Fantasia: Review By kiion

After creating a new median that could be added to the world of the movie industry, Walt Disney revolutionized people perspective on the art form of animation then proved it was a working manner in which to showcase plots, and not just a fluke. However for their third movie, the animation house have tried to revolutionize the industry again, releasing the movie 'Fantasia' to cinema goers everywhere. Unlike 'Snow White' however this film was released before its time and the original box office performance was way bel;ow the standard that was required. This has led to the studio releasing its first box office bomb - although now this film has a following and has become one of the most loved Disney classics ever. Fantasia is for the most part however a very dull and different approach to the animation industry. Broken up with introductions to the musical segments - instead of the film holding a plot it holds more a program of musical numbers illustrated with the artist vision of what the music speaks - this film has a really odd pacing which does not help to the films lack of excitement.

Fantasia consists of eight different scenarios of animation that is put in place to fit the classical music that the orchestra are performing through the famous works of composers such as Tchaikovsky and Beethoven. Explained first that the film consists of three different types of animations; those that tell a perfectly fitting narrative, those that hold smaller plot points that could be deemed a narrative and those that are complete abstract in their design due to the nature of the music not holding any ideas for narratives. Each sequence is broken up by way of an introduction from a nominated man and the film also holds an intermission at the half way point - another thing that really makes the pacing of the film seem off. Most of the colorful segments to music do nothing in engrossing the audience with nothing but the music to hold the interest, the film picks a demographic that is really small - those who enjoy classical music. Some of the scenarios do however feel right for the movie with standout ones being; 'Nutcracker Suite' being perfectly matched to a magical woodland scene that really fits the music as well as 'The Sorcerers Apprentice' which is this films most known animation. However besides these two, the film does very little in changing peoples perspective on the media, you either like it or you don't. One strong point to this film however is that each different piece of music does feel entirely different to each other, this means that the film does not feel like repeated scenes instead it shows the work that the animators have achieved in the making of this film. This is the main strength and as such will make this film a good abstract collection of music, but one that is hard to get in to.

Fantasia is a film that will not cater to everyone. With hardly any plot besides those that feature in a couple of the musical numbers the film is hard to become engrossed in. What does stand however is the hard work and original idea that the animation team had decided to try to achieve and in some ways it does deserve it status as a cult classic.