Thanks for the help with the Fantasia 2000 embed!

For those looking for the music, See here

Or, some of you may know this piece from another artform.

Of course, I'm talking about Fantasia 2000s version of it.

Yeah, I wouldn't say it was NSFW at all.

I find it amusing that it shows symbols of Christianity being destroyed and replaced with those of the Nazis... when really they're just two forms of propaganda and symbols of unquestioning adherence to a list of rules... fascinating.

Also fascinating that Disney had to make this film and others to avoid the studio going bankrupt thanks to his overspending on Fantasia.

Most of us probably know the music from Cantaloop by Us3 from the 90s.

So...WHO thought of Fantasia first?

*drugs
*jazz

And just listened to this one again!
http://www.videosift.com/video/US3-Cantaloop-Flip-Fantasia

Mesmerizing. It's like a futuristic Fantasia.

The reason I posted the original story above was to show that the Disney short was a near exact translation of the original literature, so as such, Disney couldn't have done much in the way of "sanitizing" the story. The original theme of Anderson's work was to portray the terrible living conditions of children in Eastern Europe at the time, and that theme carried over to the animation quite well. Yes, the girl is bright and optimistic in the beginning, but it's her innocence and hopefulness that make her eventual fate all the more heartbreaking. Would the animation have been quite as touching if she had been a dirty urchin?

And if you study Anderson's original work, you'll see that he makes several allusions to her being "beautiful." In fact, in the text she's described as being fair-haired, something which was changed in the animation, and could arguably have LESSENED the beauty of the character portrayed.

As to comparing to Takahata's works, do note that Studio Toei did make their own interpretation of this work, which can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSvGKPMXRa0
(Do note that at the time it was made, Takahata WAS working at Toei, so it's quite likely he was involved with the project as well.) It is notable that while Toei's interpretation is more accurate with relation the girl's look and the location of the story (Holland), the story itself has been altered quite a bit more than Disney's version, and in fact has less of an emotional impact. One could argue that the dubbing contributed to that, but the overall meaning of the scenes is not lost, and in this case they prove to make the Toei version inferior. (Or as inferior as one could call it. It's still a decent animation.) While in the Disney version the girl was friendless and alone, with everyone indifferent to her predicament, in the Toei version people either treat her like dirt, or feel a great sense of remorse over her death. These extremes are too exaggerated, whereas the Disney version feels a lot more like something that would happen in real life.

And on a side note, enough comparing Disney's works to anime, people. While Disney is indeed guilty of producing quite a bit in the way of lousy works, a lot of it was the result of the leadership during the Michael Eisner era. The Walt Disney era was full of great works (which despite their changes with relation to the original stories were quite beautiful), and the Rob Iger era seems like it's on route to turning the company around. It's also important to remember that Disney animations and most anime target different audiences. Disney targets a younger crowd (in general), while anime targets an older crowd (mostly adults). Takahata's "Grave of the Fireflies," for example, is most definitely not for children. They would find it boring, and perhaps a bit too sad in the end.

Disney's version of The Little Match Girl does walk a fine line here, as it has a more adult theme, and perhaps would be too sad for the children who did catch that ending. However, I think this one was made just as much for adults, as it was meant for the next iteration of Fantasia, and Fantasia is meant to be for both children and adults.

i'm upvoting just for mullet fantasia.

thanks for the reminder.

this was one of my first favorite classical pieces.

Ah:)
http://www.videosift.com/video/Alex-Guadino-Destination-Unknown-Calabria
vs. M.I.A.'s sound..
Quite a repetitive trumpet but well done..

I was reminded of US3's hit
http://www.videosift.com/video/US3-Cantaloop-Flip-Fantasia
They make great use of samples here.

yeah, I actually didn't like a lot of the movie, some of the cg stuff was kind of lame imho, but this was a great piece. I think it was Ei$ner that put an end to the fantasia thing, which is lame because Roy Disney was the one heading the project and it could have really been great.

This and Rhapsody in Blue are my favorite pieces from Fantasia 2000. I'm a big fan of Walt Disney's idea for concert features. Awesome, awesome, awesome, and genius. The first one had a lot to do with my passion for music as a kid. Thanks, Walt.

Allegro non troppo is a Bruno Bozzetto animated film released in 1977. The film is a parody of Disney's Fantasia, though possibly more of a challenge to Fantasia than parody status would imply.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegro_non_troppo
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074121/
*shortfilms
It's part of a bigger 85 minute film but this part can be seen as a short film.

remember in Fantasia where the broom was cut up and a million little brooms ran around?

...I don't remember why I brought that up.