newton-John and Idina Menzel are among those to cover the song. The only version to chart on the Hot 100 is by Dion & The Belmonts, who took it to #30 in 1960.
On October 3, 2007, the Bourne Company, who owns the publishing rights to this song, filed a lawsuit against the makers of the sitcom Family Guy, claiming copyright infringement in an episode called “When You Wish Upon a Weinstein.” The episode includes a parody of the song called “I Need a Jew.” >>
Mary J. Blige recorded a jazzy version with Barbra Streisand for her 2013 holiday album, A Mary Christmas. Their pairing marked the first time Streisand allowed a duet to be released first on the other artist’s project.
Kate Bush quotes a portion of the lyrics in her 1978 song “In Search Of Peter Pan.”
Disney’s Pinocchio – History and Summary
Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on Carlo Collodi’s 1883 Italian children’s novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, it is the second Disney animated feature film, and the third animated film overall produced by an American film studio, after Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fleischer Studios’ Gulliver’s Travels.
With the voices of Cliff Edwards, Dickie Jones, Christian Rub, Walter Catlett, Charles Judels, Evelyn Venable, and Frankie Darro, the film follows a wooden puppet Pinocchio, who is created by an old woodcarver Geppetto and brought to life by a blue fairy. Wishing to become a real boy, Pinocchio must prove himself to be “brave, truthful, and unselfish.” Along his journey, Pinocchio encounters several characters representing the temptations and consequences of wrongdoing, as Jiminy Cricket, who takes the role of Pinocchio’s conscience, attempts to guide him in matters of right and wrong.
The film was adapted by several storyboard artists from Collodi’s book. The production was supervised by Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske, and the film’s sequences were directed by Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, and Bill Roberts. Pinocchio was a groundbreaking achievement in the area of effects animation, giving realistic movement to vehicles and machinery as well as natural elements such as rain, water, lightning, smoke, and shadow. After premiering at the Center Theatre in New York City on February 7, 1940, Pinocchio was released in theatres on February 23, 1940.
Although it received critical acclaim and became the first animated feature to win a competitive Academy Award — winning two for Best Music, Original Score and for Best Music, Original Song for “When You Wish Upon a Star” — it was initially a commercial failure, mainly due to World War II cutting off the European and Asian markets. It eventually made a profit after its 1945 rerelease, and is considered one of the greatest animated films ever made, with a 100% rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes.
The film and characters are still prevalent in popular culture, featuring at various Disney parks and other forms of entertainment. In 1994, Pinocchio was added to the United States National Film Registry for being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
In 2000, a live-action made-for-television film titled Geppetto, told from Geppetto’s perspective, was released via ABC. A live-action remake of the same title directed by Robert Zemeckis was released in 2022 on Disney+.
