Snow White: Myth! Legend! Sacred Feminine!

mvuent

Void Dweller
watched pinocchio a few days ago. obviously i knew it wouldn't be anywhere near as good as fantasia but the same underlying magic is there.

even though it feels like the first "proper" disney movie in the sense of having more of a narrative, by modern standards it's startlingly episodic. things just suddenly happen. you just know if it came out today some dumbass 19 year old would make a two hour video essay complaining about the lack of foreshadowing. and it's true, for example it would've been so easy to throw in a moment where someone's reading a newspaper and goes, oh gee, that WHALE attacked another boat, it sure would be a bad idea to GO SAILING anytime soon. but the experience is better this way.

it's a very eerie evocation of being a child. villains appear and disappear out of nowhere without there being any sense that they could be stopped—only escaped or, better yet, avoided. the part where the other kid slowly transforms into a donkey is both hilarious and unsettling because he doesn't react the way a cartoon character should react. when he sees the first signs of his new body he lets out a bloodcurdling scream, like a real person might. at other times the unexplained/unpredictable quality of the storyworld isn't so much scary as it is wonderfully free and oniric. you can just jump into the sea and walk along the ocean floor if you need to.

as with snow white and fantasia it's the beauty and expressiveness of the narratively superfluous visual stuff, the sights and motions, that make the whole thing worth watching. the magic of close observation of real forms (e.g. the cat's movements) pared with physics-breaking imagination.

the worst part of the film is, of course, pinocchio himself. almost anyone would curbstop the little muppet if they got the chance, but being a bit nicer i personally just wish he wasn't in the movie.
 

mvuent

Void Dweller
trying to figure out which disney movie to watch next. i feel like i'm obligated to watch bambi but this review makes a very convincing case not to.
The robust irrationality of the mouse comedies has been squelched completely by the syrup that has been gradually flowing over the Disney way. In an attempt to ape the trumped-up realism of flesh and blood movies, he has given up fantasy, which was pretty much the magic element. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck lived in a beautiful escape land, where they flew through the air, swam under water, died a thousand deaths and lived to see the end of each picture.
so maybe the earlier cartoons would be better? or even fucking dumbo? the late period work that seems best regarded is sleeping beauty so i may just skip ahead to that to see the eyvind earle aesthetic in motion.
 
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version

Well-known member
trying to figure out which disney movie to watch next. i feel like i'm obligated to watch bambi but this review makes a very convincing case not to.

so maybe the earlier cartoons would be better? or even fucking dumbo? the late period work that seems best regarded is sleeping beauty so i may just skip ahead to that to see the eyvind earle aesthetic in motion.

Have you seen Donald in Mathmagic Land?

 

mvuent

Void Dweller
it feels weird to say given how everything else develops but the 40's were probably the height of American animation
forget if it's been discussed before but your drawings/tattoos definitely have a 40s american animation influence at times right? i like those ones a lot.
 

mvuent

Void Dweller
Before following the camera under the water and into the next segment, however, I want to note a passage from Neal Gabler's Disney biography: Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination. Here's a passage quoting from transcripts of a story meeting concerning the Nutcracker (p. 311):

The finale would be a Flower Ballet following the blossoms through the seasons. As Walt described it, a "ballerina comes out – a graceful, beautiful girl – and she puts a little sex into the damn thing. . . . When she whirls up, you see the panties and her little butt – it will be swell! The audience will rave if you can make them feel Sex in a flower."

Now, that particular conception didn't make it into final film, and
 

luka

Well-known member
forget if it's been discussed before but your drawings/tattoos definitely have a 40s american animation influence at times right? i like those ones a lot.
hes not sophisticated enough to have an influence. he just channels the dumb id of america. he cant explain what hes doing. its totally instinctive. a moron savant.
 

mvuent

Void Dweller
hes not sophisticated enough to have an influence. he just channels the dumb id of america. he cant explain what hes doing. its totally instinctive. a moron savant.
accurate. but it’s also characteristic that he’d see your post and then stubbornly go the extra mile to prove it wasn’t true. puts on the suit and tie to formulate the one word didactic statement above. ya yeah "correct".
 
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