The same year as Pinocchio,
Disney released Fantasia, their most ambitious film; the idea of pairing music to animation was something
Disney had tried before, but never on this scale – the result is one of the
most creative and breathtaking pieces of animation ever made. There really isn’t
that much to say about Fantasia,
there isn’t one singular narrative to speak of, all the segments are different
and self-contained and, as people much more knowledgeable and insightful than
me have said in far more eloquent ways, trying to discuss the merit and meaning of music, particularly such
classical pieces, is ultimately pretty pointless. Still, I’ll try my best to
just share how I feel about each of the individual segments of the film. One
thing I will say before I start, is that the one thing I don’t really like
about the film is the introductions by Deems Taylor – he’s charismatic enough
and it’s nice to be told the name of the piece and get a little history about
it, I suppose the intent was to try and educate kids on classical music, but it
just seems unnecessary. If it was just the name of the piece that would be
fine, but he tells you the entire narrative of the short you’re about to see,
what is the point of that? Why not just let me watch it and see for myself?
They could’ve at least flashed SPOILERS before he told me all the dinosaurs
were gonna die, jeez, I hadn’t finished The Flintstones yet. On top of that they have an intermission half-way through
and then a little jam session; I get that this is supposed to break up what is,
for Disney at least, quite a long movie, but did we really need this? If
anything it just makes the movie even longer and this, along with the
introductions, really slows the movie down; I understand that just transitioning
from segment to segment could be a little jarring, considering how different
some of them are in style and tone, but every time this dude’s face came on screen it kinda killed my enthusiasm a bit. Not too big a deal and it doesn’t
really hurt the movie, but I dunno, not really needed.
‘So yeah, basically, what happens is that Luke goes and
trains with this guy called Yoda and then he goes to Cloud City to rescue Han
and Leia – cos Han and Leia got kidnapped earlier by Darth Vader – and then he
fights Vader and Vader tells him he’s his Dad and Luke’s all like ‘Nooo’ and
then he gets his hand cut off and stuff and then it ends. Anyway, please enjoy The Empire Strikes Back’
Anyway, the film starts off with “Toccata and Fugue in D
Minor” by Bach, transitioning from the live action orchestra into an attempt at
animating what might be going through your head when you listen to the piece.
This serves as a good link from the live action introduction of the film into
the world of colour and animation before us, as we slowly transition from the
real into the imaginary; this is one of the most interesting and imaginative
parts of the movie, the abstract shapes and images on the screen are quite a
joy to behold and the way they play with the perspective and the background is,
for want of a better phrase, pretty damn trippy. The way the shapes and
patterns build and move alongside the building rhythm of the song is very impressive;
this perhaps best captures the abstract images, colours and ideas one might
subconsciously associate with classical music. The colours are phenomenal
throughout the film and they are never more prominent or important than here,
they are vibrant, striking and powerful – the use of colour holds this whole
segment together and does so wonderfully, my personal favourite moment being
when sparkles of colourful light fall down the screen like snow fakes, it’s
just a wonder to behold.
Sure it looks beautiful and imaginative but the guy who drew it was probably just staring at the sun with his eyes closed.
Next is the “Nutcracker Suite” by Tchaikovsky, this is one I
don’t really have much to say about, perhaps because it moves through different
pieces of music and animation so quickly it’s kind of hard to get a grasp on
it; that’s not to say it’s bad, I’m just not sure what I can add. The
underwater segments are pretty interesting, as we follow a group of uh, strangely seductive fish (Beginning to think Walt Disney might be a little too into fish) and it’s quite captivating. The “Russian Dance” portion, where what
appear to be thistles dance to the music, is very impressive; there is a lot of
movement here, at some points it is synchronised, but at others, multiple different
images are moving in different ways and a lot is going on at once on the
screen; you have to respect the animators for this level of detail and control
and the amount of time it must have taken to get this right. This part is
lively and exciting and fits the rhythm of the music well, though the rest of
the segment is a little slower and more atmospheric, though again, this suits
the music, so it is appropriate, just a little less exciting, I suppose.
‘Walt Disney? You said he was dead.’
‘No, what I said is that he sleeps with the fishes.’
