Jiminy Cricket

Jiminy Cricket is a small cricket who first appeared in Pinocchio. Jiminy acts as a conscience and a good friend. He is clever, kind, caring and brave. He will do anything for a friend even if it's life threatening. He has appeared along with Mickey Mouse and Tinkerbell as a Disney mascot.

Origin of name
"Jiminy Cricket(s)!" was originally a polite expletive euphemism for Jesus Christ. The name of the character is a play on the exclamation (which itself was uttered in Pinocchio's immediate predecessor, 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs). Another example occurs in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz when the group first enters the Wizard's chamber, they are startled by the Wizard's sudden thunder-and-lightning display, and cries, "Oh! Oh! Jiminy Crickets!" (Garland also says the expression in her 1938 film Listen, Darling). It had also been used as an exclamation by the Swedish father several times in the 1930 movie Anna Christie. Another time it is used is in the short 1938 cartoon starring Mickey Mouse The Brave Little Tailor. That expression is also Howard Cunningham's catchphrase on Happy Days.

Creating Jiminy
For the 1940 Disney film, the character was designed by Ward Kimball, who had been very disappointed and was about to leave the Disney studio when much of the work he did for was cut from the final version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. However, Walt Disney persuaded him to stay by giving him the assignment to design Jiminy.

Voice actors
Jiminy Cricket's voice was originally performed by singer Cliff Edwards, who voiced the character for Disney through the 1960s. Jiminy's most famous song, as sung by Edwards, is When You Wish Upon a Star. After Edwards's death, Eddie Carroll replaced him as the voice actor for Jiminy. Eddie Carroll died in 2010 and Jiminy's newest voice actor will be confirmed soon.

After Pinocchio
After Pinocchio, Jiminy appeared in Fun and Fancy Free as the host of the cartoon segments. He also hosted many Disney television specials. In a recurring segment of the children's television series Mickey Mouse Club, he taught a generation how to spell e-n-c-y-c-l-o-p-e-d-i-a. He also appears at the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts as a meetable character, and also in Pinocchio's Daring Journey, a dark ride themed to the movie from whence he originated, found at three of the Disney parks worldwide (specifically in California, Japan and France).

1960s, 1970s, and 1980s
In the 1960s and 1970s, Jiminy Cricket appeared in two series of educational films aimed at grade-school-aged audiences. In the "I'm No Fool" series, he advised children how to steer clear of dangerous traffic, sharp objects, strangers, exposed electrical lines, and so forth. In each short, he sang the refrain:

''I'm no fool, no sirree! I'm gonna live to be 33 (then 43, 53, etc., up to 103) I play safe for you and me 'Cause I'm no fool!''

The other series was called "You", which teaches about the human body with the refrain "You are a human animal...".

In 1988, he made a brief cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. He specifically is found by Eddie Valiant first drives through Toontown.

Mickey's Christmas Carol
Jiminy appeared in Mickey's Christmas Carol as the ghost of Christmas past (The badge given to him by the Blue Fairy at the end of Pinocchio marking him as an official conscience now declares him to be the Ghost of Christmas Past). Scrooge is perplexed at his size, but Jiminy shoots back at him that if he were measured by his amount of kindness, "you'd be no bigger than a speck of dust!" Nevertheless, he shows Scrooge past Christmases of him: (Scrooge) while working at Fezziwig's and the horrid memory where Scrooge put his money before his love, whom he never saw again. As Scrooge begs the minuscule ghost to take him away from these bad memories, Jiminy reminds Scrooge that "you fashioned these memories yourself."

Disney's Sing-Along Songs
Jiminy Cricket hosted these four sing-along videos:
 * The Bare Necessities (October 13, 1987)
 * Be Our Guest (November 12, 1991)
 * Friend Like Me (March 3, 1993)
 * Circle of Life (VHS Version only; DVD version features a voiceover only) (December 14, 1994)

House of Mouse
He was also among the numerous Disney characters to appear in the television series House of Mouse. He also appeared in the movies. A running gag in the series involves Timon from The Lion King trying to eat him, but rescued by Pumbaa.

Disney's Halloween Treat
The Blue Fairy sees Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket.

