Thread: FANTASIA: Your halloween movie for Feb.

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This time of year, your sweetheart might have more of a Valentines' theme on their mind, and this is one of the scariest Disney movies with one of the most romantic back stories of all time.
First, meet Ed Ulmer. Ed made horror flicks for Universal, (his THE BLACK CAT is considered a classic..) and fell in love with a secretary. Problem was, the bosses son ALSO loved the secretary and dad the boss got Ed put on the black list. Every big studio in town was now closed to him.
Ed married the secretary...she was the love of his life..and stayed married until he died. But being banned from every major studio, Ed did some neat stuff to keep directing...making movies for ANYBODY, ANY WHERE...Mexico, Italy, Jewish film makers, and P.R.C., the bottom of the studio barrel..For P.R.C., Ed really shone, and would get them the movies with the titles they wanted, on budget, on time. In return, he had total freedom to do what he liked..the only director in town with that deal.
One day Walt Disney takes him to lunch. Walt knows that Ed was a classical music fan and tells him how his latest movie...a cartoon feature with classical music just WASN'T coming together...could Ed help?
Ed figures out how to eliminate the 'unmusical' parts of Tchaikovsky, mix and match the music and sometimes change the order of the music itself. Walt pays him PLENTY and gives him MORE in return for paying him under the table so as not to break the blacklist and torque off Universals' boss.
Like I said before, this one is maybe the scariest of Disney's movies, only beat by SNOW WHITE and SLEEPING BEAUTY with the dragon in terms of sheer kiddie trauma created.
You have THE RITE OF SPRING dinosaurs, the gators salivating in DANCE OF THE HOURS, and THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE with the flood and the old wizard..(who was drawn to look like Disney...an inside joke) and of course, that devil thing in NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN.
Bill Tytla, the daVinci of animators, did the work on this and it's still astonishing and eeerie...Bela Lugosi was the first action model for the devil thing by the way...
So curl up, put the lights on low and enjoy this one with your date and tell them how Ed found not only his career salvation but art thanks to the love of his live.

Originally Posted by uncletor

This time of year, your sweetheart might have more of a Valentines' theme on their mind, and this is one of the scariest Disney movies with one of the most romantic back stories of all time.
First, meet Ed Ulmer. Ed made horror flicks for Universal, (his THE BLACK CAT is considered a classic..) and fell in love with a secretary. Problem was, the bosses son ALSO loved the secretary and dad the boss got Ed put on the black list. Every big studio in town was now closed to him.
Ed married the secretary...she was the love of his life..and stayed married until he died. But being banned from every major studio, Ed did some neat stuff to keep directing...making movies for ANYBODY, ANY WHERE...Mexico, Italy, Jewish film makers, and P.R.C., the bottom of the studio barrel..For P.R.C., Ed really shone, and would get them the movies with the titles they wanted, on budget, on time. In return, he had total freedom to do what he liked..the only director in town with that deal.
One day Walt Disney takes him to lunch. Walt knows that Ed was a classical music fan and tells him how his latest movie...a cartoon feature with classical music just WASN'T coming together...could Ed help?
Ed figures out how to eliminate the 'unmusical' parts of Tchaikovsky, mix and match the music and sometimes change the order of the music itself. Walt pays him PLENTY and gives him MORE in return for paying him under the table so as not to break the blacklist and torque off Universals' boss.
Like I said before, this one is maybe the scariest of Disney's movies, only beat by SNOW WHITE and SLEEPING BEAUTY with the dragon in terms of sheer kiddie trauma created.
You have THE RITE OF SPRING dinosaurs, the gators salivating in DANCE OF THE HOURS, and THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE with the flood and the old wizard..(who was drawn to look like Disney...an inside joke) and of course, that devil thing in NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN.
Bill Tytla, the daVinci of animators, did the work on this and it's still astonishing and eeerie...Bela Lugosi was the first action model for the devil thing by the way...
So curl up, put the lights on low and enjoy this one with your date and tell them how Ed found not only his career salvation but art thanks to the love of his live.

That would be Chernabog, guardian of restless souls. Yep, sounds like the perfect Halloween movie to me!

Only Uncletor could make a disney movie twisted and for this we love him

One of my most favorite Disney movies.. Thanks U. Tor for the back story!

What a story! I love hearing backstories like this. Very interesting. Now I'll have to watch Fantasia much sooner than I'd planned. OEJ's never seen it. I don't know much about Mr. Disney but he sure seems like a good man and I have him to thank for the Wizard of Oz as we know it.

I absolutely love Fantasia. The animation is amazing. Great pick Uncle...

Oh by the way, does anyone remember WarnerBrothers' spoof on Fantasia? It is the infamous Bugs Bunny Cartoon when he and Elmer are in an Opera and Elmer Fud summons lightning to "kill the Wabbit"....hilarious stuff.

Originally Posted by Succub'Oz

OEJ's never seen it.

Pssst … After OEJ has seen Fantasia, and fallen in love with it, get him [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disneys-Fantasia-John-Culhane/dp/0810980789"]this book[/ame].

Originally Posted by Haunted Horseman

Oh by the way, does anyone remember WarnerBrothers' spoof on Fantasia? It is the infamous Bugs Bunny Cartoon when he and Elmer are in an Opera and Elmer Fud summons lightning to "kill the Wabbit"....hilarious stuff.

Haha.. one of my favorite Bugs cartoon episodes!
I have never been able to make it all the way through Fantasia without falling asleep. I have 2 different copies of it (one special edition and one not.) I will have to watch it again. Without the lights low. lol Awesome backstory!

had lunch lately with a friend who is an animator. (here in ontario, we have a college that regularly supplies disney with a lot of their animators). he told me a couple of cool stories.
1.) Disney had NOTHING to do with WIZARD OF OZ. That was MGM and Victor Fleming. But when Disneyland opened up, folks would come up and shake his hand and ask where the TIN MAN and COWARLDY LION were, and how GREAT they thought Wizard of Oz was. Walt would just sort of grit his teeth and smile and tell them WIZARD OF OZ was MGM, but it all got less and less funny as the years went by. By the end he would just say thanks and leave it at that.
2.) WHAT'S OPERA DOC was something the boys at Warners were really proud of. They cooked up the whole thing themselves, including the song RETURN TO ME. All orginal, and they made a whole opera that lasted under seven minutes. They weren't really trying to make fun of FANTASIA....the one that was the satire was RABBIT OF SAVILLE, it made fun of BARBER OF SAVILLE, and even used some of the music but with cool lyrics:"Welcome to my shop, let my cut your mop..."