1.
Fable
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A fable differs from a parable in that the latter excludes animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech or other powers of humankind. Usage has not always been so clearly distinguished, a person who writes fables is a fabulist. The fable is one of the most enduring forms of literature, spread abroad, modern researchers agree. Fables can be found in the literature of almost every country, epicharmus of Kos and Phormis are reported as having been among the first to invent comic fables. Many familiar fables of Aesop include The Crow and the Pitcher, The Tortoise and the Hare and The Lion and the Mouse. The need of instructors to teach, and students to learn, African oral culture has a rich story-telling tradition. As they have for thousands of years, people of all ages in Africa continue to interact with nature, including plants, animals and earthly structures such as rivers, grandparents enjoy enormous respect in African societies and fill the new role of story-telling during retirement years. Children and, to some extent, adults are mesmerized by good story-tellers when they become animated in their quest to tell a good fable, India has a rich tradition of fabulous novels, mostly explainable by the fact that the culture derives traditions and learns qualities from natural elements. Most of the gods are some form of animals with ideal qualities, also hundreds of fables were composed in ancient India during the first millennium BC, often as stories within frame stories. Indian fables have a mixed cast of humans and animals, the dialogues are often longer than in fables of Aesop and often witty as the animals try to outwit one another by trickery and deceit. In Indian fables, man is not superior to the animals, the Indian fable adhered to the universally known traditions of the fable. The best examples of the fable in India are the Panchatantra, ben E. Perry has argued controversially that some of the Buddhist Jataka tales and some of the fables in the Panchatantra may have been influenced by similar Greek and Near Eastern ones. Earlier Indian epics such as Vyasas Mahabharata and Valmikis Ramayana also contained fables within the main story, the most famous fables from the Middle East were the One Thousand and One Nights, also known as the Arabian Nights. Fables had a long tradition through the Middle Ages. During the 17th century, the French fabulist Jean de La Fontaine saw the soul of the fable in the moral — a rule of behavior. Starting with the Aesopian pattern, La Fontaine set out to satirize the court, the church, in modern times, while the fable has been trivialized in childrens books, it has also been fully adapted to modern adult literature. Felix Saltens Bambi is a Bildungsroman — a story of a protagonists coming-of-age — cast in the form of a fable, władysław Reymonts The Revolt, a metaphor for the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, described a revolt by animals that take over their farm in order to introduce equality. George Orwells Animal Farm similarly satirized Stalinist Communism in particular, and totalitarianism in general, in the guise of animal fable
2.
Big Bad Wolf
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The Big Bad Wolf is a fictional wolf appearing in several cautionary tales that includes some of Aesops Fables and Grimms Fairy Tales. Versions of this character have appeared in works, and has become a generic archetype of a menacing predatory antagonist. Instead, the gods dressed Thor as a bride and sent him, when the giants note Thors unladylike eyes, eating, and drinking, Loki explains them as Freyja not having slept, or eaten, or drunk, out of longing for the wedding. Folklorists and cultural anthropologists such as P, in this interpretation, there is a connection between the wolf of this tale and Skoll or Fenrir, the wolf in Norse mythology that will swallow the sun at Ragnarök. Ethologist Dr. Valerius Geist of the University of Calgary, Alberta wrote that the fable was likely based on risk of wolf attacks at the time. He argues that wolves were in fact dangerous predators, and fables served as a warning not to enter forests where wolves were known to live. Both wolves and wilderness were treated as enemies of humanity in that region, the Wolfs voice was provided by Billy Bletcher. As in the folktale, he was a cunning and threatening menace, the short also introduced the Wolfs theme song, Whos Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf. The Wolf is shown as wearing a top hat, red pants, green suspenders and he doesnt, however, wear a shirt or shoes. The Wolf has a taste for disguising himself, but both the audience and the Practical Pig can easily see through the Wolfs disguises. When Olivier produced a version of Shakespeares Richard III, he based some of his mannerisms on Harris. The short was so popular that Walt Disney produced several sequels, the first of them was named after him, The Big Bad Wolf, also directed by Burt Gillett and first released on April 14,1934. In the next of the sequels, Three Little Wolves, he was accompanied by three just-as-carnivorous sons, the fourth cartoon featuring the Three Little Pigs and the Wolf, The Practical Pig, was released in 1939. During World War II, a final, propaganda cartoon followed, produced by The National Film Board of Canada, at the end of each short, the Wolf is dealt with by the resourceful thinking and hard work of Practical Pig. In the original short, he falls into a boiling pot prepared by the pigs, in The Big Bad Wolf, Practical pours popcorn and hot coals down his pants. In the final two shorts, Practical invents an anti-Wolf contraption to deal with the Wolf, who is shown to be powerless against the marvels of modern technology. The machines punishment grows harsher and harsher the more he lies, until it is finally spinning him around, smacking his head, when he finally tells the truth, he is shot away by a rocket stuck up his shirt. The Wolf also made appearances in other Disney cartoons, in Toby Tortoise Returns, Practical and the Wolf made cameo appearances during the boxing match between Toby Tortoise and Max Hare
3.
Straw
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Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry stalks of cereal plants, after the grain and chaff have been removed. Straw makes up half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye. It has many uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder and it is usually gathered and stored in a straw bale, which is a bundle of straw tightly bound with twine or wire. Bales may be square, rectangular, or round, depending on the type of baler used. Current and historic uses of straw include, Animal feed Straw may be fed as part of the component of the diet to cattle or horses that are on a near maintenance level of energy requirement. It has a low energy and nutrient content. The heat generated when microorganisms in a herbivores gut digest straw can be useful in maintaining body temperature in cold climates, due to the risk of impaction and its poor nutrient profile, it should always be restricted to part of the diet. It may be fed as it is, or chopped into short lengths, basketry Bee skeps and linen baskets are made from coiled and bound together continuous lengths of straw. The technique is known as lip work, bedding, humans or livestock The straw-filled mattress, also known as a palliasse, is still used in many parts of the world. It is commonly used as bedding for ruminants and horses and it may be used as bedding and food for small animals, but this often leads to injuries to mouth, nose and eyes as straw is quite sharp. Biofuels The use of straw as an energy source is increasing rapidly, especially for biobutanol. Straw or hay briquettes are a substitute to coal. Biogas Straw, processed first as briquettes, has been fed into a plant in Aarhus University, Denmark. Biomass The use of straw in large-scale biomass power plants is becoming mainstream in the EU, the straw is either used directly in the form of bales, or densified into pellets which allows for the feedstock to be transported over longer distances. Finally, torrefaction of straw with pelletisation is gaining attention, because it increases the density of the resource. This processing step also makes storage easier, because torrefied straw pellets are hydrophobic. Torrefied straw in the form of pellets can be directly co-fired with coal or natural gas at high rates and make use of the processing infrastructures at existing coal. Because the torrefied straw pellets have superior structural, chemical and combustion properties to coal, they can replace all coal, first generation pellets are limited to a co-firing rate of 15% in modern IGCC plants
4.
