Pleasure Island is a fictional amusement park from the Pinocchio canon. Located in the fictional land of Cocagne, Pleasure Island serves as a haven for wayward boys, allowing them to drink, smoke, and vandalize without recrimination. However, the truer and more sinister purpose of Pleasure Island is eventually revealed as the boys gradually begin to physically transform into donkeys.
Morality
The segment from Pleasure Island is, like much of Pinocchio, a tale of morality. The boys who are taken to the island go voluntarily with the promise of fun and unlimited freedom. While on the island, the children are encouraged to commit acts of vandalism, fight, drink alcohol, smoke cigars, and gamble - all things that good little boys are not supposed to do. The transformation into a donkey is not instantaneous. When boys arrive on the island, they remain human for some time before showing any signs of change. The first indication is braying replacing the boy's normal laughter, followed by the growth of donkey ears and a tail. The head, and extremities come next, after which the boy is then forced into a quadrupedal stance. The final notable change is losing the ability to speak. Before the donkeys leave Pleasure Island, they are checked to make sure they have lost their ability to vocalize, which signifies they are fully transformed.
Trivia
The Pleasure Island theme was taken up again by science fiction author Cory Doctorow in his short story "Return to Pleasure Island", where it is told from the perspective of cotton-candy-vending Golems.
