A Phantasy

Spooky and atmospheric, director/animator Norman McLaren's love of the Surrealist art movement is brought to life in this slow- moving animated piece. Ever-changing and painstakingly hand- drawn, pastel landscapes, recalling those of artists Salvador Dali, Yves Tanguy & even Rene Magritte, are seen shifting and dissolving into one another as strange forms take light, grow, and "morph" into new, fantastic shapes. The soundtrack is also composed of an odd blend of saxophone melodies co-mingled with a synthetic score and sound effects created by McLaren (who filmed wave patterns optically onto the film's magnetic soundtrack). Of interesting note is the "metallic balls" sequence which the filmmaker would revisit again 17 years later in his beautiful film SPHERES (1969). A PHANTASY is a quirky and curious "stream of consciousness" wonderland for the senses!

{See also: "A Little Phantasy On A 19th-Century Painting (1946), by the same filmmaker.}

9/10. Doesn't need to be understood to be enjoyed!

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.

Norman McLaren was a very prolific Canadian animator who was born in the UK. Most of his films would be described as 'arty' and are pretty much unknown here in the States. However, I've seen several of his films on various DVD collections and I like these sorts of shorts--and was thrilled to see a seven disk set of his work. This particular short is from the first disk. However, I noticed on the program notes for this one that McLaren did not release this one for many, many years because he disliked it and thought it was inferior. In this case, I will bow to Mr. McLaren's analysis of the film. While I am sure it took a long time to make this film, it isn't particularly enjoyable--even as an art film. The moving images appear too random and incoherent--making you wonder why it was even made. An experimental film that is, unfortunately, a bit of a drag.