Showing posts with label Musical Movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Musical Movies. Show all posts

7/07/2013

"Fantasia 2000" by Various Directors (1999)


When Walt Disney was a person alive making animations movies and not just a brand, he had the dream of making animated concerts mixing his animation with classical music. Fantasia was born.  It was 1940.

Fantasia 2000 is a celebration of Disney's vision, an a celebratory anniversary of the original Fantasia. James Levine directs the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in seven new animated short films. Some of them are an abstract mix of colour, light and movement. Some other are a creation inspired by specific musical pieces, while others have a story for which a piece of music was created a posteriori.

1/ An Allegro from Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5", offers an abstract light, colour and abstract birds & butterflies very short short.

2/ Respighi's "Pines of Rome" shows a family of humpback whales playfully swiming from water to air. This is my favourite short, as it is completely experimental, pure fantasia and extravaganza, but still very modern in animation style and feeling. Very New Age, in a way.

3/ Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" inspires a story set in New York during the Big Depression, with moody unhappy characters who dream of having a different life. The animation style is very 1930s and is based in Al Hirschfeld's cartoons. The first seconds of the segment are brilliant, but the whole piece captures the spirit of old-style 2D animation with great mastery.

4/ An Allegro from Shostakovich's "Piano Concerto No. 2" matches a version of Hans Christian Andersen's The Steadfast Tin Soldier. This is the most linear story, and the one I enjoyed the least.

5/ Saint-Saëns's "Carnival of the Animals" offers a colourful flamboyant scene of dancing flamingos that are trying to get a yoyo-obsessed dancing flamingo back into the flock and dancing routine. It reminded me of the Warner Bross old classics cartoons! Delightful.
 

6/Dukas's "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" accompanies Micky Mouse naughty slovenliness in his sorcerer chores in this old well-known piece included in the original Fantasia.  Despite its age, the piece is still delightful and fresh. 

8/ Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance" offers a version of Noah's Ark with Donald Duck and Daisy leading the animals into the ark and into a safe land.

9/ Finally, Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite" offers a story of a death and renewal with a spring fairy and her companion Elk.

The movie has, overall, a retro-style that mimics the style of the original. Walt Disney and Disney Factory's old spirit are still here. However, the fact that each short is introduced by different celebrities (Steven Martin, Quincy Jones, Bette Midler, James Earl Jones, and Angela Landsbury among others) rests fluidity to the movie. I thought the introductions were funny and charming, but I would have preferred  longer shorts and shorter speeches. The original Fantasia was original in its conception, but also daring and experimental in its visuals and the stories told. Creativity was overflowing. That cannot be said about Fantasia 2000, although the contrary could be expected with the digital revolution allowing Animators to bring to the big screen almost anything. Still, this is a good entertaining movie.


Fantasia 2000 is a very enjoyable family movie that can be enjoyed by both adults and children; it might not be fit for small children as some of the pieces are a bit abstract. This is a wonderful movie to introduce Classic Music to children.

5/24/2012

"Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" by Edgar Wright (2010)

Scott Pilgrim versus the World is a Canadian romantic comedy and musical based on Bryan Lee O'Malley's comic book. 

Scott Pilgrim is a 22y.o teenage-looking insecure guy and guitarist who plays in a rock band called "Sex Bom-omb" going out with a high-school Chinese girl called Knives. He seems content with his life until he dreams about a girl, and she appears in his real world: Ramona, a funky American girl just moved to Toronto. Scott is over the moon, but he has to face his own personal demons, break up with sweet Knives and fight for Ramona's love against her seven exes.

Scott Pilgrim is one of the most refreshing teen-college movies produced in the last years, and one the best movies of 2010. The movie is cute, funny, entertaining, has great characters, a terrific soundtrack and stunning visuals. The story is presented as it was a video-game in which the main characters are the players, and their lives part of the game.

The movie focus on how difficult is to make a relationship work when you fall in love whit a girl with lots of emotional baggage and you are not an over-confident guy, while your dream girl is über-cool, and her exes were brilliant guys.
Scott's fights against Ramona's exes are just a metaphoric way of putting it. The issues regarding relationships are masqueraded by the video-game approach, but they have depth. Unlike many other movies focusing on the emotional challenges of very young people, sex is not the focus, although it is not avoided either.The fights with the exes are extremely funny and witty. I especially liked the fight with the Vegan ex-boyfriend, which is hilarious. Also visually stunning is the musical competition between Scott's rock band and the techno Asian twins’ band.

All the actors are great in their roles: Michael Cera as Scott, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona, Ellen Wong as Knives; Kieran Culkin as Scott's confident gay Wallace, Anna Kendrick as the know-it-all Scott's sister Stacey,  Jason Schwartzman as the revolting Gideon Graves, and
Mark Webber, Johnny Simmons and Alison Pill as Scott's band members. However, Cera shines in this movie, in part because his physique really suits the personality of the character he plays. 

The movie is lots of fun and does not take itself seriously, has a terrific music, and stunning visuals; the camera's movement and video-game-ish use of the screen add to the freshness and originality of the film. The movie has freshness, soul and a special something that stays with you longer after you've seen it. That is entertainment!