Saludos Amigos

Goofy, though suffering from severe arm atrophy, is still willing to put on a good face and play his guitar.

Saludos Amigos

Released: August 24, 1942 (Brazil); February 6, 1943 (United States) 

Basis: Original, though influenced by South American culture
Synopsis: Several Disney animators take a journey to South America and sketch out plans for animated shorts based on the different locals they visit. A Donald Duck short is made about him visiting Lake Titicaca; a stand-alone short about a plane named Pedro delivering mail is drawn for Chile; Goofy appears in a short where he is a cowboy-turned-gaucho in Argentina; and Donald meets a new character, a parrot named Joe Carioca (who would later become José Carioca in later movies and shorts), in Brazil.
Notes:

• This is the first in a series of "compilation films" of the 40s - as money had to be managed carefully during World War II, and as many animators were drafted to the war, it proved to be far easier to tie together several shorts rather than make a lengthy animated film, though the movie's length suffers for it - the film's only 42 minutes long.
• Saludos Amigos is also the first of two "travel" movies - this and The Three Caballeros. I suspect the emphasis on the "travel" movies was in part because Americans weren't able to travel as much during World War II as they would be able to before and after - Americans were trying to conserve gasoline and fuel they used in travelling for the war effort, and so they weren't able to travel around as much - hence, Disney came out with two movies showcasing exotic locales. The bigger reason for the "travel" movies, and especially for their focus in South America and Mexico, was to try to win the nations over from their ties to Nazi Germany, in a sort of "dollar diplomacy" tactic.
• The frame of the movie is the animators travelling to and through South America - live-action color footage is used.
• It's stated that it takes the animators three days to travel from Hollywood to eastern South America. Kinda interesting how far we've come in commercial passenger flight.
• The reason I call Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros "travel" movies is because of how they promote the cultures of the places they visit. They spend a few minutes here discussing Lake Titicaca, Buenos Ares, and Rio De Janero as well as its culture before the animated segments, making it feel like it's promoting South American culture (which it is) as would be a travel info movie. If memory serves me correctly, it works better with the frame in The Three Caballeros, though I haven't seen it in years, so I'll wait until I actually review it to say.
• The representation of the local cultures in South America is positive in the shorts as well as in the live action footage, which is a nice change of pace from how most animated theatrical short series of the 30s and 40s tended for now-politically incorrect depictions of American Indians or especially tribal Africans.
• First Short - "Lake Titicaca"
• Donald is referred to as a "celebrated American tourist."
• Not much to say for this short, as it plays a bit like the previous live-action segment but with slapstick. It feels a bit like the various Goofy "How To..." or "Sports" shorts with the play between the narrator giving accurate information and the main character (Donald Duck here) is the butt end of X many calamities or mishaps. It's funny, but a bit odd, considering Goofy is more of the slapstick character than Donald.
• The next segment is about Chile and its capital Santiago. Or, at least, it was supposed to be, but the animators weren't allowed to get the country on camera. Oops.
• Instead, they cut to the next short: "Pedro"
• "Pedro" is kind of a fun short, with a few gags worth a chuckle - an airplane skeleton of bone, Pedro's mother suffering from "High Oil Pressure," the "twist" at the end - though it doesn't really display much of the local culture. It does discuss delivering mail, though, and the geography is mentioned a bit, especially Mount Aconcagua.
• Actually, I kinda like how Mount Aconcagua is depicted - the "monstrous" face on it, how the rain and snow seem to be falling from it in a few shots rather than from the sky.
• Buenos Ares and Argentina are next. The focus here is on how the gauchos of Argentina are kinda like the cowboys of the United States of America. It's actually not that far off.
• Walt Disney makes a cameo in one of the animator shots.
• And so the film goes to the next short: "El Gaucho Goofy"
• This also plays like a "How to..." or "Sports" short, but since it is Goofy, it feels a bit more natural. It's easily the funniest part of the feature.
• There's a bit of play with the fourth wall - for example, the characters are practically expelled from the shot by each transitional wipe.
• Why is the horse in a dress at one point.
• The final locale represented by the movie is Rio De Janeiro, the capital of Brazil
• A shot of a few cartoony sketches of local birds is accompanied by the comment, "This is what can happen to a city when artists are turned loose." I thought it was funny.
• Final short: "Aquarela do Brazil" ("Watercolor of Brazil")
• The short has its own title cards and has a lot of build-up towards it.
• There's a bit of play with the animation/painting of this short and its characters - think the Looney Tunes short "Duck Amuck," but with a more musical focus. Between this and the songs themselves, there feels like there was a lot of effort put into the short.
• José's voicing seems... just a touch off. Not so much in the voice itself, but in the delivery - it feels just a hair lackluster. I really like the character's design, but this was the only notch I had against him.
• Unfortunately, there's not so much in the way of a story to this short - Donald meets up with José, José brings him into town, Donald samples a Cachaça and burns his mouth, then they dance the samba and that's it. The short itself is fine, but it's mostly because the art direction makes up for what it lacks in story.
• This is the end of the feature. There's no conclusion - it just pans out from the final shot of the short then shows an end title.

This was the first time I saw Saludos Amigos, and I can kinda see why it's not remembered as fondly remembered as and often packaged these days alongside The Three Caballeros - it hasn't aged well as a standalone feature. It's not a bad film by any means; the locales are beautiful, and the shorts are entertaining. The major problem is that the movie's original purposes don't reflect the United States' current state of condition, so its meaning is somewhat lost. On top of that, it's short, and it really feels like it. It's not one of my favorites, perhaps, and this isn't to deter watching it at least once, but it's just aged poorly.

