Fantasia
Great music, great animation. There’s really not much more to say about it than that. But I feel like should say more.
The first time I saw this movie was in the La Mesa Elementary School cafeteria when I was in Kindergarten. It’s not a short movie by any means, and my sister was 3 and I was 5 and saying that I was bored would be an understatement. But I have since come to love it.
I am a big fan of classical music and the score is always a big part of the movie for me. They picked some of the absolute best pieces, and really did a great job representing them.
My favorite part when I was little was always the centaurs. I was quite the superficial twit back then and always went for the attractive female characters. I still like that part, but for a different reason. I am really into mythology, and I adore anything relating to it.
But my favorite part now is the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence. The music is terrific, and the animation is so neat. This used to be the part that I absolutely refused to watch. I was terrified of that demon guy. Positively terrified. I had nightmares about him taking me away in the middle of the night. It’s hard to believe that it went from scaring me silly to being the part that I watch repetitively in a matter of about a week.
But the part I cannot stand now is “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”. It’s kinda neat until the brooms start up. I don’t know what it is, but for some reason, I just get kind of smothered feeling and I have to fast-forward it. I know I’m weird. You don’t have to tell me that.
Fantasia 2000 was positively wonderful. The animation was breath taking, and the music was, again, marvelous. It didn't take long for my eyes to start watering due to the incredible amount of stimulation.
I am, however, a little peeved with the theater. Some moron bumped the projector right after the previews, so Steve Martin appeared headless. Luckily, my mother made them fix it before it got too far into "Pines of Rome", but we still missed the top half of the Beethoven piece.
Though my favorite piece between the two remains NoBM, a close second is "Pomp and Circumstance". I adored all of the new pieces. And I loved the way they did "Carnival of the Animals". The flamingoes were cute, but I'm glad they kept it short, as it would have become tedious if taken out any longer.
I did notice, though, that the two had different feels. The original felt more like you were actually in a concert hall hearing the music and imagining the animation. F2K, on the other hand, felt more like a collection of stories. It seemed like the characters should be talking and the sound effects were missing. Both techniques were great, but they just played out differently.
The music in Fantasia was preformed by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The music in F2K was conducted by James Levine and performed by The Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Thanks to Kevin Teter's Disney Clipart Page for the Fantasia pictures and Upcoming Movies: Fantasia 2000 for the F2K pic.
