Destino is a beautiful Mexican old bolero song that speaks of destiny, timing and love, and the thread of this film. Although created in 2003, this was a joint project of Salvador Dali and Walt Disney, started in 1946 but never finished because of lack of funds. Disney, the company, decided to have it finished to include it in Fantasia 2000. The short fits perfectly with the original Fantasy, in spirit, style, themes and mood, something remarkable because the original creators are no longer with us.
Like other pieces in Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, Destino is a symbolic piece that links the music, the visuals and the narrative in very artistic ways. It has many levels of reading and it is up to you what in the story speaks to you, or what the story is about. It was never meant to mean only one thing because, although Dali certainly projected his main themes and visuals into the story and imagery (the world of the oneiric, the subconscious, the Psyche, the Freudian) Walt Disney saw it mostly as a romantic love story. Destino is a contemporary ballet with an exploration of the male and female psyche expressed in a mythic romantic drama.
The movie uses 2D animation and is wonderfully Disneyan (what Disney was before it became too commercial), with a beautifully lyric piece that stays true to the soul of the creators and feels as if they had carried it out to the end. Dominique Monfery has achieved something wonderful, magic and respectful to what the piece meant to be.
A short film like this might have been mind-blowing in the 1950s, as planned, because the format, language and themes were very hot and innovative at time. They are not as much nowadays, so the freshness is perhaps gone, it feels like a wonderful Disney vintage piece, and that is remarkable, but it didn't touch or move me.
Like other pieces in Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, Destino is a symbolic piece that links the music, the visuals and the narrative in very artistic ways. It has many levels of reading and it is up to you what in the story speaks to you, or what the story is about. It was never meant to mean only one thing because, although Dali certainly projected his main themes and visuals into the story and imagery (the world of the oneiric, the subconscious, the Psyche, the Freudian) Walt Disney saw it mostly as a romantic love story. Destino is a contemporary ballet with an exploration of the male and female psyche expressed in a mythic romantic drama.
The movie uses 2D animation and is wonderfully Disneyan (what Disney was before it became too commercial), with a beautifully lyric piece that stays true to the soul of the creators and feels as if they had carried it out to the end. Dominique Monfery has achieved something wonderful, magic and respectful to what the piece meant to be.
A short film like this might have been mind-blowing in the 1950s, as planned, because the format, language and themes were very hot and innovative at time. They are not as much nowadays, so the freshness is perhaps gone, it feels like a wonderful Disney vintage piece, and that is remarkable, but it didn't touch or move me.