Fantasia

Fantasia.  A movie with no plot.  No main characters.  No dialogue.

And yet, it's still a beautiful, compelling movie. 

Fantasia  premiered in 1940 and runs just over two hours long.  The film is a compilation of famous musical pieces paired with imaginative animations.  Composers featured include Bach, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and Beethoven.  The score to the movie was provided by the Philadelphia Orchestra lead by illustrious conductor Leopold Stokowski.  Each piece is well introduced by the likable Deems Taylor.

Confession: I am in no hurry to watch Fantasia again.  Of the eight pieces featured, I enjoyed half of them.  However, as a whole 2-hour spectacle, I found myself a bit bored at times.  Second confession: I do not deal well with the abstract.  Fantasia does not shy away from the artistic abstract.

In spite of the above confessions, I can still say that Fantasia is truly beautiful.  It is a wonderful testament to the creativity, artistry, and quality that define the Disney name.

My favorite piece from Fantasia has not changed since childhood.  I still would pick Beethoven's "The Pastoral Symphony" as my favorite scene.  Beethoven wrote the piece to portray a day in the countryside.  Walt portrayed a day in the countryside... in the time and place of Mount Olympus.  Pegasi power through the sky, fauns frolic, and centaurs cavort about.  It's fun and happy and ends beautifully.

The other pieces that I enjoyed were "The Nutcracker Suite"- a journey through the seasons of nature with fairies bedazzling the scenery, "Dance of the Hours"- featuring a ballet of ostriches, elephants, hippos, and alligators, and "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"- perhaps the most iconic role Mickey Mouse has ever starred in.  Mickey continues to win my heart as the Sorcerer's Apprentice every time I see him in Fantasmic.  :)

On a slightly different note, the infamous dance lift made famous in Dirty Dancing by Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey actually happened 47 years earlier... between an alligator and a hippo...

Who woulda thunk? ;)

This week I will leave you with a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche:

Without music, life would be a mistake.

I cannot measure the amount of happiness and joy that I have experienced from music. Disney understood music so well that he was able to make a beautiful movie of imagery and music where words were simply unnecessary.


Coming Up Next Week: Dumbo