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Mangiafuoco (/ˌmɑːndʒəˈfwoʊkoʊ/MAHN-jə-FWOH-koh; Italian:[ˌmandʒaˈfwɔːko], literally "Fire-Eater") or Mangiafoco is a fictional character who appears in Carlo Collodi's 1883 Italian book The Adventures of Pinocchio (Le avventure di Pinocchio), serving as the secondary antagonist before redeeming himself. Although in several adaptations of the novel, more antagonistic versions based on the character are usually represented.
He is the theatre director and puppet-master of the Great Marionette Theatre, portrayed as gruff and imposing, but capable of showing kindness and easily moved to compassion, which he expresses by sneezing: after initially wanting Pinocchio to be burned as firewood for ruining one of his puppet shows, he eventually sets him free and gives him five gold coins to give to his father Geppetto.
Mangiafuoco is described as
...a large man so ugly, he evoked fear by simply being looked at. He had a beard as black as a smudge of ink and so long that it fell from his chin down to the ground: enough so that when he walked, he stepped on it. His mouth was as wide as an oven, his eyes were like two red tinted lanterns with the light turned on at the back, and with his hands, he sported a large whip made of snakes and fox tails knotted together.
Though imposing, Mangiafuoco is portrayed as easily moved to compassion, which he expresses by sneezing.
He is first encountered in Chapter X, after Pinocchio ruins one of his puppet shows by distracting the other puppets, and demands that Pinocchio be burned as firewood for his roasting mutton.
Moved by Pinocchio's lamentations, Mangiafuoco decides to burn one of his own puppets, Harlequin, instead. When Pinocchio begs for Harlequin's life and offers to sacrifice himself in Harlequin's stead, he is refused by Mangiafuoco, who upon hearing that he is poor, gives Pinocchio five gold sequins which are later seized by The Fox and the Cat.
The 1936 Soviet book adaptation The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Buratino by Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, features a character based on Mangiafuoco and named Karabas Barabas (Russian: Караба́с-Бараба́с). He is the director of a puppet theater and he is the primary antagonist in the tale.
Karabas Barabas has a tendency to accidentally step on his own beard while walking; to prevent this, he tucks the end of his beard into his coat pocket. The puppet theater in Tolstoy's story is commonly interpreted as an allusion to the Vsevolod Meyerhold State Theater of 1920 to 1938, with Karabas Barabas himself as a satirical portrayal of its director Vsevolod Meyerhold, who had a reputation for his strict, even despotic leadership style, demanding from his actors the obedience and precision of puppets. Many actors fled his theater, unable to endure the intense workload and the oppressive working environment. Meyerhold often wore a long scarf whose ends trailed to the ground. To avoid stepping on them, he would tuck the ends into his jacket pocket, much like Karabas Barabas does with his beard.
The character also appears in various adaptations of Tolstoy's story:
In the 1940 animated Disney film Pinocchio, Mangiafuoco is renamed Stromboli (in the Italian dub of the film, "Mangiafuoco" is Stromboli's epithet). The character is voiced by Charles Judels (who also voiced the Coachman in the same film), and animated by Bill Tytla. Unlike Mangiafuoco, who meets Pinocchio by chance, Stromboli buys Pinocchio from Honest John and Gideon and earns a great deal of money by showing Pinocchio on stage. Stromboli (whom Honest John refers to as an "old gypsy"[3]) is at first portrayed as gruff and rude but kind-hearted, but he gives Pinocchio a metal washer instead of real money, then angrily locks Pinocchio in a cage, stating that once he is too old to work, he will be used as firewood, revealing his true nature as brutal, cruel, vicious, and arrogant. Pinocchio escapes from his carriage with the help of the Blue Fairy and Jiminy Cricket, but is berated for lying to her and ignoring Jiminy's advice.
Like all the villains in the film, the ultimate fate of Stromboli is never stated, revealed or clarified, only implied and left to the viewers to theorize and deduce it, a characteristic typical of other classic and older Disney animated films (like Bambi, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Cinderella, and One Hundred and One Dalmatians). It's implied that he reacted to Pinocchio's absence in a typical emotional outburst and desperation upon discovering he has lost his "gold mine" too late. He is the first Disney villain whose wickedness is not immediately apparent to the audience, a characteristic that would become increasingly common in Disney movies of the 21st century (like Lyle T. Rourke, King Candy/Turbo, Hans, and Dawn Bellwether).
Stromboli also has cameo appearances in the television series House of Mouse, and its two direct-to-video films, Mickey's Magical Christmas and Mickey's House of Villains. Stromboli is also a meet-and-greet character at Disney Parks.[4]
In the 2022 live-action adaptation, he is played by Italian actor Giuseppe Battiston. In this adaption, Stromboli is served by Fabiana and her marionette Sabina. While Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket's escape from Stromboli's carriage remains intact, they later encounter Fabiana and Sabina again where they mentioned that Stromboli has been arrested by the Carabinieri for cruelty against his employees and they have taken over his puppet show.
Stromboli appeared briefly in the 2023 short film Once Upon a Studio with archival audio from Judels. He is seen frustratingly banging on a vending machine as Anna and Elsa pass by him. Stromboli appears again with all the characters singing "When You Wish Upon a Star", while all them take a group photo.[5]
Despite his limited screen time, Stromboli is one of Disney's most (in)famous and acclaimed villains. The character has been praised by critics for possessing the ability to instill in audiences both laughter and fear.[6] Art critic Pierre Lambert has stated that "Tytla's innate sense of force is revealed in all its magnitude in the creation of the character of Stromboli,"[7] and animation historian Charles Solomon refers to the puppet master as "the grandest of all Disney heavies," while John Canemaker describes Stromboli as "an overweight monster of mercurial moods, capable of wine-soaked, garlic-breathed Old World charm one second, and knife-wielding, chop-you-up-for-firewood threats the next."[8] William Paul drew some parallelism:
It is not too difficult to regard Stromboli as burlesque of a Hollywood studio boss, complete with foreign accent. Disney's own relationship to the Hollywood power structure was always a difficult one, and his distrust of the moguls was well justified by his earliest experiences in the industry.[9]
During the premiere of Pinocchio, Frank Thomas sat in front of W.C. Fields, who, upon Stromboli's entrance, muttered to whoever was with him that the puppet master "moves too much." Michael Barrier agrees with Fields' criticism, considering Stromboli a "poorly conceived character" whose "passion has no roots... there is nothing in Stromboli of what could have made him truly terrifying."[10]Leonard Maltin disagrees, considering Pinocchio's encounter with the showman to be the wooden boy's "first taste of the seamy side of life... (Stromboli) tosses his hatchet into the remnants of another ragged marionette, now a pile of splinters and sawdust, a meekly smiling face the only reminder of its former 'life'."[11] Though the character is Italian, characteristics such as Stromboli's facial expressions, obsession with wealth, and long black 'goat's beard' (though the latter is present also in several Italian/European versions and transpositions of the original novel and almost all the villains in the film are looking for money or wealth) have led some to make (inappropriate) comparisons with Jewish stereotypes (particularly Hollywood moguls).[9]
Collodi, Le Avventure di Pinocchio 1883, Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli