Masterpieces of Animation: A Night on Bald Mountain - 1940

What is so remarkable about Disney before World War II was how wide a range of different projects they attempted. Some were simple and pleasurable diversions while others were serious and ambitious artistic endeavors. Walt Disney's most ambitious project was Fantasia, in this movie Disney was attempting not only to infuse animation and music, but to bring about a revolution in the concert experience. In Disney's mind Fantasia would function more like a yearly concert series. Every year Disney would re-release the movie with different segments added and others removed to showcase different pieces. Disney hoped that it would in many ways replicate the traditional concert series, people would dress up and there would be an intermission. The biggest hurdle Disney faced was the limited sound quality (mono no stereo) that many theaters at the time and so to make Fantasia work (who would consider an animated concert compatible with the live alternative if you didn't have somewhat decent sound) he had to construct and renovate a number of existing theaters with his own money, unsurprisingly this took a huge toll on the profits of Fantasia in fact it nearly destroyed Disney and the company and alas Disney's dreams with Fantasia went largely unfulfilled but what a film we were left with! The animation is among Disney's finest and their combination with the various musical pieces leads to some interesting new interpretations of the musical ideas (some more masterly then others).

Of the different works, one of the most famous (and this is quite a claim as a great deal of the pieces have become quite famous and well known) is the animation for Modest Mussorgsky's "A Night at Bald Mountain." Although it is perhaps the one piece that is interrupted most traditionally (it's animation is a representation of the actual story the music was written to represent). Visually it is always fascinating to see and draw demons and devils, ghost and goblins and watching them dance around malevolently and the scenes are drawn so amazingly. The chalk used to draw the ghosts, the fire dancers morphing into demons, the shadows creeping over the town, distorting the buildings as Chernabog raises the dead from the graves all are visually crisp and detailed. The whole piece is given a vague medieval time period and the ghosts of nights, queens, peasants and barbarians fly around represented on a thin line that dances back and forth between reality and fantasy. As the hellish party escalates with the music the partying gets more and more frantic but then dawn arrives and the church bells begin to chime and A Night at Bald Mountain quietly segues into Ave Maria and the result is stunning and beautiful. But don't take my word for it, watch it on youtube (and honestly you should buy the dvd if you find it enjoyable.)