June 28, 2022 • 27 mins
Sara and Chrissy were totally (and regrettably) sober for the making of this episode. Join us as we discuss the 1940 Walt Disney Pictures animated film, Fantasia. It's a whole lot of classical music, a whole lot of transitional mini -lectures from a man in unforgiving lighting conditions, a whole lot of naked boobies and Sorcerer Mickey! Featuring special guest, Satan.
Join us next time when we'll be watching Bolt!
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Episode Transcript
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Sara (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to Mouse Ears and a Movie, a Disney
animation conversation.
I'm Sara Farrell Baker, joinedby my cohost, Chrissy Woj.
Chrissy (00:16):
We are two grown women, avoiding responsibility and
watching cartoons.
Every episode, we will watch adifferent Disney or Pixar
animated feature chosen atrandom from The Bucket.
Then we will reconvene here toshare our thoughts, some behind
the scenes knowledge andprobably make some weird noises.
Sara (00:32):
This week we watched the 1940 Walt Disney Productions
animated feature film, Fantasia.
It's a whole lot of classicalmusic, a whole lot of
transitional mini-lectures froma man in unforgiving lighting
conditions, a whole lot of nakedboobies and Sorcerer Mickey!
Featuring special guest, Satan.
To refresh our memories, here'sChrissy with the Fantasia Olaf
(00:53):
recap treatment.
Chrissy (00:54):
It began with an assembling orchestra.
Hidden by bad lighting, theemergence of a new form of
entertainment.
The animated concert film.
Some parts, a definite story.
Others, music that exists forits own sake.
Shadows dance in the background.
Colors changing.
Bows dancing in the sky.
(01:16):
Strings flying through the air.
I bet this is really fun towatch when you're high.
Then, the Nutcracker suite.
Fairies and flowers So manynaked fairies.
Then the mushrooms, so manymushrooms.
And sexy fish.
And now flowers, dancing.
But wait, it's weeds.
At least the flowers still havethe fall.
The flowers are dead.
Winter is here.
A new song.
(01:37):
Hey, that's Mickey.
And some scary wizard.
Mickey doesn't want to work, sohe casts a spell.
Well, then have a nap.
The broom floods the spell room.
The broom is dead.
No, the broom is a Hydra.
Whirlpool.
Can't bail yourself out of thisone, Mickey.
Yen Sid returns.
Uh, here's your hat, sir.
I got these here buckets to dosome work.
Dirty looks abound.
(01:58):
Back to the orchestra.
Bells are falling everywhere.
Have they no editorial team?
Life begins on Earth.
Dino DNA.
Meteors crashed into us.
The dinosaurs are dead.
An intermission?
Meet the soundtrack.
Now, to Mount Olympus.
Baby Pegasus, and centaurs, andCupid's, oh my! Look at them
sachet.
Bacchanal festival.
Wild Zeus.
(02:19):
Ballerina zoo.
Do do do do, do do do do.
Chernabog scares me.
Doo doo, doo doo doo doo.
Evil flying everywhere.
Ave Maria.
The world is calm.
The end.
Sara (02:38):
Hoo boy.
is a whole lot of music.
Chrissy (02:41):
This is a whole lot of movie.
Sara (02:42):
It's a whole lot of boobies.
Chrissy (02:43):
It's a whole lot of, a lotta.
Sara (02:45):
Fresh out the gate.
Beginning of this movie.
My first thought is, this wouldnot get greenlit today.
There is no way any filmexecutive says, Hey, I'm going
to make a all music movie.
It's not going to have anydialogue aside from this weird
guy with a like kind ofspotlight at him, but he has a
lot of shadows.
Just kind of talking about musicto us."
Chrissy (03:05):
It reminds me of this brilliant idea I had in high
school.
My best friend and I, we weredetermined to be the next Matt
Damon and Ben Affleck.
One of our ideas, was a moviethat we were going to call Dogs
Running Through Fields.
And it was just going to be aseries of random ass shit.
And the premise was that it wasbasically going to be a make-out
movie.
(03:25):
Like you go to the theater towatch this, to make out.
I think that's what Fantasiawas.
Think of the boobies.
Sara (03:31):
Oh, and all the butts.
Chrissy (03:33):
So many butts.
Sara (03:34):
Alright.
We're going to get to boobiesand butts in a second.
So we start off and we have adude come out.
This is Deems Taylor.
He's our master of ceremoniesalong with this orchestra.
The orchestra itself is puttogether by Leopold Stokowski.
He is the conductor of thePhiladelphia Orchestra at the
time, has been for somethinglike 20 years at this point.
And he is basically the face ofclassical music in the 20th
(03:57):
century.
The reason this movie cameabout.
So Disney had a series of shortscalled Silly Symphonies, putting
music to animation.
And then, Mickey Mouse has kindof waned in popularity in the
mid 1930s when they're startingto talk about this.
And so Walt says, I want to makea Silly Symphony short, but I
want to turn it into a hugemovie.
(04:18):
We want this to be like hiscomeback.
And he has this vision of anexpansion on Silly Symphonies
with Mickey.
And then he ends up meetingLeopold Stokowski in a
restaurant.
They get to talking.
Walt tells him his idea aboutthis classical music based
movie, and Stokowski is all in.
He is so excited.
To the point where he is like,yes, I want to work with you on
(04:38):
this.
I'll do it for free.
I will just do it.
Let me do it.
He is so serious about this, onhis train ride a couple of weeks
later, he sees one of Disney'sfriends or collaborators and
says,"Hey.
That thing that I talked withWalt about, please let him know,
like for real, I will do thisfor free.
I am so excited.
I want to do this." He ends updoing it for like$5,000, But he
(04:58):
gets to put together his ownorchestra for this film.
This is how it begins.
Chrissy (05:03):
I loved the Silly Symphonies.
When I was a kid, I rememberwatching a bunch of them.
Sara (05:07):
Whenever Disney channel would play the old Disney
cartoons, I was so into those.
Chrissy (05:12):
I was a big fan of The Skeleton Dance.
Which was the first SillySymphony.
Sara (05:16):
I watched that every Halloween with the Disney's
Halloween Treat special.
Chrissy (05:20):
Same, girl.
Same.
Sara (05:22):
I love that.
Love.
Chrissy (05:25):
My fav.
Okay.
So this was the third Disneyanimated feature.
After Snow White.
After Bambi.
Then we get this.
Sara (05:32):
Yup.
Chrissy (05:33):
What.
Sara (05:33):
What is right.
To be fair, this is very earlyin feature film history.
And extremely early in animatedfilm history.
Chrissy (05:42):
It's just fascinating to me that they did Snow White,
then they did Bambi.
Then this comes along andthey're like, we're going to
reinvent the whole animatedfeature.
And I was like, wait, but youstill haven't even like mastered
the animated feature.
Sara (05:54):
At the time, Fantasia, did not make a ton of money.
And that is because the world isin the middle of World War II.
And that killed the ability tohave overseas or international
distribution for the movie.
But they actually decided tomake it into like a traveling
road show in the beginning.
You know how you go andsometimes orchestras will do
like a movie night and they'llplay all the soundtrack to like
(06:17):
Jurassic Park while you watchthe movie?
Chrissy (06:18):
Yes.
I love those.
Sara (06:19):
That was how Fantasia was initially released.
And then after it wasrereleased, it eventually went
on to become the 23rd highestgrossing movie of all time,
adjusted for inflation.
Pretty amazing for a movie, thiskind of almost avant garde.
It also featured, they createdwhat they called, fantasound.
It is the first theater sound instereo and is the precursor to
(06:41):
what we now know as surroundsound.
As strange and weird and kind ofoff the cuff Fantasia seems, it
is a significant part of filmhistory and animated film
history.
The AFI ranked it as the 58thgreatest American film in their
100 Years 100 Movies, and thefifth greatest animated film in
their top 10 list.
It was selected for preservationin the United States National
(07:04):
Film Registry by the Library ofCongress as being culturally,
historically or aestheticallysignificant.
Chrissy (07:11):
And even like, after it had its, run in the early
forties, it came back and founda new audience in the sixties.
