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**Gurn Blanston** · 05-08-2004, 06:37 AM

Ruud,
I loved it every time I saw it, And you didn't mention the best Mickey Mouse cartoon ever, the Sorcerer's Apprentice by Dukas! I was raised on Disney movies (I am much older than you, I saw most of them in original release in the movie house!!) and I always thought this was one of the two or three best. It hooked me on classical music from a very young age, along with Bugs Bunny singing The Barber of Seville, of course!

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Regards,
Gurn
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That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
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**Andrea** · 05-08-2004, 12:04 PM

I too love Disney's "Fantasia". My favorite parts are of Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony" and of Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain". Here is a review of this film by Tim Dirks:

Fantasia (1940), a Disney animated feature-length "concert" film milestone, is an experimental film integrating eight magnificent classical musical compositions with enchanting, exhilarating, and imaginative, artistically-choreographed animation. The conceptual framework of the individual pieces embraces such areas as prehistoric times, the four seasons, nature, hell/heaven, mythology, and legend.

This Disney production was an ambitious experiment to try to popularize classical music, especially by accompanying it with animation. Originally, the film was to consist of only The Sorcerer's Apprentice segment, but it was expanded to include the full anthology of shorts. And it was slightly controversial for its depiction of bare-breasted centaurettes in the Pastoral Symphony segment. At the request of the Hays Production Code, the figures were garlanded with flower bras for cover-up after swimming in a brook. Also, in later releases of the film, in the Pastoral Symphony segment (again), two black Nubian/zebra centaurs who attend the Bacchus celebration and shine the hooves of the white centaurs were edited out (along with a pickaninny centaurette).

The film, with a production cost of more than $2 million, initially failed at the box-office (partially due to the expensive installation of "Fantasound" sound reproduction equipment in theatres), but then its popularity increased and its cult status was assured when the members of the 60's drug culture adopted it as a favorite hallucinatory experience. Since then, it has been warmly embraced, and a sequel titled Fantasia 2000 (2000) appeared as an IMAX attraction. It illustrated seven more classic pieces, from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony to Respighi's Pines of Rome to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and the climactic 1919 version of Stravinsky's Firebird Suite - and it reprised the The Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence.

A variation on this type of film was Disney's own 'unofficial' sequel Make Mine Music (1946), its 8th full-length animated feature, that substituted pop music for the classics. Two of its most famous segments (of ten animated vignettes) were (1) Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf (narrated by Sterling Holloway) [distributed with the re-release of Fantasia in 1947 as an 'update'], and (2) Casey at the Bat. Another of the segments, Blue Bayou, was originally set to Debussy's Claire de Lune and was intended to be included in Fantasia, but it was cut due to length.

As the film begins, musicians (cellists, violinists, brasses, wood-winds, etc.) of the Philadelphia Orchestra (to be conducted by Leopold Stokowski, the orchestra's conductor from 1912 to 1938) are displayed in shadow and color and are silhouetted against a blue backdrop in the opening as they take their accustomed places and tune their instruments. Screen narrator Deems Taylor (popular musical commentator with the New York Philharmonic radio broadcasts) welcomes the audience to a "new form of entertainment," and in his introduction sets the scene:

"What you're going to see are the designs and pictures and stories that music inspired in the minds and imaginations of a group of artists. In other words, these are not going to be the interpretations of trained musicians which I think is all to the good."

The resident presenter of the NY first explains that there are three kinds of music: music that tells a definite story, music that paints a series of pictures, and "absolute music" that exists simply for its own sake.

The eight memorable animated fantasies/sequences of the entire film begin with a pictorial kaleidoscope - a pure fanciful flight of imagination:
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1. "J. S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor":

This first piece is an example of "absolute music." Bach's music is interpreted in terms of light-hearted, abstract and semi-abstract forms and impressionistic images:

" that might pass through your mind if you sat in a concert hall listening to this music. At first, you are more or less conscious of the orchestra. So our picture opens with a series of impressions of the conductor and the players. Then the music begins to suggest other things to your imagination. They might be, oh, just masses of color, or they may be cloud forms or great landscapes or vague shadows or geometrical objects floating in space."

Taylor's introduction concludes with the figure of Leopold Stokowski moving center stage to mount the podium and call attention with his hands to orchestral members. As the piece begins, sections of the orchestra - shadows of the players including violinists, cellists, and French hornists - light up to emphasize their playing, against other colorful backdrops. After the opening Toccata, images of the orchestra's instruments and players turn more abstract and bizarre in the Fugue. The ends of violin bows become silver streaks darting through the heavens. Clouds and sky cover the screen. Music is projected as yellow streaks of light. Abstract forms and shapes (concentric circles, patterns, waves) move in a lively fashion, synchronized to the musical tones. Strings are suspended in air played with soaring bows. Discs or wafers resembling objects in space appear and disappear. As the music builds, sparkling bits of fireworks dance and explode in a metamorphosis of light and color. The piece concludes with a huge, orange sunset, over which is superimposed the black silhouette of conductor Stokowski - and then it all fades to black.

Deem Taylor's continuing "music lesson" narration holds together various pieces of the film:

"You know it's funny how wrong an artist can be about his own work. Now the one composition of Tchaikovsky's that he really detested was his Nutcracker Suite, which is probably the most popular thing he ever wrote. Incidentally, uh, you won't see any nutcracker on the screen. There's nothing left of him but the title."
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2. "Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite": (the original piece was shortened and the order of the movements was rearranged) - the familiar piece is an animated dance sequence celebrating nature through the changing seasons (from summer to winter), with six movements. The series of ballets are led by fairies, mushrooms in Chinese costumes, flowers and flower petals, underwater fan-tail fish, and thistles:

- "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies": multi-colored fireflies turn into tiny sparkling blue Dewdrop Fairies and dragonfly sprites who dart and flit among flowers, touching them with their wands and spreading sparkling dew droplets across the forest As buds open, more little fairies are awakened. A spider web is illuminated by the dazzling bits of moisture. Three sprites collide, producing a white explosion of dew drops that fall on red-topped mushrooms.

- "Chinese Dance": six red-topped mushrooms shake off the dew, then become wide, coolie-hatted Chinese men with round heads, long robes and pigtails that are choreographed into a dance. Hop Low, smaller than the rest of the mushrooms, cannot keep up with the steps and routines of the larger mushrooms. He hops back into place just in time to take a final bow.

- "Dance of the Reed Flutes": multi-colored flower petals and blossoms spin and drift downward to the surface of a stream. On the water surface, their petals spread out and they are transformed into tiny, wide-skirted ballerinas. A breeze sends them spinning across the water surface and among the branches of overhanging trees, until they are swept over a bubbling cascade and vanish.

- "Arab Dance": underwater bubbles from the cascade rise gracefully to the surface where the flower blossoms vanished. Underwater, in a forest of undulating water plants that becomes a harem, exotic gold and black fish with long flowing tails create beautiful patterns in an aqua ballet. The goldfish become coquettish chorines with pink eyelids and fluttering lashes. Bubbles again rise to the surface at the end of the sequence.

- "Cossack/Russian Dance": one thistle with six pink blossoms bursts from the largest bubble, becoming six separate, Russian-looking, mustached, high-kicking thistles. More groups of thistles join the dance, spinning and dancing with groups of orchids that resemble slim-waisted peasant girls with full skirts and quaint headdresses. The pace gets faster and faster until it freezes on a final tableau.

- "Waltz of the Flowers": the change of seasons from fall to winter is beautifully illustrated in four dances.

(1) Autumn Fairies fly among the trees, touching green leaves which take on yellowish-brown fall colors. The leaves drop from their branches and drift with the wind.
(2) The Autumn Fairies also touch milkweed pods which burst, releasing their silky milkweed seeds. The seeds resemble classical ballerina dancers with white bouffant skirts and smooth, sleek black hair.
(3) Bluish Frost Fairies decorate nature with tiny needles of bluish white ice. They skim and skate across the surface of the pond, changing it to ice and leaving patterns. A new wintry season has arrived.
(4) Snowflake Fairies with whirling skirts begin to fall, dancing and covering the entire landscape

The casual narrative from Taylor prefaces the next segment, the best-known musical piece:

"And now we're going to hear a piece of music that tells a very definite story. It's a very old story, one that goes back almost 2,000 years, a legend about a sorcerer who had an apprentice. He was a bright young lad, very anxious to learn the business. As a matter of fact, he was a little bit too bright, because he started practicing some of the boss's best magic tricks before learning how to control them."

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3. "Paul Dukas's The Sorcerer's Apprentice", a spectacular 8-minute sequence, the most famous section of the film - a concert piece by French composer Paul Dukas. It was originally an ages-old fairy tale that had been interpreted as a poem by Goethe - a story that illustrated the dangers of power over wisdom.

The segment opens with the Sorcerer (named Yen Sid, or Disney spelled backwards) practicing his craft, calling up a smoky spirit in the shape of a bat that he changes into a misty butterfly. Mickey Mouse is the lazy, young, and mischievous apprentice-magician of the powerful Wizard, assigned the tiring task of filling the large water vat in the cavern with buckets of water from an outdoor fountain. He wipes his brow, weary from carrying water. Left alone in the sorcerer's underground cavern after the Wizard yawns and then retires, he sees that the mystical Wizard has left behind his tall, pointed magical hat. The glowing, powerful blue hat is decorated with white stars and a crescent moon.

Mickey dons it and pretends to be the Wizard. Dabbling with spells, he extends his arms toward a broom leaning against the wall. He brings one broom to life with a bluish and white glow, and lures it to stand upright. Then, he commands it to move, hop, and sprout arms. The broom straws part to look like flippers so that the broom can walk like a seal. The arms and "feet" are taught to do his work, to carry buckets of water from the fountain to fill the huge vat. Mickey has a cute and cocky, hubristic attitude, broadly grinning at the success of his trick. He sits back in the Wizard's chair, orchestrating the movements of the broom, while watching it tirelessly fetch and tote water buckets. He soon falls asleep and dreams of power - he has reached greater heights above the earth on a high pinnacle in space - he pictures himself controlling the paths of clouds, stars, planets, and comets in the sky. Even the waves of the ocean and lightning bolts obey him.

Suddenly, he awakens to waves of water crashing over him. His chair is floating on water that fills the cavern. The persistent broom has filled the vat with thousands of gallons of water, causing a gigantic ocean and flood. Mickey cannot get the broom to stop and obey him, unable to control the spell he has created. The unstoppable broom walks right over him on its way to the fountain for more water. Desperately, in a memorable set of images, Mickey grabs an axe and splits the broom into splinters, shown on the wall in gigantic dark shadows. All is silent for a moment, until the fragments twitch and then proliferate, generating more brooms. Each broom mechanically carries two more buckets, marching in an army from the fountain into the cavern. In a futile attempt, Mickey attempts to bail out the room with a single bucket. The robot-like batallion of brooms continue their appointed task of fetching buckets of water, even when they become completely submerged. Frantically, Mickey jumps on the master's huge book of magic and spells, looking for an antidote, riding (actually surfing) in a swirling, out-of-control whirlpool of water that threatens to drown everything.

The Sorcerer makes a dramatic appearance at the top of the stairway just in time. With five sweeps of his hands, he parts and calms the waters - beautifully coordinated with the music, commanding the army of brooms to become one broom again. With piercing eyes, the Sorcerer summons his mischievous apprentice to chastise him. He retrieves his soggy, drooping hat. A sheepish Mickey has a variety of expressions on his face - guilt, embarrassment, and coyness. He hands the broom to the unsmiling magician. The wizard also conceals a slight look of concealed amusement on his face. As Mickey tiptoes away to cart buckets of water the hard way, he is given a whack on the backside with the broom, beautifully timed to notes and chords of the musical piece.

At the conclusion, Stokowski is in silhouette on the podium. Dressed in tails, Mickey's silhouetted figure runs up onto the conductor's podium and tugs on Stokowski's coat-tails to get his attention:

Mickey: "Mr. Stokowski, Mr. Stokowski, (he whistles to attract his attention), ha, my congratulations sir."
Conductor: "Congratulations to you, Mickey." (They shake hands)
Mickey: "Gee, thanks, so long, I'll be seein' ya."
Conductor: "Goodbye."

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4. "Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring" depicts the 'scientific' beginnings of the cosmos, solar system, and the planet Earth and then life itself - billions of years of geological creation and the development of life represented in a few minutes. The ambitious sequence is divided into eight sections, and prefaced by the musicologist's narration:

When Igor Stravinsky wrote his ballet The Rite of Spring, his purpose was, in his own words, 'to express primitive life.' So Walt Disney and his fellow artists have taken him at his word. Instead of presenting the ballet in its original form, as a simple series of tribal dances, they have visualized it as a pageant, as the story of the growth of life on Earth. It's a coldly accurate reproduction of what science thinks went on during the first few billion years of this planet's existence. So now, imagine yourselves out in space, billions and billions of years ago, looking down on this lonely, tormented little planet, spinning through an empty sea of nothingness.

(1) Trip Through Space: Out in the cosmos, where spiral nebulae, comets, and meteors are imagined, an exploded emission of gas from the sun shoots off into space and solidifies into a ball of fire to eventually become Earth.

(2) Volcanoes: Earth is first envisioned as a molten mass with boiling seas, spouting and exploding craters, volcanic lava flows, and hot gases. After volcanic convulsions, mountain ranges are formed and the earth cools.

(3) Undersea Life and Growth: The genesis of sea life begins with microscopic, primitive, one-celled organisms. They evolve into hydras, annelid worms, jellyfish, and trilobites. The first fish appear, then lungfish, and then true amphibians that come onto the dry land and adapt to new conditions. This section imaginatively represents the evolution of sea life into land reptiles. The fins of Polypterus change to legs, and he walks up a submerged rock to the surface of the ocean.

(4) Pterodactyls: Flying reptiles of the Jurassic period, pterodactyls hang from a cliff and swoop down to catch prey. One flies too close to the water level and is snatched by a Mosasaur, a sea creature.

(5) The Age of Dinosaurs: The earth is soon dominated by huge reptiles, including the Dimetrodon, the Stegosaurus, the Brontosaurus, the Triceratops, and other graceful dinosaurs that roam the surface of the planet.

(6) Survival of the Fittest: Dinosaurs fight against each other. Two prehistoric monsters, a Tyrannosaurus Rex and a giant Stegosaurus, engage in a bloody, ferocious battle to the death. The king of the tyrant lizards, the T. Rex, is a frightening sight of enormous jaws and gigantic, pointed teeth. The defeated Stegosaurus expresses despair when its neck is broken and it realizes it is going to die.

(7) Extinction: The large beasts become extinct from the effects of a massive, blistering hot drought, providing bones and fossils for future discoveries. The continental land masses become deserts.

(8) Forces of Nature: The dramatic effects of Nature are highlighted by an earthquake, tidal waves and floods (with rain, thunder, and wind) caused by subterranean volcanoes, and an eclipse of the sun.

A few of the musicians play a few bars of jazz in an informal jam session.
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5. "Beethoven's Sixth Symphony", the Pastoral Symphony takes place on the slopes of Mount Olympus. It is a comical and romantic romp of characters, taken from Greek mythology, who frolic on the countryside.

The symphony that Beethoven called the Pastoral, his Sixth, is one of the few pieces of music he ever wrote that tells something like a definite story. He was a great nature-lover, and in this symphony, he paints a musical picture of a day in the country. Now, of course the country that Beethoven described was the countryside with which he was familiar. But his music covers a much wider field than that, and so Walt Disney has given the Pastoral Symphony a mythological setting. There are five distinct sections or movements in the animated mythological allegory:

(1)" Arriving in the Countryside of Elysian Fields at Mount Olympus": Creatures of mythology include colorful baby unicorns and baby fauns which romp over the beautiful countryside. A black winged stallion, Pegasus, flies with its family of four colorful baby horses. Joined by its white mate, they glide over a lake and settle on its water surface.

