Lampwick (real name Romeo) is a neutral character from Disney's 1940 feature film Pinocchio. He was voiced by Frankie Darro.
He is based upon the character Lucignolo ("Candlewick") from the Italian story Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi . Although not confirmed specifically, Disney chief animator Fred Moore is credited for the appearance of Lampwick. Moore, who was responsible for the character's story arc, is believed to have added the red hair and buck teeth as a caricature of himself.
Background
He is a tough, older boy from the streets, who becomes friends with Pinocchio on their way to Pleasure Island. Based on the description of him from The Coachman, he was most likely chosen to go to Pleasure Island due to his bad behavior. He laughs at all forms of authority, preferring to engage in more crooked activities like drinking and vandalizing. Lampwick is tall and slender, and sports red hair and buckteeth. He ends up getting turned into a donkey. His fate afterwards is unknown; however, his appearance as a human in several other places suggests he found a way to turn back to normal. It is highly likely that he is just under the age of 13, as well as undereducated.
Physical Description
As a human, Lampwick is a tall and slender boy immediately identifiable by his red hair and buckteeth. His outfit consists of formal brown jacket and yellow vest with a green ascot over his white shirt, complemented by olive green pants with suspenders and a pair of brown shoes. He also wears a bowler hat with a single feather in it. Upon turning into a donkey, he loses these and his trademark red hair.
Personality
Lampwick, in terms of personality, is a total delinquent. He fully enjoys the events in Pleasure Island and gladly took part of all of it. He is respectful towards Pinocchio, acting as his friend while they are at Pleasure Island together while they played pool and took part in some of the activities. He is, however, rather disrespectful towards Jiminy Cricket, despite the fact that he was just trying to help. He can be considered a jock as he was able to shoot a pool ball from an awkward angle and somehow was able to cause the cue ball to make a group of pool balls stack on top of each other.
Appearances
Pinocchio
Lampwick meets Pinocchio on the Coachman's Stagecoach, and the two quickly become fast friends. Though Lampwick has never been to Pleasure Island, he has heard great things about the fun they can have there. Pinocchio and Lampwick spent their free time roughing up other boys, vandalizing property, smoking, eating, drinking beer, and playing pool. At the pool hall, it becomes apparent that they seem to be the only boys left at the park, though Lampwick doesn't seem to care, and doesn't even suspect anything to be awry, which he should.
When Jiminy Cricket arrives at the island trying to convince Pinocchio to leave, Lampwick is quick to shoot him down, stating Pinocchio was foolish to "take orders from a grasshopper". Jiminy is insulted, but Pinocchio defends him, saying that Lampwick is his best friend. After Lampwick continues to harass him, Jiminy leaves the two boys in a huff.
In one of the more frightening scenes, while he and Pinocchio are playing pool, drinking, and smoking, he and Lampwick start transforming into donkeys. First, Lampwick grows donkey ears, a tail, and his head completely transforms. The transformation is not painful, as evidenced by Lampwick's ignorance of his condition. However, this also creates a paradox in the film: Pinocchio does notice when his ears and tail grow in, even though Lampwick does not. It is theorized that Lampwick's overly-intoxicated condition led to his ignorance of the changes.
When Pinocchio sees Lampwick's ears transform into donkey ears, he becomes suspicious and immediately stops drinking. Lampwick then grows a donkey tail (ripping through his pants), complete with a long hairy black tassel that sweeps across the floor, prompting Pinocchio to stop smoking. After Lampwick's head completely changes, Pinocchio laughs at him when Lampwick asks if he looks like a "jacka**," because he literally does. Lampwick doesn't notice these changes until he accidentally brays while laughing at Pinocchio, who had also brayed by accident when laughing at him. He covers his mouth with terror and asks "Did that come out of me?", to which Pinocchio nods. Lampwick then touches his mouth and notices it feels different. Then he touches his face and feels it covered in hair; finally he feels his ears only to find that they have grown longer. He immediately grabs them, sees this change and asks what is going on. When he sees that he is now half-donkey in a mirror, he screams, but panics, runs around, and begs to Pinocchio for help.
All the while, Pinocchio was watching the whole thing, but had no idea what to do and couldn't think of any
Lampwick fully transformed into a donkey braying uncontrollably.
advice. Lampwick yells at Pinocchio to "call that beetle, call anybody", not realizing that Jiminy, having learned of the island's curse, was already on his way. Then Lampwick's hands and feet become hooves, and now his body is covered in hair. Lampwick cries for his mother, but is forced onto four legs, tosses off his hat, and completes his transformation into a donkey. He loses his ability to speak, and begins braying and kicking wildly. He destroys the pool hall with his hind legs, breaks a mirror, kicks his clothes off, and then flees the scene braying in terror.