Sara (07:18):
You don't say.
Chrissy (07:19):
I wonder how that came about.
Sara (07:21):
Seriously, the second I turn this movie on.
I'm just like, oh, It'd be niceto be stoned right now.
Chrissy (07:26):
If I weren't pregnant.
Sara (07:27):
Which surprise audience.
Chrissy (07:29):
I don't think we've said it on here at all.
Sara (07:31):
Oh my God.
So Chrissy, tell us, what iscoming up on the Chrissy side.
Chrissy (07:35):
We gonna have a little baby mouse here.
Sara (07:37):
We're so excited.
Chrissy (07:39):
Lil dude's coming to town By the time this airs who
knows he could be here.
Sara (07:43):
Oh, good Lord.
He's so soon.
Chrissy (07:45):
Oh, my God.
Sara (07:46):
All the congratulations.
You're going to have the cutestlittle Disney baby in the whole
world.
Chrissy (07:50):
So let's talk about this movie.
We start out and we've got thisorchestra assembling.
They're getting set up.
They're not even ready yet.
They're all walking in.
In this like shadow lighting,that's just.
Awkward to me.
If you're going to feature theorchestra, feature the
orchestra.
Show these people.
Sara (08:09):
I agree.
I would like to see kind of whatall goes into this.
And I feel like we lost some ofthe scope of the size of the
orchestra that goes into aproduction like this.
Chrissy (08:16):
I mean, when you're watching an orchestra live, you
see them I'll walk in and yes,the light goes dark and you
mostly see the shadowseventually when the music starts
playing, but you see them walkin.
So we are introduced to thiswhole concept and they tell us
that there are three types ofmusic that we'll see in this
concert film.
And there's the music that tellsa definite story.
(08:38):
There's the music that paints aseries of definite pictures.
But has no plot.
And then there's music thatexists simply for its own sake.
Sara (08:46):
And we begin with music that exists simply for its own
sake.
I'm going to bastardize thepronunciation of this piece,
unless you know it.
Chrissy (08:54):
It's Toccata and Fugue, in D minor by Johann Sebastian
Bach.
I actually really love thispiece.
But the animation behind, itjust seems.
Weird to me.
Was it animation for animationsake or for music sake?
It didn't fit with what I wouldhave pictured for the music.
Sara (09:13):
I think that even if you've got music for music sake,
you can animate it in a waythat, maybe it wouldn't tell a
story.
But would still have some kindof, I don't know, wouldn't just
be lines and wavy things.
I get the point.
I get the idea of, you know,we're going to show you music.
We're going to show you howsound works.
We're going to show you what'shappening is going to get more
abstract.
(09:33):
But I really think this is themain reason why this found an
audience in the 1960s.
And in my living room on a darkThursday night.
Chrissy (09:41):
After our Bach piece, we move into the Nutcracker
Suite by Tchaikovsky, which.
Fan favorite.
Sara (09:48):
It's such a great collection of pieces of music.
It's gorgeous.
It's something that, most of usrecognize immediately.
Zero nutcrackers in this one.
And I dug it.
Chrissy (09:58):
I didn't necessarily need nutcrackers, but it just
seemed like...
eh.
Sara (10:02):
It was a neat way to reimagine this music that we're
only used to hearing atChristmas time in this very
specific show.
We're used to Sugarplum fairiesdancing bears and toys
everywhere and like a big, scaryrat and stuff.
This is just showing us theseasons changing.
Chrissy (10:20):
Which I actually really do like that.
I liked that the seasons change.
But I wish that they spent alittle more time on fall and
winter because it's like here isspring, forever and ever, and
ever, and then an endlesssummer.
And then fall and winter, andthen we're done.
I'm in the middle of an endlesswinter over here in Chicago.
So it does not track.
Sara (10:38):
I love the winter part at the end with the ice dancing
fairies and how, when they'redancing across the ice, it's
leaving these little frost,snowflake things around, and, oh
my goodness.
But good Lord.
There's a whole lot of fairyboobs and butts.
Chrissy (10:50):
In the very beginning, we've got this fairy that climbs
inside a flower and all you seeis her butt.
Bouncing.
Naked fairies everywhere.
No boys.
Sara (11:00):
Just boobies.
Chrissy (11:00):
Then we get to these crazy dancing mushrooms.
I don't like the dancingmushrooms.
Sara (11:05):
I think the dancing mushrooms are the reason-- well,
they're definitely part of thereason where we're getting that
Chrissy (11:09):
Disclaimer at the beginning.
Sara (11:10):
I appreciate the Disney disclaimer at the beginning
about the culturalinsensitivities in these older
films.
I appreciate that you can notfast forward.
Chrissy (11:19):
15 seconds.
Sara (11:20):
I like that they count it down.
"Listen.
We're going to let you get tothis in a minute.
But just think about how we werebig, old pieces of shit for like
15 seconds, please."
Chrissy (11:29):
Then we get into like some spinning dancing
Bellflowers, which they lookreally pretty and fun.
Sara (11:35):
My son August made a really astute observation.
He goes, those look reallysimilar to the dancing napkins
in Be Our Guest.
Chrissy (11:42):
Oh, damn.
Sara (11:44):
I said, yes, you are correct.
Chrissy (11:45):
Way to go August.
Is that okay if his name is inthere?
Sara (11:49):
Yes.
And he will be so excitedbecause he is obsessed with the
show.
Obsessed.
Chrissy (11:54):
Then we got some sugar plum fairies, more fairies.
Sara (11:57):
During this part he goes, what is up with all the boobs?
Why are there no wieners?" So.
that's my child.
Then we get down to theunderwater with the sessy fish.
Chrissy (12:10):
The fish are so sultry and like all this makeup.
Sara (12:14):
They got the kissy fishy lips.
We already got like buttsbouncing out of flowers.
So I don't feel like this is toomuch of a stretch.
Chrissy (12:20):
That's valid.
Sara (12:22):
I did love the hazy pastels of the ocean scenes.
It made it look a little lesspolished and that makes the
flowiness of underwater movementa little more realistic.
Chrissy (12:31):
That's true.
And then we've jumped out of thewater and we've got the Russian
dancing flowers.
Sara (12:36):
Loved it.
I Love this piece of music.
I love that they're doing thatlittle, down in a squat kick,
kick, kick, down in a squat,kick, kick, kick.
I love that dance.
Chrissy (12:43):
They're not even just like flower flower.
Some of them are like weedflowers.
I don't think weeds are bad.
I like weeds.
They're just local flora.
Sara (12:51):
So then we go into fall and the fairies are changing the
leaves.
I could have used more fall.
I think you're right.
We had a whole lot of spring andsummer, and then, boop.
Leaves are changing.
And then boop.
It's snowing.
Chrissy (13:02):
There should be more fun, wintery.
Make it seem a little bit morecharming than it actually is.
After the Nutcracker ends, weget to our pièce de résistance.
The one that everyone remembers.
The Sorcerer's apprentice.
Sara (13:15):
This is a 2000 year old story.
Chrissy (13:17):
No shit.
Sara (13:17):
It's a real old.
It is our first look at SorcererMickey.
He is animated much differentlythan we had seen Mickey previous
to this.
Before this we had the SteamboatWillie iteration of Mickey,
where he's very round and bouncyand his face is much more
pointy.
For this debut we get a newlyanimated, newly designed Mickey
(13:38):
from Fred Moore.
And it allows for moreexpressive facial features and
more freedom for his bodilymovement.
And he's like, I'm just going topoint and get a broom to do my
work for me.
Chrissy (13:48):
He's doing all this lazy stuff because his master,
Yen Sid-- Disney spelledbackwards-- puts him in charge
and leaves and says, do yourwork.
And Mickey's like, Ooh, he lefthis fancy magic hat.
I'm gonna put that on.
I'm going to do little spellyspell.
And he gets this broom to do hisjob.
He prances away to do whateverit is that lazy Mickey does.
(14:10):
Sits in his chair.
Feet kicked up on the table,takes a little nappy.
But when he wakes up from hisnap, the broom has totally
flooded the place.
Sara (14:18):
Just filled buckets and buckets of water.
