Short colour animated film showing shapes moving and set to a musical score. The shapes are coloured and primarily geometric in nature.Short colour animated film showing shapes moving and set to a musical score. The shapes are coloured and primarily geometric in nature.Short colour animated film showing shapes moving and set to a musical score. The shapes are coloured and primarily geometric in nature.
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Did you know
- TriviaThe original 1936 version of this film made by Oskar Fischinger for Paramount Studios was shot but never printed, until restored decades later. The version that is well known in distribution now is a remake completed in1943, made after Fischinger paid Paramount to buy back the rights to his material, using some of the original animation cells, with others repainted by Fischinger for the remake. The original film was shot in Technicolor but the remake used Gasparcolor because that was the process Fischinger preferred. Please note, official date for this title should be changed to 1936-43.
- Alternate versionsVersion prepared for Big Broadcast of 1937 is in black and white and has many visuals substituted for animated shapes.
- ConnectionsEdited into International Festival of Animation (1977)
- SoundtracksRadio Dynamics
Music by Ralph Rainger
Featured review
Colours of jazz
My first film from director Oskar Fischinger {though he did work on Lang's 'Frau im Mond (1929)'} is, I hear, characteristic of his career in film: abstract animation synchronised to a musical rhythm. 'Allegretto (1936),' his first project following his arrival in Hollywood, was originally commissioned as a segment of Paramount's 'The Big Broadcast of 1937 (1936),' but the production was later changed from Technicolor (or Gasparcolor) to black-and-white, and only a butchered version of Fischinger's film found its way into the final release. In any case, to deprive the animation of its colours is to remove most of its charm, something akin to watching 'Fantasia (1940)' in greyscale. Fischinger uses the movement of geometric shapes to visually represent music melodies, in this case Ralph Rainger's "Radio Dynamics," but it's the breathtakingly vivid colours that most strongly capture the pulsating energy of the jazz tune.
Something about Fischinger's animation struck me as naggingly-familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it. The entire film somehow resembles the sort of euphoria that a film character experiences when they step into a mighty Las Vegas casino, entering a world where suddenly everything seems possible {I'm not exactly sure why I specifically envisioned a casino – maybe it was the vibrant choice of colours, the floating diamond shapes, or the fact that I watched 'The Shanghai Gesture (1941)' just last night}. The pulsating geometry also reminded me of the animation sequence in Hitchcock's 'Vertigo (1958).' Afterall, I suppose that making random subjective associations is exactly what abstract cinema is all about. 'Allegretto' also has the benefit of a swinging jazz track that is massively enjoyable even on its own, but Fischinger adds colour, movement, and brings the music to life.
Something about Fischinger's animation struck me as naggingly-familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on it. The entire film somehow resembles the sort of euphoria that a film character experiences when they step into a mighty Las Vegas casino, entering a world where suddenly everything seems possible {I'm not exactly sure why I specifically envisioned a casino – maybe it was the vibrant choice of colours, the floating diamond shapes, or the fact that I watched 'The Shanghai Gesture (1941)' just last night}. The pulsating geometry also reminded me of the animation sequence in Hitchcock's 'Vertigo (1958).' Afterall, I suppose that making random subjective associations is exactly what abstract cinema is all about. 'Allegretto' also has the benefit of a swinging jazz track that is massively enjoyable even on its own, but Fischinger adds colour, movement, and brings the music to life.
helpful•32
- ackstasis
- Apr 3, 2009
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime3 minutes
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- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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