FANTASIA 2000
US, 2000, 74 minutes,.Colour.
Steve Martin, Quincy Jones, Bette Midler, James Earl Jones, Penn Jillette, Teler, Angela Lansbury, Kathleen Battle, Ralph Grierson, Itshak Perlman, James Levine.
Directed by James Algar, Gaitan Brizzi, Paul Brizzi, Hendel Butoy, Frances Glebas, Eric Goldberg, Don Hahn, Pixote Hunt.
Disney’s 1940 and tastier Fantasia is considered a classic, an experiment of its period where animators illustrated a variety of classic music, under the direction of the famed Leopold stick asking.Mr Kosky. The range was wide, a number of popular classics including the Nutcracker Sweet, Night on Bald Mountain.
This film might not have been to everybody’s taste, especially music lovers, but it has survived the decadence.
For the millennium, the Disney Studios chose another eight classics and invited animators to illustrate the music. audience response, on the whole, was positive. The only segment repeated was that of The Sorcerers Apprentice, stirring Mickey Mouse. This time Donald Duck gets a brawl role in the animation of Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstances as the biblical Noah’s story.
A number of celebrities were invited to introduce the various segments: Steve Martin, Quincy Jones, Bette Midler, James Earl Jones, Penn Jillette, Teler, Angela Lansbury, This is probably the least effective aspect of the film – most of them are rather superfluous although Bette Midler comes across very well and Angela Lansbury has a very brief appearance.
1. How do you account for the popularity of this film over the decades? Status as a Disney classic? A classic of animation, of musical entertainment for popular audiences? The appropriate combination of both?
2. The title and its implications and meaning? Fantasy? the role of the animation, the invitation to audiences to respond to music, light, colour, design?
3. The importance of the concert format? A frame of mind for audiences to accept the visualisation of music? The style of the introduction to the music, the orchestra tuning up? Taylor and his introduction and explanation - how appropriate? The role of Leopold Stokowski? The vivid impressions of colour? silhouettes? Even Mickey Mouse entering into the impact of the concert? How acceptable for audiences? To make them feel comfortable?
4. The importance of the explanation of the three kinds of music? Story music with plot and pictures? Secondly, music that was just pictures? abstract and pure music? How well were these types illustrated? Appropriately and in good taste? Did the images compare with the music or enhance it? purpose of visualising and its aid for appreciation?
5. The appropriate use of abstracts: movements, colours, patterns? What was the basic response to the sound? To the combination of both? Any insight into the nature of pure and abstract music?
6. The different styles of animation and how they corresponded with the music?
Symphony No. 5 in C minor-I. Allegro con brio, by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Pines of Rome, by Ottorino Respighi.
Rhapsody in Blue, by George Gershwin.
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major-I. Allegro, by Dmitri Shostakovich.
The Carnival of the Animals, Finale, by Camille Saint- Saëns.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice, by Paul Dukas.
Pomp and Circumstance – Marches 1, 2, 3 and 4, by Edward Elgar.
Firebird Suite – 1919 Version, by Igor Stravinsky.
7. How effective the introductions (and their personal styles) by the celebrities?
Steve Martin, Quincy Jones, Bette Midler, James Earl Jones, Penn Jillette, Teler, Angela Lansbury.
