Monstro

"This Monstro, I've heard of him! He's a whale of a whale!"

- Jiminy Cricket Monstro is an enormous sperm whale and the climax antagonist of Disney's 1940 animated film Pinocchio. While Pinocchio spends the night in Stromboli's troupe and later, Pleasure Island, Geppetto searches for his son. Taken to sea, Geppetto, Figaro, and Cleo are swallowed whole (complete with a boat) by Monstro. He later swallows Pinocchio, when the little wooden boy comes searching for his father. He has a reputation as a "whale of a whale" and is feared by all the creatures of the sea, and apparently on land, as even Jiminy knew of him and of his deeds.

In Pinocchio, he was animated by Wolfgang Reitherman.

Design
Joe Grant's Character Model Department was responsible for the design of Monstro. Models were constructed both of Monstro himself and of his belly, complete with skeleton. In addition, inspirational sketch artist Gustaf Tenggren created a watercolor image of Geppetto in Monstro's belly.

Animation
The animation of Monstro was originally to be assigned to Vladimir Tytla (animator of Doc, Grumpy, Stromboli, and, later, Yen Sid, Chernabog and Dumbo), but, perhaps out of worry that Tytla might get carried away, Disney eventually assigned Wolfgang Reitherman to the task. He animated Monstro as a cunning creature with a brain, making his pursuit of his prey all the more frightening. To Reitherman can also be attributed, to an extent, the timing and staging of Monstro's chase sequences, which were timed to suggest the whale's great weight and power. Reitherman drew a set of sketches for a discarded sequence showing Monstro consuming Geppetto's boat; Monstro was to emerge suddenly on the otherwise serene sea scene, first looking like a large mound before revealing his teeth and swallowing the boat in one movement before disappearing underwater once more.

Pinocchio
Monstro is first mentioned in the film when Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket receive a message from the Blue Fairy who is in the shape of a dove that the whale has swallowed Geppetto, Figaro and Cleo when the toymaker took to sea to search for Pinocchio. The three are still alive, inside Monstro's belly. Against Jiminy's warnings, Pinocchio resolves to find and rescue Geppetto. Though Jiminy tries to dissuade Pinocchio, warning that Monstro is "a whale of a whale...he swallows whole ships!," he does not hesitate to join Pinocchio in his search at the bottom of the sea. The two search for Monstro; mention of his name causes the sea creatures to flee in terror. Meanwhile, in Monstro's belly, Geppetto and Figaro are trying to catch fish to eat. The former tells latter that he fears that they will starve in the belly of the sleeping whale if he doesn't wake up soon.

Monstro wakes at the sight of a school of tuna swimming nearby. Opening his great eyes, he pursues them with his mouth open, tearing through the ocean. When Pinocchio sees him approaching, he flees for his life, pushing past the fish, though he is nevertheless consumed by Monstro. The sprightly Jiminy escapes his jaws, but, on discovery that Pinocchio has been swallowed, tries to enter Monstro's now closed mouth. But he won't open it. Inside his belly, Pinocchio, reunited with Geppetto, proposes that they escape in a raft (constructed by Geppetto) when Monstro opens his mouth. When told that "everything comes in...nothing goes out" of his jaws, Pinocchio suggests that they start a fire to make him sneeze.

Monstro once again opens his eyes, this time to find smoke rising from his blowhole. He begins taking deep breaths; while his mouth is open, Pinocchio, Geppetto, Figaro, and Cleo try to escape and Jiminy tries to follow them; they succeed when Monstro finally sneezes, sending them flying out onto the sea. After another powerful sneeze, Monstro drinks lots of water to put out the fire then, enraged, he pursues the raft while Pinocchio and Geppetto row for their lives. He dives underwater and emerges underneath the raft; Pinocchio and Geppetto row away in time, but when Monstro leaps after them, they are forced to jump into the sea. He smashes the raft into pieces with his tail. Pinocchio saves Geppetto from drowning and pulls him to shore, with Monstro in hot pursuit. As he builds up speed, the waves drifting from the cliff of the shore hinder Pinocchio. Monstro leaps into the air, aiming to consume and kill them. Finally, paddling madly, Pinocchio swims through the hole in the cliff just as Monstro smashes into them, the impact of which sends Pinocchio and Geppetto flying onto the beach. As Geppetto comes to, Jiminy, Figaro, and Cleo are washed onto the shore. Pinocchio, however, didn't survive the blow. He is later revived, and turned into a real boy, by the Blue Fairy. It isn't clear what happened to Monstro but it is implied he was killed after ramming into the cliff, however this remains unknown.

