Having read The Adventures of Pinocchio to my nephews several times (after having first read it also in the original Florentine Italian) what comes out loud and clear is the supernatural element. Pinocchio, in it's unabridged version, is a metaphor for the fundamental human vocation to be divinized in Christ. Every man is called by God to become more than a man in uniting to Christ who is God. True humanity is united to divinity!
First, the wood has a personality and a spirit for which Master Cherry gives it away to Geppetto who makes a puppet of it.
Next, the wooden puppet with a human spirit does not have the capacity for true goodness, true humanity, he is lazy and disobedient which is the cause of all his ills, though he wants to be good he does not have the power because he has a wooden head and a wooden heart!
The power which makes the difference in overcoming his besetting weakness of will (he cannot do the good he wants to do) comes from his relationships with those who have his true best interest at heart: His Babo (Geppetto), the talking cricket, and especially his Fairy God Mother! When he finally gets out of himself he is thereby transformed into a man, always with the intervention of the Fairy with the Blue Hair--Our Lady!
No one can convince me that the author did not intend some allusion to the Madonna, ubiquitious in all households and towns, even in the Italy of today! This is the story of every man, who will only become a real man when he learns to make a donation of himself on the occasion of work, for others. Our Lady is the sweetest encouragement in that, and grace (God's free gift) is the only source of power for that work.
The development of the story in the newspaper.
http://cinquantamila.corriere.it/storyTellerThread.php?threadId=pinocchio
Biffi and Messorio a story of salvation.
http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/1999/aprile/15/Pinocchio_bravo_burattino_cattolico_laici_co_0_9904153214.shtml
The Masonic Angle
http://vigilantcitizen.com/moviesandtv/the-esoteric-interpretation-of-pinocchio/
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