Up Next: The Three Caballeros (December 18)

Bambi

Bambi
Released: August 13, 1942
Basis: 1923 Austrian Novel called Bambi, A Life in the Woods
Synopsis: One spring day, a young deer is born to a forest community as their new prince, Bambi. Bambi grows up learning the way of the forest from his mother and wise Friend Owl and exploring the curiosities of the forest with his childhood friends, Thumper (a mischievous rabbit) and Flower (a bashful skunk). Bambi learns how to talk and say the names of his fellow woodland critters and plants; about the seasons and their different weather; about other deer, including an energetic female fawn named Faline; about the Great Prince of the Forest, the oldest, wisest, and strongest deer in the forest; the different seasons; and about man, and how it is dangerous to wander into the open meadow for fear of man. Towards the end of his first winter, his mother is shot and killed by hunters, leaving Bambi to be raised by the Great Prince of the Forest, who turns out to be his father.
Bambi and his friends mature into adult animals, and each of them find a mate. Bambi falls in love with Faline, but he must defeat a rival stag, Ronno, to win Faline. Some time later, Bambi and the Great Prince discover man's return to the forest and alert the woodland creatures. Bambi saves Faline from some hunting dogs but is himself shot by a hunter. The Great Prince manages to get Bambi up again and helps him flee a wildfire started by an uncontrolled campfire. Some time later, as the forest is recovering, Faline gives birth to twin fawns, and the Great Prince steps down, leaving Bambi as the new Great Prince.
Notes:

• Differences from the source material: the deer spend a lot more time on their own - Bambi was supposed to have grown separate from his mother by the time she was killed; Man (referred to as "He" in the book) interacts a lot more with the cast: for example, one deer is adopted by a man only to be killed several months later by accident by another hunter, Bambi is taught how to foil man, and Bambi's final lesson is that man isn't almighty; animals other than deer play minor roles in the story; Bambi himself is characterized as being somewhat aloof; Bambi's interactions with the Great Prince (here called "the old Prince") are much more significant; and finally Bambi isn't around to see his children born, and the closest we get to him interacting with his children are when he scolds twin fawn that resemble Faline. It feels like the movie became less about the life of a deer and more about the life of... well, anyone, I guess. I'll touch more on this later.
• There's not really a themed opening, like there were with Snow White, Pinocchio, and Dumbo - Bambi's opening credits are all title cards with foliage in the back.
• None of the songs in Bambi are sung by characters in the movie, which is a change of pace for Disney, and would be an oddity for a while yet. Atmospherically, it works - if Bambi is an analogy to life, the metaphor is somewhat confused by the inclusion of singing animals. In fact, it helps the joke where Friend Owl yells at the "twitterpated" lovebirds - the music stops after he screeches at them, only to start up when the birds start flocking again. It's funnier because it's not actually there and doesn't make sense from a literal standpoint but it fits in the scene as a movie piece - somewhat "Painting the Fourth Wall," as TV Tropes calls it.
• The scenery is quite lovely. It's not specified which nationality the forest is, though I'm going to guess that it's American, considering skunks, for example, are mostly exclusive to the Americas. But compared to Dumbo, it really looks like they put a lot of effort into the background.
• The animals in this movie are drawn considerably more realistically than most of Disney's works. They're still cartoony, and they still do cartoony things (like the duck who clutches himself and shivers when it sticks its toe in water), but for the most part the animals are a lot more animal-like than most Disney animals.
• Thumper's eyes keep changing colors - they're either red or green
• Thumper's missing one of his buck teeth as a young rabbit. It's adorable and makes him look youthful.
• Actually, the three friends are all adorable in their youths. I especially like Flower's bashfulness of the lot, though Bambi excitedly shouting, "The MEADOW!" is also very cute, and of course Thumper's somewhat bossiness is cute, too.
• As the son of a deer hunter, Man's depiction in the movie is... kinda targeted against me, I guess. It seems kinda negative towards me, and I felt at first that they shoulda tried to explain how Man is part of things... but then I realized that Man kinda isn't, at least to the deer. Deer hunting isn't a natural part of deer's way of life; it's not the same as the sun rising and setting, and it's not the same as the seasons changing. To them it's a disaster, a devastation, and it shouldn't be happening. This doesn't change my opinion of hunting or anything, and I'll begrudgingly accept that the movie is anti-me, but I can appreciate how it fits in the story.
• On the topic of man, apparently they were originally going to show a dead human in that scene where Bambi and the Great Prince were fleeing the forest, perhaps to tie it into the "humans aren't all-powerful" theme of the book. It was cut because it was deemed too gruesome. In my opinion, it kinda helps that we don't see man at all, as part of the "representation through implication" (or "tell don't show") trend in these movies. Besides, it's scary enough to see the demonic hunting dogs as representation for Man.
• The Death of Bambi's Mother. This is another one where I can't really say anything that hasn't already been said, though I think that the most effective part of it is hearing Bambi's fading calls for his mother as the camera shots slowly grow farther away from him. That, and I like how the Great Prince doesn't say that she's dead; only that "[he] can never see her again."
• As the Nostalgia Critic pointed out in his "Top 11 Saddest Moments" video, the tone change between the scene where Bambi's mother dies and the following scene is... a bit extreme. But perhaps that's the point - if Bambi is to be seen as an analogy to life, this bit can be interpreted as "sometimes tragedy happens and we just have to move on. It isn't bad that we have to move on, and it isn't bad to be sad; it's just a part of life we have to accept."
• Friend Owl has teeth. Also, he actually does "walk on air" when he says "walk on air." Kinda takes away from the more realistic approach to the movie...
• I like the voices for the adolescent Bambi and Thumper - they sound like awkward teenagers in puberty. Flower's voice works too, though more because it's another Sterling Holloway cameo and he always is appreciated in Disney movies.
• When Bambi is swooning over Faline, he's seen prancing about in Heaven-esque clouds. I at first thought this was odd, as Heaven is more a human concept than an animal concept, but then I realized that it's more of a "Cloud Forest" than Heaven - the clouds look kinda like trees and foliage in the background.
• Bambi's rival, Ronno, isn't given a name in this - I think he's only officially named in Bambi II.
• The person who shot Bambi has to be a really good shot - they manage to shoot Bambi in mid-leap, a difficult task even if you could possibly know that the target is there, while Bambi was obscured until the moment he leaped across the chasm.

I know I didn't touch upon a lot of the specifics in my synopsis - there's the scene where Bambi and Thumper ice skate, or where Bambi chases around Faline - but I see Bambi as an analogy to life. You're born, make friends, learn to talk, learn about the world, experience tragedy, mature, find a love, make a family, and (with all done well) become the ruler of your own world. This is the plot of Bambi as much as it is the pace of one's life. It's more a "slice of life" story than any specific story, and in fact the climax with the hunters and the forest fire feel slightly out of place because of it, as if they were trying to build excitement. It works, but it's somewhat a contrast to the point of it, at least the point I found in it. Whereas Bambi is by no means a bad movie - to the contrary, it's quite good - it's simply not a singular story. It's a collection of events that only work when put together to make a complete story. Thus, it's awkward to spend time recounting specific events when it's more about the summation of them, but it's definitely worth seeing the summation.

Up Next: Saludos Amigos (December 11)

Another Delay

Ahhhhh I'm trying, folks! I did see the movie, and I did jot down notes, but I'm going to be out until tomorrow afternoon, so I won't be able to post the notes until then. This is all not my intention! Sorry, my two faithful pals and how many other pals exist secretly out there.

Bambi Delay

Hey, there's gonna be a slight delay in the Bambi review - we're having trouble acquiring a copy on DVD (as it has to be on DVD and, as the last version was released a few years back as a "Limited Time" dealio and we're due for another version in the spring, it'll be somewhat elusive), and on top of that, my brother is sick with strep throat and in no mood to do anything but sleep heavily. I might be able to squeeze it in tomorrow, but for the moment I'll regrettably have to postpone this update.

Dumbo

Dumbo
Released: October 23, 1941
Basis: Obscure 1939 American Children's book, Dumbo the Flying Elephant
Synopsis: A kindly old stork, Mr. Stork, delivers a baby elephant to an expectant elephant mother and member of a traveling Floridian circus, Mrs. Jumbo. Mrs. Jumbo names her son "Jumbo Jr.," but the discovery of the baby's unusually large ears causes him to be nicknamed "Dumbo" by the other elephants. Nevertheless, Mrs. Jumbo deeply loves her dear child, to the extent that she rampages when she discovers young gawkers teasing the naive baby. This causes Mrs. Jumbo to be locked away and the other elephants to blame Dumbo, treating him coldly.
A mouse named Timothy Q. Mouse overhears the other elephants teasing Dumbo and, sympathizing with the baby elephant, decides to help Dumbo become a big hit at the circus. Timothy suggests to the Ringleader/Ringmaster (I shall refer to him as the "Ringleader") that Dumbo could be "the climax" to the Ringleader's grand plan of an elephant pyramid. The Ringleader excitedly executes the act, but Dumbo trips on his ears and accidentally sends the pyramid of elephants toppling onto the unwitting audience and tearing down the Big Top.
As a result, the Ringleader makes Dumbo into a clown, shaming the other elephants and making them disown him as an elephant. To cheer Dumbo after an embarrassing performance, Timothy brings Dumbo to see his mother, who is locked in an isolated wagon labeled "Mad Elephant." Mrs. Jumbo and Dumbo share a brief moment, but Dumbo is still sad that he can't be with his mother, and his tears become hiccups. Timothy instructs Dumbo to drink some water to cure his hiccups, but the duo unwittingly drink from a tub of water mixed with a bottle of alcohol and become drunk.
The next morning, the pair discover themselves high up in a tree. Timothy comes to the conclusion that Dumbo must have flown into the tree using his big ears, but a flock of five crows laugh at the idea. Timothy chastises the crows for teasing Dumbo, making the crows remorseful. The leader of the crows, Jim Crow, gives Timothy a "Magic Feather" with the idea that it would give Dumbo the confidence to fly again. With the "Magic Feather," Dumbo is able to fly across the countryside. Timothy and Dumbo then plot their revenge on the rest of the circus. During the next show, Dumbo and Timothy prepare to surprise the world with Dumbo's ability, but Dumbo loses grip of his "Magic Feather." Nevertheless, Dumbo is able to work up the courage to fly, and he chases after the clowns and Ringleader as well as spew peanuts at the other elephants.
In the end, Dumbo becomes a world-wide sensation and is reunited with his mother.
Notes