Chrissy (14:20):
And he can't remember the spell to undo his original
spell.
So, what does he do?
Sara (14:26):
He murders that broom.
Chrissy (14:27):
Mickey the ax murderer.
Sara (14:29):
This is violent as hell.
Chrissy (14:30):
And then the broom is bashed into a million little
pieces, which all Hydra into amillion little brooms with a
million buckets.
Sara (14:38):
Not great.
Chrissy (14:39):
Mickey screwed.
Sara (14:40):
Very much.
Chrissy (14:41):
flooding abounds.
Whirlpool, he's got the book.
Things are getting crazy.
Yen Sid shows up and he's like,What the heck did you do, man?
Mickey looks at him all ashamedand is like, Here's your hat.
Sorry."
Sara (14:56):
Daddy Yen Sid fixes it all.
Chrissy (14:58):
Thank goodness for that.
Sara (14:59):
So this ended up being three to four times the budget
of any other Silly Symphony.
And they had hoped that Fantasiaitself will be a series of films
and that they would be centeredaround stories like this.
But that did not come to be.
Chrissy (15:10):
So then we move on from Fantasia's Sorcerer Mickey to
the Rite of Spring by IgorStravinsky.
And this is another weird one.
Sara (15:20):
I don't remember this one existing.
I feel like I'd seen a lot ofthese.
And maybe I'd seen this filmwhen I was a kid, but I do not
remember this Rite of springpart.
Chrissy (15:28):
I don't like it.
Sara (15:29):
It's upsetting.
This is around Earth'sbeginnings.
We see the cosmos swirlingaround.
Organisms starting to organism.
And this leads to the dinosaurage.
We've got dinosaurs roaming theearth, doing their thing.
And the T-Rex comes and it'strying to chump up everybody.
That fight is upsetting.
(15:50):
And my whole thoughts for therest of this piece are just
like, oh God, that's stegosaurusis being eaten alive.
Oh, no, there's no water.
The dinosaurs are all going todie of thirst.
Oh, God.
Now they're all dying inquicksand or tar.
I don't know what it is.
And oh God.
Now they're all dying ofexhaustion.
Chrissy (16:04):
And then they die, and that's the end of The Rite of
Spring, which just doesn't feelright.
And then we get a 15 minuteintermission?
I guess it was a little long forpeople to sit through two hour
movie.
Don't drink any water whileyou're watching End Game.
Sara (16:16):
In this intermission we're introduced to soundtrack, which
is just another line that iswaving along with music.
Chrissy (16:23):
The 15 minute intermission is not actually 15
minutes when you're watching iton Disney Plus.
So pretty shortly thereafter, weget The Pastoral Symphony by
Ludwig Van Beethoven.
We got the little babyPegasuses.
Sara (16:35):
BB unicorns,
Chrissy (16:37):
little fawns.
And they're swimming and they'reso precious.
Sara (16:41):
The little Pegasuses.
Pegasi?
Pigasuse?
I don't know.
They are swimming like ducks.
Chrissy (16:46):
And then we start seeing the lady centaurs.
The centaurettes.
Sara (16:50):
So many boobs.
Chrissy (16:52):
They're all colorful and there's little cherubs
helping them get ready.
Sara (16:56):
And then we get so you don't see this part in the
Disney Plus version.
It's been cut out.
On YouTube, you can find kind ofa side by side that shows you
the censored version with theuncensored version.
There used to be a centaurettenamed Sunflower, who is a black
centaurette with verystereotypical features
performing subservient tasks.
Chrissy (17:15):
She has two sisters.
They were shorter.
They were more donkey- like thanthe centaurettes, which were
taller and more graceful.
The features were actually drawnin kind of a black face style.
I learned about a bunch of thisfrom a friend on Instagram who
does Disney bounding, Kierstenfrom@kierstens_korner.
And it was really eyeopening tolearn that this existed.
Sara (17:35):
Sunflower was cut from the film in 1969.
So when you see Fantasia onDisney Plus, she's either
cropped out or just erasedcompletely.
Chrissy (17:44):
There are a lot of people who actually think it
should still be in there becauseit shows the history.
There's two different schools ofthought.
If we are pulling this out,we're whitewashing and trying to
hide our bad parts of history.
And then there's the other partthat's like, that so shouldn't
fucking be in there.
Then after we've got thecentaurettes and the centaurs
(18:05):
getting ready and meeting andmating, we move on to the
Bacchus festival.
Sara (18:10):
It's time to stomp some grapes.
Getting stuff ready for the Godof wine.
Chrissy (18:14):
Bacchus rolls in, on his very short, little donkey.
Sara (18:18):
It's a little unidonk.
It's got a little horn.
I don't like Bacchus.
Chrissy (18:21):
He amuses me.
Sara (18:23):
He seems like somebody's gross, handsy uncle.
Chrissy (18:25):
A little bit.
All of a sudden storms startcoming in and we've got some
nasty looking rain clouds.
Sara (18:32):
'Cause I'm not the only one that does not like Bacchus
Chrissy (18:34):
Zeus is not a fan of Baucus
Sara (18:37):
He's pissed.
Chrissy (18:38):
He's doing some like weird, smiling, like a super
happy, but everybody isterrified of him and he starts
throwing lightning bolts down.
Sara (18:47):
Smiting the shit out of this wine festival.
Vulcan is forging his lightningbolts.
Zeus is grabbing them, tossingthem down.
Looking very happy about it.
Chrissy (18:56):
Until.
Zeus gets little sleepy and it'stime for a little naparoo.
Sara (19:00):
He get seepies.
Chrissy (19:01):
Then we get a little rainbow goddess.
Sara (19:03):
And Bacchus just starts drinking rainbow water and I
mean, cool.
Chrissy (19:08):
And then there's the sun god that shows up and it's
like, oh, look, the sun is back.
Sara (19:12):
And then the night goddess.
Oh, look, the sun is gone.
Chrissy (19:14):
And then it's over.
Sara (19:15):
Then we are taken into Dance of the Hours by
Ponchielli.
Chrissy (19:20):
I like this one.
Sara (19:21):
This is one of the most iconic.
Fantasia things.
Chrissy (19:24):
It starts out with the ostriches.
Apparently the main Astros has aname.
Madam Upanova.
Sara (19:31):
I don't know where they got these names from.
Chrissy (19:32):
Do-do- do-do do-do do-do.
Do do do, do.
Doo doo doo.
Sara (19:37):
This song always reminds me of Looney tunes.
Fun little crossover here.
There is a Bugs Bunny cartoonwhere he's conducting an
orchestra and his hair is verydistinct and it is because he is
supposed to look like LeopoldStokowski.
Chrissy (19:51):
I always think of hello muddah, hello faddah.
Sara (19:55):
Here I am at Camp Granada.
I loved how And I know thatit's.
Made to look this way, but theostrich wings are so fluffy and
it reminds me of in ballet wherethey'll all like, get in that
circle with the big fluffy fanlooking things.
It looks so pretty.
That attention to detail.
They have that detail becausethe animators consulted with
trained ballet dancers to makethe movement and the stage and
(20:17):
the lighting.
All of that stuff accurate to anactual ballet, which is really
good.
I kept thinking man, if anostrich could do ballet, like
that's exactly how the ostrichwould move.
Chrissy (20:27):
It blows my mind that this is one of the earliest
movies that they did.
Sara (20:32):
Disney understood the assignment.
Chrissy (20:34):
As they normally do.
Sara (20:35):
Throughout the dance of the hours, we've got the
different segments representingtime moving throughout the day.
And so our opening sequence issupposed to represent dawn.
Chrissy (20:44):
I so didn't notice any of that.
Sara (20:46):
I mostly noticed it when I was looking at the Wikipedia
page for this movie.
Were you as bothered as I wasby, like, the ostriches are so
pretty.
They're so poised and polishedand ballet like, and then
they've got those weird littleprickly ostrich hair things on
the back of their head.
Chrissy (21:02):
I was actually more bothered the how clunky the
hippos were.
Sara (21:06):
The hippo you were referring to is Hyacinth Hippo
and her servants.
They are the light of new day.
Chrissy (21:12):
And She needs a fainting couch.
Sara (21:14):
Yes, she does.
She is our star.
Chrissy (21:17):
And then elephant scene or Elephanchine.
Sara (21:20):
Her bubble blowing elephant troop.
Chrissy (21:22):
I like them.
Sara (21:23):
They are the evening.
But they also got the prickles.
They got the weird little hairprickles.
Chrissy (21:27):
I mean, I get little hair prickles too.
Like I've got some right here.
Sara (21:30):
I got them too, but I would hope that if somebody
animated me, they would notprickle me.
Chrissy (21:33):
It gives character.
Sara (21:34):
It took me out of how realistic this safari ballet
was.
Chrissy (21:38):
And then we get an alligator.
Sara (21:39):
Ben Allie.
Gator.
Chrissy (21:42):
And a whole gaggle of alligators.
What is the group of alligatorscalled?
Sara (21:47):
I don't know what the official name is.
They refer to this as the troopof alligators and they are the
night.
Chrissy (21:52):
A group of alligators is referred to as a
congregation.
Sara (21:55):
That is fancy.
Chrissy (21:57):
I learned something new today.
Sara (21:59):
That sounds like too fancy for big chompy dinosaurs that
you find in Florida.
Chrissy (22:04):
Then we, we get into Night On Bald Mountain, by
Mussorgsky?
Mussorgsky?
Sara (22:10):
Mussorgsky?
Yup.
Something like that.
There's a whole lot ofconsonants right in a row.
Chrissy (22:15):
And we got us some Chernabog.
Sara (22:17):
This segment opens up.
Chrissy (22:19):
Doo do.
Doo doo doo doo.
Sara (22:25):
Do do.
Chrissy (22:27):
Very haunted house scary.
Amazing.
Sara (22:32):
I think I fast forwarded through this on Disney's
Halloween Treats every year.
Chrissy (22:36):
What?
Sara (22:37):
This is the thing.
It zooms in on a mountain.
And you're like, okay, creepymountain.
Fine.
And then all of a sudden you'relike,"That's no mountain, that's
Satan!"
Chrissy (22:45):
It's Chernabog!
Sara (22:46):
Yeah, I was not into it.
Chrissy (22:47):
He's scary as shit.
He and Maleficent are right upthere as like the scariest
Disney creatures ever.
Sara (22:53):
Oh, absolutely.
I know this is the first timethat I've seen this all the way
through.
I liked it.
It's just creepy.
There's a noose in this.
That's real fun for a children'smovie.
Chrissy (23:02):
I don't think I caught the noose.
Sara (23:04):
When the ghosts are like coming out of the ground, quite
a few of them float through anoose.
Chrissy (23:09):
And then more boobs.
Sara (23:10):
Boobs with nipples.
Zero wieners.
Zero wieners.
Chernabog is naked as hell.
We don't even see Satan's penisand I'm annoyed.
I am annoyed at the absolutelack of male anything in this
movie.
Chrissy (23:25):
They could at least have some Ken dolls.
Sara (23:27):
Give me a bulge.
If you're going to give meminions of Satan with nipples,
then you can give me a wiener ortwo.
Chrissy (23:34):
We don't ask for much.
Sara (23:36):
Just a couple of little wieners.
Chrissy (23:37):
Then we kind of start transitioning to ghosts, go back
to being dead.
Sara (23:42):
The dead things are dead.
Chrissy (23:44):
The day starts coming and we hear the Ave, Maria.
Sara (23:48):
And some church bells.
Chrissy (23:49):
Which is the only song where we hear actual words.
Sara (23:52):
Oh, I didn't realize that.
Chrissy (23:54):
Yeah, they are actually singing Ave Maria.
Sara (23:56):
Are monks.
They are monks going to somecathedral ruins.
Chrissy (24:01):
And then morning comes.
Sara (24:03):
I have to say number one.
the monks with their torches.
Chrissy (24:07):
Yes.
Sara (24:07):
Looks like boobs on a stick.
Chrissy (24:08):
I think you're pushing a little too far.
Sara (24:10):
I'm not because they were in pairs.
They look like boobs on a stick.
I will die on this hill.
I will die on this BaldMountain.
Boobs on sticks.
Chrissy (24:19):
Oh shit.
Sara (24:20):
Told you.
Chrissy (24:21):
They have nipples.
Sara (24:22):
I told you.
Chrissy (24:24):
But they're not all in pairs.
I mean, they are in the verybeginning, but then they all
separate into single file.
Sara (24:29):
My boobs separate into single file eventually.
Time is cruel.
Gravity is her bitch mistress.
Chrissy (24:35):
The only thing that got a little weird for me.
This is very much like aspecific weird.
Because they're doing the AveMaria.
My mom used to do her rosarieswhile watching it on TV and
there were like a couple ofdifferent endings and one of
them they did the Ave Maria atthe end.
Sara (24:51):
Well.
Ave Maria kicked the crap out ofSatan.
He went back to his mountain.
Chrissy (24:55):
That was Fantasia.
Sara (24:57):
I thought it would cut to like a, closing.
Chrissy (24:59):
A thank you.
Or like the orchestra stands andbows.
Sara (25:03):
Something from Deems Taylor.
Chrissy (25:05):
Not a one.
Sara (25:06):
Interesting about Deems Taylor, the master of
ceremonies.
His original audio tracks havebeen lost or they've
deteriorated over time.
Corey Burton has been brought into record audio dubbing.
So there are chunks of this thatare not Deems Taylor.
What did you think, Chrissy?
How're we feeling about allthis?
Chrissy (25:22):
I wish I got high.
I wish I got high.
wish I got high.
Sara (25:27):
Seriously, I didn't want to partake in any substances
because I was trying to work.
And take notes and rememberthings.
However.
Me and a gummy have a date withthis movie one day.
All right.
This is Disney's longest runninganimated feature.
It comes in around two hours andsix minutes.
It didn't feel as long to me.
(25:48):
like I feel like the littlesegments kind of broke it up
nicely, even though some of themwent a little long for me.
Chrissy (25:53):
I would agree.
At the beginning, I was like, ohshoot, this is two hours.
I thought it was way shorter.
It kind of flu.
Sara (25:59):
Yeah.
Like I said before, I think Iremember seeing it when I was a
kid and not being super stokedon it.
Being kind of bored.
But it was pretty good.
It's pretty fun.
I guess that's it for Fantasia.
We would love to hear yourthoughts on this innovative
collection of Bach, Beethoven,Tchaikovsky, and zero naked
dingalings.
So send us an email atmouseearsandamovie@gmail.com or
(26:21):
find us on social media and yellat us there.
Chrissy (26:23):
It's time to find out what our next movie is going to
be.
I've got The
Sara (26:27):
The Bucket.
Chrissy (26:28):
And it is filled with the names of Disney and Pixar
animated feature.
Every episode, we will choose anew movie out of the bucket.
And our next movie is.
Sara (26:37):
my goodness.
Chrissy (26:39):
Bolt.
I don't think I've ever seenthis.
Sara (26:42):
I saw it in the theater.
Chrissy (26:44):
Oh, you fancy.
Sara (26:45):
No, Get ready.
We're coming for you, MileyCyrus.
Chrissy (26:48):
Miley Cyrus's in this.
Sara (26:49):
And Bruce Willis, if memory serves me, correctly.
Chrissy (26:53):
All right.
I'm excited.
I don't care what you have tosay.
Sara (26:55):
I think it's Bruce Willis.
Chrissy (26:56):
I'm lying.
I do care.
Sara (26:58):
Or maybe it's John Travolta.
It's someone.
It is some man.
Who was famous in the ninetiesand is in the later stages of
his career, when this comes out,
Chrissy (27:06):
I'm here for it.
Sara (27:07):
That's the end of our show guys.
I'm Sara Farrell Baker, and youcan find me across social media
@SaraFarrellBaker.
where can we find you on theinternet?
Chrissy (27:17):
You can find me on Instagram@quirkychrissy and
Twitter@quirky_chrissy.
