When Walt Disney made “Fantasia” in 1940, he thought it would provide a great series of cartoons set to classical music. Unfortunately, Walt Disney did not see this idea happen, as the movie was a critical failure at the box office and he did not live to see what would follow. It wouldn’t be until the year 2000 when “Fantasia 2000” was released. But in between these two movies is another film that combines classical music with animation. And that film is called “Allegro Non Troppo” from 1976. It’s a movie in which critics are not fond of, yet it’s something that you might want to check out. “Allegro Non Troppo” is a good movie that has some flaws, but it showcases animation from a different source.
The main premise of the movie is a parody of “Fantasia” from Italy. Although parody is kind of harsh as the film does give an original feel to the viewer. In fact, let’s check out the six segments in the movie and compare them to the “Fantasia” films.
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun: This tells the story of an elderly satyr who wants to have sex but gets rejected every time. It’s a nice piece that parodies The Pastoral Symphony from “Fantasia”, but what’s the moral to our story? Is it that the old can never find love, or are we to regret our loved ones?
Slavonic Dance No. 7, Op. 46: A caveman just wants to get rid of his neighbors, but they follow suit in everything he does. This leads to one of the funniest endings in the movie. It’s not bad and the humor is good.
Bolero: This showcases the evolution of a bunch of creatures going on an exodus ultimately being defeated by man. It’s definitely the best segment out of the entire film and it’s a great parody of The Rite of Spring.
Valse Triste: Like the last one, this segment is brilliant. It tells a nice about a cat in a half-destroyed home who thinks about how great it was living there. This selection is very sad, especially near the end.
Concerto in C major: This selection has a bee going to have lunch but is interrupted by two lovers. Not the strongest segment and it could have been done better.
Firebird: Puts a twist on the Adam and Eve story by having the serpent eating the apple. There, the serpent starts hallucinating all the things that are considered bad. The song was done way better in “Fantasia 2000”. This is definitely the strangest segment of the movie.
All of these selections are intertwined with live action done in black and white, while the animation is done in color.
“Allegro Non Troppo” is not a film for kids. The reason behind this is because the first and last segments deal with sexual situations as well as full frontal nudity. It’s a movie for animation buffs to look at. The art style is brilliant, and the character and creature designs are something that you’ve never seen before. But with all great things come the problems.
I personally found two problems with the movie. These constraints are the black and white live action cutaways, and the first and last animated segments. In the case of the former, the main actors try to pull off slapstick to the audience, but it just doesn’t work. It’s not funny and it’s uninteresting. The first segment makes you wish for more, and last one doesn’t make any sense. But the rest of the movie is actually quite good.
Overall, “Allegro Non Troppo” is a pretty good animated movie for adults, despite having a few mishaps that people actually need to check out. If Walt Disney knew that this film existed, had he lived, he would say that it’s a complete rip off. But it’s not. It’s a parody and it’s quite different. You might want to see something better or something as close, as the movie it’s based off.