A Phantasy 1952

6.1 / 10   17 vote(s)
Fantasy Animation

An animated film drawn entirely in pastels. Various fantastical plant-like things "grow" from the ground, eventually launching five spheres. The spheres drift in space while changing shapes and come back down to another setting, which eventually becomes more fantastical and symbolic than the opening one. The soundtrack has a jazz slant, with an ensemble of four saxophones and synthetic sound (i.e. sound created by drawing directly on the soundtrack).

Top Billed Cast

Release Date 1952-01-01
Runtime 8m
Director Norman McLaren
Producer Norman McLaren
Writer

Though I did really quite enjoy this, I haven't the faintest idea how I might describe it to anyone else. Maurice Blackburn provides a saxophone-based score for what is an hybrid of the abstract and the identifiable. There are creatures, even vague human shapes but for the most part this is a fun, frequently symmetrical, animation that moves from the random to the perfectly defined in the most natural way. Norman McLaren's imagination and animation skills are creative, vivid and groundbreaking and even if I hadn't a clue as to what, if anything, I was being exposed to here - I did like it. Definitely worth seven minutes of your time.

CinemaSerf