Follow along with us next timewhen we'll be discussing Bolt.
Until then you can find usonline at
mouseearsandamovie.com, onInstagram and TikTok
@mouseearsandamovie and Twitter@mouseearmovies.
Sara (27:33):
See you real soon.
Hello, and welcome to Mouse Ears and a Movie, a Disney
animation conversation.
I'm Sara Farrell Baker, joinedby my cohost, Chrissy Woj.
Chrissy (00:16):
We are two grown women, avoiding responsibility and
watching cartoons.
Every episode, we will watch adifferent Disney or Pixar
animated feature chosen atrandom from The Bucket.
Then we will reconvene here toshare our thoughts, some behind
the scenes knowledge andprobably make some weird noises.
Sara (00:32):
This week we watched the 1940 Walt Disney Productions
animated feature film, Fantasia.
It's a whole lot of classicalmusic, a whole lot of
transitional mini-lectures froma man in unforgiving lighting
conditions, a whole lot of nakedboobies and Sorcerer Mickey!
Featuring special guest, Satan.
To refresh our memories, here'sChrissy with the Fantasia Olaf
(00:53):
recap treatment.
Chrissy (00:54):
It began with an assembling orchestra.
Hidden by bad lighting, theemergence of a new form of
entertainment.
The animated concert film.
Some parts, a definite story.
Others, music that exists forits own sake.
Shadows dance in the background.
Colors changing.
Bows dancing in the sky.
(01:16):
Strings flying through the air.
I bet this is really fun towatch when you're high.
Then, the Nutcracker suite.
Fairies and flowers So manynaked fairies.
Then the mushrooms, so manymushrooms.
And sexy fish.
And now flowers, dancing.
But wait, it's weeds.
At least the flowers still havethe fall.
The flowers are dead.
Winter is here.
A new song.
(01:37):
Hey, that's Mickey.
And some scary wizard.
Mickey doesn't want to work, sohe casts a spell.
Well, then have a nap.
The broom floods the spell room.
The broom is dead.
No, the broom is a Hydra.
Whirlpool.
Can't bail yourself out of thisone, Mickey.
Yen Sid returns.
Uh, here's your hat, sir.
I got these here buckets to dosome work.
Dirty looks abound.
(01:58):
Back to the orchestra.
Bells are falling everywhere.
Have they no editorial team?
Life begins on Earth.
Dino DNA.
Meteors crashed into us.
The dinosaurs are dead.
An intermission?
Meet the soundtrack.
Now, to Mount Olympus.
Baby Pegasus, and centaurs, andCupid's, oh my! Look at them
sachet.
Bacchanal festival.
Wild Zeus.
(02:19):
Ballerina zoo.
Do do do do, do do do do.
Chernabog scares me.
Doo doo, doo doo doo doo.
Evil flying everywhere.
Ave Maria.
The world is calm.
The end.
Sara (02:38):
Hoo boy.
is a whole lot of music.
Chrissy (02:41):
This is a whole lot of movie.
Sara (02:42):
It's a whole lot of boobies.
Chrissy (02:43):
It's a whole lot of, a lotta.
Sara (02:45):
Fresh out the gate.
Beginning of this movie.
My first thought is, this wouldnot get greenlit today.
There is no way any filmexecutive says, Hey, I'm going
to make a all music movie.
It's not going to have anydialogue aside from this weird
guy with a like kind ofspotlight at him, but he has a
lot of shadows.
Just kind of talking about musicto us."
Chrissy (03:05):
It reminds me of this brilliant idea I had in high
school.
My best friend and I, we weredetermined to be the next Matt
Damon and Ben Affleck.
One of our ideas, was a moviethat we were going to call Dogs
Running Through Fields.
And it was just going to be aseries of random ass shit.
And the premise was that it wasbasically going to be a make-out
movie.
(03:25):
Like you go to the theater towatch this, to make out.
I think that's what Fantasiawas.
Think of the boobies.
Sara (03:31):
Oh, and all the butts.
Chrissy (03:33):
So many butts.
Sara (03:34):
Alright.
We're going to get to boobiesand butts in a second.
So we start off and we have adude come out.
This is Deems Taylor.
He's our master of ceremoniesalong with this orchestra.
The orchestra itself is puttogether by Leopold Stokowski.
He is the conductor of thePhiladelphia Orchestra at the
time, has been for somethinglike 20 years at this point.
And he is basically the face ofclassical music in the 20th
(03:57):
century.
The reason this movie cameabout.
So Disney had a series of shortscalled Silly Symphonies, putting
music to animation.
And then, Mickey Mouse has kindof waned in popularity in the
mid 1930s when they're startingto talk about this.
And so Walt says, I want to makea Silly Symphony short, but I
want to turn it into a hugemovie.
(04:18):
We want this to be like hiscomeback.
And he has this vision of anexpansion on Silly Symphonies
with Mickey.
And then he ends up meetingLeopold Stokowski in a
restaurant.
They get to talking.
Walt tells him his idea aboutthis classical music based
movie, and Stokowski is all in.
He is so excited.
To the point where he is like,yes, I want to work with you on
(04:38):
this.
I'll do it for free.
I will just do it.
Let me do it.
He is so serious about this, onhis train ride a couple of weeks
later, he sees one of Disney'sfriends or collaborators and
says,"Hey.
That thing that I talked withWalt about, please let him know,
like for real, I will do thisfor free.
I am so excited.
I want to do this." He ends updoing it for like$5,000, But he
(04:58):
gets to put together his ownorchestra for this film.
This is how it begins.
Chrissy (05:03):
I loved the Silly Symphonies.
When I was a kid, I rememberwatching a bunch of them.
Sara (05:07):
Whenever Disney channel would play the old Disney
cartoons, I was so into those.
Chrissy (05:12):
I was a big fan of The Skeleton Dance.
Which was the first SillySymphony.
Sara (05:16):
I watched that every Halloween with the Disney's
Halloween Treat special.
Chrissy (05:20):
Same, girl.
Same.
Sara (05:22):
I love that.
Love.
Chrissy (05:25):
My fav.
Okay.
So this was the third Disneyanimated feature.
After Snow White.
After Bambi.
Then we get this.
Sara (05:32):
Yup.
Chrissy (05:33):
What.
Sara (05:33):
What is right.
To be fair, this is very earlyin feature film history.
And extremely early in animatedfilm history.
Chrissy (05:42):
It's just fascinating to me that they did Snow White,
then they did Bambi.
Then this comes along andthey're like, we're going to
reinvent the whole animatedfeature.
And I was like, wait, but youstill haven't even like mastered
the animated feature.
Sara (05:54):
At the time, Fantasia, did not make a ton of money.
And that is because the world isin the middle of World War II.
And that killed the ability tohave overseas or international
distribution for the movie.
But they actually decided tomake it into like a traveling
road show in the beginning.
You know how you go andsometimes orchestras will do
like a movie night and they'llplay all the soundtrack to like
(06:17):
Jurassic Park while you watchthe movie?
Chrissy (06:18):
Yes.
I love those.
Sara (06:19):
That was how Fantasia was initially released.
And then after it wasrereleased, it eventually went
on to become the 23rd highestgrossing movie of all time,
adjusted for inflation.
Pretty amazing for a movie, thiskind of almost avant garde.
It also featured, they createdwhat they called, fantasound.
It is the first theater sound instereo and is the precursor to
(06:41):
what we now know as surroundsound.
As strange and weird and kind ofoff the cuff Fantasia seems, it
is a significant part of filmhistory and animated film
history.
The AFI ranked it as the 58thgreatest American film in their
100 Years 100 Movies, and thefifth greatest animated film in
their top 10 list.
It was selected for preservationin the United States National
(07:04):
Film Registry by the Library ofCongress as being culturally,
historically or aestheticallysignificant.
Chrissy (07:11):
And even like, after it had its, run in the early
forties, it came back and founda new audience in the sixties.
Sara (07:18):
You don't say.
Chrissy (07:19):
I wonder how that came about.
Sara (07:21):
Seriously, the second I turn this movie on.
I'm just like, oh, It'd be niceto be stoned right now.
