Allegro non troppo

Allegro non troppois a 1976 Italiananimatedfilm directed byBruno Bozzetto.Featuring six pieces of classical music, the film is aparodyofWalt Disney's 1940 feature filmFantasia,two of its segments being derived from the earlier film.The classical pieces are set to color animation, ranging from comedy to deep tragedy.

Allegro non troppo
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Bruno Bozzetto
Written by	Bruno Bozzetto Guido Manuli Maurizio Nichetti
Produced by	Bruno Bozzetto
Starring	Maurizio Micheli Maurizio Nichetti Néstor Garay Maurialuisa Giovannini
Cinematography	Mario Masini
Music by	Recordings fromDeutsche Grammophon
Production companies	Bruno Bozzetto Film Ministero del Turismo e dello Spettacolo (uncredited)
Distributed by	Roxy International (1977) (Italy) Specialty Films (1977) (USA) (subtitled)
Release date	12 March 1976(1976-03-12)(Italy)
Running time	85 minutes
Country	Italy
Language	Italian

At the beginning, in between the animation, and at the end, there are black and white live-action sequences, displaying the fictional animator, orchestra, conductor and filmmaker, with many humorous scenes about the fictional production of the film.Some of these sections mix animation and live action.

The film was released in two versions. The first includes live action sequences in between the classical pieces; the second version of the film omits these, replacing them with animatedPlasticineletters spelling out the title of the next piece of music.

WhileAllegro non troppospoofs its source,The Walt Disney Companyhas been positively receptive towards the film. Disney veteranWard Kimballwould recommend theBolérosegment to his animation students, and theWalt Disney Family Museumheld an exhibit on Bruno Bozzetto, featuring his work on the film.

Title

In music, an instruction of "allegro ma non troppo"means to play" fast, but not overly so ". Without the" ma ", the Italian sentence should be rewritten as" non troppo allegro ", which literally means" not so happy ", and in musical terms it could be interpreted as" not too fast ". While" allegro ma non troppo "bears a positive connotation (as in" happy, just not so much ")," non troppo allegro "sounds more negative (as in" not really that happy ").

Program

• Claude Debussy'sPrélude à l'après-midi d'un faune:an elderlysatyrrepeatedly attempts to cosmetically recapture his youth and virility, but all in vain.With each failure, the satyr gets smaller and smaller, until he roams across a vast countryside which turns out to be a woman's body.
• Antonín Dvořák'sSlavonic Dance No. 7, Op. 46,begins in a large community of cliff-sidecave-dwellers.A solitarycaveman,wanting to better himself, goes out onto the plain and builds himself a new home. From this point on, the rest of the community copies everything that he does.Annoyed that everyone is able to keep up with his advances so quickly, his attempts to break away from them leads to his planning a bizarre act of mass vengeance with unintended and humorous consequences.
• Maurice Ravel'sBoléro:liquid at the bottom of a soda bottle left behind by space travelers attains life, and progresses through fanciful representations of the stages ofevolutionand history until skyscrapers erupt from the ground and destroy all that has come before. This segment parallelsThe Rite of Springsegment fromFantasia,complete with a solar eclipse. Its opening moment was used as the image for the film poster.
• Jean Sibelius'sValse triste:a solitary cat wanders in the ruins of a large house. The cat remembers the life that used to fill the house when it was occupied.Eventually all of these images fade away, as does the cat, just before the ruins are demolished.
• Antonio Vivaldi'sConcerto in C major, RV 559:a female bee prepares to dine on a flower in elaborate style, complete with utensils and a portable TV. She is continually interrupted by two lovers having a romantic interlude on the nearby grass.In the end, after having her meal continually interrupted and each time being forced to gather up her things and scramble to safety, she stings the male on his rump.
• Igor Stravinsky'sThe Firebird(specificallyThe Princesses' KhorovodandThe Infernal Dance of King Katschey) begins with a lump of clay molded by a monotheistic symbol of the omniscient pyramid, first making a few unsuccessful creatures with overly awkward limbs, then finally theAdam and Eveas portrayed inGenesis.Adam and Eve then transform into cel animation and, as in Genesis, theSerpent of Edencomes up to them, offering the fruits of knowledge in the form of anapple.After they refuse it, the serpent swallows the apple himself. Falling asleep, he is immediately plunged into a nightmare in a hellish environment where he is first tormented by fierydemonsand then plagued by all the things that are supposed to corrupt humankind (i.e. sex, alcohol, money, material objects, drugs, violence, etc.);he also grows arms and legs and is magicked into a suit andfedora.When the music ends after he wakes up, he is still wearing the suit and hat, but after telling Adam and Eve his dream in a fast-motion and incomprehensible manner, he sheds the suit (losing his arms and legs but keeping the hat) and spits up the still-whole apple.
• In anepiloguesequence, the film's host asks an animatedIgor-type monster (identified as "Franceschini" ) to retrieve a finale for the film from a basement storeroom. Franceschini rejects several of these, but delightedly approves of one which depicts a ridiculously escalating series of accidents (featuring an assortment of short orchestral clips instead of a single piece (Among them areJohannes Brahms'Hungarian Dance No. 5,Johann Sebastian Bach'sToccata and Fugue in D minor,Dvorak's Slavonic Dance No. 7 (from before) andFranz Liszt'sHungarian Rhapsody No. 2), ending with the planetEarthexploding in anuclear war.The action returns to the host and the conductor discussing their next project. After a bit of brainstorming the host reveals his latest original and brilliant idea:Snow White and the Seven Dwarfswith the titleSleeping Beauty.This scene turns out to be another finale being watched by Franceschini. After it ends, the Serpent of Eden from theFirebird Suitepops out and bites Franceschini on the nose, and the words "HAPPY END" drop on them, the serpent peering out of the "D".

All of the recordings used in the film were courtesy ofDeutsche Grammophon.

Live action sequences

The uncut film also contains comic live action sequences, in black and white blended with occasional color animations, that parody theDeems Taylorintroductions fromFantasia."The Presenter" (Maurizio Micheli) starts off with an exaggerated version of Taylor's opening introduction inFantasia( "A new and original film".. "you will see the music and hear the drawings".. "a fantasia" ) only to be interrupted by a phone call from California informing him that the film had already been done. He angrily objects, dismissing the caller as an ill-mannered liar, explaining to the audience that the caller claims that someone ( "Prisney", "Grisney", "some American" ) had done this years before, then telling the caller to at least watch the film, and hangs up. Next the Presenter introduces "The Orchestra Master" (Néstor Garay) and an orchestra made up of little old ladies as the Orchestra Master roughly rounds them up from a cattle pen into a large trailer for transport to the theater. As the trailer heads out to the theater the Presenter exults, "Pisney has already done this?". Lastly before the first animated music segment (Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune), the Presenter introduces "The Animator" (Maurizio Nichetti).as the Orchestra Master retrieves him from a dungeon-like cell in which the Animator ( "a free artist" ) has been chained to a wall (as the Presenter puts it: "a binding contract based on trust and mutual respect" ). A pretty young cleaning woman (Marialuisa Giovannini) also appears in each segment, although she is barely acknowledged by any of the characters except the Animator (who seems to take an increasing fancy to her as the film progresses). Each sequence portrays action (like the tossing of a Coca-Cola bottle) that leads directly into the next animated portion of the film and occasionally includes references to a previous segment (such as achamber potappearing on the Orchestra Master's head or the female bee and the serpent from their respective segments appearing briefly in the subsequent live-action sequences). After the "Bolero" segment, a gorilla (inspired by the animated character in theBoléro) also appears a few times, first chasing then dancing with The Animator, then later beating up the Orchestra Master who has attacked the Animator. After theFirebirdsequence, the Animator transforms the cleaning woman into a cartoon fairy tale princess and himself into a prince (apparently resembling the titular character and her Prince from Walt Disney's 1937 film,Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) before both float away, thus leaving the Presenter and Orchestra Master without a finale. This leads into the epilogue sequence.

Cast

Character	Original actor	English voice
The Presenter	Maurizio Micheli	Unknown
The Animator	Maurizio Nichetti
The Orchestra Master	Néstor Garay
The Cleaning Girl	Maurialuisa Giovannini
Man in Gorilla costume	Osvaldo Salvi

Reception

Allegro non troppoholds a 89% "Fresh" rating atRotten Tomatoesbased on 19 reviews.Film journalistPhil Hallwrote that theValse tristesequence was "genuinely heartbreaking" and "one of the most beautiful [sequences] in animation history."

Allegro non troppowas given a Critics' Referendum Prize at theYellow Kid AwardsinLuccain 1976.

See also

• List of animated package films

External links

• Allegro non troppoatIMDb
• ‹ThetemplateAllMovie titleis beingconsidered for deletion.›Allegro non troppoatAllMovie
• TraileronYouTube