“High Culture with a Capital C: Music, Mickey, and the Middlebrow in Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940)”

Want to read an abstract I wrote? It's for a film series at UO next year, and since I'd love to see "Fantasia" on the bigscreen again, giving a talk on it seems as good a way as any to make it happen.

“High Culture with a Capital C:
Music, Mickey, and the Middlebrow in Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940)”



Released in the triumphant wake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Pinocchio (1940), the film originally titled “Untitled Concert Feature” sought to wed the animation of the Walt Disney Studios with revered works of classical music including Johan Sebastian Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite, and Modest Mussorgsky’s A Night on Bald Mountain. What came to be known as Fantasia had originated from a desire to feature Mickey Mouse in a short-subject adaptation of Paul Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and encompassed eight animated segments, with the orchestration performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra and conducted by Leopold Stokowski. As a result of the film’s considerable length (140 minutes with an intermission in the original road show release) along with its lack of a traditional narrative (the segments were linked only by the commentary provided by music critic Deems Taylor, and were far removed from the more gag-centered fairy tale orientation of Disney’s previously released films) and foreign markets devastated by World War II, Fantasia suffered considerable financial losses upon its original theatrical release. An attempt to advance animation as a culturally legitimate art, Fantasia gained success only through a series of theatrical reissues, eventually catching on with the counterculture crowd of the late 1960s when the film became known for its psychedelic properties. I will discuss how Fantasia was produced to be sold as high culture to the “middlebrow” crowd, suggest how and why this gambit failed, and then briefly examine how Disney’s film came to be reclaimed by audiences and regarded as one of the most innovative animated films ever made.

CFP for SCMS workshop: "Dealing with the Devil: Horror and Trauma in the Classroom"

Hey, look, I posted something. No comment. Lots of juggling going on these days, trying to get conference and summer teaching stuff out of the way so that I can focus on actually finishing my dissertation in the second half of the summer. Fingers crossed. Meanwhile, here is some conference stuff, a call for participants in a workshop I am proposing for next year's SCMS in Boston. Details below:

Type of Posting: Workshop

Title: “Dealing with the Devil: Horror and Trauma in the Classroom”

Horror has provided a diverse and compelling series of texts for studying not only film and media but also gender, sociology, and religion, among others. Beyond the study of genre and formalism, horror has also allowed for close engagement with issues of representation and intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality, as well as such prevailing paradigms as heterosexuality, capitalism, the state, etc. However, these rich texts and their inclusion in the university classroom are not without their difficulties: more so than other film genres, horror frequently features disturbing images of sexual exploitation and violence along with graphic depictions of both physical and psychological trauma. Along with their potential for discussion and analysis, horror films can often prove upsetting to our students and uncomfortable for professors, unsure of how to critically yet sensitively integrate horror texts into the course curriculum. This workshop will attempt to answer the question of “why horror?” while also exploring how to effectively teach horror and trauma (including a conversation about screenings and readings) and addressing the potential pitfalls for student and professor alike.

Workshop participants will be asked to submit sample syllabi from courses dealing with horror studies.


I'm pretty sure they assigned me this classroom a few times. All joking aside, this is a photo of a classroom in Chernobyl, abandoned since 1986, but I thought it entirely appropriate.

"The Third Dimension is Terror": Jaws 3-D

The third dimension is tired, or at least he is today. I wrote this yesterday but finessed it this afternoon. Very slow progress this week, but progress nonetheless.

"Although Universal’s decision to make the third Jaws film in 3-D has long been attributed to the box office returns of Paramount’s 'Friday the 13th Part 3 3-D,' 'Jaws 3-D' officially began production in March 1982, five months before 'Friday the 13th Part 3 3-D' sliced and diced its way into theaters. Nevertheless, Paramount’s decision to produce a third entry in its slasher series in the 3-D process, differentiating it from preceding entries in an already successful franchise suffering from diminished returns, doubtlessly prompted Universal’s own attempt to cash in on the craze of the early 1980s. Initially, the studio had planned to lens a 3-D remake of 'The Creature from the Black Lagoon' (hearkening back to 3-D’s first wave); however, it was ultimately decided that audiences would be more apt to engage with a 35-foot long great white shark wreaking havoc in a marine theme park, styled on Florida’s Sea World, following her smaller but no less deadly offspring’s death in captivity. Additionally, 'Jaws 3-D' was to be the first big-budget 3-D release by a major studio ($15 million in comparison to 'Friday the 13th Part 3 3-D'’s estimated $4 million), a move that 3-D supporters hoped would grant newfound respectability to stereoscopic cinema, countering its earlier associations with low-budget exploitation films. Set for release in the summer of 1983, 'Jaws 3-D' faced competition from a number of other 3-D releases, including 'Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone'(Lamont Johnson, 1983), 'Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn' (Charles Band, 1983), and 'The Man Who Wasn’t There' (Bruce Malmuth, 1983). In order to take full advantage of 3-D’s cresting wave of popularity during this period, Universal would rush the production of 'Jaws 3-D,' attempting to beat what would prove to be a glut of 3-D films on the market while also necessitating severe compromises in the film’s overall quality, including its three-dimensional effects.

A New Dimension in Terror: "Friday the 13th Part 3 3-D"

Worked on the 3-D article today, for the edited collection. I reckon I am about half done with it. Here is an excerpt from my production/exhibition/reception study of "Friday the 13th Part 3 3-D" (which, full disclosure, is my favorite "Friday the 13th" film AND one of my favorite films of all time, for better or worse). Tomorrow, I start working on the "Jaws 3-D" section. I should mention that a great deal of the production information (particularly quotations from film personnel) come from Peter M. Bracke's invaluable "Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th" (Sparkplug Press, 2005) and that is documented in the actual article notes; they just don't port over very well.

"Although innovation was sought through the use of 3-D, the makers of 'Friday the 13th, Part 3 3-D' stuck close to the narrative formula of the first two films, seeking to draw audiences in with something new even as they relied on established plotlines and stock characters. As in the first two films, vacationing teens (in the previous films, camp counselors; here, a group of friends staying at a lakeside cabin, along with a somewhat implausibly-featured biker gang) behave in a hedonistic fashion while a mysterious killer (here, as in 'Part 2,' the masked Jason Voorhees; in the original film, his deranged mother) lurks at the periphery, picking them off in systematic fashion until encountering a lone female survivor, (termed the 'Final Girl' by film scholar Carol J. Clover ) who is able to defeat the killer and survive, even as a sense of uncertainty leaves room for the next sequel. A screenplay by Martin Kitrosser and Carol Watson was rewritten by Petru Popescu, inserting directions for 3-D friendly close-ups and angles for pushing objects out towards the audience. Performances by the cast were also subordinate to the film’s 3-D, as actress Tracie Savage, who portrayed Debbie in the film, observes: 'It didn’t matter how the lines were delivered. It didn’t matter if we stumbled or fumbled. It didn’t matter if our performance was not perfect . . . The main concern—and it was a good concern—was making sure the 3-D effects worked.' Of the 3-D effects, notoriously hard to film, actor Richard Brooker, who played the murderous Jason, states: 'The kills were probably the hardest things we had to shoot because the 3-D process necessitated so many multiple takes. It was not uncommon to do a simple stabbing sequence fifteen times. We spent hours and hours on the eyeball squeeze alone.' Despite going overbudget, the production of 'Friday the 13th Part 3 3-D' does not appear to have suffered as many 3-D related complications as 'Jaws 3-D,' yet it did present a number of problems when it came to exhibiting the film in theaters in the late summer of 1982.


Comin' at ya!

"Too Good to be True": Progressive Entrapment in Paranormal Reality TV

Working on chapter three now (only one left to go after this, then a good 6-8 months of revisions) and endeavoring to establish concrete ties between narratives of family trauma and narratives of the paranormal. Finished this in my morning time today because I will have my hands full tomorrow writing a 4-6 page production/exhibition/reception history of "Friday the 13th Part 3 3-D." Another excerpt:

"Yet even at this preliminary stage, the narrative works to evoke family trauma, particularly in the form of domestic violence. What horror critic John Kenneth Muir has termed the 'honeymoon stage' of paranormal reality television echoes the initial stages in the battering cycle, as outlined by sociologist Ann Goetting in 'Getting Out: Life Stories of Women Who Left Abusive Men.' In her introduction, Goetting writes: 'Typically, a woman is seduced into a battering relationship by the charming and charismatic side of a man’s dual personality.' Here, the abusive partner of domestic violence can be related to the haunted house and its gradual entrapment of its new owners, blinded by their attraction to the seemingly ideal house and the bright future that it appears to promise. As the family, unaware of the malevolent presence in their home, exhibits gratitude for their good fortune on the housing market, the individual unwittingly entering into an abusive relationship 'is thrilled and feels fortunate to have found this desirable [partner] who is so caring.' However, as noted, this overwhelming sense of thankfulness is soon subdued by the same kind of accumulation found in paranormal reality’s representations of haunting: much like the haunted house, the abusive partner begins to show his or her true nature, a gradual and even subtle process described by Goetting as engendering 'a climate of intimidation, self-doubt, blame, humiliation, and fear to progressively entrap [the abused partner] in a relationship of servitude.' This closely parallels a similar form of progressive entrapment experienced by families in programs such as 'A Haunting' and 'Paranormal State,' with both forms marked by intimidation and a steadily accumulating series of characteristic symptoms.


The freaky Freelings of "Poltergeist": the rent turned out to be too damn high.

This Rapture Business: /rolls eyes

This Rapture business. /rolls eyes

"Let me be really frank with you. If you are reading this manual and the rapture has already occurred, then you probably are not going to physically survive; you most likely will die sometime in the next few years. This manual is about the survival of your soul. You are going to go through terrible suffering. The only question that remains is whether you will go to Heaven or go to hell when you die."

G'morning, Mary Sunshine.

"Marriage is an institution of God and therefore hated by Satan. The devil has worked very hard, primarily through communications media such as TV, movies, news journalists, and entertainment in general to convince women that marriage is detrimental to their freedom and fulfillment in life. Satan has deceived women into believing that they have the same sexual desire as men and that all differences are the result of culture. Satan has worked hard to divide men and women and have them at war with one another, and because of this, the violence between men and women has dramatically increased."

I'm glad someone registers my criticisms of marriage and traditional family structures.

"Homosexuality and all sorts of perverse behavior are accepted as normal. The world dictator (anti-christ) himself will not have the normal sexual attraction to women and may be asexual. Many theologians believe that he will probably be openly homosexual as indicated in the Bible in the book of Daniel 11:37: "and he will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women". And therefore, after the rapture, more than likely marriage will be discouraged or illegal, and homosexual and lesbian relationships highly encouraged."

No comment.

Stupid 1950s People: 3-D's First Wave

Excerpt from today's writing, a brief passage on 3-D in the 1950s and its relationship to the horror genre:

"During this time, a particular relationship developed between 3-D and the horror genre, with a number of popular horror films being released in 3-D, including 'House of Wax' (André de Toth, 1953) and 'Creature from the Black Lagoon' (Jack Arnold, 1954). This relationship, however, also served to associate 3-D with low budgets and exploitation (Balio notes that these films 'nearly all contained rather puerile plots of the horror of adventure category'). By 1954, the novelty had worn off: Alfred Hitchcock’s 'Dial M for Murder' (1954), while shot and intended for release in 3-D, was primarily released in two-dimensional form following the cessation of the 3-D craze, which was attributed to everything from poor projection to inferior films. However, Balio instead suggests that the 'demise of 3-D was due to the industry’s unwillingness to experiment with the truly creative potential of this innovation.' During the next two and a half decades, the horror genre returned to offering terror primarily in the two-dimensional format.


"So long, suckers!"