One of my birthday presents this year (thanks, Mat!) was a collection of Disney animated shorts, which has things like Paperman and Feast on it, but it also has possibly the saddest Christmas cartoon of all time.
Hans Christian Andersen first published "The Little Matchgirl" in 1845, and it's seen scores of adaptations and retellings since then. (Here is a loose 1937 cartoon from real-life Disney villain Charles Mintz.) When the Disney studio was planning a third Fantasia movie (which I'd never heard of till today), this was one of the few shorts completed for the project. Director Roger Allers (The Lion King, also story contributor on Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast) jumped at the chance to adapt Andersen's story (this interview right here is a great overview of the project). It was finally released in 2006, as a bonus feature for its Andersen-inspired cohort The Little Mermaid.
Allers placed the action in Russia (since the music is from a Russian composer) and both the onion-dome architecture and Cyrillic lettering help us recognize the setting. The snow drifts down, slow but ceaseless. The most significant change from the original story is a lack of parental cruelty, which opens the story up for wider interpretation. Having not read the original story in ages, I first viewed the girl as homeless, rather than a victim of abuse.
But the most surprising change is the removal of the most cartoony scene from the story: that turkey running around the room, already fork-pierced. I can see how the tonal shift from something so funny would be difficult to achieve in a film this short (just six minutes, if you don't count the credits). And ultimately, in keeping with the Fantasia ethos, the visual content is determined by the music.
I don't intend to lecture you today about empathy and the need for compassion this time of year, but I can't think of anything but all those Syrian refugees. I worry that the politicization of their plight will doom them to wander, homeless, from country to country,
I'm pretty bad at empathy, myself. I try to be mindful of this, but like most people I need frequent reminders. One of the best sources of those reminders, for me, is art. With constant nudging from warm, humane art and the people around me, I hope to become kinder and less self-centered. I can't solve the world's problems, but my goal is to make life a little warmer for a few people. I recently made a small contribution here, and if you can too, that'd be great. Thanks, all. Happier stuff next time, I promise.
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