"Classical music is tight, yo" (part 2)

So intermission's over and anyone in the theater at the time who only wanted to see Mickey Mouse has left by now. The musicians have a little fun warming up before Deems Taylor introduces to an important figure of the movie: the soundtrack.

No, but poor choice of wording in retrospect

This guy right here

 It's kind of cute the way Deems talks to the "soundtrack" as he asks him to illustrate the sound waves of different instruments, like the way a kindergarten teacher would talk to the class on the first day of school.

Now we get to "Pastoral Symphony" by Beethoven, the only segment edited for future versions.

-Breathes deeply- "1940 standards... 1940..."

Ah yes, the "centaurettes", blue, pink, green... and black stereotypes! Kinda makes me wish they just stuck with the unicorns and pegasus from the beginning to end.  

Hey it's a good show (until the later seasons, but still all right, don't knock it till you try it)

We cut to the centaurettes (I thought centaurs was a unisex term, but let's just go with it) bathing as they prepare for mating season, I suppose. 

-checks IMDB- ok, this is rated G

It's funny how in a span of a few seconds, the centaurettes go from topless to wearing flowers to cover up their boobs. The fairies in The Nutcracker segment were nude, but I guess it's less noticeable since their segment was shorter and they were tinier figures. A horn is blown to announce the arrival of the guys. Also,

So we have these little cherubs flying around to help the girls get dolled up before they meet their dates.

Still less ridiculous than some of the hats royalty has worn

There we go

Sunflower was pretty much a servant to the other centaurettes, shinnying their hooves, weaving flowers into their tails. The physical differences between her and the other centaurettes are too obvious and would be uncomfortable to have children watch today.

I understand why Disney has permanently edited Sunflower out of Fantasia, but it doesn't erase the fact that she existed at all. The Internet is a thing and sweeping it under the rug just makes the company an easier target. The 2006 Saturday Night Live animated sketch, "Journey into the Disney Vault" mocks the cheap Disney sequels being churned out at the time, Walt Disney's cryogenically frozen head, the "original, more racist" version of Song of the South, and there's a picture of Sunflower in the background, among other things. I still remember that short after all these years because its dark satire was so anti-Disney (and I found it so hilarious). I was a teenager and Disney was pretty meh at that time with their latest feature being Chicken Little (usually compared with Home on the Range for overall worst Disney canon movie).

Warner Bros has done a better job on dealing with the racism presented in their cartoons from the past with this disclaimer proceeding them.

For the record, I'm not calling for Sunflower to be reinserted into every version of Fantasia again, but her scenes could be presented in a special feature of the DVD with academics discussing the evolution of how Fantasia has been presented over time, same thing goes with Song of  the South. I haven't watched it personally, but from the Nostalgia Chick's review's of the movie, it's less racist than it's been declared and a lot more boring.

So everyone gets paired up by color, (I'll leave you to conclude whatever you want) and the girls' funny hats disappear for some reason. Bacchus, god of wine, arrives and now this party can finally get started.

Ok, it would've harder to edit out the zebra girls and have no one notice that

 Zeus sees the celebration below and being the dick he is (both figuratively and literally) starts throwing lightning bolts and causing a storm. He gets bored and falls asleep. A rainbow appears, night descends, and all is well in Olympus. This was a colorful piece, but I was never engaged by the "story", and it dragged on quite a bit. It's about 22 minutes long, same length as Rite of Spring and if you read part 1, you know my feelings about that one.

The penultimate piece is Dance of the Hours from the opera, La Gioconda. Some of you may know it from the Allan Sherman song, "Hello Muddah Hello Faddah". This is how I know the music.

 What is it with puppies and classical music that appeals so much to me?

This is the piece with the dancing ostriches, elephants, hippos, and crocodiles and definitely the most cartoony. The one thing that confuses me is weren't the crocodiles trying to eat the other animals?  But then in the finale, they're all joyfully dancing together. Also in real life, the hippos would win. Those animals are very territorial and aggressive as hell (yes, even more than crocodiles).

And for the pièce de résistance,  Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" probably second in fame to Sorcerer's Apprentice, but again Disney is stuck in a rut trying to promote this as a kids' movie. This segment even has boobs (with nipples, ooh la la) for a split second.

