Bambi (1942)

Today, we have Disney’s first feature length Public Service Announcement, Bambi. This is considered a true Disney classic, but like Dumbo, I’ll admit that I haven’t seen this since I was a child. I remembered even less of it than Dumbo. All I knew was that there were deer, a rabbit named Thumper and (spoiler) Bambi’s mom dies. Overall, I would say that this was a good movie. It also pushed the animation ability of Disney forward.

Original Poster Source via IMDB

Summary: This movie, much like Dumbo, starts with the birth of it’s titular character. As a young deer, he goes about learning about life in the forest. His mother dies, he falls in love and fights for his girl. Some hunters come and accidentally set the forest on fire. Bambi has to protect his love.

It was actually really difficult for me to come up with that summary. Bambi is a simple film. A very simple film. So simple, in fact, that our cat sat and watched the movie for thirty minutes and he seemed to be following it. There’s not a lot of story to speak of, really. It follows the early life of Bambi and his development from a fawn to a buck. 

 That seems to be the major theme of Bambi, the growth of a young fawn to a buck. The movie uses this story as a metaphor of sorts to demonstrate the growth of a young boy to a man. Bambi starts out his life following his mother, learning the ways of the world and making his childhood friends. As well as being his mother, Bambi’s mother is also representative of the safety and security of our childhood home and our existence in the world of innocence. We see as he develops from barely walking to hopping, skipping and speaking. From this point, his ability to interact with the world is enough where his mother feels him able to interact with “the meadow.” “The meadow” is the outside world, where Bambi can interact with others of his kind. There’s a flipside, in that “the meadow” also carries the potential risk of danger. In this realm, humans are harbingers and representative of chaos. Its this meadow where Bambi first meets his father and his future love, but it is also in this meadow that he loses his mother. And with that, he moves from youth to adulthood, from innocence to experience, from the protection of home to the uncertainty of the world.

In his new adult life, Bambi seems to start by continuing with how he was living before. But soon, we see, his friends start to fall in love and settle down. Soon, he too finds a mate, the girl from his youth, but he must fight for her, a problem that must be overcome much like what might pop up at the beginning of any relationship. In the ensuing fight, he defeats his opponent, completes his transition to adulthood and becomes a man, like his father. This is even echoed by him standing on the ridge much like his father does. After a short “honeymoon” period with his newly won “bride,” the same chaos that he experience in his youth starts to change the world around him. In this time, with guidance from his father, he must overcome this hardship and protect his new family. In doing so, he further cements himself as living into his father’s legacy, becoming the Great Prince of the Forest. Again, this is echoed by him literally mimicking his father with him standing on the ridge. And from this, he settles down, starts his family and the cycle begins anew with his new children.

 But you’re not really watching this movie for it’s story…

You’d watch this movie for the absolute beauty of the art and the animation. This movie was a pleasure to watch. The backgrounds are beautifully painted and capture the concept of a nice comfortable forest perfectly. The character art is some of the best that Disney’s had yet, even better than Fantasia. As far as the animation, altogether, I think the movie is pretty beautifully animated. Definitely better than the more cartoony style of Dumbo, but I’m not sure I’d say that it’s the best they’ve done yet. So far, I’d say that the overall art and design of this film is almost the best they’ve made, but I feel that Fantasia edges it out, just a little bit.

The sound design is good, but the music isn’t anything I’d write home about. There are songs, but nothing as memorable as the previous films. Snow White’s got “Someday My Prince Will Come,” Pinocchio’s got “When You Wish Upon a Star,” even Dumbo’s got “Baby Mine,” but there’s nothing even nearly equivalent when it comes to music in Bambi. 

Even though Bambi doesn’t have the most spectacular music and the story is simple, not super compelling, there’s something about the whole package that comes together and makes, I think, a really great movie. Maybe, not the best of Disney at the moment it was released, but it is definitely worth it’s spot as a classic. I also think this will probably be the best moment in Disney for the next little bit, because we are moving into Wartime Disney. The next couple of reviews will be movies I’ve never seen, most that I have never heard of and, I’ll admit, I’m a little worried for the next couple of week. We’ll see though.

-CJ

Bambi, is one of those films that I watched once as a kid, and semi forgot about. That’s not to say that it didn’t leave an impression on me, for years bits and pieces of it have ghosted through my head, and I’ve always wanted to pick it back up, but never had the chance to until now. Going into this was very pleasant, and I really found myself enjoying this film over almost everything we’ve seen so far. The art, music and voice acting are all supremely well done, the story is entertaining, and over all it’s a really wholesome film with very few flaws.

