When Disney got trippy
Learn and Talk III – Lesson 82
Preview
Words Expressions
1. pigeonhole /ˈpɪdʒ.ən.həʊl/ [verb] be embraced as
classify
mind-bending
2. purveyor /pəˈveɪ.ər/ [noun]
someone who provides goods or services
burst of
3. hallucinogen /ˌhæ l.uːˈsɪn.ə.dʒən/ [noun]
a drug that makes people to seem to see, hear, feel, or smell something that strive to
does not exist
take a flyer
4. culminate /ˈkʌl.mɪ.neɪt/ [verb]
end, especially to reach a final or climactic stage
5. nebulous /ˈneb.jə.ləs/ [adjective]
(especially of ideas) not clear and having no form
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Learn and Talk III – Lesson 82
Article
When Disney got trippy
Futurist, surrealist, abstract artist: those
are not customary descriptions of Walt
Disney, yet they all fit. People who insist
on pigeonholing him as a purveyor of
bland family entertainment haven’t
bothered to watch his movies closely,
especially his work in the 1940s. Fantasia
alone should silence nay-sayers who only
see Disney as a commercial populist; 75
years after its debut on 13 November
1940, it remains one of the most
astonishing films ever to come from
Hollywood.
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Learn and Talk III – Lesson 82
When it was reissued in 1969, with a psychedelic poster, Fantasia was embraced
as a ‘head movie’ by the counter-culture. Young viewers who discovered it in that
theatrical release insisted that the men who made it must have been stoned.
Hard work, not hallucinogens, produced this mind-bending film. For the opening
sequence, which visualised the sounds of the orchestra in abstract form, Disney
hired one of the greatest graphic artists of his time, Oskar Fischinger, who had
been labelled ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis and had made a series of wildly
experimental animated shorts.
Ultimately, Fischinger was too much of an individualist to fit into the Disney
environment, but many of his ideas were used in the Toccata and Fugue sequence,
which paired completely abstract visuals with Bach’s music. Mainstream American
audiences had never seen anything like it before.
Classical music purists weren’t happy with some of Disney’s ideas in 1940,
upset that great compositions were given narrative illustrations. But the sheer
burst of imagination and remarkable execution that can be seen in sequences
like those set to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, which shows the beginning of life
on Earth and culminates with an astounding depiction of dinosaurs, and
Ponchielli’s Dance of the Hours, in which hippos, alligators and ostriches
perform a ballet, is staggering.
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Learn and Talk III – Lesson 82
Success never changed Walt’s outlook; he strove to make each new cartoon better
than the one that preceded it. Every producer in Hollywood turned down the
opportunity to use the new Technicolor process in 1932, but Walt was willing to
take a flyer – despite the fact that it would cost more to produce his shorts and
wouldn’t earn him an extra dime. The Silly Symphony cartoon Flowers and Trees
had already gone into production in black and white, but Walt saw an irresistible
opportunity to do something exciting and new. Glowing with rainbow hues, Flowers
and Trees made such an impression that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences inaugurated an award for best animated short subject just to honour
Disney’s achievement.
The failure of Fantasia would remain a sore spot with Disney for the rest of his
life. “Fantasia merely makes our other pictures look immature and suggests for
the first time what the future of this medium may well turn out to be,” he said in
a speech in 1940. “What I see way off there is too nebulous to describe. But it
looks big and glittering. That’s what I like about this business, the certainty that
there is something bigger and more exciting just around the bend; and the
uncertainty of everything else.”
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Learn and Talk III – Lesson 82
Discussion
1. Do you like Disney films? Why?
2. How can a company keep up with the times?
3. If you are able to make an animation, what story do you want
to tell?
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Learn and Talk III – Lesson 82
Further reading
http://www.51voa.com/VOA_Special_English/cinderella-in-sports72173.html
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