(2) "Scene by the Brook with Centaurs and Centaurettes": Girl centaurettes (first unclothed while swimming, then garlanded with flower bras) are adorned and made up (with hats from flowers and bark) by baby cupids, in anticipation of meeting their male friends. They flirt and are courted by husky centaurs under Cupid's spell during an idyllic afternoon. Winged cupids assist the courting of one lonely centaur with his dream centaurette. The cupid's bottom turns into a heart shape before a fade to black.

(3)" Merrymaking in the Bacchanal Feast": All the mythological characters, including mischievous fauns and nymphs set the next scene for a feast. Wine is pressed for the occasion. A drunken Bacchus, god of wine, with his equally-drunken unicorn-mule, rides tipsily out of the forest.

(4) "The Storm": When their wine dance and party ends, a bearded Zeus stages a dark thunderstorm, hurling bolts of lightning forged by Vulcan. The bolts are hurled at Bacchus. The wine vat is shattered by a lightning strike, flooding everything with torrents of wine.

(5)"Peace and Sunset": After the storm, tranquility returns, and Iris streaks across the sky, trailing a rainbow of colors. The mythological creatures play in the rainbow's colors. As the sun shines brightly, symbolized by Apollo riding a fiery chariot driven by three horses in the sky, the creatures wave and admire its reddish glow, thankful for the lovely day. Sunset approaches and Morpheus covers the land with a cloak of darkness. Night falls, and Diana, goddess of the moon, appears in the sky to shoot a fiery arrow-comet from the bow of light formed by the crescent of the new moon. The comet creates sparkling stars that scatter and fall into their proper places in the night sky. All is at peace under the moon and stars in the Elysian Fields setting.

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6. "Amilcare Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours" from his opera La Gioconda, is a hilarious animal ballet. It is a burlesque, satirical parody of classical ballet divided into four parts. It is an enjoyable tribute to poetry in motion through ballet, performed in a Great Hall by a group of atypical, anthropomorphic dancers, including ostriches, hippos, elephants, and alligators:

"Now we're going to do one of the most famous and popular ballets ever written...It's a pageant of the hours of the day. All this takes place in the Great Hall with its garden beyond of the palace of Duke Alvisa, a Venetian nobleman."

(1) "Ostrich Ballet" (Morning): The camera moves from the Great Hall's iron gates through the processional columns to white curtains. They open on a giant, sleeping ostrich. After wakening and stretching, the ostrich rises and gracefully pirouettes like a ballerina over to a chorus of other sleeping ostriches. They are awakened, and then the prima ballerina ostrich throws fruit to them - they swallow oranges, bananas, and pineapples whole, creating interesting shapes down their slim necks. She flees to an outdoor pool when they attempt to take a bunch of grapes away.

(2)"Hippo Ballet" (Afternoon): Bubbles signal the imminent awakening and emergence of a prima ballerina hippopotamus from a lily pool in the garden of the Great Hall. After she awakes, she applies powder to herself in front of a mirror. Two chorus hippos help her out of the pool. She pirouettes daintily in a tutu during a solo dance. Soon tired, she falls into the arms of the chorus hippos, who take her back to her couch.

(3) "Elephant Ballet" (Evening): As the lead hippo sleeps, a group of elephants appear in evening wear to surround her. At the pool, they blow large pink bubbles with their trunks in a bubble dance. The sleeping hippo is borne upward on a stack of bubbles, soon joined by other hippos and elephants. Everything comes back to earth, and the lead hippo is left sleeping, as night falls.

(4)"Alligator Ballet" (Night): Leering, yellow-eyed, black-caped alligators swoop down on the entire company, hiding behind pillars before surrounding the lead hippo. Their tails twist, their jaws snap. The finale is a mad chase with alligators leaping after the hippos and involving all the animals. Alligators and hippos play hide-and-seek behind marble columns; alligators ride ostrichs; an elephant rides an alligator; alligators spin elephants overhead; hippos whirl alligators around by their tails. The lead alligator throws the lead hippo down, triumphant over her. On the final note, the camera pulls back through the columns of the Great Hall to the iron doors at its entrance. The gates slam shut and they crumble off their hinges.