Bambi is a breath of fresh air compared to Dumbo. Where Dumbo feels like an extended cartoon, that hit the deadline within a few minutes of cut off. Bambi provides a beautiful polished gem of animation that’s well done in every way possible. From the contrasting colors, dynamic lighting, and smooth movement of the movie, every bit of animation in this film is perfect. Nothing feels weird or out of place unlike the previous movies we’ve seen. Unlike the deer in Snow White that felt like moving sacks of flour on stilts. The movements of the deer feel fully natural, and they act like they should in their natural habitat. There’s nothing unnatural to leave you feeling out of place, in fact the entire film feels like you’re on a nature walk through a Bob Ross painting. Speaking of Bob Ross, the back grounds in this movie are beautiful, and offer the perfect mix of subtle detail. They’re often faded, but you’re able to grasp what’s behind the characters. I would almost say that it feels like the movie is one long Bob Ross slideshow with a bunch of animated deer, and birds on the screen. That being said, the use of dramatic lights, and contrasting colors, during the duel between Bambi and Ronno, or the burning of the forest, really create an atmosphere all on their own. The animation of this film is by far my favorite out of the standard movies that we’ve watched so far, but Fantasia still holds the lead.

Bambi does suffer the same way musically Snow White, Pinochio, and Dumbo suffer, the music hasn’t stood the test of time, and while the songs in it are good, they’re a little hard to pick up lyrically. The orchestra comes in a bit strongly, and muddles some of the words in the songs, so you just have to pick it up and go with it. With that exception, the orchestral scores in Bambi are fantastic, they convey a wide range of emotion, and just like Fantasia the animation is paired flawlessly with it. Bambi does have strange vibe about it, where music wise it feels like it’s riding Fantasias coat tails, despite being almost three years younger than it’s predecessor.

Story wise Bambi feels and plays out like a proto version of The Lion King. It has the bond of the young prince with his parental figure, who he then loses half way through the film. While the two films may split here, we do end up with the same conclusion for each, with the young prince becoming the king/ Great Price of the jungle / forest. I would say this is why I love this movie so much. The Lion King is one of my favorite movies of all time, and it’s a bit hard to break away from comparing the two so much with story. I would imagine that this is one of the reasons that Bambi stuck with me the way it did, even though I only saw it once. Growing up I wanted another story like The Lion King, but I also wanted something that resembled where I grew up in Oregon.

The one major issue I have with Bambi pacing, and it’s in the most significant and serious section of the movie, when Bambi loses his mother. The setting for Bambi’s mother is well executed, and well set up, and I actually felt myself getting a little tense with what was going to happen despite knowing the plot. For those that may not remember, Bambi and his mother are out in the meadow, a place that she’s told him he must be wary of. They uncover some new spring grass and are grazing away when the first notes of hunters theme start creeping in over the soundtrack. Bambi’s mother goes on alert, and we get a few moments of her swiveling her ears, and looking around. It sets the mood fantastically, and gets you ready for what you know is coming. She tells Bambi to run, and we start getting shots of both Bambi, and his mother, then just Bambi. His mothers voice becomes fainter and fainter, before we hear the final gunshot as Bambi heads into the woods. This scene is set up and executed so well and I certainly see where people would consider this to be one of the most heart breaking Disney films of all time. The actress that plays Bambi’s mother has real panic in her voice when she tells him to “keep going” and “don’t look back” and it really tears into you.

After Bambi loses his mother, it starts to snow outside the thicket, and he starts looking for her. His voice echos in the silence, and we get another great bit of music with a choir singing low and slow as they would at a funeral. The world around Bambi is empty, and he’s the only thing we’re allowed to focus with or interact with. It’s as if we’re walking alone along side of him. The next thing we get is a blurred focus shot of The Great Prince of the Forest watching his son with the famous quote of “Your mother can’t be with you anymore.” He takes Bambi and we’re left to watch them fade into the snow fall. The entire scene takes less than ten minutes from start to finish, but it leaves you with a punch to the gut.

This scene is fantastically set up, and then it’s all ruined with the most disgustingly happy song about springtime I could imagine. Instead of the sad gray of winter, we’re met with pink, green, and yellows of spring, and birds whizzing and singing in the branches. It’s a weird jarring transition and it’s the one main thing about this movie that I really dislike. In The Lion King we’re able to grieve with Simba and accept his fathers passing, and here we’re swept off into the second half of the film. There’s no time to mourn, or to fully take in what’s happened. It feels like the movie came to a screeching stop, then started back up again without warning.

All and all, Bambi is an absolute gem of animation, and I’m really thrilled to be able to see it again. It has very few flaws, and other than feeling over extended cut of Fantasia, with a bit of well done voice acting thrown in to keep the plot line going. The music, use of dramatic lighting and color, along with the well done voice acting puts this as my second favorite film to date. I really did try to find something about this movie that I disliked, but in the end I couldn't find anything, other than the one transition. This will be the last movie that I’ve actually scene before, until we hit the 1950’s with Cinderella, so I’m very interested to see if anything will come and knock Bambi out of it’s current spot.

