Chapter 7
"The First Act"
With Josh still on his mind, Ron got himself comfortable as the sounds of an orchestra tuning up were heard as the screen came on to show the title card for Fantasia. Seeing the members of the orchestra come on and into their places had given a sense of feeling that the audience was act an actual performance.
"Just the way Walt wanted us to experience it," Kim whispered to Ron.
Ron could not help but smile at this as he placed his arm around Kim's neck. Ron really could not help but think of how beautiful Kim looked this very evening. He had said it before and he would say it again that Kim looked wonderful in a blue dress. Even though it reminded him of her date with Josh, it was his personal favorite and he was happy that she wore it for him.
Just then, a dark shaded figure came walking up the podium towards the audience and he began to address the audience.
"How do you do?" said the figure, who was dressed in a black tuxedo just like Ron was. "My name is Deems Taylor, and it's my very pleasant duty to welcome you here on behalf of Walt Disney, Leopold Stokowski, and all the other artists and musicians whose combined talents went into the creation of this new form of entertainment, "Fantasia". What you're going to see are the designs and pictures and stories that music inspired in the minds and imaginations of a group of artists. In other words, these are not going to be the interpretations of trained musicians, which I think is all to the good."
"Much better than Josh is," Ron thought as he continued to rub down on Kim's neck. As he rubbed her neck, he began to get a sense of sexual feeling towards his girlfriend and was thinking of maybe getting even closer to Kim. But Ron then remembered what Mr. Barkin had said to him and decided to let go of his suspicions for now.
"Now there are three kinds of music on this "Fantasia" program," Deems Taylor continued. "First, there's the kind that tells a definite story. Then there's the kind that while it has no specific plot, it does paint a series of more or less definite pictures. And then there's a third kind, music that exists simply for its own sake. Now, the number that opens our "Fantasia" program, the "Toccata and Fugue", is music of this third kind, what we call "absolute music". Even the title has no meaning beyond a description of the form of the music. What you will see on the screen is a picture of the various abstract images that might pass through your mind if you sat in a concert hall listening to this music. At first, you're more or less conscious of the orchestra."
Ron then could see that Kim was starting to grow uncomfortable with what he was doing to her and so he released his grip on her.
"Might as well wait until the moment is right," he thought to himself. "I know Mr. Barkin said to keep it clean with her, but I can't help it."
So our picture opens with a series of impressions of the conductor and the players," finished Deems Taylor as the camera began to pull back. "Then the music begins to suggest other things to your imagination. They might be, oh, just masses of color or they may be cloud forms or great landscapes or vague shadows or geometrical objects floating in space. So now we present the "Toccata and Fugue In D Minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach, interpreted in pictures by Walt Disney and his associates, and in music by the Philadelphia Orchestra and its conductor, Leopold Stokowski."
Just then, another towering figure came up to the podium and raised his arms towards the orchestra and after a moment, he began to move them and the sounds of Bach's Toccata and Fugue were beginning to fill the auditorium. Kim could not help but smile at this as they were both reminded of when Ron was turned evil by a switching spell with Dr. Drakken.
"This is your intro music," she said jokingly to Ron. Ron could not help but laugh at this as he chuckled slightly to what was the reference meant.
"You wish," he chuckled and the two of them began to hold hands like a romantic couple as Bach's music began to swirl around the auditorium.
After the sights of shapes dancing in clouds appeared on the screen for almost ten minutes, Taylor came back on to introduce the next number which was Peter Tchaikovsky's famous Nutcracker Suite.
"You know, it's funny how wrong an artist can be about his own work," said Deems Taylor. "The one composition of Tchaikovsky's that he really detested was his Nutcracker Suite, which is probably the most popular thing he ever wrote. It's a series of dances taken out of a full-length ballet called The Nutcracker that he once composed for the St. Petersburg Opera House. It wasn't much of a success and nobody performs it nowadays, but I'm pretty sure you'll recognize the music of the suite when you hear it. Incidentally, you won't see any nutcracker on the screen; there's nothing left of him but the title."
Kim and Ron chuckled at this as the all too familiar music of The Nutcracker were heard and instead of the traditional story that Kim was familiar with, they saw plants, animals and fish dancing around. It was one of Kim and Ron's personal favorites and even though he didn't celebrate Christmas, it was still one of Ron's personal favorites and during the moment of the Russian Dance, Ron had the urge to get up out of his seat and have Kim dance with him. Of course, that would have been bad manners for everyone else in the theater.
Soon, the Nutcracker piece was over and Kim and Ron's all-time favorite part of Fantasia was about to begin.
"And now we're going to hear a piece of music that tells a very definite story," Deems Taylor said. "As a matter of fact, in this case, the story came first and the composer wrote the music to go with it. It's a very old story, one that goes back almost 2,000 years: a legend about a sorcerer who had an apprentice. He was a bright young lad; very anxious to learn the business. As a matter of fact, he was a little bit too bright, because he started practicing some of the boss' best magic tricks before learning how to control them."
"Haven't we all done that?" Kim thought as she looked over at Ron with a sly smile, thinking of all the times that Ron nearly ruined their missions with his eager minds.
