James Algar
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Filmography
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Connections, in both directions
Drawing inspiration from the overtly flat, linear animation style of 1960s Disney shorts — not unlike Fantasia 2000’s Rhapsody in Blue sequence and Pixar’s own “Day & Night” short — Soul whips up a friendly world overseen by cheery, ontologically ambiguous counselors who are all called “Jerry” (voices include Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade and Wes Studi) whose look is part Picasso and part UPA short.
The film suddenly transforms from a Pixar spin on the sublime “Rhapsody in Blue” sequence in Fantasia 2000 to an animated take on Uncut Gems , as the stakes — and tension — ramps up to an absurd degree.
In 2005, former Disney animator Peter Lepeniotis (Toy Story 2, Fantasia 2000) directed “Surly Squirrel,” a computer-animated short about a foulmouthed municipal rodent who conspires with his rat friend to steal pizza from a park trash can across the street from an in-progress bank robbery.
Oh sure, one could appreciate the weird ’50s noir vibe being pushed by Peter Lepeniotis (who worked as an animator on such films as Toy Story 2 and Fantasia 2000) or the desire to parallel the adult and ankle biter storylines, but for the most part, the movie is all pretense and very little payoff.
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Directed by Wes Anderson
influenced by The Wind in the Willows (1949)
Themes
Hearing these familiar voices issuing from the bristling, bustling animal forms is one of the daft pleasures of “Fantastic Mr. Fox,’’ which at times feels closer to Kenneth Grahame’s beloved “The Wind in the Willows’’ than Dahl.
That same fiery climax also feels surprisingly (and pleasantly) reminiscent of the “Firebird Suite” sequence in Fantasia 2000, as we see a winsome female character face off against a visualization of environmental destruction, only to incur a sort of verdant rebirth.
Te Fiti and Te Ka are borrowed directly from the Firebird Suite segment of Fantasia 2000 , with its pagan spirits of life and destruction — though where Fantasia 2000 presents its lava monster and life-giving sprite as opposed, dualistic principles, Moana takes a more monistic approach.