Brick
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A brick is building material used to make walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Traditionally, the term referred to a unit composed of clay. A brick can be composed of clay-bearing soil, sand, and lime, Bricks are produced in numerous classes, types, materials, and sizes which vary with region and time period, and are produced in bulk quantities. Two basic categories of bricks are fired and non-fired bricks, block is a similar term referring to a rectangular building unit composed of similar materials, but is usually larger than a brick. Lightweight bricks are made from expanded clay aggregate, fired bricks are one of the longest-lasting and strongest building materials, sometimes referred to as artificial stone, and have been used since circa 5000 BC. Air-dried bricks, also known as mudbricks, have an older than fired bricks. Bricks are laid in courses and numerous patterns known as bonds, collectively known as brickwork, the earliest bricks were dried brick, meaning that they were formed from clay-bearing earth or mud and dried until they were strong enough for use. The oldest discovered bricks, originally made from shaped mud and dating before 7500 BC, were found at Tell Aswad, in the upper Tigris region, ceramic, or fired brick was used as early as 3000 BC in early Indus Valley cities. In pre-modern China, bricks were being used from the 2nd millennium BCE at a site near Xian, the carpenters manual Yingzao Fashi, published in 1103 at the time of the Song dynasty described the brick making process and glazing techniques then in use. He also had to know when to quench the kiln with water so as to produce the surface glaze, Early civilisations around the Mediterranean adopted the use of fired bricks, including the Ancient Greeks and Romans. The Roman legions operated mobile kilns, and built large brick structures throughout the Roman Empire, during the Early Middle Ages the use of bricks in construction became popular in Northern Europe, after being introduced there from Northern-Western Italy. An independent style of architecture, known as brick Gothic flourished in places that lacked indigenous sources of rocks. Examples of this style can be found in modern-day Denmark, Germany, Poland. A clear distinction between the two styles developed at the transition to Baroque architecture. In Lübeck, for example, Brick Renaissance is clearly recognisable in buildings equipped with terracotta reliefs by the artist Statius von Düren, production of bricks increased massively with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the rise in factory building in England. For reasons of speed and economy, bricks were increasingly preferred as building material to stone and it was at this time in London, that bright red brick was chosen for construction to make the buildings more visible in the heavy fog and to help prevent traffic accidents. The transition from the method of production known as hand-moulding to a mechanised form of mass-production slowly took place during the first half of the nineteenth century. His mechanical apparatus soon achieved widespread attention after it was adopted for use by the South Eastern Railway Company for brick-making at their factory near Folkestone, the Bradley & Craven Ltd ‘Stiff-Plastic Brickmaking Machine’ was patented in 1853, apparently predating Clayton
5.
Western culture
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The term also applies beyond Europe, to countries and cultures whose histories are strongly connected to Europe by immigration, colonization, or influence. For example, Western Culture includes countries in the Americas and Australasia, whose language, before the Cold War era, the traditional Western viewpoint identified Western Civilization with the Western Christian countries and culture. Ancient Greece is considered the birthplace of Western culture, with the worlds first democratic system of government and major advances in philosophy, science, Greece was followed by Rome, which made key contributions in law, government, engineering and political organization. European culture developed with a range of philosophy, medieval scholasticism, and mysticism. Rational thinking developed through an age of change and formation, with the experiments of the Enlightenment. More often an ideology is what will be used to categorize it as a Western society. There is some disagreement about what nations should or should not be included in the category, many parts of the Eastern Roman Empire are considered Western today but were Eastern in the past. Since the context is highly biased and context-dependent, there is no agreed definition what the West is and it is difficult to determine which individuals fit into which category and the East–West contrast is sometimes criticized as relativistic and arbitrary. Globalism has spread Western ideas so widely that almost all cultures are, to some extent. Stereotyped views of the West have been labeled Occidentalism, paralleling Orientalism—the term for the 19th-century stereotyped views of the East, as Europe discovered the wider world, old concepts adapted. The area that had formerly considered the Orient became the Near East, as the interests of the European powers interfered with Meiji Japan and Qing China for the first time. Thus, the Sino-Japanese War in 1894–1895 occurred in the Far East, the Greeks contrasted themselves to their Eastern neighbors, such as the Trojans in Iliad, setting an example for later contrasts between east and west. In the Middle Ages, the Near East provided a contrast to the West, concepts of what is the West arose out of legacies of the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. Later, ideas of the west were formed by the concepts of Latin Christendom, Western culture is neither homogeneous nor unchanging. As with all cultures, it has evolved and gradually changed over time. Nevertheless, it is possible to follow the evolution and history of the West, and appreciate its similarities and differences, its borrowings from, and contributions to, other cultures of humanity. Nevertheless, the Greeks felt they were the most civilized and saw themselves as something between the wild barbarians of most of Europe and the soft, slavish Middle-Easterners. In the meantime, however, Greece, under Alexander, had become a capital of the East, the Celts also created some significant literature in the ancient world whenever they were given the opportunity
6.
Chimney
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A chimney is a structure that provides ventilation for hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside atmosphere. Chimneys are typically vertical, or as near as possible to vertical, to ensure that the gases flow smoothly, drawing air into the combustion in what is known as the stack, the space inside a chimney is called a flue. Chimneys may be found in buildings, steam locomotives and ships, in the United States, the term smokestack is also used when referring to locomotive chimneys or ship chimneys, and the term funnel can also be used. The height of a chimney influences its ability to transfer flue gases to the environment via stack effect. Additionally, the dispersion of pollutants at higher altitudes can reduce their impact on the immediate surroundings, in the case of chemically aggressive output, a sufficiently tall chimney can allow for partial or complete self-neutralization of airborne chemicals before they reach ground level. The dispersion of pollutants over an area can reduce their concentrations. Romans used tubes inside the walls to draw out of bakeries. The earliest extant example of an English chimney is at the keep of Conisbrough Castle in Yorkshire, however, they did not become common in houses until the 16th and 17th centuries. Smoke hoods were a method of collecting the smoke into a chimney. Another step in the development of chimneys was the use of built in ovens which allowed the household to bake at home, industrial chimneys became common in the late 18th century. Chimneys in ordinary dwellings were first built of wood and plaster or mud, since then chimneys have traditionally been built of brick or stone, both in small and large buildings. Early chimneys were of a brick construction. Later chimneys were constructed by placing the bricks around tile liners, to control downdrafts, venting caps with a variety of designs are sometimes placed on the top of chimneys. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the used to extract lead from its ore produced large amounts of toxic fumes. Lead and silver deposits formed on the inside of these long chimneys, todays central heating systems have made chimney placement less critical, and the use of non-structural gas vent pipe allows a flue gas conduit to be installed around obstructions and through walls. In fact, most modern high-efficiency heating appliances do not require a chimney, such appliances are generally installed near an external wall, and a noncombustible wall thimble allows a vent pipe to run directly through the external wall. On a pitched roof where a chimney penetrates a roof, flashing is used to seal up the joints, the down-slope piece is called an apron, the sides receive step flashing and a cricket is used to divert water around the upper side of the chimney underneath the flashing. Industrial chimneys are commonly referred to as flue gas stacks and are generally external structures and they are generally located adjacent to a steam-generating boiler or industrial furnace and the gases are carried to them with ductwork
7.
Cauldron
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A cauldron is a large metal pot for cooking and/or boiling over an open fire, with a large mouth and frequently with an arc-shaped hanger. The word cauldron is first recorded in Middle English as caudroun and it was borrowed from Norman caudron. It represents the evolution of Vulgar Latin *caldario for Classical Latin caldārium hot bath. The Norman-French word replaces probably the not initial new English sentence ċetel, the word kettle is a borrowing of the Old Norse variant ketill cauldron. Cauldrons have largely fallen out of use in the world as cooking vessels. In fiction, witches often prepare their potions in a cauldron, also, in Irish folklore, a cauldron is purported to be where leprechauns keep their gold and treasure. In some forms of Wicca, incorporating aspects of Celtic mythology, welsh legend also tells of cauldrons that were useful to warring armies. It was suspected that they lacked souls and these warriors could go back into battle until they were killed again. In Wicca and some forms of neopagan or pagan belief systems the cauldron is still used in magical practices. Most often a cauldron is made of cast iron and is used to burn incense on a charcoal disc, to make black salt, for mixing herbs. Cauldrons symbolize not only the Goddess but also represent the womb, cauldrons are often sold in New Age or metaphysical stores and may have various symbols of power inscribed on them. This may have resulted from the combination of the legend with earlier Celtic myths of magical cauldrons. The common translation for ding is often referred to as a cauldron, in Chinese history and culture, possession of one or more ancient dings is often associated with power and dominion over the land. Therefore, the ding is often used as a symbolism for power. The term inquiring of the ding is often used interchangeably with the quest for power
8.
