Fantasia Cartoon

Fantasia is a 1940 animated film produced by Walt Disney, and is the third film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics. Fantasia is an experiment in animation and music, consisting of classical music presented against the backdrop of animation and featuring no dialogue, only spoken introductions by Deems Taylor before each cartoon, as well as during the intermission segment, "The Sound Track". The music is recorded under the direction of Leopold Stokowski; seven of the eight pieces were performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Animated artwork of varying degrees of abstraction or literalism is used to illustrate or accompany the concert in various ways. The film also includes live-action segments featuring Stokowski, the orchestra, and American composer and music critic Deems Taylor, who serves as the host for the film. Besides its avant-garde qualities, Fantasia was notable for being the first major film released in stereophonic sound, using a process dubbed "Fantasound".

Fantasia Cartoon

Fantasia Cartoon

Fantasia was originally released by Walt Disney Productions itself without then-distributor RKO Radio Pictures, and exhibited as a two-hour and twenty minute (counting the intermission) roadshow film with booked engagements. The film opened to mixed critical reaction and failed to generate a large commercial audience, which left Walt Disney in financial straits. Fantasia was eventually picked up by RKO for release in 1941 and edited drastically to a running time of 81 minutes in 1942. Five subsequent rereleases of Fantasia between 1946 and 1977 restored various amounts of the deleted footage, with the most common version being the 1946 rerelease edit, which ran nine minutes shorter than the original 124 minute roadshow version. A 1982 reissue featured a newly recorded digital soundtrack conducted by composer Irwin Kostal, but was taken out of circulation in 1990 after a restored version of the original Stokowski-conducted soundtrack was prepared. The original version of Fantasia was never released again after 1941, and although some of the original audio elements no longer exist, a 2000 DVD release version attempted to restore as much of the original version of the film as possible. Fantasia, despite its initial commercial failure, is today considered a classic film.

Fantasia Cartoon

Fantasia Cartoon

Barbie Cartoon

Barbie is a best-selling fashion doll launched in 1959. The doll is produced by Mattel, Inc., and is a major source of revenue for the company. The American businesswoman Ruth Handler (1916-2002) is regarded as the creator of Barbie, and the doll's design was inspired by a German doll called Bild Lilli.

Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for nearly fifty years, and has been the subject of numerous controversies and lawsuits, often involving parody of the doll and her lifestyle. In recent years, Barbie has faced increasing competition from the Bratz range of dolls.

Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. In a series of novels published by Random House in the 1960s, her parents' names are given as George and Margaret Roberts from the fictional town of Willows, Wisconsin. Barbie has been said to attend Willows High School and Manhattan International High School in New York City, based on the real-life Stuyvesant High School. She has an on-off romantic relationship with her beau Ken (Ken Carson), who first appeared in 1961. Like Barbie, Ken shares his name with one of Ruth Handler's children. A news release from Mattel in February 2004 announced that Barbie and Ken had decided to split up, but in February 2006 they were back together again.

Barbie Cartoon

Barbie has had over forty pets including cats and dogs, horses, a panda, a lion cub, and a zebra. She has owned a wide range of vehicles, including pink Corvette convertibles, trailers and jeeps. She also holds a pilot's license, and operates commercial airliners in addition to serving as a flight attendant. Barbie's careers are designed to show that women can take on a variety of roles in life, and the doll has been sold with a wide range of titles including Miss Astronaut Barbie (1965), Doctor Barbie (1988) and Nascar Barbie (1998).

Mattel has created a range of companions for Barbie, including Hispanic Teresa, Midge, African American Christie and Steven (Christie's boyfriend). Barbie's siblings and cousins were also created including Skipper, Tutti (Todd's twin sister), Todd (Tutti's and Stacie's twin brother), Stacie (Todd's twin sister), Kelly, Krissy, Francie, and Jazzie. For more details, see the List of Barbie's friends and family.

Barbie Cartoon

Barbie Cartoon

Mulan Cartoon

Hua Mulan is a heroine who joined an all-male army, described in a famous Chinese poem known as the Ballad of Mulan. The poem was first written in the Musical Records of Old and New from the 6th century, the century before the founding of the Tang Dynasty; the original work no longer exists, and the original text of this poem comes from another work known as the Music Bureau Collection, an anthology of lyrics, songs, and poems, compiled by Guo Maoqian during the 12th century. The author explicitly mentions the Musical Records of Old and New as his source for the poem. Whether she was a historical person or whether the poem was an allegory has been debated for centuries—it is unknown whether the story has any factual basis.

