A DISNEY FIRST : ‘PINOCCHIO’ NOW ON SALE TO FANS FOR HOME VIDEO

Imagine owning “Pinocchio.”

Until this month, it wasn’t legally possible. But Walt Disney Home Entertainment has shipped thousands of copies of the 1940 animated feature to video dealers throughout the country for sale or rental. This marks the first time Disney has released one of its vintage classics for home VCR use.

“Alice in Wonderland,” “Dumbo” and “Robin Hood” have been available previously, but though these films have their appeal, they don’t have the sentimental status of “Pinocchio.”

The obvious question is, if “Pinocchio” is out, can “Bambi” be far behind? Company policy had always been to withhold them from sale to TV or home video, but a new management has taken over Disney. New managements always like to make lots of money.

It would seem inevitable that “Bambi,” “Snow White,” “Peter Pan,” “Lady and the Tramp,” “Cinderella” and “Fantasia” will someday be sold for home viewing. But Richard Fried, director of marketing, says “there are no plans” to release any of these titles at this time.

Still, he won’t say never. “I’d be silly to say ‘never,’ ” Fried says.

Two years ago, it was the stated policy of the company that none of the most beloved Disney titles would ever be released. “Things change,” Fried says by way of explanation for the about-face. “It’s a different business than it was two years ago when that decision was made.”

The business is different mainly in that it is bigger--”rather huge,” as Fried says. There should be 25 million home VCRs in use by the end of this year. Total revenues generated by cassette sales and rentals are expected to hit $3.3 billion in 1985.

The skyrocketing popularity of home video is considered a major reason for slowdowns in the growth of pay-cable TV networks like Home Box Office.

The Disney company expects to sell more than 100,000 copies of “Pinocchio,” in Beta and VHS formats. The high price of $79.95 reflects the “rental surcharge,” Fried says; most of the tapes will be sold to dealers who will rent them over and over to consumers.

Earlier this summer, the company released another seven sparkling titles in the “Limited Gold Edition” series of cartoon shorts. Some 610,000 copies of the first seven titles in the series were sold last year. Like those, the new set will be available at a bargain $29.95 each, making them more accessible to individual consumers.

“Pinocchio” has been released seven times theatrically since it was first produced, the last being last Christmas.

On cassette, it seems as patently magical as ever, though the smaller the TV screen, the more it is diminished. Cartoons transfer with greater fidelity to TV’s limited resolution standards, however, and the aspect ratio--the height and width proportions--of a film like “Pinocchio” are much closer to those of a standard TV screen than are modern-day wide screen films. So you are losing less.

The story of a marionette who comes to life and eventually, after considerable traumatic travail, is turned into a real little boy has an inescapable emotional pull. And yet the Disney artists repeatedly snatch the story from stickiness, often with the wisecracks of conscience Jiminy Cricket, who never chirps once in the whole film. This cricket not only wears a top hat and carries an umbrella, he even has toes.

Pinocchio’s adventures include the famous nose-growing scene, in which every lie lengthens his schnoz until it sprouts leaves and a bird’s nest; his brief stint with a traveling puppet show run by a malevolent impresario named Stromboli (“I’d rather be smart than be an actor,” Pinocchio says upon release); and a particularly harrowing episode for kids, the trip to Pleasure Island, where bad little boys turn into donkeys that are sold to the salt mines.

Finally, the aptly named Monstro the Whale gives the film its dazzlingly executed finale. The whale has swallowed not only Pinocchio’s father Gepetto, who looks a little like Walter Cronkite, but also Gepetto’s pet cat and goldfish.

The ending is a killer. And a joy to behold.

Now it can all be had and held on videotape, warm and lustrous and bursting with Technicolor.

In the cricket’s song, “When You Wish Upon a Star,” he sings that fate, being kind, can grant people “the sweet fulfillment of their secret longings.” For thousands and maybe millions of people, the home video release of “Pinocchio” will do just that. It is sweet fulfillment indeed.