Joel Chandler Harris
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Joel Chandler Harris was an American journalist, fiction writer, and folklorist best known for his collection of Uncle Remus stories. Harris was born in Eatonton, Georgia, where he served as an apprentice on a plantation during his teenage years and he spent the majority of his adult life in Atlanta working as an associate editor at the Atlanta Constitution. As Joel Chandler Harris, fiction writer and folklorist, he wrote many Brer Rabbit stories from the African-American oral tradition, Joel Chandler Harris was born in Eatonton, Georgia in 1848 to Mary Ann Harris, an Irish immigrant. His father, whose identity remains unknown, abandoned Mary Ann, the parents had never married, the boy was named Joel after his mothers attending physician, Dr. Joel Branham. Chandler was the name of his mothers uncle, Harris remained self-conscious of his illegitimate birth throughout his life. A prominent physician, Dr. Andrew Reid, gave the Harris family a small cottage to use behind his mansion, Mary Harris worked as a seamstress and helped neighbors with their gardening to support herself and her son. She was a reader and instilled in her son a love of language. Dr. Reid also paid for Harris school tuition for several years, in 1856, Joe Harris briefly attended Kate Davidsons School for Boys and Girls, but transferred to Eatonton School for Boys later that year. He had an academic record and a habit of truancy. Harris excelled in reading and writing, but was known for his pranks, mischief. Practical jokes helped Harris cloak his shyness and insecurities about his red hair, Irish ancestry, in March 1862, Joseph Addison Turner, owner of Turnwold Plantation nine miles east of Eatonton, hired the 16-year-old to work as a printers devil for his newspaper The Countryman. Harris worked for clothing, room, and board, the newspaper reached subscribers throughout the Confederacy during the American Civil War, it was considered one of the larger newspapers in the South, with a circulation of about 2,000. Harris learned to set type for the paper, and Turner allowed him to publish his own poems, book reviews, Turners instruction and technical expertise exerted a profound influence on Harris. During his four-year tenure at Turnwold Plantation, Joe Harris consumed the literature in Turners library and he had access to Chaucer, Dickens, Sir Thomas Browne, Arabian Nights, Shakespeare, Milton, Swift, Thackeray, and Edgar Allan Poe. Turner, a fiercely independent Southern loyalist and eccentric intellectual, emphasized the work of southern writers, in The Countryman Turner insisted that Harris not shy away from including humor in his journalism. While at Turnwold Plantation, Harris spent hundreds of hours in the quarters during time off. He was less self-conscious there and felt his background as an illegitimate. He absorbed the stories, language, and inflections of people like Uncle George Terrell, Old Harbert, the African-American animal tales they shared later became the foundation and inspiration for Harriss Uncle Remus tales
9.
Andrew Lang
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Andrew Lang was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales, the Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him. On 17 April 1875, he married Leonora Blanche Alleyne, youngest daughter of C. T. Alleyne of Clifton and she was variously credited as author, collaborator, or translator of Langs Color/Rainbow Fairy Books which he edited. He soon made a reputation as one of the most able and versatile writers of the day as a journalist, poet, critic, in 1906, he was elected FBA. He died of angina pectoris at the Tor-na-Coille Hotel in Banchory, Banchory and he was buried in the cathedral precincts at St Andrews. Lang is now known for his publications on folklore, mythology. The interest in folklore was from early life, he read John Ferguson McLennan before coming to Oxford, the earliest of his publications is Custom and Myth. In Myth, Ritual and Religion he explained the irrational elements of mythology as survivals from more primitive forms and his Blue Fairy Book was a beautifully produced and illustrated edition of fairy tales that has become a classic. This was followed by other collections of fairy tales, collectively known as Andrew Langs Fairy Books. In the preface of the Lilac Fairy Book he credits his wife with translating and transcribing most of the stories in the collections, Lang examined the origins of totemism in Social Origins. Lang was one of the founders of psychical research and his writings on anthropology include The Book of Dreams and Ghosts, Magic and Religion. He served as President of the Society for Psychical Research in 1911. He collaborated with S. H. Butcher in a translation of Homers Odyssey. He was a Homeric scholar of conservative views, Langs writings on Scottish history are characterised by a scholarly care for detail, a piquant literary style, and a gift for disentangling complicated questions. He also wrote monographs on The Portraits and Jewels of Mary Stuart and James VI, the somewhat unfavourable view of John Knox presented in his book John Knox and the Reformation aroused considerable controversy. He gave new information about the career of the Young Pretender in Pickle the Spy, an account of Alestair Ruadh MacDonnell, whom he identified with Pickle. This was followed by The Companions of Pickle and a monograph on Prince Charles Edward, in 1900 he began a History of Scotland from the Roman Occupation. He edited The Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, and was responsible for the Life and Letters of JG Lockhart, and The Life, Letters and Diaries of Sir Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh
10.
