Allegro Non Troppo

I was not familiar with the work of Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto, but had always been aware of his 1976 film ALLEGRO NON TROPPO, which apparently played on cable here and there back when.  It assumed a place on my "backburner" film queue, and its unavailability added to its mystique.  It always sounded so fascinating - a spoof of Walt Disney's FANTASIA, but with a more randy sensibility.  Satiric, too.  As one learns about Bozzetto's work, this film seems a natural progression.

There are six animated segments, each set to a famous piece of classical music.  While ALLEGRO NON TROPPO is billed as a children's feature, it is not typical of such, especially in America.  There are numerous characters in the nude.  Adam and Eve make an appearance during Stravinksy's "The Firebird Suite."  Several segments seem preoccupied with sex, or is it a statement on our preoccupation with same?  The tone varies quite a bit among the episodes.  Vivaldi's "Concerto in C major" and Dvorak's  "Slavonic Dance. 7" accompany segments that end quite humorously.  But elsewhere the mood is melancholy and even despairing.  The segment with a lonely cat walking around the ruins of his old home (set to Sibelius' "Valse triste") is one of the saddest things I've ever seen. 

Quite prevalent are stinging barbs at commerce, technology, progress, modern society.   The most intriguing episode involves the evolution of the last drops left in a cola bottle, set to Ravel's "Bolero."  Quite a stunning section of film, directly referencing FANTASIA. 

The animation also varies, though does improve as the film plays on, and is quite striking and colorful at times.  Surreal and trippy here, more literal there.  In certain moments I was reminded of Ralph Bakshi and Gerald Scarfe.  And those ultra trippy Levi's Dacron polyester commercials from the '70s.

ALLEGRO NON TROPPO is framed by live action (often slapstick) scenes of a brutish conductor,  a nerdy animator, an orchestra comprised entirely of elderly women, a guy in a gorilla suit, and a cute servant girl.  An obnoxious "presenter" introduces the film and appears throughout with tired commentary.  Bozzetto also attempts some social and political statements with these scenes, but they land with a thud.  Torturous, generally unfunny.  I hear there's a version of this film without them.  My advice: find that one.