This post was written by Frank Johnson.
Frank Johnson is the weekday afternoon host on 90.9 WGUC. You can hear him between noon and 6pm, Monday thru Friday.
The
Disney movie studio has been very successful with live-action feature films
based on older properties like theme park attractions and earlier animated
films. Pirates of the Caribbean, Tomorrowland, Maleficent,
and Alice in Wonderland provide examples. Now they're working on a
non-animated movie from just part of an earlier animated film. It’s been
announced the studio is making a full-length movie out of Night on Bald
Mountain, which was a segment in the 1940 version of Fantasia that used
Modest Mussorgsky’s music. A pair of screenwriters have been attached to the
project but they haven't really said where the story will come from. There
wasn’t much of a plot for that part of Fantasia, but it was certainly
the most disturbing part of the anthology (especially coming after Mickey Mouse
and dancing hippos).
It
should also be mentioned that Night on Bald Mountain made an appearance
in another very famous classic film of a year earlier: The Wizard of Oz.
Next time you watch the film, notice the part where Dorothy's crew (the
Scarecrow, Lion and Tin Man) attempt a commando style escape from the Witch’s
castle.