Walt Disney
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Walter Elias Walt Disney was an American entrepreneur, animator, voice actor and film producer. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons, as a film producer, Disney holds the record for most Academy Awards earned by an individual, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors, several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Born in Chicago in 1901, Disney developed an early interest in drawing and he took art classes as a boy and got a job as a commercial illustrator at the age of 18. He moved to California in the early 1920s and set up the Disney Brothers Studio with his brother Roy, with Ub Iwerks, Walt developed the character Mickey Mouse in 1928, his first highly popular success, he also provided the voice for his creation in the early years. As the studio grew, Disney became more adventurous, introducing synchronized sound, full-color three-strip Technicolor, feature-length cartoons, the results, seen in features such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Pinocchio, Dumbo and Bambi, furthered the development of animated film. New animated and live-action films followed after World War II, including the critically successful Cinderella and Mary Poppins, in the 1950s, Disney expanded into the amusement park industry, and in 1955 he opened Disneyland. In 1965, he began development of theme park, Disney World, the heart of which was to be a new type of city. Disney was a smoker throughout his life, and died of lung cancer in December 1966 before either the park or the EPCOT project were completed. Disney was a shy, self-deprecating and insecure man in private and he had high standards and high expectations of those with whom he worked. Although there have been accusations that he was racist or anti-semitic and his reputation changed in the years after his death, from a purveyor of homely patriotic values to a representative of American imperialism. Nevertheless, Disney is considered an icon, particularly in the United States. Walt Disney was born on December 5,1901, at 1249 Tripp Avenue and he was the fourth son of Elias Disney—born in the Province of Canada, to Irish parents—and Flora, an American of German and English descent. Aside from Disney, Elias and Calls sons were Herbert, Raymond and Roy, in 1906, when Disney was four, the family moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri, where his uncle Robert had just purchased land. In Marceline, Disney developed his interest in drawing when he was paid to draw the horse of a neighborhood doctor. Elias was a subscriber to the Appeal to Reason newspaper, Disney also began to develop an ability to work with watercolors and crayons. He lived near the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway line and he and his younger sister Ruth started school at the same time at the Park School in Marceline in late 1909. In 1911, the Disneys moved to Kansas City, Missouri, before long, he was spending more time at the Pfeiffers house than at home
11.