"One day, for instance," Deems Taylor continued. "When he'd been told by his master to carry water to fill a cauldron, he had the brilliant idea of bringing a broomstick to life to carry the water for him. Well, this worked very well at first. Unfortunately, however, having forgotten the magic formula that would make the broomstick stop carrying the water, he found he'd started something he couldn't finish."
For the next few minutes, both Kim and Ron saw their childhood hero, Mickey Mouse, do what he did best which play the role of the Sorcerer's Apprentice, the role that he was best remembered for. Hearing the music of Dukas began to bring back memories to Kim and Ron of their childhood days and how they always watched this number over and over again. Just then, the number had ended and Mickey came up to Stokowski to offer his congratulations.
"Mr. Stokowski! Mr. Stokowski!"Mickey called as he tugged on the maestro's jacket. When he didn't get a response, Mickey whistled and that caught the attention of Stowkowski. "My congratulations sir!"
"Congratulations to you too, Mickey," Stowkowski chuckled; shaking the mouse's gloved hand.
"Gee, thanks," Mickey replied who then turned to get off the podium. "Well, so long. I'll be seeing you!"
"Goodbye," Stowkowski replied, waving to the departing mouse as the orchestra and the audience applauded at that little moment.
Got to love Mickey, don't you Ron?" Kim laughed as she and Ron applauded along with the rest of the audience.
After a few moments, the audience applauds died down and Deems Taylor moved on to the next part of the program.
"When Igor Stravinsky wrote his ballet," he began. "The Rite of Spring"...
Suddenly, a loud chiming noise was heard and one of the orchestra members nearly lost his instrument as several other members tried to help him save his instrument.
Ron chuckled. "Yeah, that rings a bell."
Kim shook her head annoyed and continued to watch what was happening on screen.
Once the interruption was over, Deems Taylor continued to say what he needed to say.
"I repeat, when Igor Stravinsky wrote his ballet, "The Rite of Spring," he began again. "His purpose was, in his own words, "to express primitive life." So Walt Disney and his fellow artists have taken him at the word. Instead of presenting the ballet in its original form as a simple series of tribal dances, they have visualized it as a pageant as the story of the growth of life on Earth. And that story, as you're going to see it, isn't the product of anybody's imagination. It's a coldly accurate reproduction of what science thinks went on during the first few billion years of this planet's existence. Science, not art, wrote the scenario of this picture."
"Oh great," Ron groaned, upon knowing that Deems Taylor was going into a lecture. "When did this turn into one of Mr. Barkin's lectures?"
"According to science," continued Deems Taylor. The first living things here were single-celled organisms, tiny little white or green blobs of nothing in particular that lived under the water. And then, as the ages passed, the oceans began to swarm with all kinds of marine creatures. Finally, after about a billion years, certain fish, more ambitious than the rest, crawled up on land and became the first amphibians."
"Get on with it!" Ron complained. "Kim and I didn't get dressed up to hear a science lecture!"
"And then several hundred million years ago," Deems Taylor continued. "Nature went off on another task and produced the dinosaurs. Now, the name "dinosaur" comes from two Greek words meaning "terrible lizard", and they were certainly that. They came in all shapes and sizes, from little crawling horrors about the size of a chicken to hundred-ton nightmares. They were not very bright. Even the biggest of them had only the brain of a pigeon. They lived in the air and the water as well as on land. As a rule, they were vegetarians, rather amiable and easy to get along with. However, there were bullies and gangsters among them. The worst of the lot, a brute named Tyrannosaurus Rex was probably the meanest killer that ever roamed the earth."
"Kind of reminds me of that synthrodrome they called Eric,"Kim whispered to herself, remembering the synthrodrome in sheep's clothing who was her initial prom date, thanks to Drakken. "I'm glad that he is out of the picture."
"The dinosaurs were lords of creation for about 200 million years," finished Deems Taylor. "And then... well, we don't exactly know what happened. Some scientists think that great droughts and earthquakes turned the whole world into a gigantic dustbowl. In any case, the dinosaurs were wiped out. That is where our story ends. Where it begins is at a time infinitely far back when there was no life at all on earth, nothing but clouds of steam, boiling seas and exploding volcanoes. So now imagine yourselves out in space billions and billions of years ago looking down on this lonely, tormented little planet spinning through an empty sea of nothingness."
After nearly five minutes of talking, the music came on and for the next twenty minutes, the sounds and sights of the Earth's birth were seen. To Kim and Ron, this was the most boring part of the show and it was still is at this moment. However, the scene with the Stegosaurus and the Tyrannosaurus Rex was exciting, even though it wasn't the outcome that either Kim or Ron would expect. Soon, the number was over and it was time for the intermission.
"And now we will take a fifteen minute intermission," said Taylor and after a few minutes, the lights came on and the audience got up to stretch their legs after sitting for a lengthily period of time. Kim and Ron got up and returned to the President's club where Josh and Tara were sitting at again.
Soon, Ron and Josh would make up with one another after what had happened earlier…
