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\n Mickey Mouse\u2019s most magical movie.
\n Photo: Walt Disney Co.\/Everett Collection\n <\/p>\n
A collection of lavishly animated visualizations of classical music, Disney\u2019s 1940 movie Fantasia is a true cinematic masterpiece. Each frame overflows with thought and intention. The hand-drawn imagery is gorgeous, clearly painstaking to animate. It\u2019s a film very much out of time with today\u2019s children\u2019s entertainment, the fast-paced cartoons with mile-a-minute jokes and cartoon avatars that break the fourth wall. Which is why showing your children Fantasia is an incredible parenting hack. For little audiences, the film\u2019s relatively staid nature could be a turn-off, but for the harried parent who can\u2019t handle the spillover noise from another episode of a frenetic kids cartoon, Fantasia is a balm and about as guilt-free a choice for screen-time-as-child care any mom or dad could hope for.<\/p>\n
A key part of Fantasia\u2019s appeal is that it functions almost like a classical radio station. Though Baby Einstein\u2019s thesis that classical music makes your kids smarter was basically debunked, it still feels smarter to fill your home with Bach or Beethoven. The music, written long before phrases\u00a0like \u201cscreen time\u201d or \u201cBaby Shark\u201d existed, dictates the pace. So Fantasia\u2019s visuals are as rich and languid as Tchaikovsky. The music has recurring motifs, lengthy crescendos that the animation respects, lingering on bacchanalian scenes or Mickey Mouse and the marching of an army of enchanted brooms. It\u2019s trippy but wholesome in equal measures. And if the kids are watching while you try to get some work done in the other room, the music is much less distracting than even the best modern kids entertainment \u2014 to say nothing of whatever Cocomelon is yelling about.<\/p>\n
The film\u2019s first segment is an animated synesthesia, an abstract vision of colors and shapes accompanying Bach\u2019s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, with the only dialogue coming from Fantasia\u2019s master of ceremonies, composer and critic Deems Taylor. In his introductions to each piece, Taylor has a comforting mid-century patter. Other segments do have clear narratives, like the one featuring Igor Stravinsky\u2019s \u201cThe Rite of Spring,\u201d which turns the Russian composer\u2019s ballet into a history of life on Earth. To watch Fantasia, you\u2019d think Stravinsky wrote it intending to be a natural-history lesson, so perfectly does the music thematically match the action. Timpani drums boom as volcanoes explode with lava on a newly formed planet. Uneasy strings soundtrack a creature\u2019s tentative first steps out of the primordial sea, and intense, dissonant horns blare as a T. rex engages in an epic battle with a powerful planet eater. It\u2019s a nice surprise that, 80-plus years later, evolutionary science holds up better than you might expect.<\/p>\n
Another highlight is a segment scored to Beethoven\u2019s \u201cThe Pastoral Symphony,\u201d classical music about the Classics. The tale of Greek mythology has centaurs, satyrs, and baby Pegasi frolicking around until Zeus decides to rain on (and throw lightning bolts at) the parade. And then, rather than adapt the actual plot of \u201cThe Nutcracker Suites,\u201d the film\u2019s interpretation of the piece eschews a clear narrative of any sort. Instead, it dazzles with dancing mushrooms and fairies twinkling the morning dew.<\/p>\n
Even when Mickey Mouse appears, it\u2019s far more magical than any other cartoon he\u2019s been in \u2014 literally and figuratively. The \u201cSorcerer\u2019s Apprentice\u201d casts Mickey as a would-be wizard whose spell goes awry when he tries on his master\u2019s magical hat in an effort to get out of doing his chores. Enchanted brooms come to life to do his bidding, but they lose control and flood the sanctum with bucket after bucket of water. Mickey scrambles to fix his mistake. He\u2019s a familiar character doing funny things, but in Fantasia, this Mickey isn\u2019t using his squeaky voice to explain anything to young viewers or literalize any feelings. It\u2019s something more profound. Fantasia invites viewers to get lost in his dance; kids and adults alike might find themselves enthralled.<\/p>\n
Turning on the TV to occupy your child\u2019s attention for a little bit is hardly a new idea, but streaming and YouTube have made this necessary parenting evil all the more fraught, relentless, and in many cases, annoying. Fantasia is the solve. Its classical melodies are a relief to a busy parent\u2019s ear and stimulating for a child\u2019s. Showing your child Fantasia encourages them to sink into something crafted with human hands, which is likely not what you\u2019re consuming either. For as well as Fantasia plays in the background, it might benefit parents to sit down next to their kids and watch, too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mickey Mouse\u2019s most magical movie. Photo: Walt Disney Co.\/Everett Collection A collection of lavishly animated visualizations of classical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,3494,75,15979,15980,15981,337,15978,14754],"class_list":{"0":"post-18657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-disney","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-family-entertainment","13":"tag-fantasia","14":"tag-mickey-mouse","15":"tag-movies","16":"tag-vulture-recommends","17":"tag-vulture-section-lede"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}