FANTASIA
Next up is Fantasia, also released in 1940. I’ll have to let this one off, in terms of Disney productions, I don’t think it overshadows its source material the way the other films do.
So, Fantasia is an anthology, the film is broken up into eight different animated segments, each one of them coupled with a famous piece of classical music.
As the presenter at the start of the movie explains; some of the segments are inspired purely by the music itself, these segments are sort of abstract animated collages from the imaginations of the animators, and they don’t follow a story or even a theme.
Other segments do have more of a consistency to them, the animation might follow a general theme or maybe, be set in a particular era or genre but they still won’t have a typical story structure. Finally, then there are the segments that do, in fact, follow a storyline, like the most famous segment in the film, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was originally a poem, written by a German man, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1797. Paul Dukas, a Frenchman, then used the poem as inspiration for a symphonic poem in 1828.
From what I can gather, the original German text and the French musical composition that came after were both significant works, very popular among the natives of their respective countries and of mainland European countries in general.
Particularly, the original poem was hugely influential in the German-speaking world. There’s actually a popular German phrase still spoken nowadays, that originated from the poem, which is “Die Geister, Die ich Rief” which translates to “The spirits that I summoned”, it comes from a simplified version of Goethe’s; “The spirits that I summoned, I now cannot rid myself of”. It’s a phrase used to describe someone who gets help from allies that they can’t control; the phrase is often used in a political setting. That doesn’t have much to do with what we’re talking about, but I just love that wee fact, I think things like that are so interesting.
Anyway, even if you haven’t seen Fantasia, you’ve probably seen clips from the Sorcerer’s Apprentice segment. Mickey Mouse is the Sorcerer’s Apprentice and he’s to clean up the Wizard’s quarters, but things get out of hand fast. The image of Mickey Mouse with the wizard hat and robe I think is one of the iconic Disney images you know.
I’ll tell you I think Fantasia is my favourite from the Golden Age Era of Disney movies, it’s out there and abstract, full of colour and movement and of course it has an amazing score, I think Fantasia might be one of Disney’s least commercial films ever made. I think it’s a real shame that Fantasia was received poorly both commercially at the box office but also with critics at the time, had Fantasia been a success, it’s likely that it would’ve changed the trajectory of the Disney Animated Movies as a whole, after all, it was only their 3rd movie.
As I mentioned earlier, it doesn’t overshadow the works that inspired it, I think it transforms them really, Fantasia is its own thing.
DUMBO
Onto 1941’s Dumbo. Dumbo is like, the antithesis of Fantasia. Dumbo was actually rushed through production in order to make up for the financial losses of Fantasia. It was an absolute “for profit” pursuit. That being said, it’s not terrible. Dumbo is an iconic film with many memorable moments. Regardless of the economic reasons the film was made, it was still made by artists who clearly have passion.
Dumbo’s origin is honestly, uninteresting to me, compared to most other Disney productions.
It was written by a married couple, Helen and Harold Aberson Mayor. The two wrote the children’s storybook in 1939 and then sold it off to a company called Roll-a-Book the same year, no copies of the storybook exist. There are early examples of the storybook that hadn’t been published, this is the only indication that the storybook was actually ever made, even then, it’s not proof. Roll-a-Book sold the rights to Dumbo off to Disney the same year they acquired them.
This turn of events makes Disney’s Dumbo the de facto definitive Dumbo.
As I said, there was an original text, apparently. But we have no frame of reference for it really.
There’s no folkloric origin here, no time-honoured poem. Dumbo was an obscure and irrelevant children’s picture book maybe? That became a household name, thanks to Disney.
MORE ON NEXT PAGE
