The Coachman's Assistants are the mysterious hellish residents of Pleasure Island.
Appearances[]
Pinocchio[]
While the boys enjoy themselves in the fairground area of the Island, the Coachman cracks his whip, ordering his assistants to shut and lock the main doors, preventing the unwitting boys from escaping. He then orders them to prepare crates. They are next seen loading donkeys- the naughty boys transformed -into these crates, under the Coachman's watchful eye. The donkeys are then sold as labor.
Their appearance is never completely revealed; they are shown only in shadow, save for their glowing yellow eyes, and they never speak. However, it can be discerned from the silhouette of a minion that they have arms resembling that of a gorilla; they are also whipped by the Coachman, suggesting that they are beasts. However, the fact that the Coachman refers to them as "blokes" suggests a certain amount of humanity. Their history and reasons for obeying the Coachman are unknown, and they carry out their master's orders with golem-like efficiency and obedience.
Pinocchio (2022)[]
The minions appear in the 2022 remake in the same role. In this film, they're portrayed as Ghosts that captured boys and girls that have turned into donkeys and have them shipped off to the salt mines.
When Jiminy arrives at Pleasure Island, he encounters two of the Coachman's Goons who appear as large shadow monsters who capture a child who was turned into a donkey just as the two capture the donkey, just as Jiminy realizes that this place is a trap for all children, especially Pinocchio. After Lampwick knocks Jiminy into a grate where he finds himself in another area, Jiminy encounters more shadow monsters who are selling the children who were cursed and turned into donkeys to the salt mines as labeled on the cages, as Jiminy realizes that the place is being used as a trap just as the Coachman orders his minions to sell the donkeys to the salt mines.
All of a sudden, two of the Coachman's Goons enter the bar as part of the Coachman's plan to capture Pinocchio and sell him to the salt mines which Pinocchio plans to escape from the Coachman after realizing he is luring him into a trap which as Pinocchio escapes the bar with Jiminy, the Coachman commands two of his followers to go after Pinocchio who is trying to escape. When Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket escape the island, the Coachman and his goons chase them, but not before Pinocchio gains a donkey's ears and tail. They do not appear throughout the rest of the film afterwards.
Trivia[]
- The Coachman's assistants do get a comeuppance in the Pinocchio Super NES video game; they are trying to prevent Pinocchio from fleeing but Pinocchio destroys them like whirling at the end of the song "I've Got No Strings".
- It is unknown if the assistants are actual black creatures, or if they are real human beings dressed in dark costumes, or possibly gorillas. In the remake, they are made of dust and can materialize and dematerialize at will.
- One assistant had black pupils when he opened the gate when the Coachman threw Alexander into the pen where the boys still talked.
- The Coachman's assistants had no counterparts in the original story; apparently it was a one-man operation.
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