Mokku of the Oak Tree

Mokku of the Oak Tree, also known as Mokku Woody the Oak Tree and Saban's Adventures of Pinocchio, is an anime series created by Tatsunoko Production that aired in 1972. They had 52 episodes. The episodes were based on Carlo Collodi's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio.

This version of Pinocchio was much more dark and sadistic than the Disney version and portrays the main character, Pinocchio or Mokku, as suffering from constant physical and psychological abuse and freak accidents.

In this story, Mokku is extremely gullible and naive. He's morally confused and is a wooden doll brough to life by a mystical blue fairy. He has many faults that he has to learn to overcome to be granted humanity, such as selfishness, rudeness, insensitivity, over-trusting, self-pity, stupidity, obedience, compulsive lying, arrogance, greed, cruelty, and his inability to learn from mistakes.

Within this series, he attempts to kill another child to take his heart because he thinks it will help him become a  real boy. In another episode he is adopted by a nobleman and becomes corrupted with wealth and becomes rude and aggressive. Because of these acts, the fairy punishes him who turns his nose into a tree, then is disowned. After these episodes, he turns into a tree until a wood cutter chops him down and sells him as a singing tree.

As you may be able to tell, if you have seen the Disney version, this series Mokku of the Oak Tree is much darker than we probably grew up to know Pinocchio. There's a lesson to be learned in both that version, as well as Disney's.