-AJ

Dumbo (1941)

Today, we have Disney’s The Little Elephant That Could and by that, of course, I mean Dumbo. This is another Disney film that I haven’t seen in decades. Of course, I remembered a lot of base elements from this film; elephants, circuses, Jim Crow, flying. But, I completely forgot what it was about or how the story flowed. The experience can be described like seeing a movie that you’ve heard others talk about for the first time. Overall, I’d say that this is a nice, emotionally compelling movie, but I’m not sure that this was necessarily a step forward for Disney Animation Studios.

Original Poster Sourced via IMDB

Summary: The story opens with storks bringing babies to a group of circus animals. Mrs. Jumbo gets brought a son with very large ears. The other elephants make fun of him and call him Dumbo. Soon after, his mom gets separated from him because defends him from a group of children accosting him. Timothy Mouse, a nearby mouse in a band uniform, takes Dumbo under his wing and together they work together to discovered the real potential of Dumbo.

I’ll start off with the music for this film and, my goodness, there’s a lot of songs in Dumbo. The movie starts on a musical piece and there’s a new musical scene ever few scenes until around the midway point of the movie. The first thing I noticed about this movie was it’s music, specifically that it sounds dated. Unlike Snow White or Pinocchio, the music in the movie sounds like it was made in the 1940’s and, because of this, I find it difficult to separate this movie from the time it was made. It slows down a little after that, but the movie remains fairly musical. I would say that this movie, even more than Snow White or Pinocchio, sets a standard for future “Disney Musicals.”

Disney is peculiar with the concept of musicals. Until the “Disney Renaissance,” I don’t feel that Disney had any “real musicals.” Everything was more like Dumbo, where there are musical-esque songs, but they aren’t used as much, or in the same way, that an actual stage musical might use it. There’s just a different feeling and flow in the music. For example, I think it’d be hard for anyone to say that The Aristocats or The Jungle Book are musicals, in the traditional sense, but they have diegetic songs, sang by the characters that comment on their situation. On the offhand, things closer to the “Disney Renaissance,” such as The Lion King or The Hunchback of Notre Dame are much closer in feeling to a traditional stage musical.

I feel that the animation for Dumbo is a downgrade from previous films. Not that it looks bad, per se, but the animation changed from a more grounded style, such as Pinocchio and Snow White, to a much more cartoon-y style. It’s jarring when you’re coming from Disney’s past work. The movie has some much more expressive sequences because of this cartoon-y nature and, given the length of the film, a lot of emotion and information is conveyed in these animation sequences. Despite this, I find it hard to shake the feeling that this movie is less serious and cheaper than previous offerings. That, combined with the extremely short length (64 minutes), makes Dumbo feel like like an extended short, not a feature length animated film.

The length is biggest flaw with Dumbo. This might be taken very negatively, but the movie seems unfinished. Up until this point, Dumbo is the most emotionally engaging Disney animated film. Dumbo’s separation from his mother, the ostracization he deals with, the poor treatment he gets from those around him are all beautifully set up in the film. But when this emotional build-up finally pays off, everything is so rushed that it’s hard to take in. Basically, it seems that the they ran out of time to make the third act, so they wrap it all up in less than five minutes.

From a thematic standpoint, Dumbo seems to be a sappier The Little Engine That Could. This is even referenced with the anthropomorphic train character saying “I think I can” repeatedly as he’s climbing a hill. It also draws inspiration from The Ugly Duckling. As I stated previously, this is easily the most emotionally engaging Disney animated film until this point, even if it is quickly overthrown by Bambi, which is coming up next. Underneath this base level comparison to The Little Engine That Could, there seems to be a strange racial component to the films message. Besides the elephants, every speaking character of the film, and a lot of non-speaking roles, either are or are clearly supposed to be representative of different races that had been marginalized in the U.S. during the time this movie was made. The circus owner is clearly Italian; the laborers that put up the circus tent and the crows are clearly black; the clowns and Timothy Mouse are clearly Irish. The crows, in particular, are pretty egregious, but I think that, like a lot of examples of “racist” caricatures of this and earlier times, people are a little extreme in their willingness to disavow things like this. I could roll out the tired argument that it was a different time, but I think people misunderstand the actual use these controversial elements.

