The One That Brought Classical Music To Life
So, you might think, after two groundbreaking masterpieces that made them all obscenely rich, Disney would take a step back and make something considerably easier for the next movie. To put it simply: NOPE. Because Walt Disney never did anything that anyone would expect, apart from 40 odd years worth of cinematic revolution and magic. So he quickly unveiled his most ambitious project thus far that would challenge everything he’d established in his own genre. But instead of going with another movie that told a definite story like Snow White and Pinocchio, Disney chose to make an extremely risky exhibition of the art form of animation that was also a positively reverent tribute to classical music and its power.
The story goes that the inspiration for this movie was a 1936 short called the Band Concert, which I’ve seen, where Mickey leads an orchestra, which failed to recieve an Oscar nomination. While Donald Duck, much to his delight, was beginning to become the favourite of Disney's original characters. Unfathomable to consider now, but at the time, it looked like Mickey was on the way out. So, determined to return Mickey to his rightful place, Walt began developing an extravagant short for Mickey to headline that he called the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, after the poem of the same name by Johann von Goethe and the music of the same name by Paul Dukas. The short was intended to expand on the concept of fusion between animation and classical music found in some Silly Symphonies.It was then, at a restaurant in Hollywood, that Walt happened to meet one Leopold Stokowski, then the conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, where they discussed this idea of a classical music short. Leopold, being a Dukas fan, offered to conduct the piece himself.
But then the producton cost grew to 125 grand and it became clear that Walt was never going to make that money back with the short standing alone, so The Sorcerer’s Apprentice became one short in a full length film full of shorts, each set to their own piece of classical music. Several pieces were discussed for the programme of this daring new film, newly called the Concert Feature, and in '38, Walt gathered 60 guys for a two hour and thirty minute concert to show a rough cut of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice and to discuss the rest of the project. Afterward, those 60 guys went nuts, which confirmed to Walt that this could be something amazing. A publicist from Radio Keith Orpheum Productions then asked Walt for a better title than the “Concert Feature”, (Though personally, I think that sounds fine). So, Walt let his guys vote on a new name. 18,00 new ideas were submitted, among them, Fantasia, so they went with that. In late 1938, there were seven classical music pieces finally confirmed and production began.
There were three different kinds of music in the program. Firstly, that which told a definite story. Secondly, that which had no specific plot, but painted a series of more or less definite pictures. Thirdly, that kind which “existed simply for it’s own sake”, whatever that means.
THE PLAYLIST
The bold decision was made to begin with music of the third kind. With a combo of the Tocatta and Fugue by J.S. Bach with the animation of Oskar Fischinger. Luckily that paid off, albeit in a slightly odd way.
Second was an homage to the Silly Symphonies; a combo of the Nutcracker Suite ballet by Tchaikovsky, with images of dancing fairies, mushrooms, fish, flowers, and snowflakes. This one is my personal favourite of the whole show.
Third was the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the one that was meant to be the focus of the whole movie and which would, as Walt had hoped, cause a huge resurgence in Mickey Mouse’s popularity and marketability, resulting in a huge collection of brand spanking new Mickey merch. I can take it or leave it, myself.
The first half of this film ends with an overly long and detailed, borderline bloated story detailing the first millennia of life on Earth, according to 1940s science. From the very quiet dawn of the universe to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Set to the Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky, and featuring some admittedly incredible animation.
And that’s the first half. The second half I would not dare spoil.
MY VERDICT
Oddly, the classical music community rejected this film, with several noted composers and critics feeling like it robbed the music of its integrity. Which is bollocks. Just because the music is set to a cartoon doesn't make the music any less great; one of the pieces is the Nutcracker, for God's sake. If that ballet had any more integrity it would be living and breathing.This film is a masterpiece the likes of which Disney has never done before or since. There were attempts to recapture that magic with some of the package films, but none of them had the same amount of love, passion, and dare I say, money put into them. So this film is a perfect example of “often imitated but never duplicated” genius.
Is Fantasia a Disney classic?: Once you become old enough to appreciate classical music, Hell yes.
No comments:
Post a Comment