Kingdom Hearts
Jiminy first makes his appearance in Disney Castle and becomes Sora, Donald, and Goofy's royal chronicler under the order of Queen Minnie. He explains to Goofy that he escaped right before his world was destroyed, and he was scattered from his friends. After they befriend Sora, they travel to many different worlds in search for the King, Riku, and Kairi. Some time after, he meets up with Pinocchio in Traverse Town, and tells him to stay put while he sets out to find Geppetto, his father.

When they head for Atlantica/Halloween Town, depending on which world the player chooses, they get swallowed by the giant whale Monstro and meet up with Pinocchio again, this time reunited with his father Geppetto. But then Pinocchio was lured away from his friends by Riku and they searched for him until a Parasite Cage Heartless captured Pinocchio and attempted to take his heart. He failed, but then Riku captured him and stole his heart in hopes to be able to replace Kairi's heart. Jiminy, Sora, Donald, and Goofy manage to restore Pinocchio's heart with the united power of their hearts. Then, they battle Parasite Cage again and defeat it once and for all, but then Monstro feels ill and spit them out and separate Jiminy away from Pinocchio. He finds out that Pinocchio and Geppetto are okay after they visit Traverse Town again and find them living there.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Jiminy appears alongside Sora, Donald, and Goofy, and his role in this game is much more important; he appears more often, and during the game he is the one that tries to keep the team together. He is alone with Sora when Sora runs away from Donald and Goofy.

Like the others, his memories are also disappearing the more they head for each level of Castle Oblivion. Even the entries in his journal have disappeared altogether upon entering Castle Oblivion.

When Sora gets angry at Donald and Goofy for not wanting to help save Naminé, he sets out to find her by himself. Jiminy tries to reason with him, but he refuses to listen. When they finally meet Naminé, they find out from her that they have not actually met, but were rather fooled by her abilities to control memories of Sora and those attached to his heart. But Sora forgives her for her doing and they all set out to fight against those who made Naminé do what she did.

After the protagonists finally defeat Larxene, Vexen, and Marluxia, the members of Organization XIII, Naminé takes them to a room of Memory Pods, where she tells them she will be able to restore their memories while they sleep in them. But it will take some time, because rechaining memories is harder than severing them. However, as a price they will lose their memories of all things that happened while they were in Castle Oblivion. Afraid that they might not be able to thank her for what she does for them, Jiminy writes down a small entry in his journal that says "Thank Naminé".

Kingdom Hearts II
&nbsp In Kingdom Hearts II, Jiminy only appears once.

A year after the events of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy awake from their long, deep slumber in Twilight Town, and have no memories of what happened right after they closed Kingdom Hearts. Goofy asks Jiminy what his journal says, and Jiminy only finds a sentence: "Thank Naminé". Unable to know who she is anymore, Donald scoffs at him for his bad journal entry and Jiminy dismisses it by telling to go and find out where they are. He does not reappear in the game after this event.

'Kingdom Hearts coded'
Jiminy reappears in Kingdom Hearts coded. His journal compiled in previous games is a major plot element, as well as a main character.

Jiminy is reorganizing his journal when he suddenly finds a sentence saying "We must return to free them from their torment". Jiminy cannot recall any memory of that entry, so he shows the text to King Mickey. To investigate, King Mickey creates a Sora out of data to try and find out more about the mysterious entries that continually appear. As Sora continues to unravel the Bug Block Corruption that is affecting the Data Worlds, Jiminy somehow gets sucked into the data world, along with King Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. At the game's climax, however, he is presumably sent back to the real world along with his friends after the debugging of the journal is complete.

Disney Parks
Jiminy Cricket appears as a meetable character and is seen in parades and shows. He is usually seen alone or with Gepetto or Pinocchio.

Fantasmic!
In the live show Fantasmic! in Disneyland and Walt Disney World Jiminy makes an appearance. Jiminy is the protector of Mickey Mouse's dreams and he is imprisoned by the Villains as they plan to turn Mickey's dreams into a deadly nightmare. Jiminy is later freed by Mickey and he joins the Disney characters as they past the audience in Steamboat Willie or Mark Twain Riverboat (depending on the park destination).

Wishes
More recently, Cricket and the Blue Fairy are the hosts of the Wishes: A Magical Gathering of Disney Dreams fireworks display at the Magic Kingdom theme park.