Evening star., 1941-05-13

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has set his lin Jay Carmody.
itless and capricious imagination to
the creation of visual music and
succeeded brilliantly.
The result is something to en-
chant the heart, at least the heart
of the moviegoer and the movie
critic. If the music lover and the
music critic feel the same, or differ
emily, the expression is left to Miss
Alice Eversman in the adjacent
column.
In the eight varied and famous
musical compositions he chose to
bring to visible life, Disney found a
universe as the playground of his
imagination. Happily, also, he found
q staff of animators largely of like
inspiration, Leopold Stokowski and
the Philadelphia Symphony to lay
his musical foundation, and Deems
Taylor to serve as an amusing and
informative narrator for the most
striking achievement In cinema his
tory.
The superlatlves which Fantasia"
evokes are more applicable to It's
over ALI effect and its inspiration
than to its detail. If 1t were the
usual film, one could say (resorting
to favorite cliche) that 1t was un-
even, that It's highs and lows are
separated by a gulf which implies
that the masters inspiration did
not serve equally well all of his
subordinates. The chronic dissenter,
and the faint of heart, may find
valid ground for their point that
Fantasia" is terrifying in some of
Its thunderous, cataclysmic pas
eages. They may even protest that
one who could find so much of
dainty beauty and whimsical, inno-
cent humor should also find their
grotesque opposites. Disney's an
swer undoubtedly would be that he
had looked at life, that it was all
things he shows in his animated mu-
sic, and that he would have been
following an old and poisonous
movie pattern had he censored his
Imagination.
That would not have been Disney.
Fantasia" is. and none can be so
poor OF spirit that he cannot find
something in 1t that Is sheer de-
light.
In turning to the great composers
aS his script writers, Disney tapped
q source Of material that ranges
from mythology to the New Yorker
In theme and treatment. The trans
lation of sound into image is as
compelling as it is varied, its two
unchanging features being the fig
ure Of Mr.. Taylor as commentator,
and the shadow of Stokowski as
conductor. Otherwise, Fantasia"
is peopled (Which is hardly the
word) with fairies, demons, CEN
taurs, centaurettes, dancing toad
stools, dinosaurs, cupids, elephants,
crocodiles, thistles made in the
image of Russian dancers, dancing
orchids, and scores of other fan
tastic fora and fauna.
Fantasia" may err in opening
with the most difficult of the eight
compositions from the standpoint
Of illustration. 1t is Bach "Toccata
and Fugue in D Minor" piece of
pure, or absolute, music which is
interpreted abstractly with brilliant
shifting, fusing, colors; vagrant
figures floating through space;
sprays of falling stars.
The more recognizable Disney is
apparent in the second selection,
TschkaikowSkis "Nutcracker Suite" ="
The first passage introduces one of
the most delicate, fragile illustrative
touches of the entire picture in the
form of tiny, graceful fairies placing
dewdrops on the cobwebs. There
follows Immediately one of the high
points of the whimsical humor of
"Fantasia's" creator, the hilarious
dancing of the Chinese mushrooms.
X X X X
Space does not permit a detailed
discussion of the treatment of each
number which comprises the bril-
nantly illustrated concert.
One should be on the alert, how
ever, for the familiar, irrepressible,
lovable Mickey Mouse in a conven-
iently delirious antic in THE Sor-
cerer's Apprentice; for the mar
velous satire on the ballet in Dance
of the Hours" which Disney cast
with such grotesque performers as
ostriches, elephants and a hippo
potamus; and for the enthrallingly
charming fauns, centaurettes and
other creatures in Beethoven's PAS
toral Symphony"
On the grimmer side there are the
frightening collection of skeletons,
imps, ghouls and demons which ca
wort weirdly to the strains of Might
on Bald Mountain; and, only slight
ly less nightmarish, the terrifying
upheavals of the earth and the
stormy death struggles of the pre-
historic animals in Stravinsky's un-
forgettable Rite of Spring"
The soft, solemn note on which
Fantasia" closes is one of its most
memorable passages, the music
Schubert's "Ave Maria"
" !;
If Fantasia" were conventional
picture, and thus subject to conven-
tional judgments, the charge might
be brought against 1t that 1t is over
long: the further charge that the
music and the illustration vary in
accent upon occasion to the dis
advantage of the former.
Both would be valid, but neither nor
both can detract appreciably from
the wonder of Disney's discovery OF
music and music's discovery o%Dis-
ney.