Next up is the most famous part of the movie, “The Sorcerer’s
Apprentice” by Dukas and starring Mickey Mouse himself; this was pretty much
the only reason I - and I imagine many others - watched the movie when I was a
kid, which is obviously a disservice to the rest of the film, but to my
surprise, I was just as enthralled with this now as I was then. Cliché as it is
to say, this is probably my favourite part of the film; though most of the
other sections are animated and designed in a more abstract way and deal a lot
with nature, life and movement, this is pretty much just like watching a
standard Disney cartoon set to classical music and thus, it is designed in the
traditional Disney way. They continue to the top themselves however, as the
animation here is nothing short of incredible, it’s just so lively and fun, the
colours are great, the backgrounds are great, everything is great, it’s great.
This segment expertly tells a narrative simply through music and animation, the
lack of dialogue doesn’t make it hard to follow at all and even without Deems
Taylor’s rather extensive description of the story prior to the short, you
still understand everything that is going on and get a full and complete story
in less than 10 minutes. It’s also fun to see Mickey be a little mischievous and
have to deal with a mess he made, as opposed to the happy go lucky, squeaky clean figure he’s usually depicted as. The attention to detail is fantastic, the way
Mickey moves his hands to command the broomstick and later, the stars and sea,
is like that of a conductor, as if he is conducting the world itself in time
with the music. This obviously ties in to the nature of the film and supports
its theme of putting movement to music and suggesting that it has the power to
create thoughts and images in our head – by showing Mickey as a conductor able
to control the world around him, it suggests that music itself has the power to
create and control worlds, conducting movement, shape and life through rhythm,
pitch and volume. I think I could watch this 1000 times and never get bored, it’s
just that good – the image of Sorcerer Mickey is one of the most prominently associated with the Disney franchise and after watching this, you can definitely
see why.
‘Oh boy, I am the Alpha and the Omega, ha-ha!’
Next is “Rite of Spring” by Stravinsky, the longest and most
ambitious segment of the film, which chronicles the beginning of life on Earth
to the end of the reign of the dinosaurs. The narrative of this piece follows
the music to a tee, it transitions from slow and quiet to fast and loud
repeatedly, going up and down like a roller coaster, as we follow each of the different
ages of prehistoric Earth from their slow rise to their inevitable crashing fall.
The depiction of the birth of life is mesmerising and quite haunting, as life
grows, it depicts the endless cycle of death and birth and the often cruel side
of nature as animals fight and die to survive. Animals die suddenly and without
warning, one minute gliding along peacefully with the music, before a sudden noise signals their demise at the hands of a predator. Their deaths are rarely spectacular
or theatrical (The main exception being the death of the stegosaurus at the
hands of the T-Rex) but are instead uneventful, highlighting the fact that this
happens every day and is simply a part of life. The dinosaurs display this
callous disinterest to life and death as they waddle along slowly, nudging one another
aside to get to food and water, or sadly giving up when others do so and
looking elsewhere, as if they’re not even bothered enough to put up a fight; it
really makes life and the struggle for survival look quite pathetic and sad.
The animals here are mostly designed and animated in a more reserved and less
cartoon-y manner than Disney is accustomed to; they are not cute cartoon
critters, but real, thoughtless creatures, surviving on instinct alone. They
are mostly dead eyed, slow moving and somewhat lifeless. This adds to the
creepy and unsettling atmosphere of the segment and, along with the music, builds
a foreboding sense of dread, especially since the audience knows what awaits
the dinosaurs. The one change to this is the arrival of the T-Rex, who brings a
singular moment of fear and frantic movement – the rhythm hastens and the music
becomes loud and bombastic as the T-Rex chases the other dinosaurs and kills a
stegosaurus in a large and theatrical battle. The scene is morbid and genuinely
quite horrifying, as is the following scene of the dinosaurs wandering through
the desert, trying to find food and water as the planet dries up; again, they
are not desperate or animated in their struggle, they are slow, lifeless and
almost seem to accept their death as one-by-one, they fall to the ground, even
the once mighty T-Rex. The segment goes out on one last bang as the planet
shifts and changes due to earthquakes and the remains of the dinosaurs fall out
of sight, forgotten; this whole segment is chilling, contemplative and
incredibly immersive. Artistically, it is one of the best segments of the film
and is truly a remarkable piece of animation.
