"We are all here — remnants of past times" (c) Once upon a time, when the word "Gothic" recalled pointed windows and stained glass roses, not people in black; when death on screens was immoral, but the Hayes code was not yet an axiom; when American cinemas belonged exclusively to film studios, not distributors; when color cinema, as we know it, was only a dream, and sound appeared a few months ago; when animated shorts were considered lower caste and simple entertainment; after all, when Disney Corporation was not yet such and huddled in the studio, "Hyperion" was not a very productive producer ...
Agree, after such a grand success, which accompanied the appearance on the screens of “Steamwalker Willie” and Mickey Mouse, any two talented young people could seriously and for a long time to engage in the production of exclusively such commercially profitable short films. Anything but Walt Disney with Ab Iwerks. This tandem rightfully became the pillar of animation, doing for her what no one before them dared.
Already in the 1920s, Walt Disney believed in animation and dreamed of translating it into a new format, creating a serious feature film. Perhaps his first major contribution as a producer, I consider the support of the idea of composer Karl Stalling - the creation of Silly Symphonies, a series of musical shorts aimed at developing and improving the techniques of the art of animation.
Ab Iwerks, Disney’s main companion at the time, was not only the co-creator of Mickey Mouse and Lucky Rabbit Oswald, but also the most talented animator of his generation. Many of the studio's first works were animated almost exclusively by Iwerks. And this animation, by the way, very clean and technical, became the basis for all subsequent work of Walt Disney Animation and the main component of early short films.
You're asking what this is all about? I will. The first Silly Symphony was this Skeleton Dance, an animated film, from whatever side you look, not that unprofitable, but very radical even for our time. And in 1929, impressionable ladies in a semi-fainting state at his sessions were enough.
The story can be described in one word: Saint-Saëns. More specifically, the musical accompaniment of Stalling, inspired by the symphony "Dance Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saëns. Every Disney movie lover knows what a huge role its founder defined music, of course, not without reason. The first reason is this short story. But music is just a skeleton. The cartoon is replete with a variety of finds: the use of horror films, black humor, true Disney surrealism, and, of course, the main characters, deceased and cemetery residents. All this creates a unique, sinister-fun atmosphere that cinema will not be able to develop for a very long time.
The short film came out dynamic and in 6 minutes you have time to admire the imagination of the creators and wonder how so many mini-stories eventually add up to one whole. What about the external component? The pastoral background is surprisingly harmoniously combined with albeit simplified, but very active and expressive animation of the characters. And, of course, the cartoon is simply impossible to imagine not black and white, even in the era of active colorization.
Some points should be noted separately. Especially successful is the scene with a xylophone from a skeleton, watching it once, it will forever change your life, you can no longer imagine this picture without this music, or this music without this picture. Also, the film has at least four striking moments of immersion in the story, and if the fragment with a spider crawling on the screen does not seem particularly impressive, then the “walk” through the insides of the skeleton for me personally and now causes a shudder of horror and awe. No big picture. It's worth thinking about.
Skeleton Dance is a classic film, still alive and inspiring to great achievements. So it’s best to forget everything you know about cinema in general, and about it in particular, and just look. I hope that your inner child will have fun from the heart over the cute fun of four out of proportion active skeletons.
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