DVD: Fantasia

So, thanks very much to Ron, who answered my appeal, I had a copy of Fantasia to watch as part of my slow (very slow) effort to watch the AFI 100 Years 100 Movies list. I started at #100 back in around 1998 or 1999 or so. I’ve now reached Fantasia, which is #58 on the list.

This week I had to take a trip to the West Coast and this seemed like a perfect thing to watch on the plane. (And I wanted to watch it pretty quickly so that I could get it back to Ron.) So after the food service (small crappy turkey sandwich) came through, I pulled out the laptop and started the movie.

Soon after I started, the man in the seat next to me leaned over and said “I am old enough to have seen this at the movies when it first came out!”. It came out in 1940. So to remember it the first time arond he would have to be over 70… maybe over 75 depending on how well he remembered his early childhood. He didn’t look quite that old. So if he really was, good for him. But he may have been remembering one of the rereleases.

In any case, at various points he leaned over to make comments about it, and once I told him this was the first time I was ever seeing it, he seemed very concerned that I was watching it on a laptop with cheap headphones in a noisy plane. He thought I really should watch it for the first time on a high quality large screen TV with a high quality sound system. I assured him that I am sure I will eventually watch it in such a way.

In any case, it was a good movie to watch. These are stressful times for me for a variety of reasons, and just sitting back and listening to the classical music while watching the animated imagry of various sorts during the movie… nice and relaxing. A very different kind of movie. More just a wash of music and experience than a normal movie. (And of course that is what I expected.) I think I liked the Nutcracker part the best. And yes, although I’m not sure I would have noticed if I had not read about it in advance, the part where they edited out the politically incorrect character who was there in the original release was QUITE obvious.

My battery died about 10 minutes before the end of the movie, which was frustrating.

I finished it this morning, and am writing this up right before heading to the airport to come home.

Anyway, Fantasia nice and relaxing.