Circle of life, bitch.
“The Pastoral Symphony” by Beethoven follows and is perhaps
a little too light and fluffy for the most part, but it is a welcome breather
after the rather dark and crushing atmosphere of the previous segment. The
beginning is colourful and well-animated, but a little dull, it’s basically
just a bunch of girls getting ready for a date with their boyfriends, which is
nice I suppose? It’s kind of hard to follow “The Rite of Spring”, so I guess it’s
understandable that this isn’t too interesting in comparison. The arrival of Bacchus, who is
delightfully hammered, is welcome – his exaggerated, drunken
movements are enjoyable to watch and the way the animators use his full cup of
wine as a comedic prop is inventive and fun. Suddenly, Zeus starts throwing
thunderbolts at people... I’m not really sure why, Deems Taylor says he’s ‘playing
darts’ but I don’t really get what he means by that. It kind of seems like he’s
just trying to murder everyone. I dunno it’s pretty fun and it looks cool. Not
much to say about this one.
‘Hey, Hercules
isn’t til 1997 so I thought I’d just throw thunderbolts at you guys a bit til then, is that
cool?’
Next is the similarly comical “Dance of the Hours” by Ponchielli,
wherein an alligator dances with a hippo. Huh. The animation continues to be
expressive and lively and some of the stuff is so ridiculous you kind of have
to laugh; it’s definitely silly, but in a good-natured way you can appreciate. Again, I don’t have much to say here and this is probably the least
interesting or creative segment of the film, in my opinion; not bad, just kind
of safe. Very, very strange, but safe. The movements of the animals, the choreography
and the fantastic backgrounds are nice to watch, but it’s nothing to write home
about.
A hippo dancing with a crocodile is a peculiar spectacle.
Finally, we end on another of the film’s best and darkest
segments, “Night on Bald Mountain” by Mussorgsky. This is just awesome, plain
and simple, the music is awesome and the animation is awesome, it just kicks
ass. The demon Chernabog (Or Satan, or the Devil, or whatever you want to call
him) has such a cool and diabolical design, with a wonderfully wicked smile and
callous and careless movements which match the music and demonstrate his
thoughtless attitude towards his servants. Like Mickey, he moves like a
conductor as he orders his demonic hordes, acting as a dark contrast to the
bright and heroic Mickey and showing that music can crush and terrify us just
as much as it can uplift and inspire us. The designs of all the demons are dark
and surreal without being too grotesque, the flying ghosts in particular look
like wall paintings that have come to life, it all suits the tone and style of
the music perfectly. The final transition into “Ave Maria” by Schubert is
perfect; as the dark colours of “Night on Bald Mountain” are replaced by light
and Chernabog and his minions slink away, the bright and hopeful choir of this
final song ring in the last piece of the film. Light, good and hope vanquish
the dark night and all its callous evil, another representation of the values
Disney constantly tries to push in its stories and a perfect way to end one of
their greatest films. The scene is simply a group of people heading to church,
identified in the hazy dawn by their bright torches; it is not showy or
extravagant, but subtle, slow and calm, just like the music, appropriately
peaceful after the loud and bombastic “Night on Bald Mountain” and a soothing
and cathartic end to the film.
I don’t even have a bad joke or barely relevant reference this
is just cool.
Fantasia is so
creative, grandiose and original you cannot help but respect and admire it. Though
it is not one of my personal favourites, I have to accept that, artistically,
this is truly Disney’s masterpiece. It is ambitious, it experiments with style and
narrative and tries something very different and very risky; thankfully, Disney
managed to create a beautiful film that perfectly ties together sight and
sound, music and animation. Fantasia
is a landmark in animation and one of the most ambitious and impressive films
ever made.
Other Thoughts
- Is this still okay?
I think it is...?
- OH GOD THE VULTURES ARE BACK
GO BACK TO HELL WHERE YOU CAME FROM
8/10
Next Week: Dumbo!
Email: joetalksaboutstuff@gmail.com
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