Fantasia/Awesome

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Fantasia

• Yen Sid clearing away the water from the great hall.
• The entire segment of The Rite of Spring, especially watching the dinosaurs move gracefully through the misty forest.
• "Rite of Spring", specifically the sequence of the newborn Earth still settling. This troper still gets chills as the bubbles of magma explode in time to the music and the seas come rushing in.
• Although it doubles as Nightmare Fuel, Chernabog raising his arms to the final stings of Night on Bald Mountain.
  • Followed by him being driven back by the heavenly bells.
• The "Night on Bald Mountain"/"Ave Maria" combo. After terrifying the utter hell out of audiences with one of the scariest characters Disney's ever devised, the coming dawn brings with it the best possible reassurance that there are still things to hope for. Gorgeous.
  • Here's something about the making of that segment. The whole "Ave Maria" segment had to be refilmed twice and the final filmreel was flown from Hollywood to the New York premiere just four hours before showtime.
• When it was released in 1940, Fantasia was the most expensive film Disney had made, and it was a complete critical and financial flop. Its failure nearly bankrupted Disney, and was one of the biggest reasons (other than World War II) that the studio didn't put out another full-length animated feature until Cinderella. Nowadays, it is often regarded as not only Disney's best feature, but as one of the greatest films of all time, making Fantasia a standout example of Vindicated by History. If that's not awesome, I don't know what is.

Fantasia 2000

• The Wood Sprite's revival at the end of The Firebird'
• In "Firebird Suite", the Sprite has suffered a horrific Disney Death and has just been revived by the Elk. Literally ashen, she understandably blames herself for (innocently) waking the Firebird, but he has faith in her ability to restore the decimated forest. (All apparent to us without dialogue.) He carries her toward a little tree, and she begins to cry - and the tears immediately start to regenerate the forest. Realizing what's happening, she shifts into the form of a wave...in mere minutes, the forest is revived and more beautiful than ever before, and she finally dissolves into the wind as the Elk looks on. This troper feels "awe-inspiring" is too mild a term for it.
  • The Firebird itself is pretty awesome, too, even while being one of the scariest things Disney ever put on film. I can't be the only Troper who gets chills when the Firebird makes his entrance.
    • Trust me, you are not. Best use of a Scare Chord ever.
• "Pines of Rome", AKA the flying whales sequence. Especially the last three minutes. Sure it's bizarre and surreal but there's just something about that combination of the whales leaping up from the clouds and the majestic sweeping EPICALLY gorgeous music.
  • This troper believes the proper term is Awesome Music, especially since seeing that sequence for the first time just about knocked him on his ass. That shot from the underside of the 'armada', if you will, slowly spinning around to look forward, into the sun...
• Disney's done some Al Hirschfeld homage before (the Genie in Aladdin, for example), but the "Rhapsody in Blue" sequence really brings home everything about Hirschfeld's career: the distinctive design of the characters, the love of music, the love of New York, and the love of the theater. The fact that it's all done with George Gerswhin makes it an entire banana split of style.