Why Fantasia Should Be Seen, Rather Than Read About.

The Good: Music, Most of the animation, Concept, DVD/Blu-Ray bonus features
The Bad: Moments of animation, Introductions.
The Basics: Fantasia is an exceptionally simple concept film that is largely well-executed, though it is far from flawless.


While the rest of the world is off watching their Blu-Rays of The Lion King, today my wife and I took in Fantasia. Rather irritatingly, I preordered The Lion King months ago so it would arrive by today, which is our two and a half year wedding anniversary. It still has yet to arrive. Fortunately, I had a backup plan, which was presenting my wonderful wife with a Blu-Ray set she had been very eager for: Fantasia / Fantasia 2000. Fantasia seems only to be available on Blu-Ray as part of this four pack, which is fine with me because my wife wanted Fantasia 2000 as well. So, today, to celebrate two and a half years of marriage (the longest either of us has been married!), I gifted her a movie she was very much looking forward to seeing and the time together to watch it.

Yeah, I'm padding out my review with additional, irrelevant, information. There is a reason for that. Fantasia is a concept film and I'm finding it mostly pointless to write about. To clarify, I am one of the rare reviewers who tries to call it as it is and a concept doesn't win it for me. Just because a studio attempts a concept film does not guarantee that the concept works. So, for example, I understand 2001: A Space Odyssey, but I also know the film is boring.

Fantasia is a concept film that predates music videos, but the basic concept is putting music to moving images, in this case with classical music. Disney animation puts images to "Toccata And Fugue In D Minor, BMV 565" (Bach), "The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a" (Tchaikovsky), "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (Dukas), "Rite Of Spring" (Stravinsky), "Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral) Op. 68" (Beethoven"), "Dance Of The Hours" (Ponchielli), "A Night On Bald Mountain" (Mussorgsky), and "Ave Maria, Op. 52 No. 6" (Schubert) and the almost two hour concert is pretty incredible.

The concert is a mix of the live action concert and the animated movie that puts dancing hippos, Mickey Mouse as a young wizard, and centaurs on the screen. Dinosaurs live and die and the film has fragmented sense that separates each piece, save the "A Night On Bald Mountain" and "Ave Maria" mash-up. What works? The animation is largely good and the Blu-Ray has cleaned up the images exceptionally well. The sound is exceptionally clean and the visual is equally stellar.

What doesn't work are the places the film could not be cleaned up. There are a few tiny skips, some moments when the animation is clearly done by different teams and a few weird places where things happen like the chimes players knocking into the chimes while setting up. Why was that kept in the movie? Moreover, it is irksome that the narrator explains itself so much. Before each segment, the narrator tells the viewer exactly what is coming and that is thoroughly unnecessary.

On Blu-Ray, there are informative commentary tracks, art galleries and multiple sneak previews. Fantasia is pretty incredible, but discussing it seems pointless; it is a simple concept and it excels at realizing that concept.

For other Disney animated films, please visit my reviews of:
Tangled
Toy Story 3
A Christmas Carol
Up
WALL-E
The Incredibles
Monsters, Inc.
The Little Mermaid
Lady And The Tramp
The Sword In The Stone
Sleeping Beauty

8.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Lady And The Tramp Is Cute, But Thoroughly Underwhelming.

The Good: Charming, Decent animation, Good message
The Bad: Short, Very simply, Light on character development, Dated ethnic stereotypes
The Basics: Despite being cute, Disney's Lady And The Tramp is little more than a cartoon on traditional family values and a very basic fable.

Every now and then, I encounter something that is simple beyond belief and while it might be classified as a "classic" by others, I look at it thoroughly objectively. In the case of Disney's Lady And The Tramp, I am shocked the film has endured in the collective unconscious. My wife recently got ill and she curled up with her Lady plush (click here for that review!) and had me get out Lady And The Tramp on DVD. With its ridiculously short running time, Lady And The Tramp is little more than an extended cartoon fable and seeing it again (I believe I saw it as a young child) I felt both disappointed and surprised that Disney released it as a full-length feature ever and reissued it on DVD.

Lady And The Tramp is a simplistic fable and it is worth noting that my rating of the animated "film" (it is barely over seventy minutes long) is more a reflection on how little there is to the movie, not a criticism of the movie per se. In other words, Lady And The Tramp isn't especially bad, but rather there is almost nothing to it and as a result, it is frustrating to watch and review because of its entirely uncomplicated nature. Unlike many Disney films that pad out an unimpressive story out with several musical numbers, Lady And The Tramp has very few songs and is more old than it is truly grand.

Lady is a cocker spaniel who lives with Jim Dear and his wife. She is the pride of the family and the suburban neighborhood they live in is filled with animals, a Scottish Terrier Jock and an old hound dog named Old Trusty. When the town takes a more aggressive stand on stray dogs, the Tramp aids strays captured by the pound in escaping. But after months of being doted on by the Darlings, Lady is neglected by them. It seems Dear is pregnant and Tramp warns Lady that the arrival of a child will mean the end of her cushy lifestyle.

When the baby is born and Lady is left with the dog-hating Aunt Sarah and her two treacherous Siamese cats, Lady flees. Out on the streets, she encounters Tramp and he rescues Lady from a pack of mean dogs. Together, they fall in love and work to exonerate Lady in the eyes of the Darlings by keeping the baby safe from the Siamese cats.

Beyond a very dated notion of both family values and ethnic stereotypes, Lady And The Tramp is a very simple fable about love transcending social barriers. Lady is upper class, Tramp is a street urchin and he is unashamed of his lifestyle, which illustrates the importance of being oneself. But beyond that, the characters are very monolithic. Lady is an archetype, proud to be the pride of the Darlings and proud to wear a beautiful new collar. But beyond that, she is lacking in real character until she hooks up with Tramp. In other words, it is only that her love transcends the social boundaries of the time that Lady actually rises to an interesting level of character and Tramp never actually develops beyond his initial characterization.

The music that is present in Lady And The Tramp is very simple and not terribly memorable. Indeed, outside the ridiculously racist "We Are Siamese" - which is presented by two cats with stereotypical (racist) buck teeth - there is only one other memorable song. In fact, despite the fact that I saw the film last week, I don't recall if there even was a third (or more) song in the film!

Arguably what makes Lady And The Tramp memorable for fans of Disney would have to be the quality of the animation for the time the movie was made. On DVD, Lady And The Tramp looks great with remastered coloring and the fluidity of the animation looks impressive when one considers the movie is fifty-five years old. But beyond that and the featurettes on how the movie was made, Lady And The Tramp is unbelievably simplistic and not worth the time and money viewers or collectors would spend upon it.

For other Disney films, please visit my reviews of:
The Little Mermaid
The Last Song
Alice In Wonderland

4/10

For other film reviews, please click here to visit my index page for a complete listing of all I have reviewed!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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