Chrissy (07:26):
If I weren't pregnant.
Sara (07:27):
Which surprise audience.
Chrissy (07:29):
I don't think we've said it on here at all.
Sara (07:31):
Oh my God.
So Chrissy, tell us, what iscoming up on the Chrissy side.
Chrissy (07:35):
We gonna have a little baby mouse here.
Sara (07:37):
We're so excited.
Chrissy (07:39):
Lil dude's coming to town By the time this airs who
knows he could be here.
Sara (07:43):
Oh, good Lord.
He's so soon.
Chrissy (07:45):
Oh, my God.
Sara (07:46):
All the congratulations.
You're going to have the cutestlittle Disney baby in the whole
world.
Chrissy (07:50):
So let's talk about this movie.
We start out and we've got thisorchestra assembling.
They're getting set up.
They're not even ready yet.
They're all walking in.
In this like shadow lighting,that's just.
Awkward to me.
If you're going to feature theorchestra, feature the
orchestra.
Show these people.
Sara (08:09):
I agree.
I would like to see kind of whatall goes into this.
And I feel like we lost some ofthe scope of the size of the
orchestra that goes into aproduction like this.
Chrissy (08:16):
I mean, when you're watching an orchestra live, you
see them I'll walk in and yes,the light goes dark and you
mostly see the shadowseventually when the music starts
playing, but you see them walkin.
So we are introduced to thiswhole concept and they tell us
that there are three types ofmusic that we'll see in this
concert film.
And there's the music that tellsa definite story.
(08:38):
There's the music that paints aseries of definite pictures.
But has no plot.
And then there's music thatexists simply for its own sake.
Sara (08:46):
And we begin with music that exists simply for its own
sake.
I'm going to bastardize thepronunciation of this piece,
unless you know it.
Chrissy (08:54):
It's Toccata and Fugue, in D minor by Johann Sebastian
Bach.
I actually really love thispiece.
But the animation behind, itjust seems.
Weird to me.
Was it animation for animationsake or for music sake?
It didn't fit with what I wouldhave pictured for the music.
Sara (09:13):
I think that even if you've got music for music sake,
you can animate it in a waythat, maybe it wouldn't tell a
story.
But would still have some kindof, I don't know, wouldn't just
be lines and wavy things.
I get the point.
I get the idea of, you know,we're going to show you music.
We're going to show you howsound works.
We're going to show you what'shappening is going to get more
abstract.
(09:33):
But I really think this is themain reason why this found an
audience in the 1960s.
And in my living room on a darkThursday night.
Chrissy (09:41):
After our Bach piece, we move into the Nutcracker
Suite by Tchaikovsky, which.
Fan favorite.
Sara (09:48):
It's such a great collection of pieces of music.
It's gorgeous.
It's something that, most of usrecognize immediately.
Zero nutcrackers in this one.
And I dug it.
Chrissy (09:58):
I didn't necessarily need nutcrackers, but it just
seemed like...
eh.
Sara (10:02):
It was a neat way to reimagine this music that we're
only used to hearing atChristmas time in this very
specific show.
We're used to Sugarplum fairiesdancing bears and toys
everywhere and like a big, scaryrat and stuff.
This is just showing us theseasons changing.
Chrissy (10:20):
Which I actually really do like that.
I liked that the seasons change.
But I wish that they spent alittle more time on fall and
winter because it's like here isspring, forever and ever, and
ever, and then an endlesssummer.
And then fall and winter, andthen we're done.
I'm in the middle of an endlesswinter over here in Chicago.
So it does not track.
Sara (10:38):
I love the winter part at the end with the ice dancing
fairies and how, when they'redancing across the ice, it's
leaving these little frost,snowflake things around, and, oh
my goodness.
But good Lord.
There's a whole lot of fairyboobs and butts.
Chrissy (10:50):
In the very beginning, we've got this fairy that climbs
inside a flower and all you seeis her butt.
Bouncing.
Naked fairies everywhere.
No boys.
Sara (11:00):
Just boobies.
Chrissy (11:00):
Then we get to these crazy dancing mushrooms.
I don't like the dancingmushrooms.
Sara (11:05):
I think the dancing mushrooms are the reason-- well,
they're definitely part of thereason where we're getting that
Chrissy (11:09):
Disclaimer at the beginning.
Sara (11:10):
I appreciate the Disney disclaimer at the beginning
about the culturalinsensitivities in these older
films.
I appreciate that you can notfast forward.
Chrissy (11:19):
15 seconds.
Sara (11:20):
I like that they count it down.
"Listen.
We're going to let you get tothis in a minute.
But just think about how we werebig, old pieces of shit for like
15 seconds, please."
Chrissy (11:29):
Then we get into like some spinning dancing
Bellflowers, which they lookreally pretty and fun.
Sara (11:35):
My son August made a really astute observation.
He goes, those look reallysimilar to the dancing napkins
in Be Our Guest.
Chrissy (11:42):
Oh, damn.
Sara (11:44):
I said, yes, you are correct.
Chrissy (11:45):
Way to go August.
Is that okay if his name is inthere?
Sara (11:49):
Yes.
And he will be so excitedbecause he is obsessed with the
show.
Obsessed.
Chrissy (11:54):
Then we got some sugar plum fairies, more fairies.
Sara (11:57):
During this part he goes, what is up with all the boobs?
Why are there no wieners?" So.
that's my child.
Then we get down to theunderwater with the sessy fish.
Chrissy (12:10):
The fish are so sultry and like all this makeup.
Sara (12:14):
They got the kissy fishy lips.
We already got like buttsbouncing out of flowers.
So I don't feel like this is toomuch of a stretch.
Chrissy (12:20):
That's valid.
Sara (12:22):
I did love the hazy pastels of the ocean scenes.
It made it look a little lesspolished and that makes the
flowiness of underwater movementa little more realistic.
Chrissy (12:31):
That's true.
And then we've jumped out of thewater and we've got the Russian
dancing flowers.
Sara (12:36):
Loved it.
I Love this piece of music.
I love that they're doing thatlittle, down in a squat kick,
kick, kick, down in a squat,kick, kick, kick.
I love that dance.
Chrissy (12:43):
They're not even just like flower flower.
Some of them are like weedflowers.
I don't think weeds are bad.
I like weeds.
They're just local flora.
Sara (12:51):
So then we go into fall and the fairies are changing the
leaves.
I could have used more fall.
I think you're right.
We had a whole lot of spring andsummer, and then, boop.
Leaves are changing.
And then boop.
It's snowing.
Chrissy (13:02):
There should be more fun, wintery.
Make it seem a little bit morecharming than it actually is.
After the Nutcracker ends, weget to our pièce de résistance.
The one that everyone remembers.
The Sorcerer's apprentice.
Sara (13:15):
This is a 2000 year old story.
Chrissy (13:17):
No shit.
Sara (13:17):
It's a real old.
It is our first look at SorcererMickey.
He is animated much differentlythan we had seen Mickey previous
to this.
Before this we had the SteamboatWillie iteration of Mickey,
where he's very round and bouncyand his face is much more
pointy.
For this debut we get a newlyanimated, newly designed Mickey
(13:38):
from Fred Moore.
And it allows for moreexpressive facial features and
more freedom for his bodilymovement.
And he's like, I'm just going topoint and get a broom to do my
work for me.
Chrissy (13:48):
He's doing all this lazy stuff because his master,
Yen Sid-- Disney spelledbackwards-- puts him in charge
and leaves and says, do yourwork.
And Mickey's like, Ooh, he lefthis fancy magic hat.
I'm gonna put that on.
I'm going to do little spellyspell.
And he gets this broom to do hisjob.
He prances away to do whateverit is that lazy Mickey does.
(14:10):
Sits in his chair.
Feet kicked up on the table,takes a little nappy.
But when he wakes up from hisnap, the broom has totally
flooded the place.
Sara (14:18):
Just filled buckets and buckets of water.
Chrissy (14:20):
And he can't remember the spell to undo his original
spell.
So, what does he do?
Sara (14:26):
He murders that broom.
Chrissy (14:27):
Mickey the ax murderer.