• Although the movie follows the basic events of the original story, there are still a few key differences: Mrs. Jumbo was named "Mother Ella" and Dumbo was simply "Jumbo"; Dumbo's ears grow large over the years instead of being large immediately after birth; an elephant trainer, Jack, devised the plan of the "elephant pyramid"; Mother Ella and Jumbo were separated only after the Big Top's collapse and Jumbo was renamed "Dumbo" out of human spite (none of the other elephants were antagonists in the book); the role of Timothy Mouse was taken by a robin named Red, whom Dumbo first meets after becoming a clown; Red himself teaches Dumbo how to fly after his friend Dr. Hoot Howl motivates Dumbo into learning how to fly; and Dumbo's first public flight is performed distinctly in Madison Square Garden, putting the setting more towards the Northeastern States rather than the Southeastern States.
• This is one of the few Disney movies to be contemporary, at least at the time of its writing.
• The animation in this movie has fallen into a "cartoony" look distinct from the "Silly Symphonies" shorts but much like the latter Disney movies - the distinct Disney "style," I suppose, is emerging, here. Certain aspects of some of the animals look realistic, though - the lions' and tigers' eyes, the hippo's lips.
• Rather than a storybook opening like in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio, Dumbo starts with credits placed on circus advertisements.
• After the credits, an opening narration is given. It's made to sound like it's discussing air mail services - it mentions about how they'll deliver even through snow and sleet, lightning and booming thunder, etc - with airplane sound effects thrown in towards the end, but then it cuts to the storks delivering babies. I kinda liked that.
• There's a larger focus on music in this movie, to the extent that spoken dialogue isn't as prevalent as sung lyrics or instrumental pieces. This works for the movie, as the protagonist himself is a baby and can't talk - he himself isn't going to be saying much, so dialogue isn't as important for most of the movie.
• Still, what dialogue is used can be enjoyable - the elephants' snarking, the clowns' bantering, the crows' chattering...
• That's Sterling Holloway as Mr. Stork - he'd go on to provide voices and/or narration for several Disney movies and shorts, but here he's providing a cameo role.
• I like the idea behind there being a specific set way to the Stork Delivery Service - there's the delivery, a poem is recited, paperwork is signed, and "Happy Birthday to You" is sung.
• Actually, that "Happy Birthday to You" is performed is a bit of a rarity these days - as the song itself is copyrighted, royalties must be shelled out for every time it's used in a contemporary movie or TV show, hence various substitutes used (like in The Emperor's New Groove - more on that when we get there).
• Dumbo's innocence is presented quite well, in my opinion. He's aware of the events going on around him, but he doesn't quite seem to understand their meaning - he smiles when he's being teased by the elephants and the circus visitors because he doesn't realize their laughs are mean, he's bashful around crowds, and his motivation throughout the movie is that he wants to be reunited with his mother. He matures a little bit in the story and gains a sense of dignity - he is deeply ashamed to be part of the clown act.
• By definition, a "roustabout" is a person who is hired for laboring work, often for circuses. The roustabouts who set up the circus towards the beginning of the movie are notably all African-American (and are incidentally animated without faces). With both here and with the crows later in the movie, it's easy to come to the conclusion that the depiction of African-Americans is somewhat racist, but as the movie takes place in the southern states, I feel it's more accurate to what might have happened at the time than stereotypical here. The song the roustabouts sing is somewhat depressing if you can make out the lyrics, though - "we don't know when/we get our pay/and when we do/we throw our pay away."
• When Mrs. Jumbo starts rampaging after that big-eared orange-haired kid (Smitty is his name, apparently), her eyes turn red. A nice touch.
• I was originally going to make a comment that Mrs. Jumbo is mostly misunderstood and receives undue abuse from the elephants and the circus as a whole, and while I still think the elephants got what was coming to them in the finale, this article made me rethink my take on the Circus.
• The other elephants discuss at a couple points that honor and dignity are a big part of being an elephant, making me think there's a big elephant society with complicated rules and such not touched upon in the movie.
• Timothy's role in this movie is more or less the same as Jiminy Cricket's in Pinocchio (with less flirting and more wise-cracking) - I have to wonder if that's the point of the character's design. He does interact more with other characters than Jiminy did, though.
• I'm not sure what the movie's rules are on "animal talk" - most of the time, it seems like humans can't understand the animals (like when the elephants are grumbling about the Ringleader during the show), but Timothy is able to not only suggest having Dumbo be the climax of his great "elephant pyramid" act but also the name of the elephant.
• The Ringleader is typically cast as a Disney Villain (having appeared in the video game Disney: Villain's Revenge as a villain alongside The Queen from Snow White, The Queen of Hearts, and Captain Hook, but... he doesn't really seem villainous, and never really occurred to me as being a villain even before reading the aforementioned article. He doesn't do villainous things; he's just trying to run his circus.
• The Elephant Matriarch calls Dumbo an "assassin" as the Big Top is tumbling down. Interesting both in the choice of words and in the timing of the insult, I thought.
• Dumbo doesn't wear his "signature" outfit until he's cast as a clown, being at least half way through the movie.
• Throughout the song "Baby Mine," there are shots of other animal mothers and children resting. It works to make the song about a mother's love for her child. It's a very comforting song, but also sad.
• The clowns discuss how they can get more laughs - they reason that if they got a lot of laughs by having Dumbo jump 20 feet, he should get double for jumping 40 feet. It's what I call Pooh Logic: logic that makes sense on its own or in its own silly way (named after Winnie the Pooh, as it's along the same sort of lines of something he'd reason).
• Amidst all this planning, one of the clowns pipes up, "Don't hurt the little guy," to which another clown responds not to worry about it - "Elephants ain't got no feelings - they're made of rubber." Stealth pun aside, the clowns do kinda sorta care about Dumbo.
• There's not really anything I can say about the "Pink Elephants" sequence that hasn't already been said a million times, but I do have to say that I like how the imagery is constantly transforming and is completely crazy.
• The crows are another easy thing to label as racist towards African-Americans - they're stereotypical caricatures, and they have the misfortune of their leader being named "Jim Crow." However, I see them in quite the positive light - they're clever (as shown in the complicated wordplay of "When I See an Elephant Fly" and in their planning of using "'chology - psychology" to get Dumbo to fly again), they're free spirits, and they're some of the few characters sympathetic with poor Dumbo's plight (they're more laughing at the idea that an elephant flew than at Dumbo himself in "When I See an Elephant Fly"). On top of that, they're really fun characters with their chattering and being silly. Also "When I See an Elephant Fly" is a very fun song itself.
• Timothy rules out Dumbo climbing or jumping up the tree as being "too silly," but he snaps at the idea of Dumbo flying when Jim Crow suggests it.
• The newspapers towards the end reference the escalating war in Europe subtly in some of the smaller headlines as well as with the "Dumbombers" apparently made in his honor.
• Dumbo's ears are insured for $1,000,000. What
• The shot of Timothy getting a Hollywood contract as Dumbo's manager is a direct reference to the conclusion of the original book - Red and Dumbo were planning on turning the young elephant into an actor in the very end.

