Director: Pixote Hunt
Featured Music: Ludwig Van Beethoven
Art Director: Pixote Hunt
Animators:Wayne Carlisi, Raul Garcia

Description:

Set to the familiar strains of Beethoven's classic symphony, director Pixote Hunt uses abstract imagery and a beautiful pastel palette to tell this tale of good versus evil. The story follows a "great controversy" between two groups of objects, differing in shape and color, and the buildup to a climactic confrontation. Using an innovative approach that texture-maps pastel colors onto traditional hand-drawn animation as well as some dazzling computer-generated effects, this fantasy takes flight. Hunt, a talented animator, art director (The Rescuers Down Under), and director (The Pagemaster), conceived this segment and saw it through from storyboard to completion.

Pomp and Circumstance:

Da Da Da-Daaa! Those famous four notes herald the beginning of Beethoven’s famous Fifth Symphony. During the Second World War, it was used to signify “V” for victory because of its resemblance to the Morse code signal for V. Others have interpreted it to mean fate knocking.
We picked Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony to be our first number because we wanted the audience to have a sense of instant familiarity, notes Roy Disney. The opening notes are probably the most famous four notes in music and I think everybody in the Western World knows them. We also liked the fact that it was a deep piece of music that lent itself to the abstract, handmade looking short piece we wanted to open the film with. We were searching for a rhythm of color and motion to tell our story of good versus evil. The music is really very emotional and stirring. We developed and gave serious consideration to several different stories and stylistic approaches before settling on the final one. Pixote has done a stunning job taking the audience into a pastel colored world of shape and form filled with clouds and waterfalls.
Pixote Hunt spent two years creating the story and imagery that accompany this three-minute musical selection in his role as director and art director. He recalls, Roy and Don Ernst asked me if I would consider coming up with some new ideas for the visuals to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. I don’t think any artist really believes it when someone says, ‘go dream and come back with something’. Usually they say, ‘go dream, but come back with my vision’. This was a rare opportunity.
When I listened to the music, it sounded like a great controversy was going on between good and evil, adds the director. It was pretty clear to me that a battle was going on. There was a little bit of melody and a lot of power. I came up with these triangular shapes to represent the two sides. The good shapes would move like butterflies; the bad ones would move more like bats. I didn’t want to be too literal. It’s more fun to let that reveal itself. The music and the tempo are so fast, you don’t really have a lot of time to study things. You get hit with all this passion and when its over you take a breath. The good shapes are multicolored and attracted to the light. The bad shapes, represented in dark colors, want to attack them and stop them from reaching the light.
Hunt adds, Roy wanted this to be a moving pastel. And pastel is a medium you just don’t see very often in animation. It’s basically dried pigment sitting on the surface of the paper. If you touch it, sneeze on it, lay anything on top of it, it’s gone. We knew that once each background was shot, it would basically be destroyed because of the glass plate that goes down to hold it in place. If there was a retake you had to start all over. We found a way to put some paint down first and then put the pastel down on top of that. By mixing the media we were able to get more saturation of color and make things very bright and vibrant. We worked closely with Ann Tucker in our CAPS department to get it to work.
Music is one of my loves, says the director. I’ve been going to school at night to study composition so it was great being able to have music in front of me and just mark the phrases where the color of the music would change.
My favorite Disney movie has always been Fantasia and ironically the abstract segment, the Toccata and Fugue is my favorite segment.
In bringing this segment to life, Hunt and his team used conventional animation techniques for scenes that called for personality. The big flocking scenes involved the latest computer graphics technology.

Musical Background:

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 premiered in Vienna in December 1808 on the same night as the composer’s Symphony No. 6 and Piano Concerto No. 4. It was an instant success with the critics and audience. They responded to the storytelling nature of the music and its dramatic impact. The ominous opening C minor motif transforming into the C major fanfare of the finale appealed to the new Romantic ideal of the age.
Born in Bonn on December 16, 1770, Ludwig van Beethoven was only 11 years old when he became assistant court organist and 12 when he was named harpsichordist for the court orchestra and violinist for the theater orchestra. His father and grandfather were both musicians in the royal court as well. A great admirer of Bach, Beethoven patterned his works after the famous composer. His musical talent was recognized and nurtured at an early age, but his other education was neglected and as a result he never felt comfortable in “high society” after becoming famous.
Moving to Vienna, Beethoven had no trouble getting hired for private parties and public performances. His independent spirit and toughness allowed him to become not only an acclaimed composer but also one of the first to survive self-employed and unbeholden to church.
In his late 20s, Beethoven began to hear noises, which was a symptom of his ensuing deafness. By 1810, he found he could no longer perform as a pianist, and two years later, he was completely deaf. He did not let it prevent him from working and, in fact, his nine famous symphonies were written as his hearing was deteriorating. Among his idiosyncrasies, he would always pour ice water over his head before composing. He was also known to storm off stage during a performance if people talked while he played. Known for his sharp tongue, he once insulted an overweight violist by writing a song entitled, Praise to the Fat One.
Beethoven died in 1823. The story is told that as he lay dying, a friend reported that the performance of his last quartet had not pleased the audience. Beethoven answered simply, It will.