Mulan Cartoon

Mulan Cartoon

The word mulan refers to the "Magnolia liliiflora". (mù by itself means "wood" and lán means "orchid".) The heroine of the poem is given many different family names in the various versions of her story. According to History of the Ming, her family name is Zhu, while the History of the Qing say it is Wei. The Ballad of Mulan doesn't give her family name. The Ming scholar Xu Wei offers yet another alternative when, in his play, he gives her the family name Huā (meaning "flower"). This latter name has become the most popular in recent years in part to its more poetic meaning. Her complete name is then 花木蘭, transcribed as Huā Mùlán in Pinyin and Hua1 Mu4-lan2 in Wade-Giles.

Mulan Cartoon

The Disney animated film popularised the version "Fa Mulan". This "Fa" pronunciation of 花 is found in various Chinese languages including Cantonese, while "Mulan" is the phonetic translation from Mandarin.

Mulan Cartoon

Mulan Cartoon

Princess Cartoon

Disney Princess is a Walt Disney Company franchise, based on fictional characters who have been featured as part of the Disney character line-up. The main six are: Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, and Jasmine, all of whom have royal title by marriage or birth. Recently, Mulan and Pocahontas have been included as princesses as well. Disney recently announced that new Princesses would be added: Princess Tiana, from their 2009 animated feature The Princess and the Frog, will become the first Black princess to join the ranks of Disney Princesses and also Rapunzel. The franchise has released dolls, sing-along videos, and a variety of other children's products, apparel, and even band-aids featuring the Disney Princesses.

Princess Cartoon

Princess Cartoon

In early 2000, when Andy Mooney was hired by Disney's Consumer Products division to help combat dropping sales, the idea for the Disney Princess franchise was born. Soon after joining Disney, Mooney attended his first Disney on Ice show. While waiting in line, he found himself surrounded by young girls dressed as princesses. “They weren’t even Disney products. They were generic princess products,” he mused. Soon after realizing the demand, the Disney Princess line was formed.

Princess Cartoon

Despite limited advertising and no focus groups, the various Disney Princess items released became a huge success. Sales at Disney Consumer Products rose from $300 million in 2001 to $3 billion in 2006. Today there are over 25,000 products based on the franchise.

The princesses to be featured in the line were chosen from classic Disney films. The characters were not chosen specifically for their royal titles, but rather for how well they fit into what Disney executives deemed “the Princess mythology”. Mulan is an example of this concept; she has no familial ties to royalty, but is still included in the character list. Tinker Bell was once included under the same principle before it was decided she was not suited for the "mythology". She now stars in her own Disney franchise, the Disney Fairies.

Princess Cartoon

Princess Cartoon

Tinkerbell Cartoon

Tinkerbell

Tinker Bell (also known as Tinkerbell in common usage, or Tink for short), is a fictional character from J.M. Barrie's 1904 play and 1911 novel Peter and Wendy. She has also appeared in multiple film and television adaptations of the story, in particular the 1953 animated Walt Disney picture Peter Pan. At first only a supporting character described by her creator as "a common fairy", her animated incarnation has since become a widely recognized unofficial mascot of The Walt Disney Company, and the centerpiece of its Disney Fairies media franchise including the direct-to-DVD film Tinker Bell.

Tinkerbell Cartoon

Tinkerbell Cartoon

Tinker Bell was described by Barrie as a fairy who mended pots and kettles, like an actual tinker. Her dialogue consists of the sounds of a tinkling bell, which is understandable only to those familiar with the language of the fairies. Though sometimes ill-tempered and vindictive (getting the Lost Boys to shoot arrows at Wendy), at other times she is helpful and kind to Peter. The extremes in her personality are explained in-story by the fact that a fairy's size prevents her from holding more than one feeling at a time, so when she is angry she has no counterbalancing compassion. Like other fairies in Barrie's works, she can make it possible for others to fly by sprinkling them with fairy dust (sometimes called "pixie dust" by Disney, and presented as "starstuff" in Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson's novel series), in conjunction with thinking happy thoughts.

Tinkerbell Cartoon

Tinkerbell Cartoon