Rhapsody in Blue: Fantasia 2000's Jewel in the Crown
The
most charming piece in Walt Disney Feature Animation's Fantasia
2000 is the stylish portrait of New York in its palmier
days, set to George Gershwin's 1924 "Rhapsody in Blue"
and drawn in the style of caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. The segment
was directed by Eric Goldberg, who animated the mercurial Genie
in Aladdin; the art director was Susan Goldberg -- a rare
example of a husband and wife creative team in animation.
"Rhapsody" follows four restless individuals through `30s
Gotham. Rachel, a tiny girl, is weary of being dragged to endless
private lessons by her governess; John longs to be free of his battle-ax
wife and her spoiled lapdog. Sad-eyed Joe searches for a job, while
Duke, an African-American construction worker, dreams of being a
jazz drummer. A series of coincidences and the magic of the city
make each of their dreams come true.
"New York embraces all types of people, and they're all walking
the streets at the same time," explains Eric. "How people
of such diverse backgrounds affect one another when they live so
closely together really interested me. We devised a story where
they all help each other achieve their goals -- without ever realizing
that they're helping one another. `Rhapsody' has always been one
of my favorite pieces of classical music, and the combination of
Hirschfeld and Gershwin to evoke 1930's New York seemed like a real
winner."
Eric got the idea for "Rhapsody"
when he was finishing work on Aladdin. He approached Hirschfeld,
who gave his blessings to the project. After completing the "Carnival
of the Animals" segment of Fantasia, on which he and
Susan also collaborated, Eric storyboarded the entire film. When
production halted on the feature Kingdom in the Sun to rework
its story, the Goldbergs pitched "Rhapsody" to Disney
Feature Animation President Tom Schumacher as a down time project
for the Kingdom artists. They received the go-ahead to make
it as a short.
Hirschfeld's celebrated caricatures display a marvelous elegance
and economy of line. But they're static works that show their subjects
from a single perspective: "Rhapsody" required the animators
to move the characters in three dimensions while maintaining his
polished minimalism.
"I animated the scene where Gershwin
himself plays the piano, so I had to deal with making the figure
look like a Hirschfeld drawing turning in three dimensions without
losing any of the design qualities," says Eric. "We shot
live-action of Ralph Grierson, who plays the piano in the piece,
then Kent Holliday and I sat down together and determined which
fingers hit which keys on which notes. But not only did the fingers
have to hit the right keys at the right time, they had to look like
Hirschfeld fingers -- I had to curl one up or crack a knuckle in
a way that resembles a Hirschfeld drawing. It was fraught with challenges,
but it was darned fun to do." It's obvious that the other animators also
enjoyed making "Rhapsody." There's an almost tangible
exuberance to the animation. The characters move with a grace that
is markedly freer than their counterparts in the recent Disney features.
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