#centaur ballet

[woelfin-sheeps-clothing]

Dressage would 100% be centaur ballet. I think jumping would be gymnastics, racing would be track, barrel racing… not sure. What would barrel racing be?

Any other sports I’m not thinking of?

Edit: More centaur ballet/dressage, featuring the capriole move in the airs above ground.

#centaur art #centaur #gypsy vanner #ballet #dressage #horses #day in a life of a centaur #fantasy character #fantasy creature #fantasy ideas #monsters #draft horse #centaur ballet

[sweetsparklydragoness16]

Centaur Ballerinas!

Just random idea I had when i was trying to sleep at 2 am one night.

This was rly fun to draw, so expect more centaur ballerinas in the future lol

#art #artist #artists on tumblr #small artist #art commissions open #commisions open #art comms open #artist comms #digital commisions #digital artist #ballerina #ballet #ballerina art #centaur #centaur art #centaur ballerinas #digital art #drawing #digital drawing #original art #original characters #horses #mythical creatures #mythical creature art

[miranhas-art]

It's not supposed to make sense

#It's me again #with post that I don't have tags to #ballet #oc #centaur #but it's a horse #BUT IT'S A CENTAUR #do not question me

[twisted-wonderland-shenanigans]

How would the first years sees a female yuu practice ballet in a empty classroom that supposed to be abandoned? How would their reaction would be?

If you guys haven’t seen the movie “Leap!” (also known as “Dance!”), I highly recommend watching it since it involves ballet and I really enjoyed watching it! Equestrian vaulting is also absolutely stunning to watch in action, which in a way looks like a mix of gymnastics and ballet. I’ve never done ballet before, but I once did equestrian vaulting when I went to horseback riding camp years ago. It was fun—if a little nerve-wracking doing it on the back of one of the largest horse breeds the stable owned. Good times though! Would attempt again! :D

Anyway, let’s see how the monster boys will react to this~! >v>

////------////

Grim was already aware of Yuu’s skill as a ballet dancer, having seen her dance whenever they clean the dorm. From using the tips of her toes to spin and swipe across the tiled floors to the jumps and leaps she made to reach high places without landing heavily, Grim would watch it in awe. More than once he has stopped whatever he’s doing to watch, especially when music is playing. The soft melodies and fluid movements would make him sway almost hypnotically in place, while the quick tempos and swift movements got his blood pumping as he bounced and tried to dance along—even if it wound up with him tripping up the first few times, but he learned! 

His favorite moments are the times when she would scoop him into her arms and dance with him, feeling as though he were lighter than air. Who needs a broom when he had Yuu? It was the best thing ever for the Great Grim’s human henchman to be so talented if he said so!

Of course, when it came to explaining Yuu’s ability to the other freshmen, words failed to convey just how impressive her dancing skills were and none of the others had ever seen her dance. None of the videos that Ace found online could match her grace or the flexibility she demonstrated--until he finally had enough and demanded they follow him: “I know where she likes to go practice during breaks!”

And so, thinking it was just another tall tale from the chimera, the other first years agreed to follow him for the time being and out of pure curiosity. When they drew closer to the unoccupied auditorium, however, they began to hear…music. “Shh…be quiet, or she’ll stop,” Grim warned them in a hushed whisper, turning to carefully nudge the door open wide enough for everyone to peer inside without exposing themselves.

Whatever quip Ace had in store died on his lips as he stared, watching as Yuu’s legs bent before she raised one high up in the air while balancing on the tip of her other leg, her arms stretched out in a graceful “L” shape. Somehow, she looked as still as a statue, making him wonder just how strong her legs were to be able to hold that pose. “Whoa…how is she even doing that?” he uttered in amazement, watching her smoothly transition into a slow sweeping twirl.

“Guys, if she’s dancing alone in a classroom, she may not want us to watch,” Deuce whispered, the centaur momentarily wincing when he saw her legs bend in ways he knew he could never pull off without injuring himself. Still, he couldn’t look away, his eyes watching intently as he eventually asked, “Can…humans really move like that?”

“Her movements are so fluid,” Jack commented, ears twitching as he found himself relaxing. There was something soothing about seeing her dance so gracefully, yet even from here he could see the power in her movements—restrained, yet clear as day with each step and twirl and bend and high kick. “Is this some form of martial arts from the human world?”

“Naw…it looks like tha’ ballet thin’ Vil—I mean…it looks like the ballet Vil has me and the other first years practice in the ball room,” Epel commented. As much as he hated being forced to do it…he found that it looked different watching Yuu perform. He knew he’d never be able to do half the movements she could with the way his legs were designed—but there was also a certain satisfaction in realizing that even Vil wouldn’t be able to mimic the same fluid grace or expect the same out of the others.

When a new song began to play, a gasp escaped Sebek before Jack and Epel covered his mouth. Though it was hard for them to not feel just as stunned the moment Yuu leapt atop the desks, spinning and jumping up from desk to desk in time to the rhythm until she reached the highest point. Her body moved with a grace and power that he’d never seen before, her expression—though calm—betraying the smile on her face as she continued her performance for the imaginary crowd. At one point she stopped, her back towards the door as she stood and shuffled backwards on the tips of her toes. Before he or the others could warn her how close she was to the edge of the desk—she leapt!

Time seemed to slow down, her body rising high in the air as—with her legs bent and curved—she spun in the air before straightening her legs out into an impossible split, soaring through the air. Then—as if lighter than a feather—she landed right in front of the podium at the very bottom and stood straight just as the music stopped, turning and bowing gracefully at the “audience”.

“Whoa!! That was amazing!” Deuce exclaimed.

Yuu gasped as she turned towards the doors, her face showing clear embarrassment and shock as she squeaked out, “Wha-? Deuce?!”

“Oops!” Deuce uttered, hands clamped over his mouth as he realized just how loud he’d actually been.

“Scramble!!” Ace yelled.

“Guys!!!” Yuu screeched as they bolted. “Get back here!!”

 /////------/////

Soon enough word spread around about Yuu’s dancing prowess, and it wasn’t long after that Cater and the others would come asking for a demonstration of this performance as well. After all, human dancing hasn’t been recorded in centuries—it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to observe (and record) such practices and seeing how humans could move! If Yuu has any knowledge on other forms of traditional dance, it would become a treasure trove of cultural knowledge to unlock and study the significance of the moves and the traditional garments worn by dancers!

#twisted wonderland #twst #twisted wonderland monster au #twst monster au #ace trappola #deuce spade #jack howl #epel felmier #sebek zigvolt #twisted wonderland grim #twst grim #twst yuu #twisted wonderland yuu #fem!yuu #I could swear I posted this but found it in my drafts wtf 0.o #faun speaks

[fairykukla]

Salvaging a childhood treasure.

First, there were the Sea Wees. In the late 70s, Kenner made a set of darling mermaid bath toys with real combable hair! Each one came with a sponge cut to look like a lily pad, and if you inserted her mermaid tail into the center hoke, she floated in the tub or pool!

I wanted a mermaid doll so. Damn. Bad.

I got one! (Not my picture) She had dark brown hair, and a green fin! I loved her!

But they had the crunchiest, most tangle prone, coarsest hair of any doll I've ever owned. I combed her head right off of her neck. My mother's response to this was to basically tell me I couldn't have another one because I'd just "break that, too."

The Sea Wees also did a re release with babies this time, and additional characters.

Then they did a series with a Momma, baby, and mer-pet. And I managed to win one at an egg hunt!

They did two new series: the Tropi-Gals in Bright colors with suntans, and the Icy-Gals, with iceberg sponges and molded on fur wraps.

The last sets were the Bubble Ballet, which was back to the morher-and-baby set, but they had separate floating sponges and could use the comb as a stand.

As a kid, I got one original Sea Wee, one Tropi-Gals Set, one Icy-Gals set, and the bubble Ballet. I'm pretty sure I bought the last two with my allowance money. The above pics are stolen from around the internet and are not my actual pictures, but these were the dolls I had.

We were well into the 80s by this point, and Kenner came out with the Shimmers, which were similar, but more fancifully styled and including more fantasy creatures. (Centaurs, deer-taurs, butterfly hybrids, and birds in addition to the mermaids.) They came with a non articulated baby as well, like the sea wees.

By this point, I had persuaded my mom that I wasn't going to ruin my dolls. I had a nice collection, so she got me two Shimmers sets. But the hair on my Sea Wees was... Not Great. I tried to be more careful with the Shimmers but it was the same hair.

Next: satisfying my inner child, and restoring my treasures.

#sea wee #sea wees #sea wee mermaid #sea wees mermaids #kenner #kenner sea wees #80s toys #70s toys #kenner shimmers #shimmers kenner #metmaid doll #my childhood treasures #my dolls #my doll collection

[playstation-lichenthrope]

Hello Hello! I've spotted the Deck of Phoenix tag enough times on my dash now that I HAVE to ask. Whats it about? Care to share the cool oc universe story thing? If you're interested in doing so of course! I would love to hear about it (:

YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU'VE GOTTEN YOURSELF INTO FRIEND /pos

This is going to be long and barely coherent/word salady but here you go friend Merin :)

Okay so... Deck of Phoenix. Prefacing this with with the fact DoP's message is about finding your own way to deal with trauma of all kinds. All of the characters have their own trauma and deal with it in different ways for better or worse LOL! LMAO! The main 6 we have for the cast are Neptune, Vikki, Teresa, Twilip, Ichigo and Salem. Salem is Ollie's OC that got absorbed into the story and became one of the linchpins in Ichigo's backstory (Childhood friends who were kinda romantic then shit happened and then OUAHGAHFDHGgeF anyways)

The magic system in the story is really complicated to explain because it really only makes sense in my brain at the moment and it's supposed to be universal across many different alien worlds :) Hehe! Did I mention this is a fantasy sci-fi? In the way of a fantasy world in a sci-fi setting!!! HEHEHHE!

Every person/soul is born with an ability that aligns with two sigils (magic types) and it can range from something extremely powerful and useful to something that never even manifests. An example of the latter would be a character we have; she seemed powerless until she died because her power was to revive permanently when brought back by a necromancer. Back to the main characters! Neptune canonically has schizophrenia, he has the ability to see the future of someone when he looks them in the eyes, which is how the story starts and also how he finds out he saves the universe from an evil tyrant called Paradox (Name might be temporary, idk lol) But yeah he has a character arc that might be spoilers so i'll explain on discord but it makes his schizophrenia so so soooo much worse <3 <- Projecting my problems onto him. (Also he is the only human in the group)

Vikki's powers are under construction but! She is basically the glue holding the crew together and is a satyress :3 She likes ballet and is the sweetest person you'll ever meet unless you get on her bad side HFGJEHFVQ Also she's built like a centaur and it's so cool to meee cuz I love drawing non-human characters

Teresa is like if Doc was a Loverboy and also a necromancer >:) I'm thinking about giving her the weird gender swag just to make one of the others the only cis person in the group TKYURLF (Twilip) Xe's an alien from a desert planet and is kinda a cyclops lynx/kangaroo mouse and she kinda looks like a vortigaunt now that I think about it..

