Jiminy Cricket

Jiminy Cricket is a small cricket who first appeared in Pinocchio. Jiminy acts as a conscience and a good friend to the film's title character. 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 Tinker Bell as a Disney mascot. He has been voiced by Cliff Edwards, Eddie Carroll, and currently Phil Snyder.

Development
Jiminy is based off the Talking Cricket from the original Pinocchio book that the Walt Disney's film is based on. In the book the cricket is killed by Pinocchio, but in the film the cricket is named Jiminy and instead of being a cameo character is a major character and joins Pinocchio on his journey to becoming a real boy. Jiminy was animated by one of Walt Disney's Nine Old Men, Ward Kimball. In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Ward animated a soup eating scene. The scene was eventually dropped and Ward was devestated. Walt realized this and decided to give Ward the job of designing and animating Jiminy Cricket.

Personality
Jiminy is introduced as a kind and humble character. Jiminy is also shown to be doubtful and impatient at times, but in the end, he's is a loving and brave character people come to know and love. Jiminy is the official conscience and best friend of Pinocchio. It was a shown to be diffucult for him to teach Pinocchio about temptations. Jiminy is in love with the Blue Fairy who he looks to as a godess or a queen. When Jiminy is in the presence of the Blue Fairy, he usually blushes and act as if he's a shy child. It is persumed Jiminy and the Blue Fairy eventually became a couple. Jiminy is also intelligent and shown to teach characters other than Pinocchio various life lessons.

Pinocchio
The film Pinocchio marked Jiminy's debut. He is first seen singing When You Wish Upon A Star next to a book about Pinnochio. After a brief introduction, he begins recounting the story of Pinnochio.

In the actual story, Jiminy is first seen in raggety clothing, traveling through a village late one night. He eventually comes to Geppetto's Workshop, which was the only sign of life. He sneaks inside and warms himself by the fire, while admiring Geppetto's work. Jiminy then observes as Geppetto finishes the puppet he has been working on. Jiminy overhears Geppetto's wish for the puppet to be a real boy, but brushes it off as impractical, though lovely. Jiminy later watches in amazement as The Blue Fairy brings Pinocchio to life. After a conversation with the fairy, Jiminy is appointed to be Pinocchio's conscience, as Pinocchio must prove himself worthy of being made a real boy. Jiminy then teaches Pinocchio to whistle so that Pinocchio can call him.

The next day, Jiminy oversleeps and rushes to find Pinocchio, who has been sent off to school. However, Pinocchio is instead encouraged to become an actor by Honest John. Despite Jiminy's counseling to go to school, Pinocchio becomes part of the show of Stromboli. Jiminy becomes angry, but starts to second guess himself when Pinocchio becomes popular. When Jiminy decides to wish Pinocchio good luck, he discovers that Stromboli has locked Pinocchio in a bird cage. Jiminy attempts to crack the lock to they can escape, but fails. The Blue Fairy later comes along and frees them, after teaching Pinocchio a lesson on lying.

Before the pair can reach home, Pinocchio is convinced to travel to Pleasure Island, said to be a land for boys. Jiminy manages to sneak on the stagewagon, but ends up separated from Pinocchio. Jiminy eventually finds Pinocchio in a pool hall, where he is smoking and drinking with Lampwick. Jiminy attempts to get Pinocchio to leave, but is insulted by Lampwick. Jiminy leaves in a huff, and attempts to go home. He discovers that boys who come to Pleasure Island are transformed into donkeys, and goes to warn Pinocchio.

The two are able to leave by jumping in the sea, but not before Pinocchio grows a tail and donkey ears. Finally at home, they learn via a message that Geppetto has gone searching for Pinocchio and trapped by Monstro. Despite Jiminy essentially being live bait, he follows Pinocchio into the sea to search for Geppetto. However he is separated from Pinocchio after Pinocchio is swallowed by Monstro. Jiminy is forced to find shelter in a bottle to avoid being eaten.

After Pinocchio and Geppetto escape, Jiminy is the one who discovers that Pinocchio has died as a result. At Geppetto's workshop, he is shown to be mourning. Like everyone else, he is overjoyed when Pinocchio is revived as a real boy. He manages to step away from the party, and thanks the Blue Fairy for helping them. As a recognition of his own contributions, the Blue Fairy rewards him with a solid gold badge declaring him an official conscience.

Fun and Fancy Free
Jiminy essentially serves as the set-up for the two segments. He is shown exploring a house, and comes across a record player and records of the two segments in the film: Bongo and Mickey and the Beanstalk.

Mickey Mouse Club
Jiminy hosts 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.

I'm No Fool
In the 1960s and 1970s, Jiminy Cricket appeared in two different 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!''

Jiminy is shown making use of a chalkboard to illustrate his lessons. Figuring prominently was "You", an idealized boy meant to represent the audience and show the safe methods, and the Fool, who always demonstrated foolish and reckless methods.

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

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".

Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Jiminy made a brief cameo in Disney and Touchstone's 1988 hit feature Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He can be seen when Eddie Valiant first drives through Toontown.

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
Jiminy was also among the numerous Disney characters to appear in the television series House of Mouse and its direct-to-video compilation films. A running gag in the series involves Timon from The Lion King trying to eat him, but rescued by Pumbaa, as one of the rules of the club is "No guests eating other guests".

Jiminy's most notable appearance is where he quits the job of Pinocchio's conscience and replaces Pinocchio with Mickey. Mickey eventually became annoyed and fashioned up a plan to reunite the two. The plan worked and Jiminy got on stage to teach various Disney characters lessons such as Simba, Princess Aurora and Aladdin.

Disney's Villains' Revenge
Jiminy stars in the 1999 PC game Disney's Villains' Revenge.

Kingdom Hearts series
Jiminy Cricket appears in many of the Kingdom Hearts games.

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
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 doesn't reappear at all 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. Jiminy also appears as a safety mascot along with Pinocchio, Timon, and Pumbaa in the Disney Parks. He also acts as a mascot of Disney's environmental initiatives in the parks, appearing on recycling cans and often appearing at Rafiki's Planet Watch at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Fantasmic!
In the live show Fantasmic! in both 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. In the show, Jiminy and a cast of Disney characters host a series of magical fireworks and musical themes.

Pinocchio's Daring Journey
Jiminy appears in Pinocchio's Daring Journey, a dark ride themed to the movie from whence he originated, found at 3 of the Disney Parks worldwide (specifically in California, Japan, and France).

Trivia

 * "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.
 * Jiminy Cricket also appears in the FOX network show, American Dad! as Roger's conscience who is dying of neglect. At the end of the episode, he hangs himself.