I'd Have Called Him "Diz"

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Watchin' Fantasia again. Ah, this brings back memories. For example, the memory that while I was totally cool with the Satanic orgy from Night on Bald Mountain, with the giant demon-mountain casually tormenting his misshapen subjects, I was absolutely terrorized by one shot of the unstoppable broom army from The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

I also remember being absolutely bored senseless by Deems Taylor's intros to each piece, so much so that I always fast-forwarded them.* Which means that I was unaware just how darn uncomfortable Mr. Radio there was in front of a camera. Poor dope has no idea what to do when we can see him.

Anyway, yeah, there was definitely a synesthete working on the Toccata and Fugue in D short. I know there's been some question about whether it was deliberate or not, but good GRIEF, it looks an awful lot like what would happen if you tried to animate the Synesthesia Dimension. I have this image of Disney and Co. struggling to describe what they wanted in the abstract piece, and some synesthetic animator going, "So, just draw what it looks like, then. Gotcha, Diz. I'm on it." Not quite the same level of research put into the dinosaurs in the Rite of Spring,** but as scientifically fascinating in its own way.


*Which took dedication on our old-ass Betamax. We had no remote for it, and you had to actually hold down the fast-forward button. And the button didn't make it go forward any faster, but did distort the screen with interesting lines of static. Those were tough times.

**Yes, they look rather derpy and lumpy now, but hey, this was the 30s and 40s. It was totally SCIENCE! at the time.

Comments

[madripoor-rose.livejournal.com]

A while ago I did a massive Disney rewatch, getting every movie I could on dvd from the library, from the liveaction Kurt Russell's teen mad scientist era, to all the 'toons. In the middle of Fantasia, my dad commented that they took me to see it at the theater when I was four, but I started crying and they had to leave. "Yeah, I guess the demons in Night On Bald Mountain would have been too scary." "No, it was the dancing mushrooms."

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Funny to see what settles in a little kid's mind, huh?

My first theater movie was The Little Mermaid at age three. I was so terrified I watched it backward through the projector screen. And then we got it on video and I think I watched it on a constant loop for the next four years.

[madripoor-rose.livejournal.com]

I think maybe it's not so much the movies themselves, as being a *little* kid, and suddenly sitting in a dark room with a lot of strangers around. Get all anxious and excited, then the first strange thing on the screen sets us off.