Destino

Normally, when I review a film, like everyone else, I give it a rating. However, occasionally I have come upon experimental films so unusual and so non-commercial that doing so would be impossible...and this is definitely the case with "Destino". It's a very surreal film based on story boards designed by Salvador Dali and so it's NOT the sort of thing the average viewer would enjoy...and it coming from Disney must have come as a real surprise to those who have seen it. It seems that back in the 1940s, Walt Disney and Dali wanted to collaborate and a few seconds of film were actually animated. But the project was abandoned and only recently did Disney's nephew, Roy, discover the film and commissioned a team of artists to complete the animated short. It's well animated but odd in every possible way and a film best seen and heard instead of describing. Well worth seeing if you don't mind experimental artsy films...I sure did.

Although it wasn't completely made by the original collaborators (Dali & Walt Disney), it still has their vision taken from their storyboards. This is classic Dali mixed with a female protagonist who has the familiar Disney style face.

Great story, with a wonderful somewhat tragic ending.

I had the privilege to see Destino at the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.

It's the only place in the world where it plays on a regular basis.

It six minutes I believe.

I thought it was beautiful.

Enchanting.

If you can, see it.

I absolutely loved it.

The best film of the year might not be Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. In fact, it might not even be 90 minutes long.

The best film of the year might just be Destino, the long awaited finalization of the original collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali.

Using a seamless combination of CGI and traditional hand drawn animation, the animators of Disney's Paris studio have created something of bewildering beauty and unrivaled maturity.

In a mere five minutes, in this surreal story of two characters, I saw more pure aesthetic beauty and truth of the human condition than in most of the films I have seen here. The film's subject is desire, imagination, images and struggle. In ballet like grace, a woman, who connects herself with the shadow of a bell, becomes enraptured with a man, who emerges from rock. In the dance, they struggle with both imagery.

Destino does more than simply dazzle with its images - it imbues them with real meaning. As if that wasn't enough, it goes a step further, and adds new to dimension to Dali's entire collected works. I will never look at a Dali painting in quite the same way after watching this short film.

The animated short is an old and prestigious form. From Winsor McKay's first sketchs (which are remarkably good) to modern revelations such as "The Man Who Planted Trees", the animated short has pressed animation further, and provided audiences with stories worthy of telling and retelling. Destino continues in this fine tradition admirably. Being lucky enough to watch this on the big screen is an experience I will treasure forever.

I spent the day yesterday in Philadelphia Museum of Art. One of the reasons I went there was to try to see the Salvador Dali's exhibitions but the tickets have been sold until the end of April. While in the museum, I was able to see two films that Dali was a big part of. In the video Gallery of the museum, two intriguing projects have been running together in the continuous loop, the early "Un Chien Andalou" (17 minutes) and the recently released, animated Destino (6 minutes). This was the first viewing for me. I kept coming back to the gallery for few more times and I never was tired of both short films.

What would've happened if Salvador Dali and Walt Disney had decided to work together on a project? The answer is "Destino" , the 6 minutes, 40 seconds long animated film based on a Mexican love ballad entitled "Destino". Dali and Disney admired each other's work and their meeting at a dinner party in 1945, inspired the idea for collaboration. Although, the film was abandoned in 1946 due to the economic problems created by WWII, Dali's storyboards, sketches, and paintings were saved. Work began on Destino in May 2001 and in June 2003, "Destino" premiered at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

Set to the Mexican ballad, the idea behind the film was described by Disney as "just a simple love story - boy meets girl". Dali called it "a magical exposition on the problem of life in the labyrinth of time". The end result is a tender, beautiful, sad, and charming love story as only Dali could imagine it, complete with the images as only he could create by the power of his imagination - melting clocks, tuxedo-clad eyeballs without faces, ballerinas, ants that turn into bicycles, and surprising baseballs.