Allegro Non Troppo, 1970s Italian parody of Disney's Fantasia

Daniel sez,


In 1977, Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto made this beautiful and often very funny (although the Sibelius' Valse Triste cartoon is quite poignant) parody of Disney's Fantasia which someone has uploaded to Google Video. Unfortunately, there are no subtitles for the live action parts which are in Italian, but the real gems are the non-verbal cartoons, especially the Ravel's Bolero bit which is a terrific parody of the evolution part of Fantasia using the Rite of Spring (the part with the dinosaurs). A warning for those viewing at work- cartoon nudity abounds, some of it full-frontal.

I have an ancient english-dubbed version on VHS. The black and white live-action parts that you are missing by not knowing Italian aren't very good, mostly a weak Fellini parody with a lot of slapstick, but the color animation is terrific. The first cartoon starts around 9 minutes in and there are short live action breaks in between each subsequent cartoon.

The style is refreshingly different from most other animated films I've seen, in some ways reminiscent of the New Yorker cartoonist Gahan Wilson.

A subtitled version is apparently available on DVD for $27.

Link

(Thanks, Daniel!)