It all started with a mouse. One whose star was waning on Hollywood. In defense of his little rodent, Walt took the concept of his Silly Symphony series, lopped off the 'Silly', dressed it up in a tuxedo and suckered young children into watching the company's beloved mascot axe-murder the anthropomorphic broom he had just brought to life. So many wonderful theological questions glossed over.
When the production of The Sorcerer's Apprentice grew too ambitious, Walt E. Coyote redoubled his efforts and gave us the most nightmare fuel laden (read: awesome) symphony hall presentation any of us will ever reluctantly sit through.
Walt had intended Fantasia to be an ongoing presentation of recycling, with new segments replacing old and new ticket prices replacing studio pink slips. Alas, this would never come to fruition until sixty years later with the release of Fantasia 2000 (alas).
Both films have strengths and weaknesses, so it's only fair to pick apart the whole two act program to find out what truly works and what doesn't. Here is Not-the-Neverending-Story's Fantasia.
The WTF in D minor by Johann Sebastian Bach
What can I say, I love this segment. The animation in this opening really captures the sensation of falling asleep, which is what most people do in the symphony hall anyway. I love abstract sequences, and this is the perfect music video length for one. Hey Disney! You keep teasing us with rumors about a fifth Orlando park. How about a dark ride based on this one segment? I would ride that over and over!
The Nutbutter Sample Tray by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Really, spell check? You recognize 'Pyotr' but you think 'axe' is misspelled? Whatever. Here we have popular excepts from The Nutcracker Suite, continuing the abstract motif. Boy, these hand-drawn animations are amazing! You'd have to go full on Tex Avery to make fish any more seductive. The peak happens with the well-timed Russian Dance mini-scene, but the whole thing is solid.
The Source of All Apprehension by Paul Dukas
Yeah, this is the one. Mickey Mouse's delve into psychological horror was destined to be a classic on its own. Everything about this works from the soft opening to the creeping suspense to the imposing resolution with retroactively named Master Yen Sid. It's fitting that this is the only segment to appear in Fantasia 2000, and unintentionally telling of what was inherently wrong with the sequel that was clearly designed for a shorter attention span.
Rite of Spring (minus Spring) by Igor Stravinsky
Things start to slow down a bit here. Until we get to the part with the dinosaurs it feels like a kind of fish-sequence rehash from the Nutcracker. But then the dinosaurs come and, just like in real life, freaking rule. By now is when parents have probably figured out that taking their children to a Disney movie on blind faith may have been a mistake as we've had two sequences that make no sense, Mickey being struck with a broom, and now this. The stegosaurus didn't deserve what happened to it, but kids, life isn't fair. And then there's the extinction. Because we're all going to die. So, who's afraid of the big bad wolf now? Huh? Good night.
Intermission
The film takes a pause to breathe and so shall we. James Taylor (it's good to know we've got a friend, even if it's a different guy) fills in the fades between scenes, and he plays it straight for the original. The sequel uses multiple celebrities to insist we're still interested, and I daresay it more distracting than not. Quincy Jones and Bette Midler fair just fine, but the forced jokes give Fantasia 2000 an overall dumb downed feel. (I love Penn and Teller but God, this is their sellout moment.) But back to the original. James Taylor's interactions with the character of the soundtracks is a wonderfully entertaining palette cleanse before going into the weaker second half.
The Passed Over Symphony by Ludwig an Beethoven
Beethoven's got an incredible body of work. I don't know why they had to pick a boring one for this film. James Taylor insists that the music tells a definite story. It doesn't. If you like watching half-horses and naked children running around then I'm sure you'll love the colors on display. But this is the one I always skip. Oh yeah, there was that racially offensive centaur named Sunflower in the early distribution of this film. She got excised along with the whole film of Song of the South. And that's truly the most interesting thing to say about this segment.
Drag of the Hours by Amilcare Ponchielli
I have mixed feelings on this one. Certainly, we needed a fun piece in this film, and the character choices make for really good ballet parody. The problem is the visual pacing. If you're going to do comedy, you have to go for it. They needed about three times the gags for this to come to life, and they needed Chuck Jones. A lot of people love this segment, and I don't blame them; there were some really strong ideas at play. But the Dance of the Hours that I grew up remembering was a hell of a lot funnier than the one Disney actually produced.
