Edward Johnson writes…
Greetings! … Walt Disney’s “Fantasia” brought classical music to millions of movie-goers who might otherwise have never heard it and according to its Wikipedia entry, “it is now widely acclaimed as one of the greatest animated films of all time” and has been selected by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.”
Disney Studios can be a bit tetchy about what goes onto YouTube but short clips are evidently allowed. Here are three of them. What is amazing about this film is that every single animated frame was hand-drawn and painted by over 1,000 artists and technicians. Nowadays these things are done by Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) or Artificial Intelligence (AI) which makes the work of the Disney artists all the more astonishing
First, the Tyrannosauras Rex attack in “The Rite of Spring.” Stokowski was a great champion of Stravinsky and had given the US Premiere of the work in 1922 and made its first American recording in 1929. In “Fantasia,” Disney had instructed his artists not to make the dinosaurs “cute” and I’ve often wondered if young kids who were taken to see the film were scared out of their wits by T Rex! …
However, there was nothing scary about the “Dance of the Hours,” the funniest sequence in the whole movie. Here is the hilarious final pas de deux featuring Ben Ali Gator and Hyacinth Hippo …
Finally, the closing moments of the Beethoven “Pastoral” Symphony. This was the most criticised segment of the film due to its mythological setting featuring fauns, cupids, centaurs and flying horses. Still, some may think it has a charm of its own and Stokowski certainly gives the work a “pastoral” ending! …
Voila “Fantasia”!
EJ
