Bill Roberts
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Williams' volatile delivery has never been more suited to a character--and in enabling the animators' sense of mischief (it's doubtful they would have made those po-mo references isolated from Williams' contribution (including killer homages to Raiders of the Lost Ark , Cleopatra , and the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment from Fantasia) without the spectre of his manic performance to goad them), he honours Mel Blanc's legacy better than latter-day Looney Tunes have.
Pinocchio even makes a cameo appearance, along with Sebastian from "The Little Mermaid," and there's even a reference to "Fantasia."
The first of these was Swan Lake, a never-realised project that would have completed the studio's adaptations of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's three great ballets (following "The Nutcracker Suite" in Fantasia , and Sleeping Beauty ); King of the Jungle, later renamed The Lion King ; and the Ashman/Menken/Woolverton Aladdin.
Soul might be Pixar’s most musical movie, harkening back to Disney’s Fantasia , which set images to some of the greatest works of composition this side of the 18th century.
It also can’t be an accident that the visuals for some of Joe’s jazz sequences appear inspired by Disney’s own Fantasia , but the transitions between story, music, and moods are orchestrated to perfection.
Not since Fantasia has a Disney film treated music with such reverence, as the seed of all the visual flowering that follows.
But then, who cares, when we're caught up in the spectacular, toe-tapping 'Be Our Guest' extravaganza, nodding to everything from Fantasia to Cabaret to Busby Berkeley?
And that’s a problem, because the cartoon is already basically perfect: the best and most justly beloved film of the 1990s Disney renaissance, and the only cartoon Disney ever made after the mid-1940s that I would rank alongside their early masterpieces, Snow White , Pinocchio , Fantasia and Bambi .
The attention to detail in this film is exquisite, from the gold flakes on Belle’s ballroom gown to the “ Fantasia ”-like theatrics of the “Be Our Guest” feast.
Animated dance numbers by enchanted objects feels like Fantasia being performed at the Tonys, sponsored by a confetti company.
“Be Our Guest” in particular is a choreographic extravaganza that enfolds decades of Disney history (all the way back to “Snow White” and “Fantasia”) in contemporary cinematic craft.
The animation is a riot of colors wrapped around the graceful sway of South American dancers, some of the most glorious animated dance since Walt Disney’s “Fantasia.”
When muscular Luisa (voiced by Jessica Darrow) sings “Surface Pressure,” a song about carrying hidden burdens, it’s accompanied by a kaleidoscopic, “Fantasia”-like dream sequence.
You'd have to go back to Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse toon, Brave Little Tailor (1938), in which Mickey subdues a fearsome giant, to find a pluckier, more likable little guy.
It’s a cute idea, a moment straight out of Walt Disney’s “Fantasia,” but it’s later explained away as part of Steve’s drunkenness.
Like Fantasia (1940), it will leave some viewers unimpressed, but like some eternal Disney classics -- e.g., Bambi (1942) and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) -- it has lively sequences and unique characters that could have emotional traction.
The modern Disney machine is just too wedded to formula and convention to approach the likes of Fantasia; indeed, today’s animation market in general is so homogenized that it seems a daring departure if someone even makes a feature-length cartoon without including show-stopping musical numbers, cute animal sidekicks, and an obligatory love interest ( The Iron Giant is a rare example).