Fantasia (1940 film)
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Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. With story direction by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer, and production supervision by Ben Sharpsteen, the film consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Music critic and composer Deems Taylor acts as the films Master of Ceremonies, as production costs grew higher than what it could earn, Disney decided to include the short in a feature-length film with other segments set to classical pieces. Fantasia was first released in theatrical roadshow engagements held in thirteen U. S. cities from November 13,1940, the film was subsequently reissued multiple times with its original footage and audio being deleted, modified, or restored in each version. As of 2012, Fantasia has grossed $76.4 million in revenue and is the 22nd highest-grossing film of all time in the U. S. when adjusted for inflation. Fantasia, as a franchise, has grown to include games, Disneyland attractions, a live concert. Fantasia opens with live action scenes of members of an orchestra gathering against a background and tuning their instruments in half-light. Master of ceremonies Deems Taylor enters the stage and introduces the program, Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach. Live-action shots of the orchestra illuminated in blue and gold, backed by superimposed shadows, animated lines, shapes and cloud formations reflect the sound and rhythms of the music. Nutcracker Suite by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, selections from the ballet suite underscore scenes depicting the changing of the seasons from summer to autumn to winter. The Sorcerers Apprentice by Paul Dukas, based on Goethes 1797 poem Der Zauberlehrling. Mickey Mouse, the apprentice of the sorcerer Yen Sid, attempts some of his masters magic tricks. Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky, a visual history of the Earths beginnings is depicted to selected sections of the ballet score. The sequence progresses from the formation to the first living creatures, followed by the reign. Intermission/Meet the Soundtrack, The orchestra musicians depart and the Fantasia title card is revealed, after the intermission there is a brief jam session of jazz music led by a clarinettist as the orchestra members return. Then a humorously stylized demonstration of how sound is rendered on film is shown, an animated sound track character, initially a straight white line, changes into different shapes and colors based on the sounds played. The Pastoral Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, a mythical Greco-Roman world of colorful centaurs and centaurettes, cupids, fauns and other figures from classical mythology is portrayed to Beethovens music. A gathering for a festival to honor Bacchus, the god of wine, is interrupted by Zeus, Dance of the Hours by Amilcare Ponchielli
12.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
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Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of feature films and television programs. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California and it is one of the worlds oldest film studios. In 1971, it was announced that MGM would merge with 20th Century Fox, over the next thirty-nine years, the studio was bought and sold at various points in its history until, on November 3,2010, MGM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. MGM Resorts International, a Las Vegas-based hotel and casino company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MGM, is not currently affiliated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1966, MGM was sold to Canadian investor Edgar Bronfman Sr. whose son Edgar Jr. would later buy Universal Studios, the studio continued to produce five to six films a year that were released through other studios, mostly United Artists. Kerkorian did, however, commit to increased production and a film library when he bought United Artists in 1981. MGM ramped up production, as well as keeping production going at UA. It also incurred significant amounts of debt to increase production, the studio took on additional debt as a series of owners took charge in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, but a few later, sold the company back to Kerkorian to recoup massive debt. The series of deals left MGM even more heavily in debt, MGM was bought by Pathé Communications in 1990, but Parretti lost control of Pathé and defaulted on the loans used to purchase the studio. The French banking conglomerate Crédit Lyonnais, the major creditor. Even more deeply in debt, MGM was purchased by a joint venture between Kerkorian, producer Frank Mancuso, and Australias Seven Network in 1996, the debt load from these and subsequent business deals negatively affected MGMs ability to survive as an independent motion picture studio. In 1924, movie theater magnate Marcus Loew had a problem and he had bought Metro Pictures Corporation in 1919 for a steady supply of films for his large Loews Theatres chain. With Loews lackluster assortment of Metro films, Loew purchased Goldwyn Pictures in 1924 to improve the quality, however, these purchases created a need for someone to oversee his new Hollywood operations, since longtime assistant Nicholas Schenck was needed in New York headquarters to oversee the 150 theaters. Mayer, Loew addressed the situation by buying Louis B. Mayer Pictures on April 17,1924, Mayer became head of the renamed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with Irving Thalberg as head of production. MGM produced more than 100 feature films in its first two years, in 1925, MGM released the extravagant and successful Ben-Hur, taking a $4.7 million profit that year, its first full year. Marcus Loew died in 1927, and control of Loews passed to Nicholas Schenck, in 1929, William Fox of Fox Film Corporation bought the Loew familys holdings with Schencks assent. Mayer and Thalberg disagreed with the decision, Mayer was active in the California Republican Party and used his political connections to persuade the Justice Department to delay final approval of the deal on antitrust grounds
