While a potpourri of illustrated pastiches meditating on famous classical pieces of music, Fantasia is also an animated feature intended at least partly for children. Along with the art, there must be some sugary silliness to make the medicine go down which you’ll find in the majority of its six sequences. Shockingly, when The Mouse makes his appearance, it's not the most childish part. The film is full of surprisingly mature content and imagery for a Disney animated feature. In this week's HMWYBS series, Nat Rogers over at The Film Experience, offered us three different "levels" to choose from. I opted for "Sorcerer" status and chose six shots, one from each part, including "Rite of Spring," as well as my favorite, "A Night on Bald Mountain." 
Nutcracker Suite
Fairies gilding spider webs, dancing Japanese mushrooms, flower pedal ballerinas, and a come-hither fish that may as well go by the name of Lola, take us through the seasons. The "Lola" piece was stunning, with her elegant backup fishes providing a sheath at one point where very briefly she didn't seem underwater but actually on a stage peering through a sleek translucent black curtain. However, the painterly imagery that you'll also find in the beginning of the Rite of Spring portion, no pun intended, is quite exquisite with plush white blossoms filling the sky with these light and free dancers that will silently droop and expire when they land.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
The overt personality of Walt Disney awkwardly elbows in his presence with his alter ego Mickey Mouse. An intriguing rendition that would be a complete anomaly were it not for its dark undertones. A strange amalgam of art and commerce, its crude innocence would be echoed in a couple of the other segments. In this particular shot, The Mouse's rather swift solution to creating his own chaos only exacerbates his problems. The violence and shortsightedness behind his thinking is lent an anonymity by the use of shadows, but actually gives his actions an even more desperate appearance.
Rite of Spring
We go from a macrocosm of space to the microcosm of the beginning of life. Like in many of these segments, threats loom from above, but also from below, as the animators depict a short illustration of survival of the fittest with a fish fighting its way to the surface and shore. This image is immediately replicated fast-forwarding a few eras to the time of dinosaurs with an Ankylosaurus arching its neck with others—perhaps more superior beings—off in the distance. Part of what makes this sequence so cool is how fluidly the passing of hundreds of millions of years appears. After the dinosaur achieves extinction, we return to the whims of the universe.
The Pastoral Symphony
The Greek mythological rendition is unexpectedly imbued with rainbows, wine floods, zebra-themed centaurettes, and a sexual quotient, all censored for your politically-correct pleasure. Did this segment serve as the inspiration for My Little Pony? I love the languid response a dove has to the cherub giving a young woman’s hair design a little art direction.
Dance of the Hours
What’s not to love about a ballet depicting hungry caped crocodiles preparing to feed on a hippopotamus diva and ostriches recently stuffed with whole pieces of unpeeled fruit? Well, for me, plenty. Less is more and the foreboding reptiles set against the blood red rooftop is a brief and welcome respite from this inflated mess. When it hit, my eyes immediately glommed onto this stark image that is different from anything else during this duration. I even enjoyed the technicolor shadows which reached up the height of the wall when they antagonists revealed themselves.
My Favorite Shot:
A Night on Bald Mountain & Ave Maria
Here, there isn’t a commiseration between life on earth and what lies beyond as there was in The Pastoral Symphony. It’s plainly good verses evil, and evil seldom looked so intimidating, sinister, and powerful. I’ve always been fascinated by Disney villains. And Lucifer here is no exception, as this version will serve as a template for future imagery in Sleeping Beauty and Aladdin. My favorite segment in Fantasia, there are just too many fantastic images to choose from, especially involving hands alone. Hovering over his dominion like a God, the moment the bell of virtue is simply rung, Satan cowers, hands first retreating, and then covering himself with his arms sensing complete submission. The motif of hands represents a grand, seductive, domineering manipulation, which can also be resisted. Only can one be saved from the depths of Hell (and breasts!) by congregating with pure, unadulterated light. Its calming saving grace can be heard, but one must wade through the distractions and noise to hear its unassuming, but distinct clarion call. Virtue exposes sinful behavior for what it is: empty frivolity that only appears tempting on the surface, but offers little of substance or long-term salvation. This isn't a puritanical view I necessarily subscribe to, but its rendering is quite poetic and profound.
Thank you, Nat, for another great selection!
Previous HMWYBS:Fantasia
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Summertime
Double Indemnity
A Star Is Born (1954)
Pink Narcissus
Road to Perdition
Picnic
The Story of Adele H.
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