[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-zaGM39Cik&w=854&h=480]
I’m declaring Haydn the patron composer of middle school orchestras everywhere.
“Antony Hodgson identifies George Szell as a conductor who was not afraid to overdo “the vulgarity of this joke”. Hodgson argues that “if, in concert, none of the audience laughs, then the episode must have been underplayed.””
“At the end, Dreamfinder told Figment and the guests that Imagination is our key to unlock the hidden wonders of our world. The guests then entered the final show scene as their picture was taken. In the following room, Figment stood in the center of a giant film canister, surrounded by several movie screens of him being a scientist, a mountain climber, a pirate, a superhero, a tap dancer, a ship captain, a cowboy and an athlete. Dreamfinder, sitting behind a movie camera, gave one last inspiring message and told guests to use their newly-found sparks of inspiration in the Image Works and the on-ride photo was shown to the guests on a screen next to Dreamfinder.
The ride closed on October 10, 1998 to the dismay of numerous fans.”
During our conversation on The Rite of Spring, I mentioned reading an article at one time that discussed how the mounting of dinosaurs in museums has effected our imaginations. (I didn’t find it – but this FAQ on dinosaur mounts is fascinating). I would still love to reread that article; if you’ve seen it send it my way! However, in my process of looking for it, I found some other really interesting things I can direct you to. What’s interesting to me is how the art has complimented the science, and the imagination has even outpaced the science. Sorry, Deems Taylor.
“More than any other single person, Greg Paul has had a major influence on how Mesozoic dinosaurs are imagined by other palaeoartists, by scientists, and by the public.”
Darren Naish’s article in Scientific American discusses dinosaur’s move from “flabby” (as in Rite of Spring) to “sprightly” and from there to feathery and soft.
Naish’s article also mentions paleoartist John Conway.
“Dinosaur fossils have been catching up with paleoart — and that’s quite nice, that the fossil evidence actually is lagging behind the art,”
Conway spoke to Jacqueline Ronson at Inverse. Ronson gives a nice rundown of the interaction between art and science.
“if you want to come close to the truth, you’d better bring your imagination.”
Which brings us back to Disney and the work he and the studio were doing to advance science through their work on Fantasia.
“From the very start of preproduction on Fantasia in September 1938 Disney wanted to include a prehistoric sequence that would serve as “a coldly accurate reproduction of what science thinks went on during the first few billion years of this planet’s existence” (Fantasia). So he brought on Julian Huxley, Barnum “Mr. Bones” Brown, and Roy Chapman Andrews as scientific consultants for the project, along with Edwin Hubble.”
Noyes posits that the accurate art ignited the imagination and inspired more people to join the field of paleontology.
I’m not saying this is the definitive version of Faeries – from ‘The Nutcracker,’ but I’m not not saying it either.
If Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is your favorite piece and you (unlike Walt Disney) really like the abstract and experimental then I’d encourage you to discover more of the work of Oskar Fischinger at http://www.oskarfischinger.org.
“As the lights dim, Donald Duck is fast asleep. Mickey Mouse appears with music in hand and wakes Donald before rushing offstage to ready the show. As Donald prepares the orchestra for Mickey, he comes across the conductor’s baton and decides to work a little magic by donning Mickey’s Sorcerer’s Hat. But things get out of control fast and Donald is unexpectedly plunged into a 3D dream world of classic Disney animated musical sequences.”
[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xns6ZDKxSQ&w=640&h=480]
A nice little behind the scenes look at how Fantasia came together.
If Michial piqued your interest in Marx and his use of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, then Coyle and Ed can guide you further into the political ideology of Marxism and the man behind the thoughts.
If Michial piqued your interest in Marx and his use of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, then Coyle and Ed can guide you further into the political ideology of Marxism and the man behind the thoughts.
Just because neither Michial or I took the time to read Der Zauberlehrling by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t read it.
You can also read the Sorcerer’s source – an ancient work called Philopseudes by Lucian of Samosata. Who knows, it might inspire you to write a fourteen stanza ballad of your own.
“The Sorcerer’s Hat is the former icon of Disney’s Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.”
“One Pinocchio
Some shading of the facts. Selective telling of the truth. Some omissions and exaggerations, but no outright falsehoods. (You could view this as “mostly true.”)
Two Pinocchios
Significant omissions and/or exaggerations. Some factual error may be involved but not necessarily. A politician can create a false, misleading impression by playing with words and using legalistic language that means little to ordinary people. (Similar to “half true.”)
Three Pinocchios
Significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions. This gets into the realm of “mostly false.” But it could include statements which are technically correct (such as based on official government data) but are so taken out of context as to be very misleading. The line between Two and Three can be bit fuzzy and we do not award half-Pinocchios. So we strive to explain the factors that tipped us toward a Three.