Disney and the animators knew what they were doing, but these characters are cartoons and the expressiveness they’re given is made with purpose. Dumbo is rejected by the other elephants, his own people, and is sent to live amongst the downtrodden and marginalized. I think it’s important to note, the poor situation these different groups find themselves in are presented as how things are, not necessarily how things ought to be. I don’t see it as problematic to show that people are living in a marginalized state, but it might be if you are justifying their position in such a state. It is through his interaction with this world (the “world of experience”) and the assistance of some of the members of this marginalized society, he is able to realize his potential and succeed. Not only does he succeed regaining the acceptance of his own kind, he overcomes them. Much like Siddhartha Gautama or Jesus Christ, Dumbo has to live amongst the common in order to achieve true self realization.

Going off of this quasi-religious theme, I also feel people don’t really understand the significance of the infamous Pink Elephants sequence. I’ve even seen people describe it as a so-called “Big-Lipped Alligator Moment.” What I think people are missing is that this scene is necessary as it acts as a sort of “Bacchanalian Revelation.” Through the use a psychoactive substance, he goes through a metaphorical “spirit journey” and “opens his third eye.” This, of course, is all metaphorical, but I think that it’s an important thematic element for the film. I think it’s also a really cool, fun sequence and it’s probably the best piece of animation in the whole film.

All in all, Dumbo is good. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite and, so far, I think it’s either my least favorite or my second least favorite. It's got the feels, but I'm not sure if this is enough to carry it.

-CJ

Dumbo feels out of place with what we’ve seen so far. It clocks in at only 63 minutes, and it feels more like a long cartoon than a feature film. The colors are bright, the animals are almost feel overly cartoony with what we’ve seen in the past, and all together it just makes it feel over simplified. I still really love this movie, it tugs your heartstrings in a way that Snow White, and Pinocchio fail to do, and I’d argue that out of all of the movies we’ve seen so far that it’s got some of the most memorable songs and scenes of anything we’ve reviewed so far. The main question now is it better than its predecessors?

I would honestly say that the lack of detail in this film is both a blessing and a curse. First and foremost Dumbo leaves me feeling torn about the lack of art in this film compared to what we’ve seen before. There’s a real lack of back ground art from prior movies, and it almost feels harmful. It’s not as easy to fall into the carnival, as it was to fall into the worlds of Pinocchio, Snow White, and Fantasia, and it just leaves me wanting more from this movie. I’d even say that this movie looks like something that came out of “Wartime Disney”. It looks like something we’d get after 1942, or 1943, something like Fun and Fancy Free, or Saludos Amigos. I’d even say if I hadn’t known what year Dumbo actually debuted, I would’ve guessed it hit sometime in the late 40’s or 50’s.

But is the lack of detail really that bad?

While I wish we had more detail in this film, I think it the lack of it actually helps us connect to the characters, especially since Dumbo is mute. We really have no where else to focus our attention to, even when there are people on the screen. When we’re dealing with people they’re overly simplified, or sometimes just blotted out. With the exception of the Ringmaster, and the mob of children that mock and attack Dumbo we’re left with faceless, and detail-less mobs of men.

The lack of backgrounds, and additional characters makes it so we have to pay attention to Dumbo and Timothy and their relationship in the world. Both Timothy and Dumbo are alone in the world, outcasts of society, and this works incredibly well for the ‘feels factor’. Dumbo’s ears end up putting his mother behind bars and eventually ostracize him from his heard. We can assume that Timothy left home to join the circus, to stop being a burden on his family, or to live the dream of being famous. They’re both without friends or family, but they both come together in a tooth rotting sweet way.

Music-wise Dumbo really stands out. “Pink Elephants on Parade” and “When I See an Elephant Fly” are two songs that really stand the test of time. They may not be the most memorable, but they certainly stand out to anything done in Snow White or Pinocchio. I will say I may be a bit bias here, since “Pink Elephants on Parade” is honestly my favorite stand alone song and section of this film. It fully embraces the surrealism of the 1930’s and 1940’s and throws the audience into a chaotic whirling mess.

Story wise Dumbo is well put together. It’s well paced, and we’re not strung along the plot line, but it does feel incredibly short. The action we do see, while in numerous shots, its fairly short and energizing, and helps to move the plot and keep us engaged, and I think that works in the movies favor. I also appreciate that the sentimental moments don’t seem to linger on and on, but there is a jarring interruption in the ‘feels trip’ when Dumbo gets back from seeing his mother. Instead of riding the heartfelt moment, we just experienced we’re met with the clowns discussing Dumbo, and how to use him in the next act. I’d say it ruins the moment, and I’m on the fence about this. I almost wish we’d get more of Dumbo and Mrs. Jumbo’s relationship, and how the separation is affecting them. However, we’re instead treated to a quick dose of how the real world treats Dumbo, and how poorly treated he is. I wish this scene would’ve been a bit longer, and better fleshed out.

The only other thing I have issue with here is the ending. There’s 6 minutes from the time Dumbo gets the magic feather to the end of the film, and in that time we see him fly, create panic at the circus, and see headlined papers about how world famous he is. I don’t hate the ending, but I do wish there had been some more chaos, or a better wrapped up ending. It just feels like Disney met the financial limit for this film, and had to end it.

