Disney

We Scare Because We Care!

~ Donna Emerald ~ 1 Comment

I was in the mood for a movie matinee, it bein’ Friday and all. I’d had a monstrous week, and needed a good laugh to restore me, so this animated favourite came to mind immediately. Full of tips with how to deal with the monsters we all have to face, and even make friends with some of them. Lots of helpful tips on what to do when a  monster  screams in your face, or a chameleon suddenly reveals his true colours for you to see (they are rather grey underneath all the flashy costumes  they wear to blend in, apparently).  If you are plagued with monster visits, and all else fails, bear in mind that they are far more scared of you than you should ever be of them; to rid yourself permanently of them, carry out the 2319 manoeuvre. This move is a monster’s worst nightmare come true, and guarantees that they’ll run back to the  closet they emerged from. You have to keep your socks on in bed for this one, but I think you’ll agree, it’s a small price to pay!

Click on image to play Monsters, Inc. movie, or click on highlighted text below image.
Hint: It’s a free movie site, so you’ll have to be as quick to shut down the ad windows that open before the movie will play, as you would be to slam your closet door on Rotten Randall here.

My Fantasies

~ Donna Emerald ~ Leave a comment

I love listening to classical music. It can bring you to the most wonderful places in your imagination. Disney’s masterful feature animation ‘Fantasia‘ visits a good few of these places, and how gloriously imaginative is the music of the great composers like Modest Mussorgsky, whose ‘Night On Bald Mountain‘  provides a ‘musical picture’ on the theme of a St. John’s Night Witches Sabbath. Disney caught the menace in the music perfectly in the imagery and movement of the animated spectres and spooks of darkness.

Loving it as much as I am? I hope so, because this movie certainly made classical music accessible to its audience in 1940, as I hope it will for you too, if you aren’t already a classical music fan. If you fancy listening to some more, with a change in tempo, here’s some more of the magic of Disney. Ludvig van Beethoven does depressed and moody awfully well, but the Pastoral Symphony (Opus no. 68 ) is one of his sweeter, happier works.

Beethoven_sym_6_script
Beethoven’s Symphony no. 6 (Pastoral) script

Disney’s images to accompany the music are charming and sweet too. The following video features two versions of the same footage alongside each other for comparison. If you are the sort of person who likes fiddling about with reading the sleeve of the album cover too while listening, I can’t help you out, but I can provide a link to an analysis of some of the metaphors and mythological references that abound in the movie.

Satyr With A Pipe

Well, that was fun, wasn’t it? Let’s make it a night, settle down and relax in style like a satyr, pull up a log and grab a pipe to blow bubbles in order to not-think better, kick the shoes off to let the hooves breathe,  and enjoy taking a nice trip with these cute little mushrooms, who like dancing around to the Nutcracker Suite by llyich Tchaikovsky.