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The final piece is introduced:

"The last number in our Fantasia program is a combination of two pieces of music so utterly different in construction and mood that they set each other off perfectly....Musically and dramatically, we have here a picture of the struggle between the profane and the sacred."

7. "Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain", is a dramatically-terrifying celebration of evil during the night of the Witches' Sabbath. As night falls at the foot of Bald Mountain, the lord of evil and death, the Black God Chernobog appears on the top of the jagged peak. [The God of Evil in Slavic mythology, modeled after action model Bela Lugosi of Dracula (1931) fame.] A flurry of devil bats fly through the darkened air. As a salute to the evil God and to celebrate evil, tormented, cursed night spirits (including skeletal ghosts, witches, vampires) rise from their graves, some riding demonic steeds, to make obeisance. In flames, smoke, and fiery flashes, they swirl around him in a surrealistic pattern. He revels in their passionate worship. In his hand, the spirits dance furiously, while he takes perverse pleasure in transforming them into animals, then lizards, then miniature black gods. By giant handfuls, he drops the flaming figures into the fiery pit when done with them. They quickly turn from sensual female forms to skulls, descending into fiery whirlpools. When morning approaches, church bells ring, lighting up the Black God with each chime, forcing him to cringe and recoil further and further into the mountain in his bat-like cloak. The god of evil realizes the power of good is too strong. The spirits draw back and return to their resting places in their graves. The sky lightens as peace returns. Light triumphs over darkness, goodness over evil.

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8. "Schubert's Ave Maria" is actually the second part of the seventh segment. The end of the first part blends seamlessly into the second part without a pause. In this awe-inspiring segment, the bells of the first part seem to be calling the faithful to worship. In the drifting morning mist at the base of the mountain, figures with glowing candles move in a procession. They cross a meadow and go over a bridge, their lights reflected in the water below. They climb a hill and enter into a forest, where trees form cathedral-like arches. The candle-bearing pilgrims pass through the darkness of the forest and enter into a beautiful pasture just before dawn. Dawn comes as the first light of daylight brightens the sky and the land. The blue sky and clouds present a peaceful vision of heaven on earth. The rays of the reddish sunrise are brilliant as the choir sings the last chords of the Ave Maria. The powers of light are triumphant over the powers of death.

**ruudp** · 05-08-2004, 12:57 PM

Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:
Ruud,
I loved it every time I saw it, And you didn't mention the best Mickey Mouse cartoon ever, the Sorcerer's Apprentice by Dukas! I was raised on Disney movies (I am much older than you, I saw most of them in original release in the movie house!!) and I always thought this was one of the two or three best. It hooked me on classical music from a very young age, along with Bugs Bunny singing The Barber of Seville, of course!

You're right gurn...HOW could I forget the wonderful poem of dukas....It was quite late when I posted the topic...perhaps I can blame that for missing out on dukas..another cartoon which had me stuck on the telly was Mickey's band...A cartoon in which mickey tries to conduct the ouverture to wilhelm tell by rossini, but het gets hindered by donald duck a lot...WONDERFULL motion picture

Regards,
Ruud

**ruudp** · 05-08-2004, 12:57 PM

Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:
Ruud,
I loved it every time I saw it, And you didn't mention the best Mickey Mouse cartoon ever, the Sorcerer's Apprentice by Dukas! I was raised on Disney movies (I am much older than you, I saw most of them in original release in the movie house!!) and I always thought this was one of the two or three best. It hooked me on classical music from a very young age, along with Bugs Bunny singing The Barber of Seville, of course!

