Fantasia 1940
I first saw Fantasia in 1990 as an adult and although I was really looking forward to seeing this legendary film remastered, honestly it was a little boring. But recently I watched Fantasia 2000 and enjoyed that, and I have watched the main early Disney classics, so I wanted to give Fantasia another shot. It is still very much a mixed bag. First, the narration is mostly unnecessary. The animation tells the story, so you don’t really need to be told in advance. I think it would be okay to have some and show that the music is made by real people, but there is too much talking, which makes it feel like going to school. Some re-releases wisely got rid of the talking, but purists would probably want it there since it started that way.
The second thing is there are 8 pieces and they are very different and some not in a good way. I feel like if you are going to introduce people to classical music, then pick things that are more accessible than Stravinsky. That piece, with the dinosaurs, doesn’t really work and the grating score is one reason, but also it just feels like it is educational, though they seem to have done a pretty decent job for the time period in regard to their depiction of dinosaurs.
I like the more abstract and artistic parts, so the first segment of geometric shapes set to Bach is fine and the Night on Bald Mountain is also good. There’s nothing wrong with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice except that I just saw it in Fantasia 2000, but it has a strong narrative that works perfectly with the music. The Nutcracker Suite is also good, with familiar music and animation that fits well.
The Meet the Soundtrack piece is mostly just more talking and not really that informative. It is followed by The Pastoral Symphony (Beethoven’s 6th) which has good music, and has some good Greek mythology but is kind of boring. What makes that piece more interesting is how they have excised a racial caricature that should have never been there in the first place. Dance of the Hours is fun, with cute and sometimes funny (early Disney was heavier on cute than funny) ballet by ostriches, hippos, elephants, and alligators, but unfortunately to music that is now know more for “Hello muddah, hello faddah,” a case where familiar music doesn’t necessarily work as well.
Anyway, I found the movie to be kind of boring all over again, heavy handed with the narration, and some of the pieces just not very good. But there are some great moments. A movie like this doesn’t have much of an audience. Kids will be bored and most adults aren’t going to care, so you have a few highbrows who want to see the art and even they are going to be disappointed by the cute stuff and maybe upset about how the music is portrayed. I actually preferred the sequel which had more abstract segments, more familiar music, and less talking.
Written: 23 Jan 2020
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital