So, I hope I'm not completely wrong on this, but I'm pretty sure the movie playing when Alec meets Imogene in the theatre is Fantasia - the 1940 Disney movie.
If I am correct, then the comments about how it is not a children's movie is definitely true. My experiences with Fantasia go back to when I was really young, like preschool age, and my grandmother would show me Fantasia ALL THE TIME. And I hated it. It terrified me. Seriously. The music and the animation...definitely too much for my very young brain. Probably scarred me for life.
I suppose I should go back and watch the movie, now that I would probably have some appreciation for it. But with my current memories, it is totally the appropriate movie to be playing for such a creepy encounter. Reservoir Dogs is mentioned as well, as a movie when a patron comes in contact with Imogene - also appropriate.
So, any thoughts?
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You're right about it not being a kids' movie. I watched it a LOT as a child without ever really realizing it, and I enjoyed it, but maybe that's me being weird, haha. I would always get scared during the "Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria" part at the end, though...those devils and stuff were interesting. I did think it was an appropriate movie to mention there.
ReplyDeleteI love fantasia! Thankfully I only recently was introduced to it. The music and animation make it a really good trip film. Like road trip....not the other kind...silly geese
ReplyDeleteMy favorite scene is the dancing mushrooms, they look just like lil china men!
ReplyDeleteI just recently watched the movie again. I completely agree that it was not a truly meant to be a kid's movie. To be mentioned as it was in the story, I feel that it was a movie that would easily fit the mold for a ghost to appear.
ReplyDeleteWell, I tried to research the film briefly to see if anything online mentioned how it was never intended as a children's movie, despite being recognized today as one. Nothing. I honestly think we do associate Fantasia as a "children's classic" of sorts just because it was produced by Walt Disney, perhaps the most famous childhood memory-maker, if you will (hopefully for everyone, at least).
ReplyDeleteHowever, it was described as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the National Film Registry and Library of Congress....
And Rotten Tomatoes (a website that provides movie reviews...rather harshly in my opinion...) gave the movie an astounding, and almost unheard of, 98%!
The movie is indeed Fantasia, as is obvious from Alec's description of the opening: "First the members of the orchestra filed onto a stage against a bland blue backdrop. ..."
ReplyDeleteWhile the core of the movie, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," was conceived and filmed as a standalone Mickey Mouse cartoon, by the time the feature was released, Disney had vastly higher ambitions for it, as demonstrated by its original two-hour-and-20-minute length, counting intermission, and the fact that the original audiences had to buy reserved seats, as for a classical concert. It was not the crowd-pleaser that Snow White and Pinocchio had been, alas, and was not a financial success.
An excellent recent biography of Disney that goes into all this in detail is Neal Gabler's Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination.
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