Dumbo was a different take on an animated movie for Disney - as Pinocchio and Fantasia flopped, it was essential that Dumbo was a considerably lower-budget movie. This can be seen in its relatively short length (it's just over an hour long) and its fairly simple art-style. The end result was a very simple movie, one which tells a simple story mostly in song. There's not much depth, perhaps, but there doesn't need to be - it's a story about a baby wanting to reunite with his mother. It's a very sweet story, all in all.


Next Up: Bambi (November 20)

Fantasia

Fantasia
Released: November 13, 1940
Basis: See Notes
Synopsis: Eight pieces of classical music are performed and are told through various imagery. Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor features abstract imagery based on the instruments themselves, The Nutcracker Suite is depicted with various images of nature and faeries, The Sorcerer's Apprentice is played to a story featuring Mickey Mouse, The Rite of Spring shows the development of the earth, The Pastoral Symphony is host to a story based on Greek Mythology, The Dance of the Hours is represented by dancing animals, and Night on Bald Mountain and Ave Maria are paired to make a story of good triumphing over evil. Each part is introduced by Deems Taylor, a music critic and composer of the day.
Notes: I'm going to do this one a bit differently. Each piece will be separate entry below, excluding commentary to an aspect of the overall work, which will be included at the end.

• Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor 
• The piece itself was composed by Johann Sebastian Bach in the early 1700s.
• The piece here is represented first by footage of the orchestra performing then by abstract imagery reflecting the instruments themselves and the instrumentation. Taylor notes that the piece never had a sort of story or imagery to it, hence the abstract imagery used here.
• There's not a whole lot for me to say here, though I will say that the abstract imagery here works well for its intended purpose - the lights and shapes dancing about the screen mimic the progression and nature of the notes.

• The Nutcracker Suite
• The Nutcracker Suite is composed of several movements from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker. The exact movements used tend to vary depending on the performance, but here the movements used are "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy," "Chinese Dance," "Reed-Flutes," "Arabian Dance," "Russian Dance," and "Waltz of the Flowers."
• Respectively, the movements are represented by dew faeries, mushrooms, flower blossoms, goldfish, thistles and orchids, and frost and snow faeries. Taylor notes that these images were not part of the original intention of the piece.
• If you look closely at the mushrooms, you can see little Chinese braids in them. I thought that was cute.
• Not a whole lot for me to say on this one, either. I again really like how the art plays with the music. Mostly the opening movement - I really like the imagery with the dew faeries.

• The Sorcerer's Apprentice 
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice was composed by Paul Dukas in 1897. The song itself is based off Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's poem "The Sorcerer's Apprentice."
• The animation is almost completely accurate to the original story - a sorcerer retires to his chambers after practicing magic, his apprentice attempts to use the sorcerer's magic to enchant a broom into doing his chores by dumping buckets of water into a well, the apprentice cannot control the broom as it overflows the well, the apprentice tries to stop it by chopping it to pieces, the pieces continue the work of the broom, the sorcerer must come down to stop the broom pieces, and the sorcerer chastises his apprentice. The main difference between the animation and the original poem are that the sorcerer gets angry at his apprentice while he originally only explained the dangers of magic. Well, that, and Mickey Mouse's role as the apprentice.
• The name for the Sorcerer is never given, though the animators apparently referred to him as "Yen Sid" ("Disney" backwards). I don't think this was made into his official name until Kingdom Hearts II.
• Towards the beginning, as the Sorcerer is performing magic, you can see a demon appear in the smoke. It vaguely resembles Chernabog, in my opinion.
• I never quite realized that the story was supposed to take place about 2,000 years ago, though you can see that in how the house and furniture are carved from stone, and in the very sparse furnishings of the domicile.
• For whatever reason, the water in the well is animated very realistically. It's somewhat off-setting.
• The sequence was originally going to show Mickey chopping the broom to bits, but the final release opted to represent it through shadows. I think it works better to imply rather than show.
• Apparently, the annoyed expression on Yen Sid's face is the exact face Disney used to make when he was annoyed with someone.
• There's a slight smirk on Yen Sid's face right before he kicks Mickey. I think he's somewhat amused at the whole matter, though still disappointed in Mickey.[/list]

