Destino (2003)

Very disappointing...

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Destino is a beautiful Mexican old bolero song that speaks of destiny, timing and love, and the thread of this film. Although created in 2003, this was a joint project of Salvador Dali and Walt Disney, started in 1946 but never finished because of lack of funds. Disney, the company, decided to have it finished to include it in Fantasia 2000. The short fits perfectly with the original Fantasy, in spirit, style, themes and mood, something remarkable because the original creators are no longer with us.Like other pieces in Fantasia and Fantasia 2000, Destino is a symbolic piece that links the music, the visuals and the narrative in very artistic ways. It has many levels of reading and it is up to you what in the story speaks to you, or what the story is about. It was never meant to mean only one thing because, although Dali certainly projected his main themes and visuals into the story and imagery (the world of the oneiric, the subconscious, the Psyche, the Freudian) Walt Disney saw it mostly as a romantic love story. Destino is a contemporary ballet with an exploration of the male and female psyche expressed in a mythic romantic drama.The movie uses 2D animation and is wonderfully Disneyan (what Disney was before it became too commercial), with a beautifully lyric piece that stays true to the soul of the creators and feels as if they had carried it out to the end. Dominique Monfery has achieved something wonderful, magic and respectful to what the piece meant to be.A short film like this might have been mind-blowing in the 1950s, as planned, because the format, language and themes were very hot and innovative at time. They are not as much nowadays, so the freshness is perhaps gone, it feels like a wonderful Disney vintage piece, and that is remarkable, but it didn't touch or move me.

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.

A fascinating, atypical short from Disney.Words are not enough to describe the breathtaking beauty from this animation, which explores in a whimsical, totally dream-like way several themes and motifs displayed by the art works done by Salvador Dalí. If "Fantasia" was able to turn music into animation, "Destino" turns both the music and the animation into poetry, reaching a level of lyricism that hardly could be achieved by other kind of format."Destino" is the kind of short that cannot be described, it must be seen to understand what makes this so great. "Destino" is another proof of the possibilities that the animated medium have, being able to express wonderfully the most abstract concepts into a visual format, the most poetical way that somebody could imagine.A must-see.

My wife and I accidentally saw this little film as a prelude to The Triplets of Belleville. Having never heard of it before, not being aware it was nominated for awards...nothing, we had no pre-conceived notions about it and were pleasantly surprised. Since we weren't sure what to expect of "The Triplets", and this little cartoon came on first, we thought we were watching Triplets. We felt this was an awesome little cartoon vignette, but couldn't take much more than what we saw. It was truly a visual feast that came close to cerebral cortex overload. We were relieved when we figured out that this wasn't the feature film, but felt that we were treated to something special in addition to the awesome cartoon Triplets of Belleville.