Dumbo is a good film, but I don’t think it’s the best out of what we’ve seen so far. Snow White, Pinocchio, and Fantasia all look better than Dumbo, and narrative wise, I’d say that Pinocchio still tops the chart as far as narrative goes, with Dumbo pulling a close second. Dumbo would be my first choice musically, since the songs are all pretty catchy. Art wise though, it just doesn’t feel like it’s all there, and that puts this at the bottom of the charts so far for me.  

-AJ

Fantasia (1940)

This week, we have a great movie. A perfect marriage of music and animation; sight and sound; art and entertainment. For a long time, I’ve considered this to be my favorite all time Disney movie. We’ve got Fantasia. And, unfortunately, for the absolute masterpiece that this movie is, it’s not very well remembered. To be clear, in my experience, most people have seen this at some point, but like Snow White, it’s probably been a long time and they don’t remember it. This is a shame, not only because it’s been my personal favorite, but because it’s an excellent movie for people of all ages and gives people a little experience with both quality animation and “classical” symphonic music.

Original Poster Source by IMDB

Summary: Not really much of a plot to follow here. If you haven’t seen it, this movie is a collection of shorts that were made with and for different “classical” pieces of music. Each individual short may or may not have it’s own plot to follow, but the important part of this movie is the pure expression of animation.

Besides the animation shorts, there are some interstitials showing the Philadelphia Orchestra and their conductor, Leopold Stokowski. The interstitials are narrated by Deems Taylor, a music commentator from the time. Besides couple of lines from Mickey Mouse, Deems narration is the only spoken word in the whole movie. Due to the interesting structure of the movie, I plan to go through each short instead of doing a long form review of the whole movie.

The Man, the Myth, the Deems
Source: IMDB

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach:

As Deems introduces, the music piece is “Absolute Music” meaning that it’s abstract, with no story or meaning. That makes this a great option for the opening short, because it can act as a transition between the grounded, real world of the musicians and the fanciful world of animation that the rest of the movie mostly exists in. The abstract visuals and music are almost hypnotizing and immensely beautiful. Everything has this painted quality, which makes it look like a moving Impressionist paining. A similar style is used for the backgrounds of most of the other shorts, which frees up the visual space to showcase the animation better. As a sort of “overture” for the rest of the movie, this short lays the groundwork that everything else is built upon.

Nutcracker Suite by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky:

The Nutcracker has always held a very special place in my heart. To this day, Tchaikovsky is my favorite composer of all time, which makes sense for a slavaboo such as myself. For a time when I was young, my family would go see a production of The Nutcracker every year. The selections of songs they decided to arrange for this short were a great bunch, especially for the faerie/nature imagery that the short is based around. I also think it’s great that they kept true to the ballet roots of the original music, by making most of the short revolve around the dancing of these fae nature spirits. The themes from the music hold true as well. For example, the mushroom dance bit is set to the “Tea (Chinese Dance)” song and the mushrooms have an obvious Asian. The same is with the “Candy Canes (Russian Dance)” section, where the flowers were obviously drawn to look like men wearing traditional Papakhas. The one that I just realized on this viewing is that the “Coffee (Arabian Dance)” piece is put together with fish which do seductive, belly dance type movements, with their tails standing in for traditional Bedlah softwear, such as a long skirt or a hip scarf. All in all, it’s a very interesting take on how these different ethnic dances can be portrayed.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Paul Dukas:

This is probably the best known part of this movie, so much so that Disney decided to showcase it again in Fantasia 2000. Mickey from this short is the literal poster of this movie. They also made a live action movie with the title, though it’s hard to call it a retelling or anything. I’ve always had a problem with this short, because of it’s overwhelming popularity compared to any other part of this movie. Don’t get me wrong, this is a really great short and it’s definitely better than a lot of shorts from this movie, but I don’t think it’s the best. Unfortunately, the Mickey recognition seems to overwhelm any other qualities. The animation is pretty good and the art of Mickey and the Sorcerer (Yen Sid) seems to really set the standard for Disney animation for the future of their feature films, springboarding off of the groundwork that Pinocchio seemed to lay out.

Source: IMDB

The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky:

So, I’m going to be real here and come clean; I actually find this section a bit boring. Until my teens, I would pretty much always fall asleep when it came to this short, for real. Don’t get me wrong here, I actually love The Rite of Spring as a piece of music, one of my favorite pieces of “classical” music to listen to. And, I won’t say that the art is bad or uninteresting for this section, it’s really beautiful and it’s a great archive of what people thought dinosaurs looked like back to the 1940’s. I just think that some of the slower, more drawn out parts of the music combined with the realistic browns of the art combine for a soporific effect for me. This is still a good piece, it’s just not the best for me.

