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Tag Archives: Zeus

March Review: Fantasia (1940)

20 Saturday Apr 2019

Posted by UpOnTheShelf in 1940's, Christmas, Disney, Drama, Fantasy, Halloween, Horror, Movie Reviews, Musicals, Romance

≈ 22 Comments

Tags

abstract, adventure, alligator, animal ballerinas, animated, animated movie review, animation, Arabian Dance, Ave Maria, Bacchus, bald mountain, ballerina, ballet, Beethoven, bells, Bill Tytla, cartoon review, cathedral, centaurettes, centaurs, Chernabog, cherubs, Chinese Dance, classic disney, classical, classical music, crocodile, Dance of the Hours, Dance of the Reed Flutes, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, dawn, Deems Taylor, demons, devil, devils, dinosaurs, Disney, disney animated, disney animation, disney review, elephant, expressionism, fairies, Fantasia, fantasound, fauns, flowers, Franz Schubert, ghosts, herman schultheis, hippo, holy pilgrimage, Igor Stravinsky, La Gioconda, Leopold, Leopold Stokowski, lost notebook, magic, Mickey Mouse, Modest Mussorgsky, movie review, mushrooms, music, musical, musical review, nature, nature ballet, Night on Bald Mountain, Nutcracker suite, ostrich, Pastoral Symphony, Paul Dukas, pilgrims, Rite of Spring, Russian Dance, slavic folklore, slavic gods, snow, snowflakes, Sorcerer’s Apprentice, soundtrack, stereo, Stokowski, Stravinsky, Sunflower, Tchaikovsky, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Toccata and Fugue, Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, unicorns, Vladimir Tytla, walpurgis night, Walt Disney, Waltz of the Flowers, witches, Woolie Reitherman, Zeus

fantasia-poster

And now we come to the final piece of Walt Disney’s original animation trifecta, Fantasia, and it’s one I’m both anticipating and dreading. Fantasia isn’t just one of the crowning jewels in Disney’s canon, a landmark in motion picture animation, and second only to Snow White in terms of influential music and storytelling in the whole medium, it’s one of my top three favorite movies of all time. Discussing it without sounding like an old history professor, a pretentious internet snob, or a hyper Disney fangirl is one hell of a daunting task.

annoyingfrozenfangirl

“Did someone say hyper Disney fangirl?! I LOVE Disney!!”

caricature self

“I thought you only liked Frozen.”

annoyingfrozenfangirl

“Well, DUH, Frozen is my favorite, which makes it, like, the best Disney movie ever! But Disney’s awesome! There’s a bunch of other movies I like that are almost as good!”

caricature self

“And Fantasia’s one of them?”

annoyingfrozenfangirl

“Yeah!!…Which one is that again?”

caricature self

“The one with Sorcerer Mickey?”

annoyingfrozenfangirl

“Ohhhh, you’re talking about the fireworks show where he fights the dragon!”

caricature self

“No, that’s Fantasmic. I’m referring to Fantasia. Came out the same year as Pinocchio? All done in hand-drawn animation…has the big devil guy at the end?”

annoyingfrozenfangirl

“THAT’S where he’s from?! Geez, that’s some old movie. Why haven’t I heard about ’til now?”

gollum3

“Probably because you spend twelve hours a day searching for more Frozen GIFs to reblog on your Tumblr.”

annoyingfrozenfangirl

“Ooh, that reminds me! I need to go post my next batch of theories about the upcoming sequel! Toodles!!”

“Thanks. Another second with her and I would’ve bust a gasket.”

“Don’t mention it.”

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June Review: Clash of the Titans (1981)

11 Sunday Jun 2017

Posted by UpOnTheShelf in 1980's, Action-Adventure, Fantasy, Movie Reviews

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

80’s movie, action, Action-Adventure, andromeda, Aphrodite, Athena, battle, Bubo, Calibos, clash of the titans, claymation, dioskilos, epic, Fantasy, Greece, Greek mythology, Greek myths, Harryhausen, Hera, kraken, Medusa, mount Olympus, movie review, original, owl, Pegasus, Perseus, Poseidon, practical special effects, Ray Harryhausen, river styx, special effects, stop motion animation, stop-motion, sword and sandal, thetis, Zeus

(DISCLAIMER: This blog is not for profit. All images and footage used below are property of their respective companies unless stated otherwise. I do not claim ownership of this material.)

Clash-of-the-Titans-1981-movie-poster

“As long as man shall walk earth and search the night sky in wonder, they will remember the courage of Perseus forever. Even if we the gods are abandoned and forgotten, the stars shall never fade.”
– Zeus

I can’t recall if I ever mentioned it before, but I’m big on fairy tales, folktales and myths. I’ve always been fascinated by how different cultures interpret familiar stories, or use them to relay well-worn morals or their take on how the world was formed. When I was a kid a friend of my parents gave me a copy of D’Auliere’s Greek Myths (which is a must-own for anyone who enjoys these classic stories) and I ate it up like the diminutive bookworm I was, but it wasn’t my first exposure to the pantheon of Greek legends. No, that was a film I saw when I was just seven years old, one that has left an indelible imprint on the collective subconscious of anyone exposed to it at a young age and has since become a cult classic for its take on one of the most famous Greek myths of all time.

hercules-movie-poster-1997-1020269193.jpg

Now I wouldn’t call Hercules one of my top ten favorite Disney films, but its zany animation, fun characters and catchy music make for a fun viewing experience. Of course, being Disney, they left out all the family-unfriendly aspects of the original tale and reshaped it into what’s essentially a modern-Grecian take on the Superman/Moses story, but I’m not one to complain about that. You try making an animated film where the main character kills his wife and family in a bout of insanity brought on by his jealous stepmother and literally works himself to death trying to make up for it. Truth be told, about 90% of Greek myths involving heroes follow a similar plot – Zeus gets it on with a mortal, has a child out of wedlock, said mortal gets punished by Zeus’ wife Hera (because victim blaming really is a centuries-old practice), and the new demigod is gifted with special powers or weapons to fight tons of foes but still winds up with a fairly ironic and tragic demise. The one exception to this is the story of Perseus, which is the basis of the film we’ll be looking at today.

Now mythology is no stranger to the man behind Clash of the Titans, legendary stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen. His other notable Greek outing, Jason and the Argonauts, is considered one of the most thrilling sword and sandal epics to have held up for the past fifty years, and is worth seeing for the skeleton battle alone (it also happens to be the favorite film of Sheriff Woody himself, Tom Hanks). In addition he created and animated puppets for the original Mighty Joe Young, the Sinbad movies, One Million Years BC, and more. Though he never directed any of them, these movies are forever associated with the name Harryhausen. CGI would eventually come along to push new boundaries in the field of effects animation, but his work has left an indelible imprint on many a future filmmaker, with big names like Pixar and Tim Burton namedropping him in some their own films. For a time Steven Spielburg even considered bringing many of the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park to life using stop-motion, clearly inspired by the dinosaurs that were featured in Harryhausen’s works.

Clash of the Titans was the last film Harryhausen made before he went into retirement, and it holds all his trademarks, both good and bad. So, did his career end on a high note, or does the movie fall to pieces like a poorly made Play-Doh sculpture? Let’s find out.

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