Movie 12 - "Fantasia"

So I am in the mood for music tonight.  Disney's 1940 (released in 1942) Fantasia is usually overlooked as one of Disney's great animated pictures.  I love it!  People always love it or hate it.  My Gram took my sisters and I to see this I think when we were little.  We saw it at The Palace Theater in Seguin, TX which, to this day, maintains the old time movie theater vibe and decor.  It was the perfect spot to see it!  This blog will be a little different since there are no actors or central plot. I will just tiptoe through the scenes and talk about my favs and not so favs!

Fantasia takes pieces of classical music and gives them a story or visual representation that you may never have thought of otherwise.  It gives the music life and helps it stay with you.  This is a great way to get children to listen to wonderful music.  The first piece is "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" and is strong and resonating.  The images are different abstract lines and shadows dancing across the screen to the music.  I love this piece.  Then comes "Nutcracker Suite" by Tchaikovsky.  But you don't see the ballet's story here.  It is a beautiful story of the changing of the seasons with a little help from the season fairies.  I remember disagreeing with my sisters over which fairies were the best.  I think I picked winter (strange since I hate that season).  Between the seasons come the different sections of the piece, for example, "Waltz of the Flowers" and my personal favorite, "The Arabian Dance."  This scene brought another disagreement with my sis Teresa.  I thought the black goldfish were the prettiest, she liked the white fish that just always seemed stuck up to me.  Anyway!  This piece of music always brings to mind a love story.  I don't know why.  Moving along!  Oh the mushrooms!  I cannot forget the baby mushroom!  He is just the cutest little thing ever.  Brings a good laugh to the film.  Next piece is "The Sorcerer's Apprentice."  I am going to be the bad guy here.  This is probably one of my least favorite pieces in the movie.  Don't hate me!  I think for one, the music is not my favorite.  But two, the storyline-Mickey fooling around with the Sorcerer's hat and causing catastrophic damage-just didn't do it for me.  But I will admit, it is most people's favorite part because it is a true story.  It was actually meant to be a separately released Mickey Mouse short.  Next comes Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring."  This music is joined by images of Earth's beginning up to the extinction of the dinosaurs.  This is my other not so loved piece.  The music is very in your face, almost grating, and , while I love dinosaurs, I don't very much like watching them die in Disney animation.  But not to worry wary readers, my favorite piece, after the intermission and meeting the soundtrack squiggle line, is Beethoven's "Pastoral"!!!  This music is happy, sad, dangerous and then a new hopeful beginning all in one!  It is as close to perfection as a classical piece can come for me.  Then comes the Disney story...and it is great!  It is a Greek mythology piece, where cupids are playing matchmaker to a group of centaurs, while Bacchus prepares for his wine festival.  There are a slew of mythological creatures, like Pegasus and fawns, not to mention a few cameos by various Gods and Goddesses.  Zeus' thunderstorm is lovely.  It is just a very beautifully animated sequence to an equally lovely piece of music.  Are you guys bored yet?  I hope not, because here come the hippos and ostriches dancing their gangly ballet to "Dance of the Hours" by Amilcare Ponchielli (also used in "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh").  Talk about a hilarious take on this music!  Elephants, alligators, hippos, and ostriches dancing their hearts out until utter destruction insues!  Awesome!  Lastly is "Night on Bald Mountain" and "Ave Maria".  This is where creepy comes in!  There are skeletal animals and ghostly people coming from a graveyard.  This is a very dark piece.  The demon arrives and wreaking havoc.  There is alot of fire and smoke and shadow until "Ave Maria" begins.  Then comes a foggy, peaceful dawn with a procession of hope and light moving through beautiful scenery that bursts into a gorgeous sunrise.  Fitting for one of the most moving pieces of music ever written.  

This movie has two of my favorite pieces of music in "The Arabian Dance" and "The Pastoral".  I always said that when I got married I would walk down the aisle to "The Arabian Dance".  I also said that I would make my bridesmaids skip and twirl down the aisle in tutus to "The Pastoral".  Ha!  That's right ladies!  You better pray I never get married.  Nice trip down memory lane with this one.  Don't let the concept scare you away.  This is a great film!