At this point, there’s a short intermission as well as the “Meet the Soundtrack” section, which seems to have been put in here specifically to get people back into an appropriate mindset after the intermission, much like Toccata and Fugue did for the beginning.

Symphony No. 6 AKA The Pastoral Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven:

This is a fun short. It’s hard to say much more about it. The art is beautiful and the translation of the Greek mythology into a really colorful, cartoony style is just pleasant to watch. There’s a few small subplots, one with a baby pegasus trying to learn to fly, one with a centaur trying to find a mate, and then there’s the drama at the end with Zeus throwing lightening bolts at everyone for seemingly no reason. Nothing too profound, but just a nice pleasant little story. The music is great, as you would expect from Beethoven. Pastorale is one of his lesser known symphonies, but it’s easily as good as Eroica or his 5^th Symphony. All in all, animation good; no complaint.

Dance of the Hours from La Gioconda by Amilcare Ponchielli:

This is another piece that, like The Nutcracker Suite, really stays true to it’s ballet roots. For a long time, when I was younger, I actually forgot about this short, but since I’ve gotten a bit older, it’s actually becoming one of my favorite parts of this movie. Take that for what you will. This is a great piece for just showcasing music/animation synchronization. Overall, it’s a good short, the music is nice.

Night on Bald Mountain/ Ave Maria by Modest Mussorgsky/ Franz Schubert:

This is probably my favorite section of the movie, primarily for how much of a tone shift it is from everything preceding it. Unlike most of the other shorts, this looks back in art and animation style, emulating 1930’s style short animation, particularly more Halloween/scary animations that were much more common before the Hays Code came into effect full swing. It’s a fun and spooky short that, combined with the Ave Maria, fulfills a spiritual bend that Toccata and Fugue alludes to near it’s end. Night on Bald Mountain brings a very frantic, energetic feeling that goes with the animation theme of a sort of “devil’s dance” happening in the dead of night and the Ave Maria breaks through that frantic energy and dissipates it into this beautiful, revelation-esque ending. It’s this really great feeling of being bathed in some sort of “divine grace” which cleanses you from the from the frantic nature of the previous song. Basically, it’s just an overall cathartic experience and a great end to work of beauty that is this movie.

Overall, Fantasia remains my favorite Disney film, but I am ready to challenge that with all the movies that are upcoming. It’s just a great anthology movie. We have a couple of those coming up, particularly in the wartime era, but I’m feeling very cautious of those. Fantasia, on the other hand, shows that a bunch of shorts put together in one film can actually make a really great movie.

-CJ

Source: IMDB

Unlike Snow White and Pinocchio, Fantasia has always been one of my favorite Disney movies of all time, so when it came up this week I was really excited to see if it would stand the test of time. While Fantasia is one of my favorite films it's lack of distribution has stopped me from seeing it within the last six or seven years. 

Looking at Fantasia, I would easily say this is where Disney truly found their style. There's only a few areas that seem to hold over from the 30's, and even still they're hardly noticeable. Unlike Snow White or Pinocchio, the animation for the characters feels cleaner and more stylized than Disney's first two works. We're not bombarded with humans with overly pale, and undefined faces, or figures with are overly reminiscent of the 20's and 30's. Instead, we're given a wide range of Disney animator talent that, while different, holds together under a dominant art style.

The use of abstract backgrounds is extremely beneficial to this film. Instead of being overwhelmed by both the animation and music we're slowly led in by lights over the orchestra, which then morphs into cloud forms, and hints of golden bow tips, stings, and flashes of instrument pieces. It provides a very calming atmosphere that allows you to sink into the artwork, and the music together. The animations while very detailed are also very rhythmic, simplistic, and easy to follow with their soft colors. Along with the simplistic details, there's a almost sketchy quality to some of the animation. I especially noticed this in the "Nutcracker Suite." When we view the fish underwater, it's easy to see that the elongated fins have clear brush strokes that define them. Even with this effect it animates very well, and lends a visual texture. This brushwork is also heavily used in "The Rite of Spring" to provide crashing waves, and shifting magma. I think this all works very well for the film, it gives you more to latch on to, and it almost makes you feel like you're in a moving museum.

Source: IMDB

Once we're eased into the world of music and art, we start getting lots of bright enjoyable animation, and again I think this is perfect. We're shown that we're not limited to just the abstract, or to calm nature scenes. We're shown that the world of animation can provide us with a wide variety of content. I will admit, when "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" made its appearance, I felt that it was a bit out of place. However, I didn't mind it once it started picking up. The lack of detail in the backgrounds allowed it to fit into the rest of the start of the film without issue, and by the time we got to the second half ("The Pastoral Symphony," "Dance of the Hours," and "Night on Bald Mountain"; all pieces with higher detailed back grounds, and foregrounds) I found that I didn't mind the added detail. I actually came to welcome it, as it allowed me to more fully immerse myself in these scenes.

