Origin and Creation
Comes from a children's book first published in 1883. Due to the Disney movie based on him he is often considered a Disney property but in actuality belongs in the public domain.
Major Story Arcs
Grimm Fairy Tales
The Grimm Fairy Tales version is told in reference to a modern father who is dealing with the death of his wife and being a single father. He confers with his son's teacher, with whom they later agree to see each other romantically. He returns home and finds the fairy tale book which Belinda has given to his son. He reads the story of Pinocchio, the wooden boy created because the carpenter, Gepetto, has lost his wife and son. The wooden boy strives to become real and goes so far as to run away from home and join a circus. A group of thieves are hired by Gepetto to find the boy, and although they take the reward money, they also plan to free the boy and sell him to a richer bidder. They give him a key to escape his cage, but with his pet cricket advising him, he decides to kill first the circus owner and then the two thieves, the latter of the two being witnessed by his father. The story cuts back to the modern day where the son returns from school and reveals that his teacher died from a suspicious murder that same day. After the school finds the father, he is certain that his son is guilty of the act. As the story picks up, the father asks what his son has done, but when he doesn't answer he allows him to go to school by himself so that he can stay at home and read some more of the fairy tale. After killing the two thieves Pinocchio was dragged into the water, and his father goes in after him. The two are then swallowed by a whale. Gepetto makes a deal with Pinocchio, allowing him to go free provided he try to reform, while he must stay in the whale's stomach. A fairy comes to rescue him and tells him he must be there for Pinocchio. He escapes and when he finds Pinocchio he finds he has killed more, and then Pinocchio kills him as well. The fairy then shows up and reveals she had intended this all along. When the father in the real world finishes reading this he finds his son has set his school on fire. He runs in to rescue him but chooses to leave him to die and rescues another girl instead. Belinda drives away with the boy (now transformed into a wooden person) alongside her.
Pinocchio's happily ever after didn't last too long - he soon discovered that the spell that turned him into a real boy was too literal. He has been a boy since the spell was cast, many hundreds of years ago; longing to grow up, he waits for the day when the Blue Fairy will show her face again. Always seen with Flycatcher and Boy Blue (his roommate), Pinnochio's hobbies are comic books and the toy soldiers made for him by his father Gepetto.
Pinnochio was beheaded at the Battle of Fabletown, but instead of dying he reverted to an inanimate wooden form. For a while, it was unknown whether he could again become a living human. Recently his body was taken by Boy Blue into the Homelands, perhaps to be used as a bargaining tool, or perhaps to be restored in some way...Pinocchio was killed defending Fabletown from the Adversary's attack. When Boy Blue returned his body to Gepetto, Pinocchio was repaired and once again turned to a real boy. He was shocked and dismayed to learn that his beloved father was The Adversary, but since the spell used to resurrect him included a bond of absolute loyalty to Geppetto, he could not leave him again. He remains in the Homelands, depressed and confused by this new state of affairs.
In "Sons of Empire," Pinocchio attends the imperial conference with his father, where he is expected to provide details of Fabletown's population and defenses, having been a longtime resident. When the Snow Queen describes an apocalyptic plans for dealing with the mundane world: a series of plagues, fires and then a three-year winter to wipe out the mundy civilization and reduce any survivors to barbarism, Pinocchio is appalled. After a discussion with Rodney, he finds himself in the position of having to make a counter-proposal. He responds by saying that an attack of that magnitude would prompt Fabletown to reveal its existence to the mundys (mundane peoples), would be so angry at the Empire's use of biological weapons that they would immediately unite with Fabletown and with each other, using their combined infrastructure and technology to invade the Homelands using magic, automatic weapons and fighter jets. As such, Geppetto decides that the Snow Queen's three-year plan will not work. Secretly, Geppetto tells the Snow Queen that they must wipe out Fabletown without first attacking the mundys.
In the War and Pieces arc, Pinocchio later escapes from the Imperial homeworld and makes it to Fabletown, where he negotiates a deal to end the war with the Empire. The terms of the deal are that Pinocchio would reveal the location of a hidden gate to the Fables and, in exchange, Geppetto would be allowed to sign the Fabletown Compact and offered the same general amnesty for past deeds as Bigby and Frau Totenkinder. Pinocchio is able to seemingly go against Geppetto's wishes and ally with his father's enemies because he believes himself to be acting in Geppetto's best interests.
With the arrival of Mr. Dark, Pinocchio and his father leave with the other Fables to the Farm for refuge. During which, the animal Fables are not happy with and attempt to bury Geppetto under the ground. Pinocchio was completely oblvious to their plot and would later find him with Prince Aspen and Princess Alder as his new bodyguards. He also soon watches Geppetto and Ozma fight for dominance of the Farm, to which Ozma brings back an old friend of theirs the Blue Fairy. While the Blue Fairy clearly wants revenge, Pinocchio wants his own on her first.
However, his revenge was put on hold by the Blue Fairy herself. She clearly did not known why he was angry at her, but she refused to hurt him as she saw him like her son. After a firey confrontation, Beast is able to calm down and the fight and she leaves. Attempting to cheer his father up, Pinocchio finds an old set of wooden soldiers Geppetto had worked on centuries before and gives them to his father as a present. Geppetto is pleased and Pinocchio is happy that he's helped his father, unaware that the soldiers are alive and Geppetto plans to use them as his spies.