Rather then try and review each Disney film individually, I've decided to lump them together in five movie chunks (four in this case, since I gave Snow White an individual review). It gives me the opportunity to compare and contrast the various films, and analyze their place in the Disney oeuvre.
Walt had some ups and downs with the next two films, Pinocchio (1940) and Fantasia (1940); while they are arguably the two greatest films Disney has ever made, they were not big financial successes for the fledgling company, especially Fantasia which was envisioned as a roadshow piece and never really picked up.
But my what fantastic pieces of cinema these two films are. Pinocchio of course set the Disney standard so high that I feel its seldom been met by the company itself. Of course it introduces Jiminy Cricket, who would become a sort of mascot for Disney until Tinker Bell popped up over a decade later; and it featured what is now Disney's theme song: When You Wish Upon a Star. It makes you believe, if only for a moment, in magic again, that anything and everything is possible if you just believe.
But what I think really makes Pinocchio stand out is that none of its main characters are perfect. Pinocchio is always getting into trouble, despite his best intentions, being led astray by Honest John and Gideon and multiple turns. And Jiminy, assigned to be Pinocchio's conscience, is terrible at his job; he's late on the first day, and whenever Pinocchio is led astray Jiminy tries meekly to get him back, and then decides Pinocchio can go screw himself. And not everyone receives a happy ending; the boys who turn into donkeys on Pleasure Island are never heard from again, their fates probably horrifying. Its details like that which keep this movie from aging.
Fantasia by all stretches is the most adult Disney film. It runs over two hours (the longest Disney film) and most kids are bored once the film gets past the Dinosaurs. I myself only truly first saw this film about 8 years ago, and immediately recognized it as a classic. This is Walt's most experimental film, opening with Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, first utilizing the shadows of the musicians, then moving into an animated interpretation of what you might see if you closed your eyes during the concert.
Fantasia is the film that ostensibly invented the music video, although it is much more artful here then the candy colored marketing strategy music videos would become. Only two pieces have actual, cohesive through lines, the most famous being the Sorcerer's Apprentice which truly made Mickey Mouse a star, and The Rite of Spring, which tells the story of the big bang, evolution, and dinosaurs. The other pieces, which include ballerina hippos, greek mythology, and the devil holding a celebration on Halloween, all follow various characters but have no definable plots, and I love that. Instead of trying to force each song to follow a plot like Fantasia 2000 (1999) would, the numbers here are allowed to follow their natural, if illogical courses.
And though I mentioned youngsters probably couldn't make it through this film, I still think they could get a lot of enjoyment out of it. There are still great scenes here, full of sadness and truth at times, and joy and happiness at others. Of course everyone remembers Mickey Mouse and those pesky brooms, but its the other, less remembered sequences that really make this film stand out. If there's one major flaw with the whole thing, its Deems Taylor's unnecessary explanations before each piece. His intro at the beginning is a nice way of laying out the program, but then he keeps popping up and wasting my time telling me everything I'm about to see. It almost ruins the experience.
Alas, Fantasia nearly bankrupted Disney, so for his next features, the company decided to make the tightest, most focused film they possibly could. And the result is another classic, Dumbo (1941) the story of a baby elephant with oversized ears. The film runs barely over an hour and is a fantastic lesson in economical storytelling. Opening with storks delivering babies to the circus animals (the sanitary way of explaining to your child where they came from), the film introduces us to Jumbo, who seems to get passed over despite her wish for a child (one could make inappropriate miscarriage jokes here).
Eventually the stork catches up, but the baby elephant is born with oversized ears that makes him the laughing stock of the all the hussies that share Jumbo's train car. Despite her wish to name him Jumbo, Jr. (her only line, if I remember correctly), the other ladies rather cruelly name him Dumbo. Of course his oversized ears lead to his eventual ability to fly, which shows those ladies what for. And along the way he makes a friend in Timothy J. Mouse, a lesser Jiminy Cricket.
Dumbo features two great scenes, one being his heart wrenching reunion with his mother in her cage (imprisoned after beating a boy who mocks Dumbo) while she sings Baby Mine, and the other being the famous Pink Elephants on Parade sequence. The latter is a fantastic experimental short that probably goes on too long, but I'm not complaining. There is some great imagery in that sequence, mainly those amorphous Pink Elephants.
Of course now review of Dumbo is complete without touching on those pesky crows which have somewhat tarnished the film's image. These characters are accused of being racist portrayals, but I honestly think thats just people overhyping the situation. They teach Dumbo how to fly, after all, and they have their own cool style. But that aside, Dumbo is a fantastic little example on how to tell a good story economically. And Dumbo saved Disney from bankruptcy.
And now Bambi (1942), which you can't talk about unless you mention the poor fawn's mother dying. It probably ranks as one of cinema's most shocking and memorable moments because unless you've seen it before or know whats happening, its fairly shocking. Bambi's mother is taken from him violently, and the reason to kids is unclear. If you wonder where PETA came from, blame Disney for humanizing animals so much.
Bambi's much lighter in the plot territory, and served more as an experiment for the Disney artists in studying animal movement and replicating it in animation. There is of course Thumper, another worthy addition to the Disney character stable, and Flower, who I guess has some gender identity issues. And Bambi, who curiously investigates the world around him.
Bambi is one of Disney's only coming-of-age stories, as Bambi goes from a young fawn to a grown up buck, experiencing life's challenges along the way. Disney is all for selling the American Dream, but this film does not shy away from life's darker aspects, as Bambi must constantly evade the offscreen presence of man. Bambi learns about the world, falls in love, and must fight to preserve that love. Disney of course has no problems killing parents, but The Lion King (1994) kills off Mufasa through the wickedness of Scar, and we take comfort in knowing Simba will get his revenge (it is interesting to note that Disney's coming-of-age stories feature prominent parental deaths). But when Bambi's mother dies, there is no way of avenging her; what happened happened, and there's nothing Bambi can do to bring her back or take on the menacing presence. I think that's a much darker and braver move on Disney's part, and what makes Bambi stand out.
Bambi was released right after the U.S. had entered into WWII, and Walt would lose most of his animation staff to the war effort. It would be 8 years before Cinderella (1950) was released, officially returning Disney to the realm of feature stories. But in these first five films, Disney made five very unique films: Snow White launched an empire, and is a musical, magical film; Pinocchio delved into more interesting and developed characters, and gave real consequences to their actions; Fantasia reveled in experimenting with how far you could take animation; Dumbo recalls to Disney's Silly Symphonies without sacrificing gravitas; and Bambi conveys life through a little deer. These are all fantastic films, and while Disney would go on to make great ones, they would never match this run.
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