• The Rite of Spring 
• The Rite of Spring was composed by Igor Stravinsky in 1913.
• The story of the song is usually told as a celebration of spring and an offering to the pagan God of Spring, but here it's represented by dinosaurs.
• Actually, both the original story and the animation here have similar themes. Both are celebrating the growth of the planet and mourning the death of its creatures for the course of its development. The former takes a more figurative approach to this theme while the latter takes a more literal interpretation by marking the formation of the earth.
• I note that at least once in the progression, the four classical alchemical elements can be seen actively participating in forming the earth - volcanoes spew out pillars of flame (fire), lava streams from the volcanoes (earth), oceans sweep over the cooling lava (water), gales whip up gigantic typhoons (wind). This is somewhat represented again later after the dinosaurs' extinction, with the cruel sun representing fire and the earthquakes representing earth.
• The progression of the earth's development is pretty accurate to today's theory behind it, if I remember my prehistorical studies from my younger days.
• Creatures featured in the dinosaur segment:  Plesiosaurs, Pliosaurs, Pterosaurs, Dimetrodons, Ankylosauria, Ceratopsia, Dromaeosaurids, Archaeopteryx, Sauropoda, Ornithomimosauria, Stegosaurus, various Hadrosaurids, Maiasaura, some other creatures I can't quite identify, and, of course, Tyrannosaurus.
• Of course, in the 70 years since the movie's release, our view of many of the dinosaurs represented have changed. I'll avoid commenting on some of the depictions of the creatures that would be considered inaccurate today (like the placement of sauropods in water and Tyrannosaurus' upright stance and three-fingered hands), but quite a few things are considered differently these days. Of course, this isn't to say that it's wrong; it's a representation of its contemporary understanding of things, and it's nevertheless an interesting segment.

• The Pastoral Symphony 
• "Pastoral Symphony" is another name for Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, which he completed in 1808.
• The original symphony is a celebration of the German countryside, but Taylor notes that Disney opted to make it a celebration instead of the Greek countryside, drawing upon Greek Mythology for its references.
• The animation for this segment stuck out for me. It seems to be more "cartoony" than the animation for the other segments, in contrast to the more stylized or more serious animation for the other pieces. The pegasi and unicorns, for example, make me think of the donkeys from Pinocchio. I think it's somewhat of a transitional phase for the animation department, as the human-looking characters make me think of some of the human characters from some of the upcoming 40s films in terms of how their faces look.
• At one point, the animation zooms in. It's not the shot - the animation itself is zoomed into. This is apparently to censor what was originally a very stereotypically racist centaurette. It was a bit distracting and noticeable, but it's understandable for this reason, as something like that... really doesn't make a lick of sense being in something that was supposed to be a high-art event. Apparently, they left in two other racist-looking centaurs, but I failed to notice them for being racist, despite being featured somewhat prominently.
• I love Bacchus and his donkey, Jacchus.
• The design they use for Zeus here vaguely resembles what they'd later use in Hercules. Which makes sense, but I thought that was interesting. He just looks a bit more mischievous and is represented by the color blue.
• Why does Hephaestus have a bucktooth? According to Classical Mythology, he's supposed to be deformed... but a bucktooth?
• One shot of the centaurs resting is, for whatever reason, done in an impressionist style. It's actually a very lovely shot, but it doesn't flow with the rest of the sequence.

• Dance of the Hours 
• Dance of the Hours is a sequence from Amilcare Ponchielli's opera La Gioconda, first performed in 1876.
• The original piece is supposed to represent the progression of time from morning to day to evening to night and into the new morning. The animation represents more or less the same thing, but it uses animal dancers instead of costumes to suggest the different phases of time - ostriches represent morning, hippos represent day, elephants represent evening, and alligators represent night.
• Still not a whole lot to talk about here. Still, I dunno, I really like the animal antics here. The choreography works with the slapstick in going with the music.

• Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria 
• Night on Bald Mountain was first composed by Modest Mussorgsky in 1867. Ave Maria the more commonly-known name of Franz Shubert's Ellens dritter Gesang, composed in 1825.
• Night on Bald Mountain is a song of evil dancing, making mischief, and celebrating in itself. Ellens dritter Gesang is actually part of Shubert's score for Sir Walter Scott's poem The Lady of the Lake - the sequence itself is the character Ellen praying to the Virgin Mary. 
• Though Ave Maria isn't used here exactly as it was originally used, that's the point - it's here to provide a deep contrast to Night on Bald Mountain. All the evils of the Devil (called Chernabog, Chernabog being an evil Slavic god - his name means "Black God") are driven back by the bells of Church and the power of prayer and repentance. The juxtaposition is beautifully effective.
• I really like the design of Chernabog as well as for the rest of the demons - the abstract, misshapen forms not especially common these days, and yet they're effectively scary. And Chernabog just looks cool.
• The landscape of the second half has subtle hints of church-like gothic architecture, like the bridge or the trees. It adds to the effect.

• Other
•  Fantasia doesn't have any formal credits to it - it has a cold opening, and it ends immediately after the Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria sequence. The closest it gets is during the...
• ...Intermission! As Fantasia was intended to be more of a high-art showing than a movie (think like an opera), that it has an intermission only makes sense.
• Of the orchestra gathered, I think there were only two female musicians, both of whom played harp.
• Mickey cameos after The Sorcerer's Apprentice to shake hands with the conductor, Leopold Stokowski. It's brief and nobody mentions it again.
• Also, while Taylor is trying to explain one of the songs, someone's instrument falls apart. I can't remember the name, but I think it was the Pipes. They focus on it for a few seconds, then Taylor gets back on track. It's never mentioned again, either.
• At the beginning of the second half, there's a brief segment before The Pastoral Scene, called Meet the Soundtrack. It's simply a line wavering to the sound of various instruments. These days, it's the same effect done by an image generator in any media player, but I don't think there was anything like it back in its day.