Bonkers
Monstro had a guest star appearance in a Bonkers comic story titled "Whale of a Tale", published in the December 1994 issue of Disney Adventures. In this story, he is not villainous, but rather a very polite (albeit destructive due to his size) actor who was simply playing a villainous role in Pinocchio and had not found work in the movies since then. He is duped by a gang of crooks, posing as a movie company, into breaking into banks for them to rob, and upon finding out the truth, helps Bonkers catch the criminals.

Cameos in other films and shows
He makes a cameo appearance in Monsters, Inc..

Monstro made several cameo appearances on the show, House of Mouse. In "Clarabelle's Christmas List", Donald reels in Monstro when trying to reel in Santa's Naughty and Nice list. In "Max's New Car", Pinocchio and Geppetto arrive at the club inside Monstro. As the two exit the whale's mouth, Max refers to him as a "Monstro truck". In "Ask Von Drake", Monstro was seen during Ludwig Von Drake's headcount of all the Disney character guests. "Mickey and Minnie's Big Vacation" ends with an advertisement for "Monstro Cruise Lines".

In Once Upon a Time, Monstro is briefly seen in Fairy Tale Land chasing Pinocchio and Geppetto. He attacks the raft and leaves.

Kingdom Hearts series
Monstro appears as both a character and world from Kingdom Hearts. Like many of the worlds from the original game, it also appears in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories as well. Here. he is a space whale that swims in between realms.

He can be fought as a boss in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix, in an oceanic arena seemingly based upon Pinocchio's world. He appears in Kingdom Hearts as a supporting world, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix as a boss. In Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, Monstro appears in his world Prankster's Paradise before it was consumed by darkness, where he directly assists Sora in defeating a Dream Eater boss while Riku navigates inside him.

Kinect Disneyland Adventures
Like in the actual Disneyland park, Monstro is apart of the Storybook Land Canal. At one point in the game, he eats Pinocchio's school books. To recover them, the player must gather some pepper pots to make Monstro sneeze. The powerful sneeze releases them.

Disney Parks
Monstro has a spell card known as "Monstro's Water Spout" in the attraction Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom

In Pinocchio's Daring Journey, Monstro makes a brief appearance at the ride's climax. Just after escaping from Pleasure Island, the riders are warned by Jiminy that Monstro is approaching. Suddenly, he bursts out of the ocean and lunges at them, accompanied by thunder and lightning. They veer away just in time.

Monstro also appears in both versions of the show Fantasmic! as a lead-in to Mickey falling into the whirlpool and the stormy ship scene, ending the Dancing Bubbles sequence at the Disney's Hollywood Studios version and coming after the I've Got No Strings scene in the Disneyland version.

Monstro's biggest appearance is at the Disneyland version of the Storybook Land Canal Boats. Guests begin the ride with their boats passing through his mouth, which serves as a tunnel to a land of miniature buildings based on various Disney stories. The guides on the boats state that the fire Pinocchio made while inside his belly made him sneeze so hard that it blew his tail off, explaining why he has a hole where his fluke should be. This is far from the events shown in the movie.

Trivia

 * In the original, instead of Monstro, it was a shark-like sea monster known as the Terrible Shark that swallows Geppetto, and then Pinocchio.
 * At the time Collodi told this monster story, many Italian mothers would tell their children not to swim to far out to sea or else this terrible shark would swim up and swallow them.
 * In Collodi's story, the shark is described as being larger than a five story building, a mile long without counting its tail, and sporting three rows of teeth in its mouth that can easily accommodate a train. So fearsome is its reputation, that in chapter XXXIV, it is revealed that the it is nicknamed "The Attila of the Sea".
 * Unusual for a whale Monstro is a cross between a sperm whale and a blue whale as he has the body shape and teeth of a sperm whale but has the size, skin color, and underbelly of a blue whale.
 * Monstro is referenced in Mickey, Donald and Goofy: The Three Musketeers, when one of the Beagle Boys made a jest at Pete.
 * Prior to Monstro's official debut in the original film in 1940, a whale similar to Monstro appears in two Disney cartoon shorts in 1938 (albeit in both shorts they have very different character designs); The Whalers and Merbabies, with the former in a Mickey Mouse/Donald Duck/Goofy short and the latter in a Silly Symphonies short. These whales in the two cartoon shorts serve as prototypes to Monstro.

Monstruo, la Ballena