Allegro non troppo: Bruno Bozzetto's Animated Music

by Marco Bellano, Chris Pallant (Editor), Cristina Formenti (Editor)

Overview

Marco Bellano's open access book reconstructs the history of the production of Allegro non Troppo, on the basis of an original research developed with the contribution of Bozzetto himself; it also presents an audiovisual analysis of the work, as to reassess the international relevance of Bozzetto's achievements by giving insight into the director's creative process.

"A film that will let you see the music and listen to drawings; in a word, a film full of Fantasia!" Bruno Bozzetto's Allegro non Troppo tips its hand right away: it is an unabashed, yet full of admiration, retake on Walt Disney's 1940 "concert feature". The obvious nod to that model fuels many tongue-in-cheek jokes in the film; however, Allegro non Troppo soon departs from mere parody, and becomes a showcase for the multifaceted aesthetics of Italian animation in 1976, as well as a witty social satire and a powerful rethinking of the music-image relationship in cinema.

The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501376283
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/23/2023
Series:	Animation: Key Films/Filmmakers
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Marco Bellano is adjunct professor in History of Animation at the University of Padova, Italy. He is author of international publications about animation and film music. He received the 2014 Norman McLaren-Evelyn Lambart Award for the Best Scholarly Article from the SAS-Society for Animation Studies. He was Chair of the 29th SAS Annual Conference (Padova, 2017). He graduated in Piano and Orchestral Conducting from the Conservatory of Vicenza.

Chris Pallant is Head of the School of Design at University of Greenwich, UK. He is the author of Demystifying Disney (2011) and Storyboarding: A Critical History (2015), and editor of Animated Landscapes: History, Form and Function (2015) and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: New Perspectives on Production, Reception, Legacy (2021). He currently serves as President for the Society for Animation Studies.

Cristina Formenti is Assistant Professor in Film Studies at University of Udine, Italy. She is author of Il mockumentary: la fiction si maschera da documentario (2013), and editor of Mariangela Melato tra cinema, teatro e televisione (2016) and Valentina Cortese: un'attrice intermediale (2019). Her work has appeared in various national and international journals, such as Studies in Documentary Film, Alphaville, and Horror Studies. Dr. Formenti is also the co-editor of the journal Animation Studies and of the Bloomsbury series Animation: Key Films/Filmmakers and currently serves as President of the Society for Animation Studies.

Table of Contents

Preamble
Introduction

Part One: The Whole Picture
Chapter 1: Bruno Bozzetto's Life and Works - From the Short Format to the Feature Film
Chapter 2: Allegro non Troppo at a glance
Chapter 3: The path to Allegro non Troppo

Part Two: The Episodes and their Frame Premise
Chapter 1 The Live-Action Frame
Chapter 2 Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
Chapter 3 Slavonic Dance Op. 46 no. 7
Chapter 4 Bolero
Chapter 5 Valse triste
Chapter 6 Concerto in C Major RV 559
Chapter 7 The Firebird Suite (1919 Version)

Conclusion Finale(s)

Appendix 1: Musical compositions listed in the Allegro non Troppo diaries
Appendix 2: The Allegro non Troppo that never was: One-page plots from Bozzetto's notebooks
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Marco Bellano presents a comprehensive study of Bruno Bozetto's Allegro non Troppo, the infamous satire of Disney's Fantasia and perhaps the most famous of Italian feature animation. Bellano's expertise in music and the director's own insights combine to provide a complete understanding of the film. Highly recommended!” —Maureen Furbaniss, Co-Director of the Experimental Animation Program, California Institute of the Arts, USA

“In what was clearly a labour of love for the author, Marco Bellano has created a stupendous account of the history, development and production of Bruno Bozzetto's masterpiece Allegro non Troppo. Combining his expertise in animation and music, he excels with in-depth-research and meticulous audio-visual analysis. A must-read for any animation enthusiast and a highly significant contribution to Italian animation history.” —Assoc. Prof. Hannes Rall, Associate Chair Research at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

“Marco has produced a scholarly work accessible to a wide audience, from academics to artists and music lovers. His unique multidisciplinary background has given life to an inspiring text where the voice of the self-proclaimed 'eternal amateur' Bruno Bozzetto can be heard throughout. The book also offers a terrific short history of animation production in Italy from its conception to the '70s of Allegro non Troppo. In just a few pages Marco manages to capture the joys and tribulations of the artists and artisans who adopted animation as a creative language that allowed them to extend their artistic search beyond the canvas. A remarkable accomplishment!” —Tony Tarantini, Sheridan Honours Bachelor of Animation, Sheridan College, Canada

From the Publisher