Twilip. How do I even explain... He's like if Boomer (bubby x coomer) was a person tbh.. Cranky old man who gives tutorials and worked at a library and he misses his late wife so so much :( BUT he has a swag ass pen that can make drawings come to life and he's about the size of a cat btw if you even care <3 /ref

Ichigo... WHERE DO I START. Ichigo's been our OC since we were a KID! So they technically have the deepest lore due to sheer time scale soooo.. They use any pronouns with a preference for they/them and ze/zir and zir sooo everything to me <3 Imagine Leading Light with cloud's buster blade and soooo many more insecurities... Yea :) I can't even begin to dive into their backstory because I will be here FOREVER but long story short, canon system allegory with being 3 souls meshed into one body by the US government to be a super soldier (A human, an alien, and an inter dimensional being) and the alien part is destined to destroy the universe but that's beside the point! Teehee!

For Salem I suggest asking Ollie because I don't wanna misinterpret anything about him <3

That's all I have for now because my fingers are starting to hurt from typing /g /lh I hope you enjoy!!!!! >:)

#deck of phoenix #dop lore #merklins #asks #unidentified alter

[heinous-desiree]

What are Jas and Hunter's hobbies :000?

(Again, welcome back, dear!)

Both Jas and Hunter have a few hobbies.

Jas the Wildcard

Dancing. Jazz, hip hop, ballet, salsa, femme vogue, etc. She has been fascinated by dance ever since she watched a movie where characters burst out in music and moves. Her actual name is Jasmine (named by the lovely Bailey, she'll never escape comparisons from the Dixney princess), but she started calling herself Jas to sound like jazz. She used her first paychecks to get her into dance classes and can be found humming to herself and moving to imaginary beats while doing mundane tasks.

Reading. She didn't plan to pick up reading, but between going to the library all the time to keep up her grades, and having Sydney excitedly talk about books then cut herself off cause she doesn't want to spoil anything, Jas started reading books per Sydney's and sometimes Robin's recommendations... She loves it far more than she thought she would. She wants to one day own a bookshelf full of her and Sydney's favorite books, but while in the orphanage, she's too scared someone will steal any book she buys.

Gambling. Specifically for luck based games. This is probably a HORRIBLE hobby to pick up, and she fully blames Wren for this. Ever since Wren invited her to join his blackjack games, she never found anything that gave her as much of a high. The fact she can win and dominate based on Lady Luck, and no one has cheated her in these games yet makes her feel powerful when she wins and still in control of her life when she loses.

Hunter the Allrounder

Horseback riding. Hunter likes things that are exciting and active. Riding a creature that moves way faster than you and could break your bones is exactly that. If he could get his hands on a motorcycle, he knows he would be just as addicted to the experience. Horseback is special in its own way, though, since he has to gain the horse(centaur)'s respect and be skilled enough to ride something with a mind of its own. He values the bonds he builds with his animals and God, he enjoys riding to town even more when Remy's goons try to harass him on a horse. You gotta get your kicks somehow!

M*sterbating. Ah yes, the activity that helped him turn from fallen angel to demon in the first place. The town is a stressful place, and some him time is great for de-stressing! However, now it has become a bit of a necessity. If he doesn't do a certain amount of sexual acts within a day, the blood in his veins burns hot white, paralyzing him while he's stuck silent screaming on his bed till the pain eases. A quicky is great when he's too busy to meet anyone for a good time. Anything to escape that traumatizing agony.

Dogs. To clarify, he loves almost all activities involving dogs, even the feral ones that are technically wolves. He loves training dogs, walking them, grooming them, and gaining their trust. He loved his job at the pound till the people put him into a muzzle/leash to make him the dog. He tries to go to the forest every once in a while to hunt with his pack, and he loves training the dogs on the farm. He is a dog kind of person in more ways than one.

#degrees of lewdity #dol #dol pc #t1thi #jas the wildcard #hunter the allrounder #Thanks for the ask love! #Explaining their hobbies took a little more thought than I expected #I feel like I know my PCs better now 🤣

[streamofjohnciousness]

Translated from the Cyborg 009 Perfect Book New Edition

Cyborg 009 "Mythos Cyborg Arc" Re-Collected Structure Draft

 From Mythos Cyborg Arc Setting Documents

 Edited and published by Aoyagi Makoto, who was with Ishimori Productions at the time. For details, see the interview from p. 176.

 Cyborg 009

Mythos Cyborgs (00-number assassination arc)

Sakai Akiyoshi 

1: A New Anxiety - Depicts the life of the cyborgs

2: First Challenge - 007 and 006 are targeted by the challenger

3: Second Challenge - 008 and 005, ditto

4: 00-number Assassination Order - Gilmore Base is destroyed

5: Fugitives - Pursued cyborgs, enemy assassins

6: (Vignette) - Assassins

7: (Vignette) - Assassins

8: A Life Staked on Betrayal - 004 as a member of the cyborg empire?

9: The End of a Cyborg Candidate - Fate of a man who wants to be a cyborg

10: (Vignette)

11: (Vignette)

12: Discovery of the Cyborg Empire - To Lunar World Base

13: The End of Odin

 Theme

 Cyborgs are superior to humans. Therefore, Odin believes that he is a god and has the right to rule over humans, and 009's group believes that cyborgs fight for the peace of humans. Through the battle between the two, we would like to reconsider what exactly a cyborg is.

 Aim

 This series will focus on the tragic battle of cyborg vs. cyborg, and will portray the limits of ability, capability, and performance, as well as the mechanics of the battles, in an interesting and spectacular manner.

  A New Anxiety

 Neo Black Ghost is gone and peace is restored to the world. The cyborg warriors, with the exception of 001, have forgotten their cyborg identity and returned to their daily lives as human beings.

Odin's whereabouts remain unknown. It seemed that the peace would last forever.

Gilmore planned to spend the rest of his life at ease with 001 at the new base, but life without the cyborgs was tasteless and lonely...

One day, Gilmore's attention was caught by a small article in the newspaper.

In a village in xxx country, a centaur with only the torso of a horse appeared and caused a great commotion... Gilmore felt a certain uneasiness. 001 also told him that suspicious psychic waves were heading for that village, and he foresaw a danger.

But it was not clear if it was connected to Odin, and so far no major incidents had occurred.

But Gilmore wanted to meet everyone and talk about it. The old man's loneliness made him even more anxious.

Gilmore took advantage of the fact that 001 was asleep to visit Joe in Japan. Joe was once again active as a racer. Seeing his gorgeous and vivid appearance, Gilmore failed to tell him about the important matter.

Gilmore then went to visit 004 in Germany and 007 in England. He wanted to see for himself what kind of life they were leading.

004 was sweating and driving the truck, and 007 was also absorbed in his first role as Hamlet. 007 was so proud that he told Gilmore about his talent as an actor, and took 006, who was just opening a Chinese restaurant in England, to dinner, where they enjoyed a pleasant meal together.

 006 was also excited about his new restaurant. Despite their back-and-forth, Gilmore could feel a gust of wind in his heart. He should be happy to see them happy, but for some reason, a feeling of loneliness tightened Gilmore's chest...

Gilmore invited everyone to go see the 003 ballet being performed in France. He wanted everyone to enjoy and relax together once in a while, when there was no fighting going on. However, 007 and 006 both curtly refused Gilmore's invitation, saying that they had only just begun to sprout.

 Gilmore could not tell them of his misgivings. So he flew to France in silence.

As Gilmore watched from the edge of the stage, his eyes filled with tears of incomprehension as he watched 003 dance Swan Lake in the spotlight to the applause of the entire audience.

"It's fine... they have the right to live their lives as human beings..."

Gilmore murmured, and a voice close to his ear said, "But I'm going with you, doctor." Gilmore turned around and saw Joe standing in front of him.

Joe had noticed Gilmore's attitude, contacted his friends, and flown to France. Both 002 and 004 were already in the back of the theater.

Gilmore felt a stirring in his chest; 005 and 008 were too busy with work to come, while 007 and 006 wanted to stay away from the fight; they have their own way of life.

"But we have nothing."

002 told the doctor, and 009 and 004 were the same. They have no siblings, no purpose in life, except to fight.

009 decided to go without informing 003. Gilmore and the others agreed: 003 still had a way to go as a ballerina...

However, as they were leaving, 003 stood in front of them.

While dancing on stage, she found Gilmore and the others and listened to everything they had to say.

"Why are you leaving me? I am one of you!"

003's eyes were filled with the joy of seeing the warriors and the renewed tension of the battle.

 First Challenge

 He knew something was up when Gilmore came to visit him, but 007 did not want to miss out on the once-in-a-lifetime role he had just landed. However, he was exhausted from all-night training, and when he returned home in the morning, what awaited him was a shabby apartment in poor living conditions.

For months on end, he would open the refrigerator and find nothing in there. At such times, he always went to 006's restaurant to be treated to a meal, but 006's attitude, which had become severe these days, was cold.

006 was also eager to turn his new restaurant into a first-class Chinese restaurant, so he couldn't afford to serve 007 who came in every so often just for a bite to eat.

"We're both going our own ways, and it's a lot of work. You will never make it big if you are dependent on others," sair 006, and 007 was so angry that they started fighting.

At that time, he remembered 003, who cooked hot meals for him at the Gilmore Institute. And the kindness of everyone...

Just as he was thinking that he should have gone to see 003 with Dr. Gilmore, 006 suddenly came to him for help.

006's store was attacked by a centaur cyborg. The fire that 006 breathed was no match for the fire breathed by the centaur cyborg, and he was barely able to escape through the depths of the earth.

007 was about to respond with, "I don't give a damn about that. You must protect yourself against any possible dangers on your own!" when the centaur cyborg appeared before him and attacked him as well.

007 disguised himself as a centaur and fought, but he was no match for the cyborg, so he became the smallest insect and tried to poke into the enemy's fist, but the enemy saw through his attempt and nearly crushed him.

The centaur cyborg could even accelerate with ease, and he could see through the clairvoyance of 006, who was escaping through the depths of the earth.

There was nothing they could do now but to fight together.

But they were no match for him. 007 and 006 were both beaten to a pulp, and just when they thought it was over, the centaur cyborg spoke up.

"Cyborg warriors, you must immediately report to 009 and his men. We cyborgs will gather to build a cyborg empire!"

