There
are times when you just find it hard to find the right words to express
something. Seriously… How can you express Mona Lisa’s mysterious smile in words
or tell a blind guy what Red color looks like? Walt Disney’s classic of sight
and sound falls comes under this category. Made in 1940, this film was
groundbreaking in its animation style back then. Even after more than 70 years,
the film’s power has not lessened. This is an art film where Disney artists
came up with their own sights and images for the ‘music’ that’s playing in the
background. There are six main animated segments, accompanied by classic music
and Deems Taylor plays the host who presents these segments before their
commencement. When he’s done, we see Conductor Leopold Stokowski’s figure,
bathed in brilliant splashes of colour, guiding the beautiful music played by
The Philadelphia Orchestra. The film fades and the images flow in the screen,
dancing to the beautiful music.
Grandiose,
but never pretentious, Fantasia is a true work of art. The artists exploit
their freewill of interpreting classic works of Western music and the result is
as thrilling as a roller coaster ride. Sometimes these segments have a definite
story. Sometimes, there’s no definite plot but it does contain a series of
definite, abstract images. And then there’s the kind where music exists for its
own sake. As Fantasia is divided in six main segments, I’ll go through each and
every one giving a brief description about them and what I felt about them.
This is a difficult task, yes, especially when you are trying to describe the
emotional effect the astounding marriage of sight and sound had on you. But
this amateur reviewer will try his best. And I won’t be covering everything, as
I want many things to come as an absolute surprise to you.
Here
we go…
1st
Segment: The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a
In
this beautiful segment, we witness the changing seasons brought about by the
magical fairies. This segment presents a variety of dances, performed by
various ‘elements’ of the Mother Nature as the seasons change… This is one of
my least favorite segments yet the animation is jaw-droppingly (Is that a
word?) powerful and one of the most complex I have ever seen in any hand-drawn
animated film. This is a segment that takes place in a forest, on a river and
even underwater. My God, they even animated the ripples that the fish, while
swimming, produce! We see a spider’s web getting covered in dew drops as the
magical fairies dance about it while the celesta plays silently in the score.
The beautiful harp plays along as the leaves dry up and fall in a poetic way.
We see the fish dancing with their beautiful long fins as the violins play
lazily in a dreamlike manner. We see the brilliant ballet of the fairies in the
end as they cover everything in frost to welcome the winter. The frost crystals
shown in this last part looks unbelievably 3D-ish! This is a very meticulously
detailed segment where imagination is allowed to flow freely. Attention has
also been given to the facial expressions of the fairies like one fairy looks a
bit bored as she might be tired of these daily chores!
What a
beautiful interpretation of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite.
Although, some of the ‘dances’ in this sequence were a bit unappealing to me,
it was still a wonderful watch, thanks to the ahead-of-its-time animation.
3.5/5
2nd
Segment: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
This
is one of the most iconic scenes in cinema and it stars… Mickey Mouse! This is
a definite parabolic segment based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s poem. It’s
the story of an apprentice (Mickey Mouse) who tries to attempt a few of his
master’s magic tricks but doesn’t know how to use them! One day, he’s ordered
to carry water to fill a cauldron. When the master goes away, he uses magic to
make the broomstick carry water for him. But he doesn't know the counter spell
to stop it! A very thought-provoking story that also entertains. Mickey’s
child-like performance as he plays with powers beyond him is immaculately
captured through hand-drawn animation. The music composition done by Paul Dukas
truly was a proper selection for this segment as it beautifully portrays the
emotions of naughtiness, guilt and that feeling of awe when you try out
something new.
I
really enjoyed this part. And it has no dialog!
4.5/5
3rd
Segment: Rite of Spring
According to our host,
Composer Igor Stravinsky had created the score in order to depict the beginning
of life forms on Earth, how some of them evolved into Dinosaurs and how they
eventually died. The Disney animators bring this vision to life in this
segment.
This is another extremely
complex segment where we journey through the Milky Way, reaching Earth which is
nothing but a big hot mass full of active volcanoes and storms. So many things
happen at once, all of them ‘performing’ at the mercy of the gigantic score.
