so, we were talking about DISNEY and ANIMATION and SEEING MOVIES IN THE THEATER IN THE 1980's and I took a wild hair with some Christmas loot and bought
FANTASIA (1941) on amazon prime (note- I would have rented it, but you can't rent it, you can only buy it. I may have been high when this decision was made.)
I first saw FANTASIA on a BIG SCREEN re-release sometime around 1983, and my Mother stressed that it was a "very big deal." The strongest memories I have are of the NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN sequence because DUH, I also remember liking the SORCERER'S APPRENTICE SEQUENCE and I really distinctly recall that the audience just WENT NUTS with LAUGHTER for the ALLIGATOR and HIPPO ballet sequence, which I personally didn't get it AT ALL.
in fact, as far as the film itself went [SETTING THE NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN SEQUENCE (
makes the "HAIL SATAN" hand symbol,) BY THE SIDE], 6 year old me was distinctly tepid towards the rest of it.
Now that I am older, I can see why the audience enjoyed THE CROCODILE/HIPPO Ballet scene so much, not only is it funny, but it's something of a breath of fresh air from a lot of crushing, if well-crafted pretension that comes across a little bit like a well-intentioned (but probably accurate) history lesson designed specifically to piss of the religious right (which I also can't get mad at.)
40 years later and I'm still kinda tepid towards a lot of it- although as an extremely amateur illustrator myself, I get the artistry and the effort, and I will always salute hand-drawn animation- but without a cohesive plot or something HUMAN to really tie it together, I can see how this movie event went over like a lead brick back in 1941 and remained the "AMY CARTER" of all of WALT'S CINEMATIC CHILDREN.]
also, the scene with THE CENTAURS and THE CHERUBS even with the RACIST BITS REMOVED is still REALLY REALLY REAAAAAAAALLY EFFIN WEIRD.
and also, the opening sequence set to TOCCATA AND FUGUE IN D MINOR is the weakest of the sequences by far
and also, while they were I am sure necessitated by the times, the scenes of THE ORCHESTRA WARMING UP and (oh MY GOD) THE INTERMISSION just stop the film cold- I can't say if they stopped it cold back in 1941 and on all the re-releases or not, but I got really tired of listening to the "narrator" in between the segments as well.