The centaur cyborg disappeared, telling them that if they disobeyed, this time they would die. The two men were startled. The cyborg empire was exactly what Odin had said.

Had Odin really set out to achieve his goal...?

 Second Challenge

 After receiving a letter from Gilmore, 005 read 008 and decided to return to Gilmore Base.

But at the same time, 008, who is an animal protection officer in Africa, was attacked by a lion man (cyborg).

Animals were killed one after another, and 008, who was desperately chasing the poachers, learned that the culprit was a lion cyborg.

The lion cyborg encouraged 008 to join him, and in turn, attacked him. In the water it'd be one thing, but on land, 008 had no chance. His super gun is ineffective and he is hunted down, but is saved by the just-arrived 005, though even 005's strong arms were ineffective and were torn apart by the lion's claws...

They knew that a new day of battle had come for their fearsome challenger, and 005 decided to return to the Gilmore Institute with 008.

(This will revolve around the love of animals and 008's life in Africa)

 00-number Assassination Order

 The cyborg warriors gathered at the Gilmore base. Odin came to the Gilmore base and asked them to join him.

"Cyborgs are superior to humans. Therefore, they have the right to become gods and rule over mankind. Gather to build the cyborg empire!" he preached.

But the cyborg warriors, who believed they were born to save people, would not accept his sophistry.

They refused, and once again accepted the enemy's challenge.

Odin used Gamo to create a series of cyborgs in the likeness of Greek gods and had them destroy the Gilmore base, and then issued an order to assassinate Zero-Zero Numbers.

Each of these cyborgs was superior to the Zero-Zero Numbers.

 Fugitives

 The Gilmore base was finally destroyed, and 009 and his team escaped aboard the Dolphin II. They must embark on a wandering journey in search of the enemy cyborg empire.

A cyborg assassination squad awaits them on their way.

 A Life Staked on Betrayal

 Odin's quest to build a cyborg empire drove the cyborg warriors to the brink of despair. The Zero Zero Numbers, originally built as prototypes, were no match for the enemy's new cyborgs.

If they continued as they were, they would be killed at some point. A dark shadow was hovering over everyone's mind.

Then, of all things, 004 betrayed them and joined the cyborg empire. The unity of the group was shattered, and the members became increasingly desperate.

However, 004 falsely claimed to be one of their own and rode into enemy territory to defeat Odin single-handedly. He thought that to deceive the enemy, he had to start with his friends, otherwise it would be impossible to defeat a man of Odin's stature.

But 004 failed miserably, and had to face his enemy, the cyborg Apollo. The battle between 004 and Apollo was fierce, but in the end, 004 was no match for Apollo.

When 004 was in danger, it was 009 who saved him, trusting 004 and calmly watching his actions.

Thus, the strong friendship between 009 and 004 defeated Apollo beyond their abilities as cyborgs...

(A chapter depicting the limits of performance as a cyborg and the tricks of the battle)

 The End of a Cyborg Candidate

 An old millionaire, who had acquired so much status and honor that he wanted nothing more in this world, feared only one thing: death.

He decided to give up all his wealth and become a cyborg. Once he becomes a cyborg, he can live forever.

However, after joining the cyborg empire and becoming a modified human, the millionaire was moved at Odin's command and eventually taken care of by Cyborg 009, and died a quick death.

The millionaire could have lived a much longer life if he had lived the rest of his human life with care...

 Progression to the final episode

 (Part One) Discovery of the Cyborg Empire

 While challenging the cyborgs of the assassination squad sent by Odin, Cyborg 009 and his team finally learn that the enemy's headquarters are located on the moon.

009 and his team modify the Dolphin II and challenge the cyborg empire on the moon world.

 (Part Two) The End of Odin

 Odin's cyborg army awaits 009 and his team as they board the moon world.

The chapter depicts the bloody battle of 009 and the others to defeat Odin and his cyborg empire.

 (*All reproduced portions are as they were in the original text)

  Staff Interview 

Suzuki Takeyuki

 Toei Producer

 Currently, he is the General Manager of Television Sales Promotion Department No. 2 and Deputy General Manager of Television Producers Group, Video Division, Toei Co. He is well known to special effects fans as a producer of the Super Sentai series. He has also produced animated works such as "Fighting General Daimos." With Ishinomori Shoutarou, he has produced various hits since Good Luck! Robocon.

 ―What made you decide to produce 009 at that time in the first place?

 I have been in contact with Mr. Ishinomori since Robocon, and I had been looking for an opportunity to animate 009 for some time. I had hoped to do it sooner, but it was hard to find a broadcast slot or a sponsor. I even thought it was too late in the season. Mr. Ishinomori wanted to do it very much himself, and he said, let's colorize it and make a modern 009.

 ―What were some of the difficulties in gathering staff?

 First of all, there was no room for production. Sunrise was not yet large, and I had my own productions. It was hard to make another series, but I really wanted to do it. So I rented a small staff room in Iogi. I started with no space and no staff. However, many people who have entered the animation industry said they want to do 009 at least once. The scriptwriters, Mr. Tsuji (Masaki) and Mr. Sakai (Akiyoshi), also wanted to work on 009. The staffing went smoothly. On the contrary, there were so many people who wanted to work on 009 that I wondered if it was all right for us to have so many people.

 ―Why did you hire Takahashi Ryousuke, who was directing Manga Nippon Mukashi Banashi at the time, as director?

 Basically, I was trying to make something heartfelt. I had no intention of making a gung-ho, action-oriented 009. That is why we chose Mr. Takahashi out of many people.

 ―I see. Unlike the old series, the drawings are very close to the original.

 The first thing I discussed with Mr. Ashida (Toyoo), the animator, was that there are certain lines that Mr. Ishinomori has. I thought we should cherish that. Then, Mr. Ashida digested various of Mr. Ishinomori's works, including (Fantasy World) Jun. Then Ishinomori liked the drawings very much. He was really surprised at the finished product. Of course I liked it, too, and thought it would work out.

 ―The first part of the series is about Norse mythology. What is the reason for this?

 When we first started planning this project, I was worried. Norse mythology is not popular in Japan. Even if you tried to collect books on the subject, they are not sold. I wondered if it would be okay. But Mr. Ishinomori wanted to do it. He asked why don't we focus on something that not everyone else is doing. It was interesting, after all.

 ―Did you encounter any problems in making the adaptation?

 The most difficult thing was that the setting of 009 was in the Cold War structure. However, the social situation was changing rapidly. The Berlin Wall was still in place at the time, but tensions between East and West have thawed, and the situation is now different from the setting that was created. It was difficult to reconcile the two. That said, we couldn't destroy the confrontational structure of 009. By doing so, I was afraid that the viewers would feel that it was old-fashioned. That was the most difficult part. In retrospect, the theme of Norse mythology given to me by Ishinomori was a bit too heavy, perhaps too large for a TV animation.

 ―How did you come up with the basic concept for the anime adaptation?

 I've been working on the Super Sentai series for a long time, but as far as group heroes go, 009 is much earlier, so it's kind of the origin point. The main thing is friendship. How do they help each other to fight? They should make the best of their abilities while compensating for each other's weaknesses. I would like to emphasize the importance of this mutual assistance. In an age when more and more children are being born alone, and when they no longer play with friends, I would like to show them what it means to live by helping each other. I also wanted to depict the sadness of the cyborgs, who have had their bodies modified with a scalpel. The difficult part was that I talked with Ishinomori many times, but the story was inevitably dark. I wondered if I could do something about that. And you really can't get rid of the darkness that cyborgs have. It was a natural consequence of the fact that it was difficult to create something as crisp and clear as Sentai.

 ―The strength of Mr. Ishinomori's works lies in the shadows, after all.

 Whether it is Masked Rider or Kikaider, he has his own unique image of human beings. They are never cheerful heroes at heart.

 ―In an interview at the time, you said that we must not let children think that cyborgs are cool and that they want to become cyborgs, and that we must show them that although they are cool, they must not become cyborgs.

 That was the basic idea. We must not let a cyborg like Joe out there. That's why it is very difficult to handle it well. With ordinary heroes, they look cool and I want to be like them, but with Ishinomori's heroes, I don't want to be like them. The drama that the character originally possesses will eventually lead up to a catastrophe somewhere in the end, which is Ishinomori's method.

 ―The existence of cyborgs itself is a tragedy that has been brought about by war and the munitions industry.

 It was very difficult to depict the love among the nine, especially that of Joe. I wondered if the little ones would really understand it.

 ―Did you get a direct response from fans to the production site?

 Yes, we did. When the decision was made to produce the series, there were very high expectations that it would finally come to fruition, and when it was over, people wondered why. The ratings were good, and we were preparing the next project (Editor's note: Mythos Cyborg arc). I even had Ishinomori draw rough sketches. But we didn't have anything to sell, so the character 009 was at a disadvantage as a sponsor. I was often told by my seniors that one had to be able to sleep with the toy, but there were many aspects of 009 that weren't true to that. So, sales of the toys were difficult.

 ―It was a time when robot animation was the mainstream. Wasn't it difficult to push a character-driven work in such an era?

 Yes, it was. It was very interesting for the creators to put the characters in the foreground, but it was difficult to do so in terms of toys. But if we gave them weapons, they would not have the characteristics of cyborgs, and I thought that would not be right either. It would have been better to have them ride a giant robot, but it was clear that 009 would not do that. There was no way to expand the toys. I knew I had to do something about the part of 009 that was appreciated as 009.

 ―I hear you had a hard time with the casting...

 We didn't have the budget for that sort of thing. And yet there are nine people in the cast, which is a lot. But we wanted to be extravagant. When we tried to achieve the ideal casting, we ended up with a huge budget overspend. So I went to the president of Aoni Production and asked him about the casting, and finally, thanks to the divine power of 009, he agreed to do it. The voice actors said they would do 009, and they had no complaints about the guarantee. As for Joe, I liked Mr. Inoue's voice, so I was very interested in working with him.

 ―Nowadays, people have the impression that Joe = Inoue Kazuhiko.

 I was grateful, since I also got to have Mr. Noda (Keiichi) as Mr. Gantz for Robocon. Normally, I don't think we would have been able to gather such a splendid group of people.

 ―So everything has come together under the keyword "if it's 009, I'll do it"?

 Yes, that's right. I asked Mr. Sugiyama (Kouichi) to do the music, and he was very supportive. From the beginning, I really wanted to make a symphony and release it.

 ―And that's how the theme song was composed by Hirao Masaaki, right?

 I was asked, why Mr. Hirao? On the contrary, I wanted to use him so much that they said so. I wanted to use the popularity and warmth that Mr. Hirao has. I had no intention of making an action-type theme song. So I met with Mr. Hirao and explained the situation to him. Though he also asked me why him (laughs).

 ―It really is a great song, isn't it?

 Yes, it turned out to be a very wonderful song. When I went to Mr. Hirao's house and asked him if he was going to come over when the song was finished, he played the guitar and sang in front of me. It was hard for me to ask him to fix it. I could say that if he gave me a cassette, but when he sang in front of me, it was difficult to say so (laughs). It is a luxury to be able to hear Mr. Hirao sing in front of me. I play the guitar myself, so when I have a theme song, I try to play it at home with the sheet music. So I can easily recognize songs that are difficult to sing. Such songs may be good as background music, but they will not be handed down to future generations. It is not good if children find it difficult to sing. I think your songs are really easy to sing.

 ―What is the position of 009 in the mind of you, the producer?

 It is a work that I really felt good about, was blessed with a wonderful staff, and was a lot of fun to work on. It ranks first or second in my history of works. Ishinomori was also very pleased with it. It is a work that is a producer's dream. It is rare to work with a group of top-notch people and have so much fun doing it. It is a great responsibility to make an animation of a traditional manga, but the love of the people involved in 009 really made it possible. I was happy to work on it. I would love to do it again.

 Reporting by: Editorial Department, Composition by: Yamada Nabisco

  Staff Interview

 Aoyagi Makoto

 Former planning staff of Ishimori Productions

 Chairman of the Ishinomori Shoutarou Fan Club. At Ishimori Productions, he was involved in a wide range of activities including manuscript management and the production of proposals for books, mooks, and video works. Currently, he is working for Fusosha. His understanding and passion for Ishimori's works is stronger than anyone else's. He has personally edited and published collections of setting materials based on the Mythos Cyborg Arc project, which ended in vain.

 ―First of all, could you tell us about your involvement with 009?

 I used to work for Mr. Ishinomori as a so-called "planning staff," and at that time, Toei's head office approached me with the idea of making 009. At that time, the producer at Toei's head office was Suzuki Takeyuki. He was also of the younger generation at that time, so I was asked to work together with him as a team of young people. I was mainly involved in the color TV series and the subsequent Legend of the Super Galaxy.

 ―What specific instructions did Mr. Ishinomori give you?

 I reported to Mr. Ishinomori on the progress of the animation production each time and received his OK on the direction of the project, but basically, he told me that I could do as I liked to a certain extent as long as it did not deviate from the flavor of 009. Naturally, we asked him to create the characters, so we told him about the story we were going to tell and what we wanted to see in the characters, including the scenario. The way we created the series was to first put together the overall concept in about 13 episodes, and then have 3 or 4 scenario writers come in and discuss about 6 episodes' worth of story with everyone. Next was the plot. At this point, we had some idea of what kind of characters we wanted, so we would create the characters and hand them over to the scenario writers and ask them to create them in this image. There were quite a few times when we did that.

 ―How did Sunrise become the actual production staff for the new series?

 Toei's head office originally did not have a production staff, so we had to outsource the production to an external company. Sunrise had done a robot series called "Voltes V" before 009, and the staff was stable, and the series did well and received good ratings, so we decided to ask Sunrise to do 009 as well. At the time, one of the staff in charge of production was Iwasaki (Masami), and he invited Director Takahashi (Ryousuke) to join us. When I asked him what he had been doing, he answered, "Manga Nippon Mukashi Banashi," and to be honest, everyone's reaction was, "Are you sure about this?" But when I actually talked to him, I realized that he has a very good sensibility. Director Takahashi's order was to have Joe shed tears in the opening animation. Some people asked why he cried in a battle story, but as the lyrics of the theme song say, the cyborgs are not fighting because they want to fight, but because they have to protect someone. If it were true, they would not fight, but would rather live as normal people in their daily lives. Those tears have such an impressive meaning. There were many objections, but I am glad that I pushed through. I think it really brought out the cyborgs as human beings.

 ―Was there someone who was in charge of the overall series structure?

 No, there was not. Rather, we worked as a group. Producer Suzuki, myself, Director Takahashi, and writers such as Mr. Tsuji (Masaki) and Mr. Sakai (Akiyoshi) gathered together to discuss, and based on the results, each scenario writer put it together.

 ―I understand that you had a lot of trouble with the Space Tree arc (episodes 1-9(.

 Yes, we did. ...There are giants in the story, you know. I created the character data for the magazines, but it was very difficult to explain the Titans. If they were really fighting against a god, they could have appeared, but I didn't want to take the story to that point. I wanted to keep the story as a battle against cyborgs and emphasize the more life-sized aspects.

 ―In the end, the Odin plot point was not settled until the end. The Mythos Cyborg project, which ended in a mirage, must've left you with some regrets...

 There were indeed regrets. That's why Odin is coming out again. You could see Odin on the other side of the triplets. In the end, it ended up staying a mystery. The Mythos arc is very popular among the fans, and I like it, too, and we all agreed that it was definitely interesting as a piece of art.

 ―You have previously compiled the planning setting document for the Mythos arc into a book.

 As for the book, I had already finished the planning, so I talked to Toei about it, and we were able to publish it with a proper publishing contract.

 ―What was the reason why the Mythos Cyborg arc was not made after all?

 Basically, it's a matter of sponsorship. Whether the toys sell or not. Unfortunately, in the case of 009, the sales were not so good. The production side did not know what would happen, but we decided to go ahead with the planning as much as we could. By the way, the scenario in the book is a first draft. That's why the writers were having fun writing it. We were still at a stage where we have a lot of freedom.

 ―There's the question of whether or not this would have happened as it did if the TV adaptation had gone forward in reality...

 Of course that's true. There is a high possibility that gags and conversation scenes would have been cut out during the storyboarding stage. It takes up a lot of time. Action scenes may look long, but they can be cut into small segments, so you can get a lot of action in there. However, I am glad that I was able to preserve this in some form. If this kind of thing were to be scattered, it would really disappear, so once it is in a book, it will remain somewhere. I myself am a member of Ishinomori's fan club, so I know how important it is to preserve these things. It would be sad to see the drawings (rough sketches of the characters) that he made disappear.

 ―Do you still have regrets about the fact that the Mythos arc ended in the planning stage?

 After all, that sadness became a book, so yes.

 ―So the TV series ended and the next was The Legend of the Super Galaxy. How did Ishinomori feel about the quality and reputation of this work?

 Mr. Ishinomori's stance on animated adaptations was to do whatever we wanted to a certain extent, wasn't it? He didn't directly say anything bad about other people or their works. However, I was personally told several times that we should try to make it science fiction (laughs).

 ―You drew the materials and the storyboards for Stargate yourself, didn't you?

 I drew a lot of traits for each one of the settings. I was told to be careful with the spaceships in particular, as they are very difficult to shape. I also made a plastic model for the animation, and drew while looking at it.

 ―By the way, I've always wondered why Mr. Outa Gosaku did the comic book version of Super Galaxy (laughs)? I understand Sugar (Satou), but...

 Ah. He was originally the chief at (Ishimori Productions') studio in Sakuradai before he went to Dynamic Productions, and I knew him just before I joined the company, when I was a fan and frequented Ishimori Productions, so I think I probably initiated (Outa's comic book adaptation). He was also very pushy. When I was in the fan club, I would visit him at his studio and when it got late, he would let me stay over, but if I wanted to stay over, he would ask me to help him (laughs). I still remember the scene in Fantasy World Jun when the cherry petals were falling (laughs).

 ―But the Outa version of 009 was nothing but a brilliant Outa work, in many ways (laughs).

 Yes, it looks a bit spherical and round-faced. The characters are also unrefined, in the good sense of the word (laughs), in a way that is unique to Outa's work. He is a bit muddy. He has a slightly different muddiness from Ishinomori's, and it has a unique impact. That's what makes it interesting.

 ―Now, lastly, from yous point of view, as someone who was by Ishinomori's side, what is the attraction of 009?

 I thought that this was the work in which Ishinomori could express his anger most straightforwardly among Ishimori works. While he is a storyteller, he has surprisingly rarely depicted the passion in battles. I think that as he continued to draw 009, it gradually became harder and harder for him to see who he was fighting against, and as he got older, he gradually came to understand that the world's structure would not change easily even if he tried to change it, and he became angry at that... he thought that if he traced back to the root of the problem, he could "fight against the gods." I did not discuss this directly with him, so this is something I thought about in my own way. So, in a sense, I don't think it needed to be completed. Of course, I think he wanted to complete it. But since 009 remained the character who could express his anger the most in Ishimori's works, I feel that it was something that he should not have ended.

 Reporting by: Editorial Department, Composition by: Ogawa Yuuko

#cyborg 009 #cyborg 009 1979 #Cyborg 009 2

[lynns-writeblr-multi]

For Penore, what are Apple, Berry, and Hope like?

And for Aevery, when you say the AIs need food and water (and eventually play and social things and such), do you mean like those things are in a virtual environment?

Apple is gentle and stern, they come off as the quiet knight. Apple has a passion for history, and has learned sword fighting because of this passion. She stands out being far taller then her peers being a shire horse mix centaur, with a Knabstupper like pattern. Note; I have not done a deep dive into history of horses so Apple's appearance might change after I have.

Berry is brave and clumsy, he has a heart of gold. He is self conscious because of a lack of a prideful lion's mane. When the going gets tough, Berry gets going, with a wobbly smile and an uncertain step. Berry is a human lion hybrid (a race that I'm temporary calling sphinxes)

Hope is distant, but kind. She has troubles trusting people because she is a white crow harpy; she is her parents only child, and even though they remind her every day that they love her Hope can't help, but feel guilty for being the reason they were kicked from their flock. Hope is a passionate dancer, her favorite being ballet. She is noticably small, with blonde hair.

Yes, I do mean a virtual environment. Apologies if that was unclear.

#Penore #Aevery #ask box #thanks for the ask! #creative writing #writeblr #fantasy writing #fantasy worldbuilding #worldbuilding

[adamwatchesmovies]

Fantasia (1940)

Fantasia is ambitious and iconic. It’s one of my all-time favorites. A mastery of form, music, color and movement. Hosted by Deems Taylor, the individual stories are not connected, save for the last two.

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach

The first segment is entirely abstract. The orchestra (led by Leopold Stokowski) fades into rolling hills, beams of light, shadows and lines. Disney was already a master of coordinating music to animation (See 1928’s Steamboat Willie) so you’d expect the opener to his third film to be a comedic tale accompanied by music, but it isn’t. It’s the opposite: a visual representation of what may go through your mind as you identify the different instruments and the piece itself as the notes flow together. It's not at all obvious and a great way to get us prepped for what's to come.

