This short was nominated for an Academy Award for Animated Short. There will be spoilers ahead:
This is the latter-day result of an unlikely collaboration between Salvador Dali and Walt Disney begun in the 1940s and ultimately set aside and forgotten until rediscovered by Roy Disney and completed almost 60 years later.
It's impossible to mistake this as anything but a collaboration between Dali and Disney. While it reminds one of Fantasia, it's likely that the short would have disappeared without a trace had it been completed as originally scheduled. If anything, it's even more esoteric and artistically inclined than Fantasia and Fantasia was widely seen as a flop. As a short it would have set the studio back far less financially than Fantasia did as a feature, but Disney was already starting to have trouble making back the costs of its shorts because Walt Disney had such high expectations from even his shorts. That financial pressure was part of what put this in mothballs in the first place.
It would have been interesting to see what the Disney studios would have made of this in the late 1940s-early 1950s. As it is now, this looks for all the world like a series of Dali paintings brought to life and set in motion. Half melted objects, a likeness or two of Dali and other Dali trademarks given the Disney touch make this a fascinating curiosity and the quality of the backgrounds and character designs is magnificent.
This is available on the Blu-Ray release of Fantasia 2000 and looks beautiful, particularly in HD. There's also a feature length documentary on the project on the same disc which I haven't seen but which looks to be very good itself. Well worth watching. Most recommended.
This is the latter-day result of an unlikely collaboration between Salvador Dali and Walt Disney begun in the 1940s and ultimately set aside and forgotten until rediscovered by Roy Disney and completed almost 60 years later.
It's impossible to mistake this as anything but a collaboration between Dali and Disney. While it reminds one of Fantasia, it's likely that the short would have disappeared without a trace had it been completed as originally scheduled. If anything, it's even more esoteric and artistically inclined than Fantasia and Fantasia was widely seen as a flop. As a short it would have set the studio back far less financially than Fantasia did as a feature, but Disney was already starting to have trouble making back the costs of its shorts because Walt Disney had such high expectations from even his shorts. That financial pressure was part of what put this in mothballs in the first place.
It would have been interesting to see what the Disney studios would have made of this in the late 1940s-early 1950s. As it is now, this looks for all the world like a series of Dali paintings brought to life and set in motion. Half melted objects, a likeness or two of Dali and other Dali trademarks given the Disney touch make this a fascinating curiosity and the quality of the backgrounds and character designs is magnificent.
This is available on the Blu-Ray release of Fantasia 2000 and looks beautiful, particularly in HD. There's also a feature length documentary on the project on the same disc which I haven't seen but which looks to be very good itself. Well worth watching. Most recommended.