Final Boss Battle/Yay Morning by Modest Mussorgsky and Franz Schubert
I want to do this in reverse order, because there's an unfortunate truth about human nature revealed in this duet of pieces. Good's defeat of evil gets boring real quick. The Ave Maria piece is beautiful, and dull. Nobody cares. Yes, we're all happy that the night ended and we lived to see anther day, but just run the freaking credits already!
Now for the star of the show. Man! Mickey Mouse just got demoted to second billing. While not technically the devil, Chernabog is the iconic depiction of a raw, unbargaining force, like a natural disaster with self-awareness. How do you defeat him? You just don't. You hide under the covers until the Ave Maria starts playing. That's it. You know, I sometimes wonder what would happen to an expedition trying to scale Bald Mountain on the wrong night. Is that movie in the works yet?
Mambo No. 5 in C minor by Ludwig van Beethoven
We're in Fantasia 2000 territory now and giving Beethoven another shot. This is meant to be the modern Toccata and Fugue sequence, but unlike its predecessor it's actually a concrete story with stylized butterflies and bats. Problem one: the pendulum-in-favor-of-happy ending feels gratuitous. Problem two: Beethoven's Fifth is SO well known that it's ultimately impossible to put satisfactory visuals on it. The end result isn't bad, but there's a lot of pressure on the opening segment, and this one doesn't really measure up. It probably would have worked better as a second half adrenaline jolt.
Prince of Whales by Ottorino Respighi
This is practically the same story as the opening. Whales are migrating, but a young calf gets separated from the herd and trapped under ice because of something Elsa did off camera. But he finds a way out and is reunited. The whales fly off. The ending still makes more sense than Grease. The CGI whales are beautiful, even if they aren't quite as stunning by today's 'everything is a special effect' standards. But it's slow, and when you're not blown away by the animation, there's not much else to really care about.
Grape Soda Blues by George Gershwin
Like The Sorcerer's Apprentice before it, this was the piece of animation that the rest of the film was built around. Eric Goldberg was the head of production on this segment, and he really tried to make it work. I don't believe he did. The Al Hirschfeld design is well done and the story content holds together better than it probably should. The problem for me may be subjective. Rhapsody in Blue is my favorite classical composition ever. But musically, it does not sound like it has a happy ending. A visual component depends entirely on what is done with that upward scale near the end of the piece followed by the pause and the downward crash. That's the moment of the heartbreak, and it's the most important thing about the whole composition. And the nanny fainting doesn't cut it.
Pinocchio Comprendo No. 2 by Dmitri Shostakovich
Seriously, spell check! How do you know all the Russian names but CGI is a typo to you? Okay, so we have a Hans Christian Andersen story retold with a deserved happy ending, because Andersen's head was as child appropriate as Trent Reznor's. The animation here is drop dead gorgeous. This is probably the best piece in the film, even if the music doesn't exactly fit the story (it comes close enough). And that is one horrifying f**king jack-in-the-box! I think even the Joker would look at that and say, "Dude, dial it down." These characters really come to life in their short screen time. A nearly hidden gem.
The Carnage of the Animals, Finally by Camille Saint-Saens
Too damn short, but great while it lasts. This is the pace that Dance of the Hours needed to reach. Why they didn't use Carnival of the Animals as this film's Nutcracker is beyond me. They could have taken about five short pieces and done something really fun.
Romp in Circus Tents by Edward Elgar
These snarky titles are really getting to be a pain. So THIS could also have been the pace of Dance of the Hours. Donald Duck is in great form here; it really makes you miss the era of cartoon shorts. It's got everything. It's funny, it tells a story, there's some basic emotional tension. This was an inspired piece. I'd love to take the first half of the original film and skip to the strong segments in the second half of the 2000 version (and end on Chernabog) if they ever tried to release the Fantasia experience as a single film.
Fire-Resistant Suit by Igor Stravinsky
This is supposed to be the Chernabog/6:00 AM at Freddy's companion to end the film. Again, the animation is beautiful, looking almost plagiaristically like Hayao Miyazaki. The Spring Sprite, the elk and the Firebird are all dynamically designed. But the pace falls apart real fast. We don't spend enough time with the Sprite before she meets the Firebird. And the Firebird does its thing like it can hardly wait to get out of the picture. And I know the animators are kind of at the mercy of the music length, but there was a real missed opportunity here. This piece was never going to dethrone Chernabog's iconicness, but done right it could have challenged him.
We still have Kingdom Hearts III, if they would only stop dragging us back to Agrabah.
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