Leopold Stokowski Movies

Initially released to IMAX theaters at the crescendo of millennial fever and 60 years after the original Fantasia, Fantasia 2000 was meant to revitalize Walt Disney's goal of a constantly evolving film, with new segments replacing old ones with each re-release. Only The Sorcerer's Apprentice remains, with seven new shorts. Angular, abstracted butterfly-like shapes fly through the air in Beethoven's Symphony No. 5; computer-animated whales take flight in Respighi's Pines of Rome; Al Hirschfeld's caricatures of New York life come alive in George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue; Hans Christian Andersen's The Steadfast Tin Soldier is retold with computer animation against Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro, Opus 102; frantic flamingos try to stop their yo-yoing comrade in Camille Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals, Finale; Donald and Daisy Duck play Noah and his wife trying to manage the ark to Sir Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance; and the cycle of life, death, and rebirth are celebrated in Stravinsky's Firebird Suite. ~ Emru Townsend, Rovi

The classical music performance film Leopold Stokowski: Nielsen Symphony No. 2 finds the legendary maestro Stokowski leading the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in a 1967 interpretation of composer Carl August Nielsen's Four Temperaments. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Auteur theorists who've charted the career of "cult" director Edgar G. Ulmer have seldom mentioned Carnegie Hall, simply because it was more expensive than most of Ulmer's films and thus can't be regarded a "low-budget masterpiece." The wafer-thin plotline concerns a young immigrant woman (Marsha Hunt) who takes a job as a Carnegie Hall cleaning woman. Her love of music leads her to a better job in the Hall, and after several years she rises to the position of concert organizer. The woman uses her clout to promote her own son's career as a pianist. Carnegie Hall showcases a number of celebrated musicians. Selections include: Arthur Rubinstein performing Chopin's Polonaise in A Flat, Jascha Heifetz performing Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in G Major by Tchaikovsky, Ezio Pinza singing both the drinking song from Don Giovanni and one of the arias from Simon di Boccanegra, Lily Pons singing The Bell Song from Lakme by Delibes, and Jan Peerce singing O Sole Mio.The film also includes musical performances by Bruno Walter,Rise Stevens, Gregor Piatagorsky, Harry James, Vaughn Monroe, Leopold Stokowski, and others. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Fantasia, Walt Disney's animated masterpiece of the 1940s, grew from a short-subject cartoon picturization of the Paul Dukas musical piece The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Mickey Mouse was starred in this eight-minute effort, while the orchestra was under the direction of Leopold Stokowski. Disney and Stokowski eventually decided that the notion of marrying classical music with animation was too good to confine to a mere short subject; thus the notion was expanded into a two-hour feature, incorporating seven musical selections and a bridging narration by music critic Deems Taylor. The first piece, Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor", was used to underscore a series of abstract images. The next selection, Tschiakovsky's "Nutcracker Suite", is performed by dancing wood-sprites, mushrooms, flowers, goldfish, thistles, milkweeds and frost fairies. The Mickey Mouse version of "Sorcerer's Apprentice" is next, followed by Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring", which serves as leitmotif for the story of the creation of the world, replete with dinosaurs and volcanoes. After a brief jam session involving the live-action musicians comes Beethoven's "Pastorale Symphony", enacted against a Greek-mythology tapestry by centaurs, unicorns, cupids and a besotted Bacchus. Ponchielli's "Dance of the Hours" is performed by a Corps de Ballet consisting of hippos, ostriches and alligators. The program comes to a conclusion with a fearsome visualization of Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain", dominated by the black god Tchernobog (referred to in the pencil tests as "Yensid", which is guess-what spelled backwards); this study of the "sacred and profane" segues into a reverent rendition of Schubert's "Ave Maria". Originally, Debussy's "Clair de Lune" was part of the film, but was cut from the final release print; also cut, due to budgetary considerations, was Disney's intention of issuing an annual "update" of Fantasia with new musical highlights and animated sequences. A box-office disappointment upon its first release (due partly to Disney's notion of releasing the film in an early stereophonic-sound process which few theatres could accommodate), Fantasia eventually recouped its cost in its many reissues. For one of the return engagements, the film was retitled Fantasia Will Amaze-ya, while the 1963 reissue saw the film "squashed" to conform with the Cinemascope aspect ratio. Other re-releases pruned the picture from 120 to 88 minutes, and in 1983, Disney redistributed the film with newly orchestrated music and Tim Matheson replacing Deems Taylor as narrator. Once and for all, a restored Fantasia was made available to filmgoers in 1990. A sequel, Fantasia 2000, was released in theaters in 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The third film of Paramount's "Big Broadcast" series follows the pattern of the first two titles: negligible plot with plenty of memorable music and guest stars. Jack Carson (Jack Benny) owns the radio station this time out; he doesn't get along with the sponsors, and many are threatening to pull their advertising off the air. Jack's solution? Put on a big show, of course, with a handful of the biggest stars of the day. George Burns and Gracie Allen appear once again, this time as the hosts of a golfing program; musical guests include Benny Goodman and his Orchestra, Gene Krupa, Larry Adler, and Leopold Stokowski. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi