Wednesday 30 June 2010

Film: Destino, 2003, Salvador Dali and Walt Disney

When watching one of my favourite programs on BBC IPlayer, called Modern Masters, I encountered something that I was not familiar with.
For many who don't know, Modern Masters is a series of documentaries researching the life of 4 famous Modern Artists, Henri Matisse, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali, proving why they were so revolutionary in Art history of the beginning of the 20th century. When watching the documentary of the latter artist, it was presented among many revelations unknown to me to date, that Dali in cooperation with a really famous animator Walt Disney had a project to create a short animation.

This animation is called "Destino", as mentioned before it was a collaboration between 2 great artists Dali and Disney in 1945, however, just recently the nephew of Walt Disney, Roy Disney, found the project in the Disney Studio archives, and in 2003 it was finally released.




This short animation lasting no longer than 6 minutes, is a perfect representation of Dali's world with a different medium. In the documentary, it was mentioned that Dali thought of animation as a perfect platform to represent most of the surreal ideas.
And it is perfectly shown here.
"Destino", in english Destiny, demonstrate landscapes, characters and a narrative associated clearly to Dali's paintings exploring the unconscious, provoking the most unreal yet bizarre the situations.
The animation technique used the most, was of the morphing the characters and environments, playing up with our perception.
Also, the idea of sensuality, is clearly visible, between the female character and the male character, which from their movement to the morphing of bodies, emphasizes the carnal satisfaction between them.
These factors only show a outstanding achievement in Art direction.
Surely a small pearl lost in time inside the realms of the Disney World, fortunately found to delight audiences and spread Dali's mind worldwide.

2 comments:

Charlotte said...

Oh, so that's the animation that they made. there was something about it on a TV show a little while ago which spoke about Dali's life. Wonderful animation though. Really like hwo they've captured Dali's style of randomness

Alan Postings said...

I love this crossover. Dali putting his mind into motion. Fantastic. I thought the four Modern Masters documetaries were very well produced. Particularly since the artists in question are over exposed, books, documentary, etc.