Four Pinocchios
Whoppers.”
Pinocchio gets a bad wrap for being a liar considering this is only one small (although iconic) part of the movie.
“Early animation tended to stay within the frame. In “Fantasia” and especially “Pinocchio,” Disney broke out of the frame, for example in the exciting sequence where Pinocchio and his father are expelled by the whale’s sneeze, then drawn back again, then expelled again. There is the palpable sense of Monstro the Whale, offscreen to the right.”
Read the full review. It’s very good.
“But if the roof carvings cannot be seen, to whom are their stories being told? Why was such craftsmanship expended on them, and such planning given to their content and narrative? Rose writes: “The most lofty work is as carefully carved and skillfully finished as any at a lower level.”
The best he offers by way of an answer to this mystery is to propose that this care and skill reflect “not just a feeling of self-respect on the part of the sculptor, but a belief that his work was an essential part of the whole building of the church which was for the worship and praise of God.” It seems that communication was not the primary purpose.”
Source: The Christian Science Monitor
See also: Art History Timeline 14-Gothic Architecture, a short lecture with lots of beautiful images from Dr. Jeanne Willette of Otis College of Art and Design on iTunesU. She makes mention at the end of the art made to be seen only by God.
During the Pinocchio episode, I mentioned that my children watch a lot of My Little Pony. Here’s a good introduction for the unfamiliar.
“As of May 2017, Sam Mendes is in talks to direct the movie from Chris Weitz’s script.”
Michial mentioned during our Snow White episode that listeners of the Christian Humanist will recall that he is not a Tolkien fan. Well, if you didn’t recall that – here’s the episode you need to get up to speed.
During the Snow White episode, I mentioned that the pacing reminded me of Japanese animation. Hayao Miyazaki is the Japanese animator Par Excellence.
This in depth story of what was going on with Dwarfs, the Snow White Prequel, is great. But here’s the money quote:
“The production team pressed forward on Dwarfs for about a month after Disa left. Then they pitched the film’s new storyline to Lasseter. He cancelled the project immediately.”
Immediately. Thank God for John Lasseter
“Unfortunately, the only known copy was destroyed in a fire”
“Hop inside a mine cart and follow the path of Snow White as she flees into the dark forest to avoid the wrath of the evil Queen. ”
“Every time an animated film is successful, you have to read all over again about how animation isn’t ‘just for children’ but ‘for the whole family,’ and ‘even for adults going on their own.’ No kidding!”
Source: TVtropes
“Once upon a time in midwinter, when the snowflakes were falling like feathers from heaven, a queen sat sewing at her window, which had a frame of black ebony wood. As she sewed she looked up at the snow and pricked her finger with her needle. Three drops of blood fell into the snow. The red on the white looked so beautiful that she thought to herself, “If only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood in this frame.”
Soon afterward she had a little daughter who was as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as ebony wood, and therefore they called her Little Snow-White. And as soon as the child was born, the queen died.”
[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr-OEaocgOU&w=640&h=480]
More examples of civilizing affects of women, cut from the movie.
“The “Disney Vault” is the term used by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment for its policy of putting home video releases of Walt Disney Animation Studios’s animated featureson moratorium. Each Disney film is available for purchase for a limited time, after which it is put “in the vault” and not made available in stores for several years until it is once again released. This also means digital copies are not available on Disney Movies Anywherewhen those movies are currently in the Disney Vault. However most titles in the Vault are available to buy online permanently”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdHTlUGN1zw&w=640&h=360]
“Tolkien didn’t like the goofball dwarfs either. The Tolkien Companion notes that he found Snow White lovely, but otherwise wasn’t pleased with the dwarves. To both Tolkien and Lewis, it seemed, Disney’s dwarves were a gross simplification of a concept they held as precious. “I think it grated on them that he was commercializing something that they considered almost sacrosanct,” says Trish Lambert, a Tolkien scholar and author of the essay, Snow White and Bilbo Baggins: Divergences and Convergences Between Disney and Tolkien. “Here you have a brash, American entrepreneur who had the audacity to go in and make money off of fairy tales.”
Consider the context here: Tolkien’s book The Hobbit was first released in the U.K. in September of 1937, just a couple of months before Snow White hit theaters in the U.S. Both works highlighted a gaggle of dwarves as major supporting characters, but they could hardly have been more different. Disney’s dwarfs were jolly, goofy miners (hey, Dopey), rooted in the stories of the Brothers Grimm; Tolkien’s dwarves were a grim, mythical race (although not wholly without whimsy), born from Nordic myth. “Isn’t it interesting that Tolkien and Disney, almost concurrently, came up with dwarves that are not evil?” notes Lambert. “I researched, is there any possibility that there was a connection? And there’s not.””
Read the whole interesting piece here.
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