Nutcracker Suite by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

This second tale is along the lines of what you would have expected going in, though it still takes things in an unexpected direction. The familiar tune is not accompanied by nutcrackers, rat kings, or little girls. Instead, beautifully rendered fairies show the changing seasons. Particularly striking is the arrival of winter as the creatures’ tiny feet create spirals of frost on every surface. It concludes with a variety of plants coming to life to Chinese Dance, Dance of the Flutes, Arabian Dance, Russian Dance and Waltz of the Flowers.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas

Probably the most recognizable of all of the segments, this is where we see a familiar face: Mickey Mouse as the titular character. To avoid his chores, he enchants a broomstick and has it do his work. I don’t think I needed to tell you even that much. So memorable and iconic is this short tale that anybody who hears the piece by Paul Dukas automatically imagines Mickey Mouse in his pointed blue hat. Combined with the previous numbers, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" shows us an impressive escalation of action and music choreography. First, Fantasia showed us abstract shapes. If a hill needs to roll at a certain speed, it’s no problem. Next, characters move to the music, but without a story, actions can take as long as they need to, and characters can be on-screen for as long as required. “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” is a story with characters, a beginning, middle and an end.

Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky

The next segment brings us away from the fantastic to a (mostly) scientifically accurate depiction of the evolution of life on Earth, starting with single-celled organisms and ending with the reign of the dinosaurs. As a kid, this was always my favorite. Like many of the other numbers, it’s the sound-to-visual choreography that stands out in this segment. Do you remember the introduction of the Tyrannosaurus Rex? The way the drums synch up perfectly to each of its thunderous footsteps? It's wonderful how each note perfectly embodies what happens on-screen, and vice versa.

Intermission/Meet the Soundtrack

Just when you thought the only abstract segment would be Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, here comes the intermission, followed by some light comedy and a bit of musical education. The sight of the soundtrack as it stretches, bends and reacts to different types of percussions/notes is a beauty.

The Pastoral Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven.

Light, cheerful and comedic with touches of romance throughout, The Pastoral Symphony segment of Fantasia is the cutest entry in the program. There are some minor conflicts but for the most part, it’s a peaceful walk through the woods accompanied by various Greco-Roman creatures of myth: centaurs and centaurettes, cupids, fauns, Bacchus, the god of wine, and several other deities who go about their day. This is one to just sit back and enjoy.

Dance of the Hours by Amilcare Ponchielli.

 Without a doubt the funniest story, Dance of the Hours has a unique take on the ballet: it substitutes the dancers with anthropomorphized animals. In doing so, it showcases the power of animation. Characters jump through the air, spin, twirl, pick each other up and move with a grace no real human could ever match.

Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky and Ave Maria by Franz Schubert

Finally, we come to Night on Bald Mountain. We see Satan (he’s been christened Chernabog since, but it’s clear this was intended to be the devil) awaken and summon evil spirits to play with. It’s the film's crowning achievement; the segment with the most realistic human figures, the most striking visuals (barring perhaps the abstracts beforehand) and the most special effects. Combined with the music, it’s hard not to feel chills as skeletons, witches and countless misshapen creatures from the depths of hell arise to dance for their master. The action is then interrupted by Franz Schubert's Ave Maria. Evil is vanquished and robed monks walking with lighted torches signify Satan’s retreat back from where he came.

This second half of the final portion of the program is one to think about. On the one hand, it’s the least visually stimulating. The few movements we see aren’t choreographed to the action, making it almost feels like an afterthought… until you consider that this is the conclusion of Fantasia. The film has no end credits. We’ve seen the history of the world, dancing plants, anthropomorphic animals and finally, the embodiment of pure evil on-screen. As a return to reality, it perfectly fulfills its duty. It’s a reminder that everything we just saw was a show. Now, we can return to the real world. It isn’t flashy and it isn’t meant to be.

Fantasia is more than a collection of music videos. It’s a film that sparks the imagination. The way it utilizes music with abstract, realistic and cartoonish images will stick with you. It fosters a love for animation and music in the young and old. There’s never been anything else quite like it, not even the sequel. (On Blu-ray, December 8, 2017)

#Fantasia #movies #films #movie reviews #film reviews #Disney movies #disney films #Leopold Stokowski #Deems Taylor #1940 movies #1940 films

[spotev]

#Montreal #Performingarts

[woelfin-sheeps-clothing]

Click for better resolution.

I'm so sorry, but I just learned what more buttons do on Procreate and had way too much fun with the glitch filters. Pretend an audience member is filming.

More centaur ballet, this time performing the airs above ground move, the capriole, or the goat jump.

Kept playing and playing with the brightness and it's still not quite where I want it. Might adjust the levels in Photoshop later.

Sorry for a lack of nice painted pieces recently, I'm trying to get my workflow a little faster.

#day in a life of a centaur #centaur art #centaurs #centaur drawing #lipizzaner #dressage #horse show #horse sports #centaur sports #fantasy creature #fantasy character #digital art #fantasy #illustration #digital art procreate #centaur ballet

[randombandfan09]

Comp shit number 3

So here’s my inspiration for all of them. One was again based off of gelfling unintentionally. Obviously it’s mostly based off the vapra clan. The second one I just wanted to make a dark ballerina. The third one was actually just based off of how I felt about fall and fall fashion. The fourth one is something I always wanted a centaur Barbie doll.

#love nikki #love nikki competition #love nikki suit #centaur #alicorn #unicorn #vapra clan #vapran #the dark crystal #fall vibes #fall style #wedding #dark ballet #dark aesthetic

[miranhas-art]

In between baths, an angel

#oc #ballet #centaur #i feel like my life has changed after buying this pen #idk what I'm gonna do about it #but i do love it

[upontheshelfreviews]

And now we come to the final piece of Walt Disney’s original animation trifecta, Fantasia, and it’s one I’m both anticipating and dreading. Fantasia isn’t just one of the crowning jewels in Disney’s canon, a landmark in motion picture animation, and second only to Snow White in terms of influential music and storytelling in the whole medium, it’s one of my top three favorite movies of all time. Discussing it without sounding like an old history professor, a pretentious internet snob, or a hyper Disney fangirl is one hell of a daunting task.

“Did someone say hyper Disney fangirl?! I LOVE Disney!!”

“I thought you only liked Frozen.”

“Well, DUH, Frozen is my favorite, which makes it, like, the best Disney movie ever! But Disney’s awesome! There’s a bunch of other movies I like that are almost as good!”

“And Fantasia’s one of them?”

“Yeah!!…Which one is that again?”

“The one with Sorcerer Mickey?”

“Ohhhh, you’re talking about the fireworks show where he fights the dragon!”

“No, that’s Fantasmic. I’m referring to Fantasia. Came out the same year as Pinocchio? All done in hand-drawn animation…has the big devil guy at the end?”

“THAT’S where he’s from?! Geez, that’s some old movie. Why haven’t I heard about ’til now?”

“Probably because you spend twelve hours a day searching for more Frozen GIFs to reblog on your Tumblr.”

“Ooh, that reminds me! I need to go post my next batch of theories about the upcoming sequel! Toodles!!”

“Thanks. Another second with her and I would’ve bust a gasket.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Anyway, it’s no surprise Sorcerer Mickey is what people remember the most from Fantasia, and not just because he’s the company mascot. “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” was the reason we have the movie in the first place. It began as a pet project between Walt Disney and renowned conductor Leopold Stokowski.

“Yep. THAT Leopold.”

However, between the upscale in animation and the use of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the cost grew too high to justify the creation of only one short. Over time more sequences featuring animation set to various pieces of classical music were added in what was initially dubbed “The Concert Feature”. Later it was wisely changed to the more memorable “Fantasia”. It works not only because it’s derived from the word “fantasy”, but because “fantasia” is a term for a musical composition that doesn’t follow any strict form and leans towards improvisation. Combine the two meanings and you get the whole movie in a nutshell.

And this leads us to –

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #1: “It’s SOOOOOO boring! Nobody’s talking and nothing ever happens!”

You know, few recall that decades before Warner Brothers was known as that studio that made rushed prequels to beloved fantasy franchises and a hastily cobbled together superhero universe, it had humble origins in the music business; their Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes shorts began as music videos made to sell their records. Disney’s Silly Symphonies followed in the same vein, though they focused more on pushing the envelope in animation technique and character resonance than selling music, as did the lesser known Harman-Ising Happy Harmonies.

And if that’s the case, then Fantasia is the Thriller of animated music videos. It’s the result of years of technological advancement and trial and error, all culminating in the flawless weaving together of visuals and some of the greatest music mankind has created to tell seven stories and elicit an emotional response for each one.

Let me repeat that: FANTASIA. PREDATES. THRILLER.

“And unlike Thriller, Fantasia has the advantage of NOT being directed by a man who literally got away with murder or involving an artist whose pedophilia accusations are still discussed a decade after his passing…at least as far as we know.”

By the way, if you’re watching the current version of Fantasia that’s available, do me a favor and pause the movie to watch the original Deems Taylor intros; while they’re shorter than the ones on the blu-ray, they have Deem’s original voice. All later releases have him dubbed over by Corey Burton because the audio for these parts hasn’t held up as well over time. Now Corey Burton is a phenomenal voice actor who’s done countless work for Disney before, but there’s a problem I have with him taking over these segments: One, he and Deems sound nothing alike, and Two, he makes him sound so dry and dull. Not to mention the longer intros practically spoil everything you’re about to see whereas the cut versions give you just enough to build some intrigue for what’s to follow.

Regardless of whichever one you’re watching, Deems gives us the rundown on what Fantasia is all about and lists the three categories that the sequences fall under.

A concrete story

Clearly defined images with something of a narrative

Music and visuals that exist for its own sake

And the very first of these parts falls directly into the last one.

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor – Johann Sebastian Bach

Some hear this tune and attribute it as stock horror music, but for me it’s the start of a grand, dark, fantastical journey through realms of the imagination. While it is intended as an organ piece, this full orchestration blows me away. Capturing the orchestra in bold hues and shadows with colors specific to certain highlighted instruments was a brilliant move, setting the stage for what’s to come.

And if the previously referenced Bugs Bunny cartoon was any indication, the real Leopold Stokowski is one of the main draws to this segment. Stokowski’s claim to fame was that he ditched the traditional conductor’s baton and used his hands to guide the orchestra. His passion and restraint is plain for all to see, even in silhouette.

Ultimately Stokowski and the orchestra fade away into the animated ether. The idea behind Toccota and Fugue was to show a gradual transformation from the conscious world to the subconscious, providing a literal and figurative representation of what you see and hear with the music. That’s why the first animated images resemble violin bows sweeping over strings. Over time those distinct objects evolve into abstract geometric shapes.

Honestly, no amount of stills can capture what it’s like to watch this sequence play out. It’s a radically unique experience, almost like a dream.

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #2: “It’s the world’s first screensaver/musicalizer!”

