If you are one of
those people who buys into the mostly-USAian delusion that all
animation should be fluffy bunnies and Care Bears and suitable for even
the youngest children, this is not a DVD for you.
If you're interested in this movie due to fondly remembering it from
its 1977 US theatrical release, be warned that - as "Leon" is a
different film from its original edited/softened US release as "The
Professional" - this is a different, more European film.
Ten minutes have been restored, and they're mostly or all in the
live-action framing sequences - bits that were cut for the original US
release because they were too earthy or potentially "offensive" for any
of a number of reasons. The animated sequences, are just as brilliant
as you probably remember. The film is presented here in its original
Italian, with subtitles available.
The image is clean and the sound clear.
Responding to a few things in earlier reviews:
First: The "director" in the framing sequence doesn't say they're going
to *call* the film "Fantasia" - he says it will *be* "a fantasia",
which, according to the dictionary is:
1. {Music}
a. a
composition in fanciful or irregular form or style.
b. a potpourri of
well-known airs arranged with interludes and florid embellishments.
2. {Literature} an
imaginative or fanciful work, esp. one dealing with supernatural or
unnatural events or characters: "The stories of Poe are fantasias of
horror."
3. something
considered
to be unreal, weird, exotic, or grotesque.
Every part of that definition pretty well covers some
part of trhis
film...
Second: "Allegro non Troppo" (short for "Allegro ma non troppo
allegro") is a musical direction that literally translates as
"fast/sprightly but not too
fast".
I'd say that this film - mostly for the "Afternoon of a faun" sequence
and some of the framing sequence - is about PG-13 level. You might want
to pre-screen it before letting pre-teens watch it. (Personally, i
wouldn't have any problem with that, but your mileage may vary.)
I will say that anyone who can remain dry-eyed after the "Sad Waltz"
(Sibelius' "Valse Triste") sequence had probably better go back to
"Shrek" or "Die Hard IV" or similar films. (From the opening and the
last shot in this sequence, it appears to me, BTW, as if the old house
in that sequence is being knocked down in order to build more soulless
concrete boxes, rather than being a bombed-out relic of war...)
The extra material on the DVD includes ten of Bozzetto's short films
(and, if you consider [live action] full-frontal female nudity
offensive, you might want to skip some of them), and an Italian TV
dcumentary, "The Worlds of Bruno Bozetto".
Bozzetto describes one of his long-time collaborators as an "Italian
Tex Avery", and the description is apt - both in the anarchic spirit of
the work, and in the way that it is willing to go further than much
USAian animation.
A brilliant film for animation/music fans who aren't irrevocably hung
up
on the idea that all animation should be clean, pretty and inoffensive. |