Sara (14:29):
This is violent as hell.
Chrissy (14:30):
And then the broom is bashed into a million little
pieces, which all Hydra into amillion little brooms with a
million buckets.
Sara (14:38):
Not great.
Chrissy (14:39):
Mickey screwed.
Sara (14:40):
Very much.
Chrissy (14:41):
flooding abounds.
Whirlpool, he's got the book.
Things are getting crazy.
Yen Sid shows up and he's like,What the heck did you do, man?
Mickey looks at him all ashamedand is like, Here's your hat.
Sorry."
Sara (14:56):
Daddy Yen Sid fixes it all.
Chrissy (14:58):
Thank goodness for that.
Sara (14:59):
So this ended up being three to four times the budget
of any other Silly Symphony.
And they had hoped that Fantasiaitself will be a series of films
and that they would be centeredaround stories like this.
But that did not come to be.
Chrissy (15:10):
So then we move on from Fantasia's Sorcerer Mickey to
the Rite of Spring by IgorStravinsky.
And this is another weird one.
Sara (15:20):
I don't remember this one existing.
I feel like I'd seen a lot ofthese.
And maybe I'd seen this filmwhen I was a kid, but I do not
remember this Rite of springpart.
Chrissy (15:28):
I don't like it.
Sara (15:29):
It's upsetting.
This is around Earth'sbeginnings.
We see the cosmos swirlingaround.
Organisms starting to organism.
And this leads to the dinosaurage.
We've got dinosaurs roaming theearth, doing their thing.
And the T-Rex comes and it'strying to chump up everybody.
That fight is upsetting.
(15:50):
And my whole thoughts for therest of this piece are just
like, oh God, that's stegosaurusis being eaten alive.
Oh, no, there's no water.
The dinosaurs are all going todie of thirst.
Oh, God.
Now they're all dying inquicksand or tar.
I don't know what it is.
And oh God.
Now they're all dying ofexhaustion.
Chrissy (16:04):
And then they die, and that's the end of The Rite of
Spring, which just doesn't feelright.
And then we get a 15 minuteintermission?
I guess it was a little long forpeople to sit through two hour
movie.
Don't drink any water whileyou're watching End Game.
Sara (16:16):
In this intermission we're introduced to soundtrack, which
is just another line that iswaving along with music.
Chrissy (16:23):
The 15 minute intermission is not actually 15
minutes when you're watching iton Disney Plus.
So pretty shortly thereafter, weget The Pastoral Symphony by
Ludwig Van Beethoven.
We got the little babyPegasuses.
Sara (16:35):
BB unicorns,
Chrissy (16:37):
little fawns.
And they're swimming and they'reso precious.
Sara (16:41):
The little Pegasuses.
Pegasi?
Pigasuse?
I don't know.
They are swimming like ducks.
Chrissy (16:46):
And then we start seeing the lady centaurs.
The centaurettes.
Sara (16:50):
So many boobs.
Chrissy (16:52):
They're all colorful and there's little cherubs
helping them get ready.
Sara (16:56):
And then we get so you don't see this part in the
Disney Plus version.
It's been cut out.
On YouTube, you can find kind ofa side by side that shows you
the censored version with theuncensored version.
There used to be a centaurettenamed Sunflower, who is a black
centaurette with verystereotypical features
performing subservient tasks.
Chrissy (17:15):
She has two sisters.
They were shorter.
They were more donkey- like thanthe centaurettes, which were
taller and more graceful.
The features were actually drawnin kind of a black face style.
I learned about a bunch of thisfrom a friend on Instagram who
does Disney bounding, Kierstenfrom@kierstens_korner.
And it was really eyeopening tolearn that this existed.
Sara (17:35):
Sunflower was cut from the film in 1969.
So when you see Fantasia onDisney Plus, she's either
cropped out or just erasedcompletely.
Chrissy (17:44):
There are a lot of people who actually think it
should still be in there becauseit shows the history.
There's two different schools ofthought.
If we are pulling this out,we're whitewashing and trying to
hide our bad parts of history.
And then there's the other partthat's like, that so shouldn't
fucking be in there.
Then after we've got thecentaurettes and the centaurs
(18:05):
getting ready and meeting andmating, we move on to the
Bacchus festival.
Sara (18:10):
It's time to stomp some grapes.
Getting stuff ready for the Godof wine.
Chrissy (18:14):
Bacchus rolls in, on his very short, little donkey.
Sara (18:18):
It's a little unidonk.
It's got a little horn.
I don't like Bacchus.
Chrissy (18:21):
He amuses me.
Sara (18:23):
He seems like somebody's gross, handsy uncle.
Chrissy (18:25):
A little bit.
All of a sudden storms startcoming in and we've got some
nasty looking rain clouds.
Sara (18:32):
'Cause I'm not the only one that does not like Bacchus
Chrissy (18:34):
Zeus is not a fan of Baucus
Sara (18:37):
He's pissed.
Chrissy (18:38):
He's doing some like weird, smiling, like a super
happy, but everybody isterrified of him and he starts
throwing lightning bolts down.
Sara (18:47):
Smiting the shit out of this wine festival.
Vulcan is forging his lightningbolts.
Zeus is grabbing them, tossingthem down.
Looking very happy about it.
Chrissy (18:56):
Until.
Zeus gets little sleepy and it'stime for a little naparoo.
Sara (19:00):
He get seepies.
Chrissy (19:01):
Then we get a little rainbow goddess.
Sara (19:03):
And Bacchus just starts drinking rainbow water and I
mean, cool.
Chrissy (19:08):
And then there's the sun god that shows up and it's
like, oh, look, the sun is back.
Sara (19:12):
And then the night goddess.
Oh, look, the sun is gone.
Chrissy (19:14):
And then it's over.
Sara (19:15):
Then we are taken into Dance of the Hours by
Ponchielli.
Chrissy (19:20):
I like this one.
Sara (19:21):
This is one of the most iconic.
Fantasia things.
Chrissy (19:24):
It starts out with the ostriches.
Apparently the main Astros has aname.
Madam Upanova.
Sara (19:31):
I don't know where they got these names from.
Chrissy (19:32):
Do-do- do-do do-do do-do.
Do do do, do.
Doo doo doo.
Sara (19:37):
This song always reminds me of Looney tunes.
Fun little crossover here.
There is a Bugs Bunny cartoonwhere he's conducting an
orchestra and his hair is verydistinct and it is because he is
supposed to look like LeopoldStokowski.
Chrissy (19:51):
I always think of hello muddah, hello faddah.
Sara (19:55):
Here I am at Camp Granada.
I loved how And I know thatit's.
Made to look this way, but theostrich wings are so fluffy and
it reminds me of in ballet wherethey'll all like, get in that
circle with the big fluffy fanlooking things.
It looks so pretty.
That attention to detail.
They have that detail becausethe animators consulted with
trained ballet dancers to makethe movement and the stage and
(20:17):
the lighting.
All of that stuff accurate to anactual ballet, which is really
good.
I kept thinking man, if anostrich could do ballet, like
that's exactly how the ostrichwould move.
Chrissy (20:27):
It blows my mind that this is one of the earliest
movies that they did.
Sara (20:32):
Disney understood the assignment.
Chrissy (20:34):
As they normally do.
Sara (20:35):
Throughout the dance of the hours, we've got the
different segments representingtime moving throughout the day.
And so our opening sequence issupposed to represent dawn.
Chrissy (20:44):
I so didn't notice any of that.
Sara (20:46):
I mostly noticed it when I was looking at the Wikipedia
page for this movie.
Were you as bothered as I wasby, like, the ostriches are so
pretty.
They're so poised and polishedand ballet like, and then
they've got those weird littleprickly ostrich hair things on
the back of their head.
Chrissy (21:02):
I was actually more bothered the how clunky the
hippos were.
Sara (21:06):
The hippo you were referring to is Hyacinth Hippo
and her servants.
They are the light of new day.
Chrissy (21:12):
And She needs a fainting couch.
Sara (21:14):
Yes, she does.
She is our star.
Chrissy (21:17):
And then elephant scene or Elephanchine.