This is something I hear often from people (ie. the people making the complaints I’ve chosen to highlight). First, read the previous Thing. Second, Toccata is not so much about recreating a story as it is capturing a feeling. And yet a story isn’t out of the question. I always saw at as glimpses of a battle of light versus dark, heaven versus hell, albeit not as overt as the opening of Fantasia 2000. That’s the beauty of this segment. It’s all up for interpretation. You can let the images and sounds wash over you as if you were dreaming it, or attach whatever meaning you find.

And on that note (ha) –

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #3: “God, all these animators must have been so fucking high to come up with this shit.”

I tell ya what, if you’re one of those people who think that, take whatever drug is handy, grab some crayons or whatever you feel comfortable doodling with, and when you’re comfortably high, draw one full second of animation. That’s 24 consecutive drawings that need to flow, squash and stretch into each other realistically. It doesn’t have complicated; it can be a ball bouncing, a flower blowing in the wind, an eye blinking, but it has to work.

Not so easy, huh?

Classic Disney animators who lectured at art schools received comments like this all the time. While there were some like Fred Moore who would go for the occasional beer run on breaks, there’s no record of narcotic or alcoholic influence on the animators’ turnout. I’m pretty sure Walt would’ve fired anyone who turned in work produced while high because it’d be awful. Animation was still a fairly new medium at the time, and Disney was constantly experimenting with what it could do, which is why we got things like this, the Pink Elephants, and other delightfully trippy moments throughout the 40’s, not because of drugs. Isn’t that right, classic Disney animator Bill Tytla?

“Of course! I’ve never done drugs, and I never drink…wine.”

The Nutcracker Suite – Pyotr Illich Tchaichovsky

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #4: “Yawn. Nutcracker is SO overplayed. Of course Disney had to jump on the bandwagon with their version!”

Ironically, the extended Deems Taylor intro has him mention how nobody performs Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker; in light of its modern seasonal popularity, the sentiment is rendered archaic. True, the ballet wasn’t an initial critical hit and Tchaikovsky himself virtually disowned it, but much of its ubiquity is largely due in part to Disney adapting it for Fantasia. It eschews the title character in favor of a nature ballet portraying the cycle of seasons. Initial planning included the overture and the famous march featuring woodland critters, though they were eventually cut. Walt considered pumping scents into the theater during this part, but was unable to figure out how to do it naturally. If they had Smell-O-Vision that might work, but what scents would you have to scratch off for the other Fantasia segments? Wood resin? Wine? Wet hippo? Brimstone?

The sequence begins with The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. In the night a group of fairies dance like fireflies, gracing spring flowers and spiderwebs with delicately timed dewdrops.

“Any of you girls seen Tinkerbell?” “She ditched us to hang out with that obnoxious flyboy.” “Again?! That’s the third time this month!”

The scene is atmospheric with beautifully rendered pastel backgrounds. After the fairies comes The Chinese Dance performed by a group of little mushrooms. It’s a cute number, and just another that was parodied more than a few times in other cartoons – wait do those mushrooms have slant eyes? And they’re prancing around nodding like extras in The Mikado…

You fungi are lucky you’re so darn adorable otherwise I’d sic the self-righteous side of Twitter on you.

Dance of the Reed Flutes follows. Lilies gently float on to the surface of a pond before inverting themselves to resemble twirling dancers with long, flowing skirts. And since I’m not always one to take the easy route, enjoy this niche reference instead of “You Spin Me Right Round”.

A gust of wind blows the spinning lilies over a waterfall into some moody underwater caverns, where a school of unusually sultry goldfish perform the Arabian Dance.

Cleo, does Gepetto know about this?

A novel idea, using the basic swimming motions of a goldfish and their naturally diaphanous tails and fins as veils to resemble exotic dancers, though like other animated characters in a similar vein, this has led to some…”interesting” reactions from certain people.

Right, well, bubbles transition us into the penultimate movement, the Russian Dance. Thistles and orchids resembling dancers clad in traditional Russian peasant clothing spring to life in this brightly colored energetic minute. You’ll be chanting “hey!” along with it.

And finally, the Waltz of the Flowers. As a little girl I would often hold my own “ballets” to this scene, which mainly comprised of me in a ballet costume or fancy nightgown spinning around in circles for family members with this playing in the background. Top that, Baryshnikov.

Fairies similar to the ones from the beginning transform the leaves from fresh summer green to autumn orange, brown and gold. Milkweed seeds blossom forth and float through the air like waltzing ladies. This piece above all else is what really shows the beauty of nature. I feel more emotion watching the leaves pirouette in the wind than any plain live-action drama.

Fall turns into winter, and the fairies, now snow sprites, skate across a pond creating ice swirls while even more spiral down from the sky as snowflakes. The secret of animating these snowflakes was nearly lost to time. Several years ago a notebook by technician Herman Schultheis was rediscovered, revealing how many of the special effects in Disney’s early films – Fantasia in particular – were brought to life. The snowflakes were cels on spools attached to small rails from a train set that were filmed falling in stop motion and black and white, then superimposed on the final picture.

In conclusion, The Nutcracker Suite is a lovely piece of animation and music, and I’ll pop in Fantasia at Christmastime just to watch it. This was my introduction to The Nutcracker, and it’s an excellent and unique one.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Paul Dukas

The symphonic poem of the same name now gets a proper name with Mickey Mouse stepping in the title role. It’s impossible to imagine any other character in his shoes, but for a time there were other considerations.

“Nope. Too wooden.”

“Too angry.”

“I’m sorry, but you’re just too darn loud.”

As we all know, Mickey was given the part since his popularity needed a boost. He doesn’t talk here, and I know those who find his voice grating wholeheartedly embrace that fact, but what we’re given is proof that Mickey works just as well silently as he does speaking. Very few cartoon characters can pull off that kind of versatility.

And while we’re on the topic of sound, Walt was so determined for the sound quality to match what was happening on screen that he devised a system he dubbed “FantaSound”, where it would seem as though the music would move around the the theater instead of just blare out from one speaker.

You read that right. Fantasia is the movie that invented SURROUND SOUND.

But that’s not the only technological leap Fantasia is responsible for – this is the first time we see Mickey with sclera.

That’s the white of the eyes for those who don’t speak science.

Before Fantasia, Mickey had what we refer to today as “pie eyes”, a relic of the era he was created in. As the art of animation progressed, animators found it increasingly difficult to create believable expressions with two little dots. Fred Moore is responsible for the mouse’s welcome redesign. Mickey as the apprentice serves the sorcerer Yen Sid, named after his real world counterpart.

“Hey! I didn’t teach him that!”

Mickey’s craving a taste of his master’s power, so he borrows his magical cap after he goes to bed and enchants a broom to finish his work of gathering water. It’s fun and bouncy, though the part where Mickey dreams he can control the cosmos, seas and sky is something to behold.

“The power! The absolute POWER!! The universe is mine to command! To CONTROOOOOOL!!!”

But Mickey is jolted from his dream of ultimate conquest when the broom begins flooding the place. Unfortunately the sorcerer’s hat doesn’t come with a manual so Mickey doesn’t know how to turn it off. He resorts to violently chopping the broom to pieces with an axe. The animation originally called for the massacre to happen on screen, but was altered to showing it through shadows instead. I think it’s much more effective this way. The implied violence is more dramatic than what we could have gotten.

One of my favorite stylistic choices in Fantasia is what follows. The color is sucked out, drained if you will, mirroring Mickey’s exhausted emotional and physical state after committing broomslaughter. But it slowly returns as the broom’s splinters rise up and form an army of bucket-wielding drones. They overpower Mickey and catch him in a whirlpool until Yen Sid returns and parts the waters like a pissed off Moses.

“You! Shall not! SWIM!!!”

Mickey sheepishly returns the hat, and I have to give credit to the animators for the subtle touches on Yen Sid. He appears stern at first glance, but the raised eyebrow borrowed from Walt? The slight smirk at the corner of his mouth? Deep down, he’s amused by his apprentice’s shenanigans. Even the backside slap with the broom, while rendered harshly due to the sudden swell of music, is done less out of malice and more out of playfulness.

The piece ends with Mickey breaking the barriers of reality to congratulate Stokowski on a job well done.

“Hey! I didn’t teach him that!”

If you haven’t already guessed, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is easily one of my preferred sequences. It’s energetic, perfectly matches the music, and features my favorite mouse in one of his most iconic roles. I joke about the scene where Mickey controls the waves and the sky due to Disney’s far-reaching acquisitions in the past decade, but within the context of the film it’s one of the most magical moments. Some theorize that The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is an allegory of Walt’s journey to create Fantasia itself, and there’s some merit to it – Mickey’s always been Walt’s avatar after all, and here he dreams big only to wind up way in over his head. But you don’t need to look for coincidental parallels to enjoy this part.

Rite of Spring – Igor Stravinsky

Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring is admittedly my least favorite part of Fantasia, though I don’t hate it by all means. Thematically it’s the furthest from the original work’s intent: instead of a pagan ritual involving a virgin sacrifice, we witness the earth’s infancy. I was never really into dinosaurs as a kid (I didn’t even see Jurassic Park until I was in fourth or fifth grade), and the thundering, threatening music put me off. I found it too long (twenty-two minutes is an eternity in child time), uninteresting, and dour compared to the other sequences, with the exception of one moment. I can appreciate it now that I’m older, though.

A solitary oboe echoes through the vast darkness of space. We soar past comets, galaxies, suns, and down into our lonely little planet still in the early stages of formation. Volcanoes cover the earth. They spew toxic gas, but their magma bubbles burst in precision with the music. Once again this is due to Herman Schultheis. He filmed a mixture of oatmeal, coffee grounds, and mud with air pushed up through a vent, and let the animators go to town on it.

The volcanoes erupt simultaneously. Lava flows and the ensuing millennia of cooling form the continents. But deep in the sea, the first protozoan life wriggles, divides, and evolves into multi-cellular organisms. One of them crawls up on to land, and finally we’re back in the time where dinosaurs weren’t just confined to zoos.

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #4: “Dinosaur inaccuracies…brain melting…”

True, most of the dinosaur and plant species here never shared the same period of existence, but try telling that to the animation studio or John Hammond. They mostly went for whatever looked cool and prehistoric regardless of scientific accuracy. Some of the designs themselves are a bit off, but the animators did their best considering how much we knew about the creatures in the 30’s and 40’s. Heck, we’ve only recently discovered that most dinosaurs were covered with feathers or fur, and I don’t see anyone harping on Jurassic Park for omitting that detail. Thank God Steven Spielberg doesn’t harbor George Lucas’ affinity for reworking his past movies with extra CGI.