Mammary glands aside, the real star of the show is the devil Chernabog and if you don't know who that is, then if you ever watched Fantasmic! at Disneyland, Disney's Hollywood Studios, or Tokyo Disneysea, you've seen him.

Disneyland version here, because west coast represent yo (I'm just gonna assume kids still use yo)

After Sorcerer's Apprentice, I was pretty much clenching my butt for this one because I've heard of its awesomeness and I've seen Fantasmic! I don't know how many times.

Deems Taylor sets the scene as Walpurgis Night, an equivalent of Halloween, when evil creatures gather under their master. Walpurgis Night is the English translation of Walpurgisnacht, the German name of April 30th, the day before May Day. I've always thought it was a gathering of witches (because that's what anime taught me).

Also name of  the boss enemy of magical girls in Puella Magi Madoka Magica (trying saying that 3 times, but seriously watch this anime)

The segment begins with Chernabog emerging from Bald Mountain underneath his huge wings.

Like a boss

 And that's all I'm saying, this segment is awesome and dark, not gritty or scary (younger, wussier me would've been terrified by Chernabog though). It makes me wish Halloween in my neighborhood was more atmospheric and darker.

If I took a shot every time I saw a kid in a Frozen costume trick or treating, I would've had alcohol poisoning

Alas, even Chernabog must retreat when dawn approaches and the ringing of church bells is heard. So we transition to the actual finale, Schubert's Ave Maria, and you see the people making a pilgrimage through the woods...

Huh? I'm awake, I"m awake! Ok, Night on Bald Mountain was so awesome, I was too exhausted for the rest of the movie. Fine, that's not actually true, but it's a beautiful piece of animation, lots of still slow-moving shots, and the detail on the trees of the forest (reminds me of what's to come in Sleeping Beauty). With all the evolutionism, paganism, and the Satanic ritual from the previous segments, I could see why Disney wanted to stick in something Christian (it's not completely religious, the forest replaces the church, and you only see the silhouettes of the pilgrims holding their candles).

The people did come in droves to watch Fantasia. Disney released it as a roadshow attraction across the country (basically what we have with limited engagements in major cities before wide releases, usually for Oscar-bait movies that want to make the deadlines) because this was something special, something classier for the public to enjoy. Unfortunately, with all the expenses associated with the movie from the setup for the Fantasound system, the leasing for theaters, and that thing called World War II cutting off the European market, Fantasia was even more of a financial loss for Disney than Pinocchio.

That is a damn shame because Fantasia was more for the adults, but like today Disney was more well known for making movies appropriate for children and this movie was never going to become a hit on the scale of Snow White. Gone were the hopes of reinventing and re-releasing Fantasia for years to come. Fantasia 2000 seemed more like, eh it's the new millennium, we've made boatloads of money in the 90's, let's finally make one (and never make another again).

Final thoughts: Fantasia's different, it's classy, it's high art, and... it's not quite my cup of tea.

You philistine!

Again, I didn't grow up with this and I like going to the theater to watch musicals and ballet (haven't been to the opera yet though). I loved certain pieces and was meh on the others. It's a fine movie to rewatch (but personally I'll be skipping around a lot). Doesn't take away anything Fantasia achieved.

Here's the thing though, we do have something like Fantasia today. Animated pieces set to music, check, re-released constantly with new material added and old material edited out, check. Classical music, um... no, but how about Disney music?

World of Color, yo (maybe if I use it enough times, it'll be cool again)

For all the trash-talking I gave the California Adventure theme park in my introductory post, Disney has done a lot to improve the park, including this $75 million gem. If you've never seen one of these shows...

That's Pixar, not Disney! (For the record, Merida is an official Disney Princess)

Chernabog + fireballs = awesome

This is hands down my favorite version of "Let it Go"

Some Tron Legacy here to add in some live-action into the mix, also Daft Punk

Walt never got a chance to have Fantasia turn out the way he wanted it to, but between the Walt Disney Concert Hall and stuff like World of Color, I'd say he'd be pretty pleased with the way things did turn out.

Whew, and that was Fantasia, what am I watching next?

Oh thank baby Jesus, something harmless with no controversy like raci-

Damn it