Sara (21:20):
Her bubble blowing elephant troop.
Chrissy (21:22):
I like them.
Sara (21:23):
They are the evening.
But they also got the prickles.
They got the weird little hairprickles.
Chrissy (21:27):
I mean, I get little hair prickles too.
Like I've got some right here.
Sara (21:30):
I got them too, but I would hope that if somebody
animated me, they would notprickle me.
Chrissy (21:33):
It gives character.
Sara (21:34):
It took me out of how realistic this safari ballet
was.
Chrissy (21:38):
And then we get an alligator.
Sara (21:39):
Ben Allie.
Gator.
Chrissy (21:42):
And a whole gaggle of alligators.
What is the group of alligatorscalled?
Sara (21:47):
I don't know what the official name is.
They refer to this as the troopof alligators and they are the
night.
Chrissy (21:52):
A group of alligators is referred to as a
congregation.
Sara (21:55):
That is fancy.
Chrissy (21:57):
I learned something new today.
Sara (21:59):
That sounds like too fancy for big chompy dinosaurs that
you find in Florida.
Chrissy (22:04):
Then we, we get into Night On Bald Mountain, by
Mussorgsky?
Mussorgsky?
Sara (22:10):
Mussorgsky?
Yup.
Something like that.
There's a whole lot ofconsonants right in a row.
Chrissy (22:15):
And we got us some Chernabog.
Sara (22:17):
This segment opens up.
Chrissy (22:19):
Doo do.
Doo doo doo doo.
Sara (22:25):
Do do.
Chrissy (22:27):
Very haunted house scary.
Amazing.
Sara (22:32):
I think I fast forwarded through this on Disney's
Halloween Treats every year.
Chrissy (22:36):
What?
Sara (22:37):
This is the thing.
It zooms in on a mountain.
And you're like, okay, creepymountain.
Fine.
And then all of a sudden you'relike,"That's no mountain, that's
Satan!"
Chrissy (22:45):
It's Chernabog!
Sara (22:46):
Yeah, I was not into it.
Chrissy (22:47):
He's scary as shit.
He and Maleficent are right upthere as like the scariest
Disney creatures ever.
Sara (22:53):
Oh, absolutely.
I know this is the first timethat I've seen this all the way
through.
I liked it.
It's just creepy.
There's a noose in this.
That's real fun for a children'smovie.
Chrissy (23:02):
I don't think I caught the noose.
Sara (23:04):
When the ghosts are like coming out of the ground, quite
a few of them float through anoose.
Chrissy (23:09):
And then more boobs.
Sara (23:10):
Boobs with nipples.
Zero wieners.
Zero wieners.
Chernabog is naked as hell.
We don't even see Satan's penisand I'm annoyed.
I am annoyed at the absolutelack of male anything in this
movie.
Chrissy (23:25):
They could at least have some Ken dolls.
Sara (23:27):
Give me a bulge.
If you're going to give meminions of Satan with nipples,
then you can give me a wiener ortwo.
Chrissy (23:34):
We don't ask for much.
Sara (23:36):
Just a couple of little wieners.
Chrissy (23:37):
Then we kind of start transitioning to ghosts, go back
to being dead.
Sara (23:42):
The dead things are dead.
Chrissy (23:44):
The day starts coming and we hear the Ave, Maria.
Sara (23:48):
And some church bells.
Chrissy (23:49):
Which is the only song where we hear actual words.
Sara (23:52):
Oh, I didn't realize that.
Chrissy (23:54):
Yeah, they are actually singing Ave Maria.
Sara (23:56):
Are monks.
They are monks going to somecathedral ruins.
Chrissy (24:01):
And then morning comes.
Sara (24:03):
I have to say number one.
the monks with their torches.
Chrissy (24:07):
Yes.
Sara (24:07):
Looks like boobs on a stick.
Chrissy (24:08):
I think you're pushing a little too far.
Sara (24:10):
I'm not because they were in pairs.
They look like boobs on a stick.
I will die on this hill.
I will die on this BaldMountain.
Boobs on sticks.
Chrissy (24:19):
Oh shit.
Sara (24:20):
Told you.
Chrissy (24:21):
They have nipples.
Sara (24:22):
I told you.
Chrissy (24:24):
But they're not all in pairs.
I mean, they are in the verybeginning, but then they all
separate into single file.
Sara (24:29):
My boobs separate into single file eventually.
Time is cruel.
Gravity is her bitch mistress.
Chrissy (24:35):
The only thing that got a little weird for me.
This is very much like aspecific weird.
Because they're doing the AveMaria.
My mom used to do her rosarieswhile watching it on TV and
there were like a couple ofdifferent endings and one of
them they did the Ave Maria atthe end.
Sara (24:51):
Well.
Ave Maria kicked the crap out ofSatan.
He went back to his mountain.
Chrissy (24:55):
That was Fantasia.
Sara (24:57):
I thought it would cut to like a, closing.
Chrissy (24:59):
A thank you.
Or like the orchestra stands andbows.
Sara (25:03):
Something from Deems Taylor.
Chrissy (25:05):
Not a one.
Sara (25:06):
Interesting about Deems Taylor, the master of
ceremonies.
His original audio tracks havebeen lost or they've
deteriorated over time.
Corey Burton has been brought into record audio dubbing.
So there are chunks of this thatare not Deems Taylor.
What did you think, Chrissy?
How're we feeling about allthis?
Chrissy (25:22):
I wish I got high.
I wish I got high.
wish I got high.
Sara (25:27):
Seriously, I didn't want to partake in any substances
because I was trying to work.
And take notes and rememberthings.
However.
Me and a gummy have a date withthis movie one day.
All right.
This is Disney's longest runninganimated feature.
It comes in around two hours andsix minutes.
It didn't feel as long to me.
(25:48):
like I feel like the littlesegments kind of broke it up
nicely, even though some of themwent a little long for me.
Chrissy (25:53):
I would agree.
At the beginning, I was like, ohshoot, this is two hours.
I thought it was way shorter.
It kind of flu.
Sara (25:59):
Yeah.
Like I said before, I think Iremember seeing it when I was a
kid and not being super stokedon it.
Being kind of bored.
But it was pretty good.
It's pretty fun.
I guess that's it for Fantasia.
We would love to hear yourthoughts on this innovative
collection of Bach, Beethoven,Tchaikovsky, and zero naked
dingalings.
So send us an email atmouseearsandamovie@gmail.com or
(26:21):
find us on social media and yellat us there.
Chrissy (26:23):
It's time to find out what our next movie is going to
be.
I've got The
Sara (26:27):
The Bucket.
Chrissy (26:28):
And it is filled with the names of Disney and Pixar
animated feature.
Every episode, we will choose anew movie out of the bucket.
And our next movie is.
Sara (26:37):
my goodness.
Chrissy (26:39):
Bolt.
I don't think I've ever seenthis.
Sara (26:42):
I saw it in the theater.
Chrissy (26:44):
Oh, you fancy.
Sara (26:45):
No, Get ready.
We're coming for you, MileyCyrus.
Chrissy (26:48):
Miley Cyrus's in this.
Sara (26:49):
And Bruce Willis, if memory serves me, correctly.
Chrissy (26:53):
All right.
I'm excited.
I don't care what you have tosay.
Sara (26:55):
I think it's Bruce Willis.
Chrissy (26:56):
I'm lying.
I do care.
Sara (26:58):
Or maybe it's John Travolta.
It's someone.
It is some man.
Who was famous in the ninetiesand is in the later stages of
his career, when this comes out,
Chrissy (27:06):
I'm here for it.
Sara (27:07):
That's the end of our show guys.
I'm Sara Farrell Baker, and youcan find me across social media
@SaraFarrellBaker.
where can we find you on theinternet?
Chrissy (27:17):
You can find me on Instagram@quirkychrissy and
Twitter@quirky_chrissy.
Follow along with us next timewhen we'll be discussing Bolt.
Until then you can find usonline at
mouseearsandamovie.com, onInstagram and TikTok
@mouseearsandamovie and Twitter@mouseearmovies.
Sara (27:33):
See you real soon.
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