This is quite obviously a song about the "Pleasure Island" sequence in the Pinocchio story; an amusement park where the boys are taken with the promise of fun and ultimate freedom, and not having to go to school. While on Pleasure Island, the boys are encouraged to fight, gamble, smoke cigars, drink, etc. But as they stay on the island, they all begin to turn into donkeys, and once they are completely transformed they are sold either to the salt mines or the circus by The Coachman.
Kind of a message about morality while being a social critique: If you abandon your education to live a life of pure pleasure, you're guaranteeing yourself a future where the only means to make a living is hard labor (donkeys are usually a beast of burden). And there are plenty of people, such as the ruthless Coachman, who are willing to take advantage of that.
This is quite obviously a song about the "Pleasure Island" sequence in the Pinocchio story; an amusement park where the boys are taken with the promise of fun and ultimate freedom, and not having to go to school. While on Pleasure Island, the boys are encouraged to fight, gamble, smoke cigars, drink, etc. But as they stay on the island, they all begin to turn into donkeys, and once they are completely transformed they are sold either to the salt mines or the circus by The Coachman.
Kind of a message about morality while being a social critique: If you abandon your education to live a life of pure pleasure, you're guaranteeing yourself a future where the only means to make a living is hard labor (donkeys are usually a beast of burden). And there are plenty of people, such as the ruthless Coachman, who are willing to take advantage of that.