Allegro non troppo (1976)

Allegro non troppo: Directed by Bruno Bozzetto. With Marialuisa Giovannini, Néstor Garay, Maurizio Micheli, Maurizio Nichetti. An enthusiastic filmmaker thinks he’s come up with a totally original idea: animation set to classical music! When he is informed that some American named “Prisney” (or something) has already done it, he decides to do his own version, using an orchestra comprising mostly old ladies and an animator he’s kept locked in a dungeon. Several different classical pieces are animated, while the animator plots his escape.

“Surely not all of you know the Italian version of Coca Cola… it is called Chinotto, it has better (healthier) ingredients, got more flavour, a bitter-sweet taste, less sparkling effects… in a few words it is pretty good. (Un-)fortunately it cannot challenge the American giant, but for those who know… In a very similar way Allegro Non Troppo stands compared to Fantasia. Fantastic and funny animations, clever and never vulgar, made without a big budget, but with lot of thinking and skills, it creates something quite different from its original model. Obviously the music choice is also very good and both animations and movie (it is not only animation) work fantastically well with the musical selection…You may like it or not, but it surely is a very good and enjoyable effort. Try it once, and you might change your (mass-production) habits…”