HAPPY READING! [for best understanding start with the first blog in March ’23 and read them in sequence from there]

The Nine Disney Animated Masterpieces

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty

  • IGOR STRAVINSKY’S RITE OF SPRING — Part Three
    At this point in the segment, Life has yet to emerge. Then-current scientific conjecture about Life’s origin suggested that the settling and cooling of the seas might have provided a catalytic atmosphere propitious for this eventuality. So with a final...
  • IGOR STRAVINSKY’S RITE OF SPRING –Part Two
    As it stands however, Disney’s scenario for The Rite of Spring depicted fairly accurately the scientific theories current at its time. …the animators knowingly took some creative liberties — the climactic battle between a Stegosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus rex could...
  • IGOR STRAVINSKY’S THE RITE OF SPRING — Part One
    The most lengthy segment in Fantasia. At the time of the film’s release in 1940 this “pantomime ballet” by Russian émigré Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) had been composed only 27 years earlier, making it the newest music included in the program....
  • PAUL DUKAS’ THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE — Part Three
    The use of shadows in this segment is especially pronounced. As the sorcerer abandons his chamber ascending a curved staircase and diminishing into the distance Mickey’s shadow on the subterranean wall grows larger and larger visually “overshadowing” his master. Also...
  • PAUL DUKAS’ THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE — Part Two
    The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is the only segment of Fantasia that features a star out of Disney’s – literal! – “stable” of cartoon performers. Originally it was to showcase Snow White’s Dopey but had been recast with Mickey Mouse in the...