Believe it or not, this scene was once considered the height of accurate dinosaur depictions on film, because nobody else had done it before with this level of research and care in animation. Without Rite Of Spring, we wouldn’t have The Land Before Time or Jurassic Park in the first place. Look at Land Before Time’s bleak, orangey atmosphere and the Sharptooth fights and tell me this didn’t influence it in any way.

The dinosaurs themselves have little character and, while fascinating to see how they might have lived, are not particularly engaging. Until…

Yes, when the king of all dinosaurs makes his entrance, bringing a thunderstorm along with him no less, all the others are wise to run and hide from him. I would hide under a quilt but still peek through the holes in awe. He snaps about throwing his weight around, but when it goes toe to toe with a stegosaurus? That’s when things get real.

This battle, by the way, is animated by Woolie Reitherman, who had a knack for bringing gargantuan characters to life. He was responsible for animating Monstro in Pinocchio, and was behind Maleficent’s dragon form in Sleeping Beauty.

Though what follows is far from triumphant. The earth has become a hot, barren wasteland. The dinosaurs trudge through deserts and tar pits, their fruitless search for water turning into a slow death march. Not even the mighty T-Rex can survive this.

California: present day.

Some time later, the dinosaurs are all gone. Only their bones bleaching in the sun remain. Without warning, a massive earthquake hits and the seas flood through, washing away the remains of the old prehistoric world. The sequence comes full circle as the lonely oboe plays over a solar eclipse, which sets on an earth ready to step into the next stage of life.

If Walt had his way, the segment would have continued with the evolution of man and ended on a triumphant note with the discovery of fire, but he was worried about the possible backlash from zealous creationists. And I don’t blame him for wanting to avoid a confrontation with that crowd.

“It’s bad enough he makes a mouse act like a people with his dadgum pencil sorcery, but propagandizin’ evil-loution in mah Saturday mornin’ toon box? That’s just plum un-okkily-dokkily!”

“…You wouldn’t happen to have a dictionary on hand, would you?”

“DICTIONARIES ARE THE DEVIL’S BOOSTER SEAT!!”

Subsequently, those edits made to Stravinsky’s score pissed off the composer so much that he considered suing Disney for tampering with his work. He opted not to, yet the experience turned him off animation for good. A crying shame; Stravinsky, apart from being the only classical composer alive to see his work made part of a Fantasia feature, was excited to work with Walt. The two deeply respected and recognized each other as artists ahead of their time. Who knows what else could have come from their collaboration if things ended better?

With that knowledge, it makes sense that one of Stravinsky’s most famous pieces, the Firebird Suite, was included in Fantasia 2000: perhaps on some level Disney wanted to apologize for how the finale of Rite of Spring was mishandled by making Firebird the grand finale (though knowing Stravinsky he would have hated the little changes made to his music there as well).

Following the intermission, the orchestra reconvenes and has a fun little jam session. Deems Taylor takes a moment to introduce us to the most important – but rarely seen – figure that makes Fantasia and most music in movies possible, The Soundtrack.

Once again, Disney does what it does best and anthropomorphizes what no one thought was possible. Think about it: giving personalities to animals is one thing, but they’ve successfully done the same for plants, planes, houses, hats, and here, sound itself. It may seem silly and out of place, but I think it’s brilliant and charming. The visuals it creates to represent different instruments are perfectly matched; some of them harken back to Toccata and Fugue. This, combined with the improv from the orchestra, is a good way to ease us back into comfort after the harshness of Rite of Spring.

Pastoral Symphony – Ludwig Van Beethoven

There’s a famous story about Walt Disney while he was pitching this segment. When met with complaints that it wasn’t working, he cried out This’ll MAKE Beethoven!” In a way, he was right. This was the very first piece of Beethoven I ever heard, even before the famous “da da da DUUUUUN” of Symphony #5. And as far as I know, it was for a good many Disney fans too. We still get a romantic depiction of the countryside as was the composer’s intent, but instead of an rural utopia, we see the Fields of Elysium at the foot of Mount Olympus. It’s home to a variety of mythical creatures from the golden age of Greece: fauns, unicorns, cherubs, centaurs and Pegasi.

If there was ever a Disney world I wanted to spend a day in, this would be it. It’s so innocent, laidback and colorful; it takes me right back to my childhood. A great portion of this sequence was used in my favorite music video in the Simply Mad About the Mouse anthology album, “Zip A Dee Doo Dah” sung by Ric Ocasek from The Cars. Whether that was my favorite because it featured Pastoral Symphony or Pastoral Symphony was my favorite because it was featured in the video I don’t know. There’s nothing that could ever destroy it for –

Oh son of a…

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #5: “RACIST. FUCKING. CENTAUR. EQUALS. RACIST. DISNEY… RACIST!!!”

Yes ladies and gents, that image is real. Meet Sunflower (or Otika, I’m not sure which one she is) one of the the censored centaurettes (for very obvious reasons). I’m of two minds when it comes to their inclusion. First off, yes, they’re crude and demeaning blackface caricatures that have no place in a Disney movie, let alone one of the best ones and in one of my favorite sequences. But my inner art/film historian that despises censorship feels that erasing these depictions is the same as pretending they and other prejudices of the time never existed.

Thank you, Warner Bros.

As time and the civil rights movement marched on, all traces of the Sunflower squad were removed from later releases of Fantasia. The downside to that was editing techniques at the time weren’t as high-tech as they are today; I was lucky to see a film print of Fantasia at the Museum of Modern Art in 2015 that must have dated as far back as the ’60s because she wasn’t there, but the cuts were very noticeable. Sad to say the amazing remastered tracks done by Irwin Kostal in the 80’s used a similar print because the shift in the music is very jarring at points in this segment. It wasn’t until Fantasia’s 50th anniversary that they were able to zoom in and crop the scenes that had Sunflower in them while recycling other pieces of animation over parts where they couldn’t get rid of her, eventually managing to digitally erase her from some of the film entirely (look carefully at the part where the red carpet is being rolled out for Bacchus on the blu-ray. Unless he got it from the Cave of Wonders, carpets normally don’t roll themselves…)

I completely understand the reasoning behind Sunflower’s removal, but can also see why animation aficionados would try to pressure Disney into bringing her back with each new re-release for Fantasia, possibly with one of those great Leonard Maltin intros putting everything into context like in the tragically out-of-print Disney Treasures dvds – though the chances of that happening are as likely as Song of the South being made public again (the Disney+ promo should have made that clearer when they claimed Disney’s entire back catalogue would be available for streaming, but I doubt the tag line “We have everything except Song of the South” would hook people). It’s an issue I’m very torn on. So if there was ever a chance that a version of Fantasia with a restored Sunflower was possible, either through Disney themselves or fan edits, my thoughts on it would be a very resounding…

The first movement of the symphony is “Awakening of Pleasant Feelings upon Arriving in the Country”, and this part does just that. As the sun rises and we get our first glimpse of the technicolor fantasyland. Pan flute-playing fauns and unicorns frolic with each other while a herd of Pegasi take to the sky. Again, going back to other notable movies taking cues from Fantasia, Ray Harryhausen carefully studied the movement of the Pegasi here when creating his stop-motion Pegasus for Clash of the Titans. They canter through the air as they would on land, but in the water they move with the grace of a swan.

And look at the little baby ones, they’re just too cute!

The second movement, “Scene by the Brook”, takes place exactly where you think it does. A group of female centaurs, named “centaurettes” by the animators, doll themselves up with the help of some cupids (and the aforementioned Sunflower) in preparation for mating season.

“”I used to like the centaurettes not just because they were pretty but because each of them having different colors could be interpreted as women of all colors hanging out together and finding love. But no, having Sunflower there confirms that they’re all supposed to be lighter-skinned ladies. Racism given context makes it no less of a pain in the ass.”

The male centaurs arrive and hook up with their conveniently color-matching counterparts. The cherubs help set the mood for their flirting interludes until they discover two shy, lonely centaurs (Brudus and Melinda, because I’m that big of a Disney nerd that I know their actual names) who haven’t found each other yet. They lure them to a grove with some flute music a la The Pied Piper and it’s love at first sight.

One of my favorite details throughout the Pastoral Symphony is that we keep coming back to Brudus and Melinda. They’re a cute couple, one of the closest things we have to main characters in this sequence, and it’s nice to follow them.

Our third movement is “Peasants’ Merrymaking”. The centaur brigade prepare an overflowing vat of wine for Bacchus, god of booze and merrymaking. Bacchus, forever tipsy, arrives backed up by some black zebra centaurettes serving him. Maybe they were considered attractive enough to avoid being censored.

The bacchanalia is in full swing with everyone dancing and getting loaded. But Zeus, who appears more sinister than Laurence Olivier or his future Disney counterpart, crashes the party with a big thunderstorm. I used to think he was a jerk for endangering his subjects just for kicks, but in light of recent revelations maybe he had ulterior motives.

“Feel the wrath of the thunder god, you fucking racists!”

“Come on, dad, you used to be fun! Where’s the Zeus turns into a cow to pick up chicks?!”

“He grew up. Maybe you should too, son. Now EAT LIGHNING!”

“The Storm”, our fourth movement, provides some stunning imagery against the torrential backdrop, from the centaurs being called to shelter to the pegasus mother braving the gale to rescue her baby.

Ultimately Zeus grows tired and turns in for the night, ending the storm. Iris, goddess of the rainbow, emerges and leaves her technicolor trail across the sky. The creatures revel in the effects it has on their surroundings, then gather on a hill to watch the sunset, driven by Apollo and his chariot. Everyone settles in to sleep, and Artemis, hunting goddess of the moon, shoots an comet across the sky like an arrow that fills the sky with twinkling stars.

Pastoral Symphony was the one part of Fantasia that always received the most derision from critics, but racist characters aside I simply don’t get the hate for it. It may be longer than Rite of Spring but feels nowhere near as drawn out. I love the colors, characters, and the calm, bucolic fantasy world it creates. This was my first exposure to Beethoven and the world of Greek mythology and I still hold plenty of nostalgia for it. I admit it’s not perfect, and not just for the reason you think. Out of all the Fantasia pieces, this is the one whose quality is closest to an original Disney short than a theatrical feature. It’s a bit more cartoony and there’s some notable errors, particularly when the baby Pegasi dive into the water and emerge different colors. Also, Deems and the animators flip between using the gods’ Greek and Roman names, and the stickler in me wants them to pick a mythos and stick with it. But for all it’s flaws it’s still among my very favorite Fantasia pieces and nothing can change that.

  The Dance of the Hours from the Opera “La Giaconda” – Amilcare Ponichelli

Like I said before, Disney was a master of the art of anthropomorphism. And nowhere is this more true than Dance of the Hours. Animals portray dancers symbolizing morning, noon, dusk and evening – only they’re the most unlikely ones for the job. The characters of our penultimate act are as cartoony as any you’d see in a Disney short from the era, but what puts the animation above it is the right balance of elasticity and realism. The exaggeration is on point, but there’s enough heft and weight to the animals that I can buy them being grounded in (some semblance of) reality. The animators studied professional dancers and incorporated their moves and elegance flawlessly. Half of the comedy derives from this.

The other half comes from how seriously the mock ballet is treated. We’re never informed who the dancers will be, leading anyone who hasn’t seen this before to assume they’re people. The ballet itself is a parody of the traditional pageant, but the performers carry on with the utmost sincerity. It doubles the laughs when it comes to moments such as Ben Ali Gator trying to catch Hyacinth Hippo in a dramatic pas de deux or an elephant getting a foot stuck in one of her own bubbles as she prances around. The familiar lighthearted refrain of the dance provides wonderful contrast to the caricatures on screen, particularly if you recall its other most famous iteration beyond Fantasia.

No one ever told me Camp Grenada was this Arcadian or zoological.

Morning begins with a troupe of uppity ostriches in ballet gear waking up, exercising and helping themselves to a cornucopia of fruit for breakfast. They fight over some grapes only to lose them in a pool. Something bubbles up from beneath and the ostriches run away in terror, but it’s only the prima ballerina of the piece, Hyacinth Hippo. She prepares for the day with help from her handmaidens and dances around a bit. Then she lies down for a nap, but no sooner do her ladies in waiting leave than some playful elephants come out of hiding and dance around Hyacinth unawares.

Elephants blowing bubbles in a Disney feature…nah, it’ll never catch on.

The elephants are blown away by a gust of wind (must be a really strong breeze), and with the coming of night a sinister band of crocodiles sneak up on Hyacinth. They scatter at the sudden arrival of their leader, Prince Ben Ali Gator, who immediately falls in love with Hyacinth. Surprisingly, the feeling is mutual.

I’m calling it – first body positivity romance in a Disney flick.

The climax of the piece has the crocodiles returning to wreak havoc on the palace and pulling the ostriches, elephants, and hippos back into a frenzied dance which brings down the house.

No bones about it, Dance of the Hours is a comic masterpiece and one of Fantasia’s crowning jewels. And the moment it ended was always the signal for younger me to stop the tape and rewind it to the beginning, due to what follows making a complete and terrifying 180…

Night on Bald Mountain – Modest Mussorgsky / Ave Maria – Franz Schubert

At last we come to our final part, two radically different classical works that blend perfectly into each other. And brother, what a note to end on.

Composer Modest Mussorgsky passed away before completing his masterwork “Night on the Bare Mountain”, a tonal poem depicting a witches’ sabbath from Slavic mythology. His friend, the great Rimsky-Korsakov, finished it for him while adding his own personal touch. The result is some of the most iconic and terrifying music ever created, and the accompanying animation, with the exception of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, is the most faithful to its source material.

The scene takes place on Walpurgis Night, which is the closest thing Europe has to a real-life Summerween (those lucky so-and-so’s), on the titular mountain. The mountain’s peak opens up revealing Chernabog, the Slavic deity of darkness.

Chernabog is a masterclass in design and form. It’s easy to mistake him for Satan himself – Walt Disney and Deems Taylor both refer to him as such – though considering he’s technically Slavic Satan, there’s not too big a distinction. Chernabog radiates power, terror and pure darkness from his intro alone. You can imagine him influencing all other Disney villains to do his will, essentially filling in the horned one’s hooves. Chernabog was skillfully handled by Bill Tylta, an early Disney animator with enough talent to create characters as diverse as Stromboli and Dumbo. Bela Lugosi, the original Dracula, posed for reference pictures in the early design stages, though Tylta ultimately discarded them in favor of some different inspiration – sequence director Wilfred Jackson as model, and Tytla’s own Czech heritage. He grew up with folktales of Chernabog, which served him well during the production.

“Soon, master. The one known as Jackson shall take up your mantle and we shall feast upon humanity yet again.”

Chernabog unleashes his might on to the sleeping village below and raises the dead from the cemetery. A cabal of witches, wraiths and demons gallop on the wind and take part in his infernal revelry. Yet they are but playthings to the evil being. He transforms the creatures into alluring sirens and wretched beasts, sics harpies on them, condemns them to the flames, and lustfully embraces the hellish blaze. It’s an in your face pageantry of pure malevolence that you can’t look away from

Things Fantasia Fans Are Sick of Hearing #6: “This is too scary for kids!! What the hell were they thinking?!”

I think it’s time we made one thing clear: Fantasia was NOT made for children – or to be more accurate, not EXCLUSIVELY for children. While Disney movies are made to be enjoyed by both kids and adults, Fantasia is the only one who dared to appeal to a more mature audience, and Night on Bald Mountain is proof of that. It had the audacity to explore some of the most darkest, ancient depictions of evil in a way that no Disney feature has before or since. Most importantly, it’s not done for shock value like any random horror movie you could name. It’s meant to show the juxtaposition between the darkest depravity and purest good; combined with Ave Maria it makes for the perfect symbolic climax to Fantasia. Light versus darkness, chaos versus order, life versus death, profane versus sacred, and the quest to master them all are the themes that unify the seemingly disparate sequences, and this finale is the apotheosis of that.

I stated in my Mickey’s Christmas Carol review that Bald Mountain was one of my first introductions to the concept of eternal damnation at the tender age of…I wanna say four, five? It was easily one of the most petrifying things from my childhood, but at least I could avoid some exposure to it thanks to its position at the very end. Though now I adore Night on Bald Mountain for how bold and striking it is. Tytla’s animation, Kay Nielsen’s stunning demon designs, and Schultheis’ effects culminate in harmonious diabolical artwork that’s impossible to extricate from the music. It’s a shame Schultheis left the studio after Fantasia. He met a mysterious, tragic end in Guatemala, right around the time Bill Tytla left too as a matter of fact…

“He knew too much…about the secrets of animation, I mean. Nothing at all about das vampyr walking the earth. No sir.”

Yet at the height of his power, one thing stops Chernabog cold – the sound of church bells. Disney historian John Culhane saw Fantasia during its original theatrical run (lucky so and so…) and he recalled how much having FantaSound affected his screening: when the bells rang, he could hear them coming from the back of the theater and slowly course their way up front as their power grew. It was an awe-inspiring moment that took the Bald Mountain experience one step further into reality.

The bells and the rising sun drive Chernabog and his minions back into the mountain and the restless spirits return to their graves. In the misty morning a procession of pilgrims glides through the woods like a parade of tiny lights, and thus the Ave Maria begins. It’s one of the rare times Disney has gone overtly Christian. Maybe Walt wanted to get back into the God-fearing American public’s good graces after the sorcery, paganism, devil worship and evolution theory we’ve witnessed in the past hour and fifty minutes. It does relieve the tension from the previous turn of events.

The first pitch had the march enter a cathedral, but Walt didn’t believe recreating something people can already see in Europe. So instead they move through a forest with trees and natural rock formations resembling the Gothic architecture of a cathedral. It’s the stronger choice in my opinion. The implication speaks greater volumes than a specific location, subtly connecting nature to the divine. It’s difficult to make out most of the hymn’s words, but regardless it sounds beautiful, especially those final triumphant notes as the sky lights up over a view of the verdant hilltops.

“When the sun hits that ridge just right, these hills sing.”

And with that, Fantasia comes to a close.

Really, what else can I say about it at this point. I keep forgetting this movie came out in 1940. It’s virtually timeless, and a must-see for anyone who loves animation and classic film and wants to jump into either one.

Fantasia was a critical and box office success…sort of. Despite the praise and high box office returns for the time, it sadly wasn’t enough to make up for the cost of putting it all together. Like Pinocchio before it, the war cut off any foreign revenue. And not every theater was willing or able to shell out for that nifty surround sound so the effects were lost on most people. Then there’s the audience response, which is the most depressing of all. The casual moviegoers still viewed Walt as the guy behind those wacky mouse cartoons and called him out for being a pretentious snob, while the highbrow intellectuals accused Walt of debasing classical music by shackling it to animation. The poor guy just couldn’t win.

Fantasia marked the end of an era. Never again would Walt attempt a feature so ambitious. His plans of making Fantasia a recurring series, with old segments regularly swapped out for new ones, would not be seen in his lifetime. There’s been the occasional copycat (Allegra non troppo), a handful of spiritual successors (Make Mine Music, Yellow Submarine), and of course the sequel which I’m sure I’ll get to eventually, but through it all, there is only one Fantasia. And no amount of my ramblings can hope to measure up to it. Fantasia is one of those movies you simply have to experience for yourself, preferably on the biggest screen available with a top of the line sound system. I know it’s a cliche for Internet critics to name this as their favorite animated Disney movie, but…yes, it’s mine too. It opened a door to a world of culture and art at a young age. The power of animation is on full display, and it’s affected the way I look at the medium forever. Fantasia was, and still is, a film ahead of its time.

Thank you for reading. I hope you can understand why this review took me nearly three months! If you enjoyed this, please consider supporting me on Patreon. Patreon supporters get perks such as extra votes and adding movies of their choice to the Shelf. If I can get to $100, I can go back to making weekly tv show reviews. Right now I’m halfway there! Special thanks to Amelia Jones and Gordhan Ranaj for their contributions.

You can vote for whatever movie you want me to look at next by leaving it in the comments or emailing me at [email protected]. Remember, unless you’re a Patreon supporter, you can only vote once a month. The list of movies available to vote for are under “What’s On the Shelf”.

Artwork by Charles Moss. Certain screencaps courtesy of animationscreencaps.com.

To learn more about Fantasia, I highly recommend both John Culhane’s perennial book on the film and The Lost Notebook by John Canemaker, which reveals the long-lost special effects secrets which made Fantasia look so magical.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to be spending the rest of the month with my handy dandy garlic, stake and crucifix and pray Bill Tytla doesn’t visit me this Walpurgis Night. I suggest you do the same.

March Review: Fantasia (1940) And now we come to the final piece of Walt Disney's original animation trifecta, Fantasia, and it's one I'm both anticipating and dreading.

#abstract #adventure #alligator #animal ballerinas #animated #animated movie review #animation #Arabian Dance #Ave Maria #Bacchus #bald mountain #ballerina #ballet #Beethoven #bells #Bill Tytla #cartoon review #cathedral #centaurettes #centaurs #Chernabog #cherubs #Chinese Dance #classic disney #classical #classical music #crocodile #Dance of the Hours #Dance of the Reed Flutes #Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

[probablybadrpgideas]

dressage is ballet for centaurs

#Tick here to allow us to use in the podcast #Fantasy #Generic #Setting Idea #submission