I liked Fantasia. It's not a traditional movie, but it's not supposed to be a traditional movie. The format and the idea behind it aren't going to appeal to everyone, but it's still a great piece of work. It plays up to my love for music, for me. Fantasia also obviously had a lot of work put into it, just from the idea to the animation styles. I suppose it falls in a niche, but in that niche, it sits at the top.

Next Up: Dumbo (November 13)

Pinocchio

Pinocchio
Released: February 7, 1940
Basis: Italian Children's Story by Carlo Collodi first printed as serial stories published from 1881 to 1883.
Synopsis: A kindly but lonely woodcarver, Gepetto, crafts a wooden puppet boy, which he names "Pinocchio" (Tuscan for "Pine Nut") and plays with. When he goes to bed, he wishes to a wishing star that his little Pinocchio could be real. While Gepetto is asleep, the Wishing Star descends from the sky and becomes the Blue Fairy, who grants Gepetto's wish and gives Pinocchio sentience, but in order for Pinocchio to become a real boy, he needs to prove himself brave, honest, and selfless. As Pinocchio doesn't have a conscience of his own, the Blue Fairy appoints Jiminy Cricket, a poor and homeless but wise cricket, to be his conscience. Gepetto is overjoyed to discover that his wish came true, but he decides that Pinocchio must go to school to learn how the world works after he naively sets himself on fire. On the way to school, Pinocchio is tricked by a pair of con-artists, a fox named J. Worthington Foulfellow (who calls himself "Honest John") and a cat named Gideon, into working for a greedy puppet master named Stromboli. Stromboli kidnaps Pinocchio, and Jiminy is unable to spring Pinocchio from his cage. The Blue Fairy appears, and Pinocchio lies about his predicament, causing his nose to grow into a tree branch and teaching him a valuable lesson about telling the truth. The Blue Fairy frees Pinocchio, and the two escape from the clutches of Stromboli. However, Pinocchio is intercepted by Foulfellow and Gideon again, and, working on a deal with an evil Coachman, trick Pinocchio into going to Pleasue Island, a theme park island where naughty boys can cause as much chaos as they want. Pinocchio befriends Lampwick, a disobedient youth who teaches Pinocchio the fun of being bad. However, Jiminy discovers that the Island is actually an elaborate plot to turn mischievous boys into donkeys and sell them into work at salt mines. Jiminy rescues Pinocchio before he can be completely transformed (though his ears turn into donkey ears and he grows a donkey's tail), and the two escape the island. They return home only to discover that Gepetto (and his pet cat Figaro and his pet goldfish Cleo) have left days earlier to find Pinocchio and were swallowed by Monstro the whale but were still alive. Determined to make up for all his wrongs, Pinocchio leaves to save his father. Pinocchio is reunited with his family, but they are still trapped inside the whale. Pinocchio starts a massive fire inside Monstro, causing him to sneeze out his prisoners but enraging the beast. Pinocchio saves a drowning Gepetto but at the cost of his life. The Blue Fairy, having seen Pinocchio show bravery, truthfulness, and selflessness, brings him back to life and turns him into a real boy, making Gepetto endlessly happy. Jiminy Cricket is also bestowed with a badge to show that he is an "Official Conscience."
Notes:

• First things first: differences between the source material and the Disney movie. Pinocchio starts life as a magical log who is already sentient and is carved into a living puppet by Gepetto, Jiminy Cricket was based off a one-shot character whom Pinocchio accidentally kills in the beginning of the story, Foulfellow and Gideon are "The Fox and the Cat" in the original and are a bit more developed (they feign injuries which they eventually have in the end, they become horribly poor, and they're more cruel to Pinocchio), The Blue Fairy is actually "The Fairy with Turquoise Hair" and only appears to bail Pinocchio out/teach him valuable lessons, Pinocchio undergoes more trials, Pinocchio is actually turned completely into a donkey, Pinocchio and Gepetto are swallowed by "The Terrible Dogfish" (a dogfish is a smallish type of shark), Lampwick is actually "Candlewick" and Pinocchio discovers him later as a dying donkey on a local farm, and Pinocchio is turned into a real boy because he saves the Fairy's life. All in all, lots of deviations, but the Disney version works in its own right anyway.
• The story starts with another "storybook" opening, but this time it's fully animated and Jiminy serves as a partial narrator.
• All the characters are done in a more cartoony style, like the dwarfs and animals in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. All characters except the Blue Fairy, that is, who somewhat resembles Snow White due to being animated realistically. The realistic animation incorporates all the subtleties in movement, though, which makes her motions appear very fluid and lifelike. It's an interesting contrast to all other characters.
• Actually, Figaro moves fairly realistically, too - for a cat, that is. All the subtleties in how he's animated and such. This is especially in comparison to later cartoon shorts, where he is inexplicably Minnie Mouse's cat and is as catlike as Pluto is doglike: he does act like a cat, to an extent, but he moreover uses his feline physique to maneuver like a human quadruped.
• Jiminy... keeps going for the ladies. It's weird, as one second Jiminy's telling Pinoke that people these days need to be more moral and stuff, and the next he's making passes at clockwork damsels. It's kinda funny, actually, and this, along with some of Jiminy's other antics, make him a bit of a comic relief character.
• Speaking of Jiminy, research tells me that the phrase "Jiminy Cricket(s)" is a euphemism for "Jesus Christ," much the same way "Gosh," "Golly," and "Goodness" are euphemisms for "God."
• Some of the clocks in Gepetto's workshop include scenes of someone chopping off the neck of a turkey, a hunter shooting a songbird, a mother spanking her kid, and a drunken man swaying in and out of a tavern. Uh.
• I really like Gepetto, as he seems to be the kindly old man archetype. We see his hands shake a bit when he reaches down to pick up Pinocchio's schoolbook (a subtle suggestion at his age), he gives cute nicknames to Cleo (his "Water Baby") and Pinocchio (his "little wooden head"), he worries about his little Pinocchio over himself (when he spends several days searching for the lost puppet and gets himself, Figaro, and Cleo eaten by Monstro), and he likes to have fun (he dances around with Pinocchio thrice through the duration of the movie).
• Oh, yeah, when Gepetto thinks there's a prowler in his house (it's actually a newly-born Pinocchio), he pulls out a flintlock pistol, which he accidentally fires at one point. Granted, it seems to fire a firework or a flare more than a bullet, but yeah. Two movies in and we have a gun.
• I really like how Pinocchio's naivete is portrayed in the movie. He doesn't do bad things because he has a bad disposition, but only because he can't really tell that it's bad. Which makes sense, as he has no internal conscience. His bold plan at the end - to start a fire in Monstro, thus making him sneeze them out - is pieced from things that Pinocchio has seen in his life: Pinocchio set his finger on fire in the beginning, Cleo needed to surface for air after Gepetto doused Pinocchio's fire in her fishbowl, characters sneeze throughout the story, Jiminy passes Pinocchio his handkerchief at one point so he can blow his nose. Everything Pinocchio does is based off his experiences in his life.
• When Gepetto has set aside a feast for himself, Pinocchio, Figaro, and Cleo, we see that there's a big chicken or turkey, a fish for Figaro (which is a bit of a disconcerting juxtaposition for Cleo), and... chocolate cake for Cleo?
• That Pinocchio lied used to confound me - what reason would he have for lying? I spoke with my mother, though, and she made me realize that it's much like a little boy, really - youths engage in hyperbole as to their present mortality. I seem to have forgotten this at my ripe old age of 17.
• Foulfellow is wily, but not learned (he can't read or spell, holds Pinocchio's book upside down, is ripped off by Stromboli). But I like him because he's silly and is really obviously a con artist if you pay attention to what he's saying (as he's "diagnosing" Pinocchio, he says Pinocchio has something about "Flying Trapezements," for example).
• Also, Foulfellow is fine with axing someone off and... whatever was the extent of the first part of the Coachman's plan, but Pleasure Island upsets him.
• Pleasure Island seems... somewhat futuristic. It's mostly stuff that could have been done at the time, I suppose (though I lean more towards 1940s than 1880s in terms of the tech of Pleasure Island), but in the opening shot, some of the roller coasters in the background seem semi-futuristic.
• I was also confused about the Coachman's henchmen - what are they? We only ever see them in shadow, and it's hard to tell what they are, though they look like gorillas from their form and spiky fur. My mother helped me with this one, too - she pointed out that a "gorilla" is another term for a henchman, and it can be seen as a subtly literal interpretation of the term. It makes sense to me, and I do have to say that the henchmen are more frightening being only vaguely represented.
• The seahorses underwater look suspiciously like the boys-turned-donkeys on Pleasure Island. Just saying.
• Why is Monstro carnivorous to the extent he is? Yeah, some whales eat fish, but Monstro looks like a humpback whale to me, which is a type of baleen whale (baleen is a type of filter that replaces the teeth in the mouth - it's designed to minimize the amount of water filtered into the body while eating krill). It would have no interest in eating fish, let alone humans. Still, he is a very daunting creature, and does make for a terrifying foe.
• A little off-topic: why is Monstro depicted as having very colorful innards in the Kingdom Hearts games? He isn't depicted to have anything but red coloring in his innards in the movie. I suppose it'd be somewhat bland to trek through drab red cavernous insides, but The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time manages to make the inside of the whale-like Jabu Jabu look both semi-realistic and interesting enough.
• Some lines that stuck out for me:
• Gepetto: (after all the clocks in his workshop go off) "Wonder what time it is..."
• Jiminy: (at Gepetto's wish) "A very lovely thought... but not at all practical."
• J. Worthington Foulfellow: (to Gideon) "...or my name is Honest John!" (goes on to tell Pinocchio that his name is Honest John)
• In "An Actor's Life For Me," Foulfellow seems to just be making up stuff after a certain point - he rhymes "beaver coat" with something about a cart for a goat.
• Jiminy: (after discovering Pinocchio's popularity as an actor) "What does an actor want with a conscience, anyway?"
• Pinocchio: (trying to explain Stromboli's plot to Jiminy) "Just because I'm a gold brick, he's gonna chop me into firewood!"
• Coachman: (to himself) "Give a bad boy enough rope and he'll soon make a jackass of himself"
• Jiminy: (to Pinocchio and Lampwick) "Go on! Make a jackass of yourself!"
• Lampwick: (to Pinoccio) "What do I look like? A jackass?" (turns into a jackass)

All in all, I found that I liked Pinocchio a lot more than I remember. In terms of how it compares to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Snow White was a lot more experimental, which in some cases worked better (the focus on realistic lighting was subtle but made it look visually stunning) and in other cases worse (the pacing in Snow White was a bit sped up towards the start and end, with a focus on the playing around towards the middle. Pinocchio has a more consistent pacing that works better). Pinocchio also has better characterization, though this is only because the main character was a lot more developed, and each character is more than a single level as opposed to Snow White only giving Grumpy depth and having the various characters try to melt Grumpy's unhappy disposition. There is still a lot more improvement to go in terms of storytelling - characters still need to be fleshed out and given full individual stories, for instance - but Pinocchio isn't a bad movie in the least.