You're right gurn...HOW could I forget the wonderful poem of dukas....It was quite late when I posted the topic...perhaps I can blame that for missing out on dukas..another cartoon which had me stuck on the telly was Mickey's band...A cartoon in which mickey tries to conduct the ouverture to wilhelm tell by rossini, but het gets hindered by donald duck a lot...WONDERFULL motion picture

Regards,
Ruud

**Joy** · 05-09-2004, 12:57 AM

I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid
but remember it was so entertaining and the music was fantastic! The Sorcerer's Apprentice is the part I always remember most with the brooms coming to life and 'marching' also Night on Bald Mountain a wonderful part of the movie. Such animation! Disney had indeed in their midst some of the best animators in the business.

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'Truth and beauty joined'

**Sorrano** · 05-09-2004, 01:08 AM

Has anyone seen the 2000 Fantasia movie?

A big thumbs up on the original!

**Tony John Hearne** · 05-09-2004, 03:21 AM

My nine year old son in particular is simply infatuated with this movie and watches it in its totality at bedtime whenever he can. I must admit I find it compelling, particularly the Tschaikovsky Nutcracker sequence. Leopold Stokowski was surely brave at the time to enter into this venture and thus challenge much musical snobbery. All in all not really for me, but anything that can draw my nine year old twins into a voluntary appreciation of classical music is just wonderful as far as I am concerned.

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Love from London

**JA Gardiner** · 05-11-2004, 03:19 AM

Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:
Ruud,
I loved it every time I saw it, And you didn't mention the best Mickey Mouse cartoon ever, the Sorcerer's Apprentice by Dukas! I was raised on Disney movies (I am much older than you, I saw most of them in original release in the movie house!!) and I always thought this was one of the two or three best. It hooked me on classical music from a very young age, along with Bugs Bunny singing The Barber of Seville, of course!

Ah but the Bugs Bunny version of the Ring is even better. Who can forget Brunnhilde Fudd singing " Kill the wabbit, Kill the wabbit" to the tune of the Ride of the Valkyrie!

**JA Gardiner** · 05-11-2004, 03:30 AM

Originally posted by Tony John Hearne:
My nine year old son in particular is simply infatuated with this movie and watches it in its totality at bedtime whenever he can. I must admit I find it compelling, particularly the Tschaikovsky Nutcracker sequence. Leopold Stokowski was surely brave at the time to enter into this venture and thus challenge much musical snobbery. All in all not really for me, but anything that can draw my nine year old twins into a voluntary appreciation of classical music is just wonderful as far as I am concerned.

Tony, spot on as ever. My two, now 20 and 17 also adored it, though my son slept through his first showing, and I also remember being overwhelmed by it as a child. Anything that, after 50 years or so, makes such a profound impression even on the MTV generation and gets them to use their imagination and respond to some of the greatest music ever without feeling like a lesson has to be treasured. Nothing like Kleiber's 6th for getting those wretched centaurs out of one's brain though!

**Tony John Hearne** · 05-12-2004, 02:48 AM

[quote]Originally posted by JA Gardiner:

Originally posted by Tony John Hearne:
My nine year old son in particular is simply infatuated with this movie and watches it in its totality at bedtime whenever he can. I must admit I find it compelling, particularly the Tschaikovsky Nutcracker sequence. Leopold Stokowski was surely brave at the time to enter into this venture and thus challenge much musical snobbery. All in all not really for me, but anything that can draw my nine year old twins into a voluntary appreciation of classical music is just wonderful as far as I am concerned.

Tony, spot on as ever. My two, now 20 and 17 also adored it, though my son slept through his first showing, and I also remember being overwhelmed by it as a child. Anything that, after 50 years or so, makes such a profound impression even on the MTV generation and gets them to use their imagination and respond to some of the greatest music ever without feeling like a lesson has to be treasured. Nothing like Kleiber's 6th for getting those wretched centaurs out of one's brain though![/QUOTE

Judith,looking forward to receiving the Kleiber through the post tomorrow. Don't forget to tell me what you want in return. Have been shopping at MDC in London Bridge this evening, Finzi Cello Concerto; Rautavaara Symphony No 7; Bernstein West Side Story and Mozart Clarinet Quintet and Quartet Talk soon

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Love from London

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