I honestly struggled to find anything to dislike about Fantasia but I really couldn't find anything. There's hardly an issue with pacing since each music selection only lasts about 7 to 10 minutes. All of the stories move at a good pace, and have plenty of action to keep your attention focused on the screen. Even the rotoscoping has been done very well in this. While it's used primarily in "The Rites of Spring," to change out each scene, the other areas where it's been used are very limited and don't feel overly realistic.

Music wise, I think this is Disney's best use of music. I know it's not original scores and sing along numbers, but the pieces they chose are fantastic. They set the pace and tones for us, and range from soothing, to primal violence. There are a multitude of pieces that they could've chosen, but I don't think it would've had the same kind of effect (Here's looking at you Fantasia 2000...)

My overall thoughts on Fantasia, is that it's still one of the best Disney movies out there. It blows both Snow White, and Pinocchio out of the water in all categories as far as story, music, animation, etc. I truly feel like Disney hit the nail on the head with Fantasia it's got a perfect blend of abstract, and realism, and a fantastic set up. I honestly can't find anything to critique as far as this movie goes, it's a piece of timeless art that showcases how animation and music were meant to go together.

If anyone is interested I'd rank my favorite parts as:

1. The Dance of the Hours

2. The Pastoral Symphony

3. Night on Bald Mountain / Ave Maria

4. The Rites of Spring

5. Sorceresses Apprentice

6. Terracotta and Fugue

7. The Nutcracker Suite

-AJ

Source: IMDB

Pinocchio (1940)

For our next film, we have Disney’s Pygmalion ft. Jonah and the Whale also known as Pinocchio. This movie is a classic and for good reason. While Snow White may have been the first feature film for Disney, Pinocchio seems to have been much more influential. For a long time, “When You Wish Upon a Star” was the theme for Disney and part of the intro they would put on any of their movies. Pinocchio also laid the foundation for storytelling and art for pretty much every classic Disney movie to come.

Original Poster Source by IMDB

Summary: Geppetto is a lonely clock maker/carpenter/inventor. One night he makes a marionette boy that he later wishes (upon a star) would become a real boy. A blue fairy hears his wish and brings the boy, Pinocchio, to life as a living puppet. She agrees to turn him into a real boy if he can pass her moral test and overcome temptation. To assist him, a talking cricket named Jiminy is assigned as a conscience to keep him on the right path. Following this, Pinocchio deals with temptation and sees the dark places that following the wrong path can lead to. Upon returning home, he discovers Geppetto has been swallowed by a whale while searching for Pinocchio. Pinocchio goes to find him and free him from the belly of the whale. In this act, he redeems himself from his previous moral failings and is determined to be worthy of becoming a real boy.

To cut to the chase, Pinocchio is a good movie. It’s relatively entertaining from front to back and ends with a good moral to show your kids. To start with, the art of this movie is pretty good. While I would say that Snow White has much better artistic heights, Pinocchio manages to avoid the weird, featureless humanoids that Snow White, while keeping animation on par with the rotoscoping that caused the featureless faces of Snow White. Admittedly, The Blue Fairy does get a little close to the smooth-skins of Snow White, but they give her enough facial features and her screen time is so short, that it avoids the existential dread of the Uncanny Valley. The animation of the movie is pretty good, there’s nothing that comes off as poor or weird, but there’s nothing that really blew my mind about it, except for the scenes showing Geppetto’s clocks and the animation of the whale. The scene of Lampwick’s transformation into an ass is extremely effective in expressing the horror of that event, though that was more of a win in the animation direction, than the technical quality of the animation of that scene.

Pinocchio has decent music. Even though we haven’t reviewed a large body of Disney work yet, I already know from prior experience that the music in Pinocchio is only decent at best. What Pinocchio has going for it is that it’s got some very memorable pieces. As previously mentioned “When You Wish Upon a Star” is a fundamental piece of Disney music. Likewise, there’s “Give a Little Whistle,” “Hi Diddle Dee Dee” and “I’ve Got No Strings.” They’re all loaded into the front of the movie and after they pass, the music starts taking more of a backseat to allow the story be told. Another thing to mention regarding the music is that Pinocchio has little to no music/animation syncing, like Snow White had.

Where Pinocchio does innovate is in storytelling. Snow White did have a story, but large parts of that movie seem to be dedicated to showcasing some of the better animation they could do with the bigger production value. Pinocchio, on the other hand, conveys a story that, while simple to follow, I feel is relatively deep in it’s statement on the human condition. On a surface level, the general moral or theme of the movie is that one should follow the follow the straight and narrow path and acts as a moral agent, or there will be bad consequences. Pretty simple, but I think the way it is expressed is much deeper. If you note, Pinocchio keeps making bad decisions throughout the film. He keeps ignoring Jiminy, skips school, follows Honest John, and hangs out at Pleasure Island. Despite doing these things, The Blue Fairy continues to support him, even getting him out of a dangerous situation after he lies to her face. Instead of failing, he eventually becomes a real boy. I think that the point of the story and what The Blue Fairy is trying to teach Pinocchio and us, is that it is human nature to be flawed. We should try to resist temptation, but at some level, it is “only human” to be fooled ad tempted. What’s important is that, when situations are dire, we follow the call to action. For Pinocchio, that was saving his father. The test is less that he’s supposed to be a perfect, moral automaton or “puppet” and that he’s supposed to be a human and, while failing to be perfect, he strives for what is good.

Overall, I feel that this is a great film, but, unfortunately, I think it is overshadowed by the quality of Disney’s body of work. It’s very entertaining and, I would say, always worth a rewatch. In the overall scheme of things, from what we’ve seen, I would put it ahead of Snow White, but just barely, as both are great.

-CJ

Pinocchio was in the same realm as Snow White for me as a kid. I didn't care for it, but I would take Pinocchio over watching Snow White. Re-watching it today, I feel the same as I did back then, however I find myself liking the film a lot more. At this point, I'd actually say it ties with Snow White, or that it may beat it out by some small fraction. While I do notice some similarities in the film, there's also a lot of difference, and I can certainly see that the success of Snow White had a huge impact on how Disney made their movies. 

Similar to Snow White, the backgrounds are extremely detailed, but this time, they feel more fleshed out. Where Snow White left things pretty bight, and washed out, the backgrounds in Pinocchio are rich with color, and the tones set the atmosphere when we change settings or time of day. Maybe it's seeing both Snow White and Pinocchio together, but while the backgrounds are more fleshed out, they didn't capture me the same way Snow White did. They just seemed like they were supposed to be there. Now what did capture my attention are the characters. I think Pinocchio is really where Disney found their style. No longer do we have washed out rotoscoped humans on screen; we have more cartoon-y characters, with physical features that define them. Even the one example we have of rotoscoping with the Blue Fairy seems better improved. She has more definition in her face, and she feels like she should be in the movie. We even start to get the classic Disney eyes, and I think this helps immensely as we get much more emotion out of these characters. The expressions are much more pronounced, and there's a much deeper illusion of life set in front of us. Unlike Snow White, Pinocchio feels lacking in effects. Aside from the underwater scenes, and the smoke in Monstro's mouth, there's nothing super eye catching. Even the smoke rising from Monstro's mouth looks a bit off to me. While things in Snow White looked a little to real, I think Pinocchio suffers sometimes, for looking a little to fake. (While I'm on this subject, I'm just going to say that Monstro is the most horrifying thing in this movie. Something about that little eye just freaks me out.) 

With Snow White I had a lot of issues with the plot. I felt it dragged in all the wrong places, and that it was rushed with the start. I feel like that is all fixed with Pinocchio. Every event that is put in front of us has a good lead up, climax, and semi-resolution, until we get to the next issue. I actually prefer Pinocchio to Snow White for this reason. It keeps my attention and focus, and it keeps me engaged until I get to the next scene. We also have a wider and more complex set of characters, that I feel have more personality, and charm. I feel it's much easier to connect to Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket, and even to Honest John and Gideon. We're not introduced to a cast that is black and white, where one side can do no wrong, and where the other is pure evil. We're dealing with moral imperfections, things that we do that make us human.  We also get some slapstick humor from Gideon and Honest John, that lends some much needed comedy into some serious situations. 

One thing that took me by surprise was the lack of music. Snow White almost felt like a musical, where Pinocchio almost seems to be lacking in it. The whole movie really only has four songs, and two of those seem to be only partially sung. That being said, what it does have feels very up beat, and almost feels out of place in what's supposed to be 1880's Italy. I will say it does have the same issue with Snow White in that the music is dated, and the songs aren't that catchy. Again, that's simply a product of the times. These films are almost 100 years old, and I doubt that in another 100 years some kids going to be actively humming or singing songs like "A Whole New World," or "Poor Unfortunate Souls." 

As far as overall thoughts go? Like Snow White, it's aged well, and it certainly shows the overall improvement of the studio. I would even say I like this movie better than Snow White, with the exception of the story. I just don't think its as classic and as well known as Snow White, and that hurts it a bit. In the end, I feel like it's got to be a tie between the two, I like them about the same, and I'd happily re-watch them again. 

-AJ