The volcanoes roar… Hot yellow bubbles explode… The Earth breaks and volcanic
rivers flow into a giant sea… Moments later, we witness life evolving in the
seas…
Once
again, the animation is grand in scale and, surprisingly, there’s total absence
of sound effects. As promised, it’s just sound and images mixing together to
re-create the events of evolution, the way science claims it had happened. This
is a very powerful visceral experience.
4.5/5
4th
Segment: The Pastoral Symphony
Ah…
Now we have arrived at my favorite part of the film. The legendary Composer
Ludwig van Beethoven’s score accompanies a gathering of mythical Greek
creatures. Fauns, Centaurs, Cupids, Pegasus and many other creatures join in to
party with Bacchus, the lord of wine. Later, the party is interrupted by a
giant storm…
This
segment is an explosion of colors. Imaginations of the artist run wild as they
paint this scene with all the colors of the world and place the purest fruits,
flowers in this scenario. To make the setting more wonderful, the art-direction
adds heavily to the mythical aspect. And then the characters fill in the scene,
captured with poetic mise en scene all performing once again to Beethoven’s
beautiful score. This scene is so rich that rivers of wine fill the land
(Literally) and the rainbow almost pours its colors on the entire setting. I
can go on for ages in the process of describing this scene but I’ll save you
the time and let you discover the well-engineered wonders of this segment. This
part defines Heaven for me. Yes, this is what it looks like. Masterpiece.
5/5
5th
Segment: Dance of the Hours
This
is a comic ballet depicting: morning, afternoon, evening and finally night. A
certain different groups of ‘performers’ dance to Composer Amilcare
Ponchielli’s score, depicting different hours of the day. I’ll keep this a
surprise as who the performers truly are. A comic sequence indeed but I
personally found myself bored most of the time. This segment is just dance,
dance and more dances. I’ll just say that the animators were ‘too’ imaginative
in this scene and it would have helped if a few things were cut down. Still,
it's worth watching this dreamy sequence.
3.5/5
6th
Segment: Night on Bald Mountain and Ave Maria
Now
you have reached the most serious part of Fantasia. This segment has two
different pieces of music in it but when put together it forms a battle between
the forces of good and evil. That’s how the animators interpreted it. This
segment depicts the gathering of the forces of evil and restless spirits
summoned by the powerful devil Chernabog. The evil forces perform a sort of
dance macabre in front of the devil who admires them and toys with them. The
grand score that plays here is Night on Bald Mountain (The segment does take
place on a mountain) composed by Modest Mussorgsky. Once again, the animation
here is bold, complex and full of impressive imagination. The way the devil
summons the dead from the abandoned town, the way the dead come out of their
graves, sometimes ghostly figures of knights and soldiers who possibly died in
some war, is a sight to behold. The atmosphere is both melancholic and dark.
The emotions are furthered intensified by the music…
And
then… their terrible soiree is interrupted by a sound of a bell. Probably it’s
a church bell. The devil and the forces of evil retreat as dawn slowly bring in
warmth and hope. Franz Schubert’s iconic Ava Maria fills the air, coming from a
group of people, supposedly Monks…
If the
Pastoral segment depicts paradise, this final segment depicts our material
universe. There is good and evil everywhere… but in the end it’s the good that
always triumphs. The hour is darkest just before dawn…
My
second favorite segment in Fantasia. Another flawless masterpiece.
5/5
Whew!
So now we have almost arrived at the end of this huge review. I don’t know if
I've become successful in expressing what Fantasia is about. But if I have,
well and good. You see, art has so many different forms. Sometimes it has a
definite meaning and sometimes it’s left for the viewer to decide what certain
aspects actually depict and what they see in it. Fantasia is a grand and
audacious art. It’s a visceral experience that simply exists to feast your
senses and serve as a reminder that cinematic art has no bounds. Don’t worry,
mate. This isn't something heavy or boring artsy-fartsy stuff. It’s pure cinema
that is meant to be felt. Fantasia, for me, was like entering a child's imaginary
world where all the stories that probably his parents told him come to life.
But Fantasia IS a dream world and what a stunning dream it is!
Although
I wasn’t impressed by few of it’s segments, the experience as a whole was
unforgettable. Please don’t miss it…
4.4/5
