134. FANTASIA (1940)

Running Time: 120 minutes
Directed By: Ben Sharpsteen
Written By: Joe Grant, Dick Huemer
Main Cast: Leopold Stokowski, Deems Taylor, Julietta Novis

WALT GOES CLASSICAL

The second of Walt Disney's entries into the "1001" book chimes in as the third movie from the decade of the forties, as a soundtrack of classical music set over seven different segments of animation. I can honestly say that I enjoyed some of the segments very much, while others left me bored and with a bit of a bland feeling.

I'll spare the plot, since there really wasn't one and just outline the different segments and give my opinions on each. The film opens with the narrator, Deems Taylor, a very soothing voiced man, talking about the process of putting classical scores over Walt Disney animation and the different types of pieces that we're about to see. We open with a piece called Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, which is basically just a smattering of colorful images, accompanied by the sounds of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and is really nothing to write home about, but still a suitable beginning to the film. Following that we get The Nutcracker Suite, which reminded me of a Busby Berkeley musical segment, which started very simplistic and built and built, until we were dealing with something far more grandiose than which we started. I enjoyed this piece fairly enough and the music and the animation flowed together pretty perfectly.

The third piece was the highly acclaimed and most famous The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which was probably one of my least favorite of the pieces and left me scratching my head and wondering why this was the piece that gets the most praise. Sure it was cute, with Mickey Mouse trying to tame his replicating brooms and the sight of the seemingly giant sorcerer was a bit of a grand sight, but still this piece didn't do a whole lot for me and there are far better segments throughout Fantasia.

The next piece may have been my favorite, however the book writes this one off as a segment that doesn't age well. I'll respectfully disagree with the authors of the book and say that The Rite of Spring provided some truly awesome animations, that consisted of dinosaurs, which moved in an almost lifelike fashion and were given very subtle and realistic mannerisms. I really enjoyed this piece and I really can't put my finger on why. There wasn't really anything truly great about it, but it captivated me and kept me tied to the film.

If The Rite of Spring wasn't my favorite piece then this next one was. It was The Pastoral Symphony conducted by none other than Beethoven and used various pieces of Greek mythology to show off a glorious little tale. Utilizing pegasi, cupids, centaurs, Greek Gods and fauns, this was an extremely colorful tale that grabbed my by the eyeballs and didn't let go until Beethoven struck his last chord and the fade to black was embraced. This was another one that started off light, but built into a glamorous showcase of Walt Disney animation and the music accompanied it brilliantly.

The next to last piece was the Dance of the Hours, and yet another one that left me quite bored. Using some of the most ungraceful members of the animal kingdom (ostriches, elephants, hippos) and throwing them into some very graceful situations and having them dance it out, as they represent different times in a single day. Didn't really do anything for me and like I said, left me feeling quite bored and ready to get to the finale of this film.

The final piece was Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Marie, which had the most eerie feel to it, as we dealt with gargoyles, devils and demons and very intense music and even more intense colors. I neither liked, nor disliked this piece and was quite captivated when the flames of fire transformed into three tiny dancers. The menacing and gigantic gargoyle was a bit of a sight, but by the time this piece was shown, I was honestly ready to send this movie home and finish it off already. Two hours for a Disney movie was a bit much for my twenty-five year old self to endure, and while some of the pieces were quite spectacular, as a whole the movie just seemed to drag a bit, during the segments that weren't as exciting.

RATING: 5/10 We'll go ahead and call it right down the middle, as I enjoyed just as much as I didn't enjoy.

NEXT UP: The Philadelphia Story...Grant, Stewart and Hepburn...Sounds interesting and fun, however I've seen it before and don't remember being that impressed...We'll see if time can change that.

June 26, 2010 2:00pm