The Little Match Girl was the last film made by Disney to use CAPS,Disney's digital ink & paint system. The film was supposed to be a part of Fantasia 2006 (The Music Project) which was canceled.
It also features the glorious music of Alexander Borodin (String Quartet No. 2 in D Major: Third Movement: Notturno, Andante).
It also features the glorious music of Alexander Borodin (String Quartet No. 2 in D Major: Third Movement: Notturno, Andante).
I saw this film at a local animation conference. It is a very touching piece.
ReplyDeleteConversely, I think this is one of the most mawkish and dishonest pieces of film making I've seen in a very long time.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen it in a little while, but does it not have a change in the end where the match girl lives?
Nope, she dead.
ReplyDeleteI used to love this kind of stuff when I was a kid. The Oscar Wilde adaptations were the best for pure proto-emo thrills:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI92hDyI2HY&mode=related&search=
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBWURy1surI
My only problem with it lies in the choice of music. It seems more like music played over film than film set to music. The Sorcerer's Apprentice (from the original Fantasia) shows the sorcerer place his hat on a workbench and it even glows to the music. The brooms march to the music as they carry buckets of water and Mickey even dances to the music. Even Chernabog the demon from "Night on Bald Mountain" practically conducts the orchestra with his mighty wings. There are perhaps a couple of scenes within matchgirl that seem to come close to acknowledging the music, but I sometimes wonder if they're simply coincidental rather than deliberate.
ReplyDeleteExample: At 02:04 the wind tugs at the girls clothes in time to the strings. But the strings play a similar turn a beat later, only gentler. It would have been nice to see at 02:06 the wind tug at her only more gently a second time as we settle into the scene. It would have been nice at 00:24 to have seen the ice skaters skate with a gentle gait in time to the music, to see the matchgirl at 00:33 pick up the dropped matches in time to the gentle mix of legato/staccato accompanying strings. And then from about 02:15 the music changes tonally and it just doesn't seem to fit the scene at all, being too lite and too jolly. And since you can't really change Borodin...
By the way, excellent finds, Mister Fawcett.