It was never shown onscreen what happened to Lampwick, who was likely caught and sold by the evil Coachman.
Lampwick can be seen as both a villain and ally of good in the film in two ways. As a villain, he influences Pinocchio into behaving the same way he does and antagonizes Jiminy, while as an ally of good, he befriends Pinocchio and stays in good terms with him until his awful fate.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Lampwick makes a cameo in the film in a Toontown poster advertising for smoking cigarettes with his donkey ears and tail from the original Pinocchio film.
House of Mouse
Lampick was seen in the episode Jiminy Cricket, sitting along with Honest John and Gideon.
Disney Parks
As part of the Disney Dreamers Everywhere special event in 2013, Lampwick appeared alongside Pinocchio, Geppetto, Honest John and Gideon as a walk around character for a special meet and greet at Walt Disney World. He also has been seen with one of The Stupid Little Boys, sporting donkey ears and tail for the Disneyland Main Street Electrical Parade. Other than that, he hasn't been a meetable character.
International Dubbers
Lampwick's voice actors and actresses in foreign dubs of Pinocchio.
| Language | Voice Actor/Actress |
|---|---|
| Albanian | ? |
| Arabic | ? |
| Brazilian Portuguese | Mauro MendonƧa (1940 version) Milton Rangel Filho (1961 version) |
| Bulgarian | ŠŠµŠ¾ŃŠ³Šø Š”ŃŠµŃŠ°Š½Š¾Š² (Georgi Stefanov) |
| Cantonese | ? |
| Croatian | Mitja SmiljaniÄ |
| Czech | Daniel TÅÆma |
| Danish | Buster Larsen (1950 version) Jesper Klein (1978 version) |
| Dutch | Jan RetĆØl (1949 version) Romke Schuitema (1995 version) |
| English | Frankie Darro |
| Finnish | Kasimir Pennanen |
| French | Jean Daurand (1946 version) Jean-FranƧois Maurin (1975 version) |
| German | Horst Buchholz (1951 version) Abelardo Decamilli (1973 version) |
| Greek | ? |
| Hebrew | ××××× ×× ××× (Michael Hanegbi) |
| Hungarian | AlfonzĆ³ (1962 version) PĆ©ter PolgĆ”r (2000 version) |
| Icelandic | ? |
| Indonesian | ? |
| Italian | Luciano De Ambrosis |
| Japanese | ēå±±č (Shigeru Ushiyama) (? version) å ē°å“å (Takayoshi Uchida) (? version) |
| Korean | ? |
| Latin Spanish | Juan Ricardo Bertelegni "Semillita" |
| Malay | ? |
| Mandarin | ? |
| Norwegian | Bernhard ArnĆø |
| Polish | ? |
| Portuguese | Francisco Madeira |
| Romanian | Robert Bercu |
| Russian | ŠŠ»ŃŃ Š¢ŠŗŠ°ŃŠµŠ½ŠŗŠ¾ (Ilya Tkachenko) |
| Swedish | Bjƶrn Frisell (1940 version) Samuel Elers-Svensson (1995 version) |
| Thai | ? |
| Turkish | ? |
Trivia
- Lampwick ('Lucignolo') had a somewhat larger role in the original story of Pinocchio in that it is he, and not the Fox and the Cat (the original counterparts of Honest John and Gideon) who tempts a reluctant Pinocchio into going with him to Pleasure Island (here called 'Toyland'). In the book he was sold to a farm that Pinocchio eventually worked at and died from exhaustion.
- Lampwick is similar to Sir Kay from The Sword in the Stone, as both are gingers (redheaded), tall, arrogant, and are bullies. One difference is that Kay antagonized Wart, while Lampwick never antagonized Pinocchio though he did antagonize Jiminy Cricket. Another difference is their comeuppance: Kay reforms, and Lampwick gets turned into a donkey and sadly reforms too late. Another difference is that whilst Lampwick is a child Kay is an adult and is muscular whilst Lampwick is slim.
- As shown in some early concepts/sketches of Lampwick after transforming into a donkey, he was originally supposed to escape Pleasure Island with Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket, but was captured by the coachman or his minions and advises to Pinocchio to escape without him. Some storybook adaptations keep this concept.
- Lampwick doesn't appear on Once Upon a Time. However, when Pinocchio comes with the baby Emma Swan on the World any Magic, they are placed in an orphanage where Pinocchio makes friends with another red orphan, with whom he eventually runs away. As he is not native of the fairytale world, this boy is only considered like a reference and not Lampwick himself.
Gallery
v - e - d  | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|