When we talk about beautiful images from the history of cinema, people often bring up the groundbreaking cinematography in Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane,” the spectacle of David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia” or the majesty of Stanley Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon.” But unfortunately, animated films are often overlooked in the conversation.
A YouTube creator named Sugar decided to give animated films their due, so they edited together what they consider to be the “Some of the Most Beautiful Shots in Animation History” and set them perfectly to Chopin’s “Fantaisie Impromptu, Op. 66.”
Chopin’s piece was composed in 1834 but only became known after the composer died in 1849.
The clips in the video are all breathtaking, but they take on a greater significance because of how Sugar synced them up to the music. The classical music mixed with the fantastical animated images makes it feel like Walt Disney’s 1940 classic, “Fantasia.”
Sugar clearly has excellent taste and a broad knowledge of animation because the compilation contains clips from mainstream films such as “Kung Fu Panda,” “Mulan” and “Ratatouille,” but it also includes shots from lesser-known films such as “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind,” “Neon Genesis Evangelion” and “Millennium Actress.”
The piece is a lovely celebration of animation and a great introduction to animated moves that people may want to learn about. Sugar provided a list of the clips they used so people could find the movies they hadn’t seen and give them a look.
Here are the movies in order:
“The Lion King” 0:00
“Treasure Planet” 0:09
“Spirited Away” 0:19
“The Wind Rises” 0:23
“Ratatouille” 0:26
“Hercules” 0:34
“Tarzan” 0:39
“The Hunchback of Notre Dame” 0:48
“Toy Story 3” 0:53
“Mulan” 0:59
“The End of Evangelion” 1:04
“Grave of the Fireflies” 1:08
“The Nightmare Before Christmas” 1:12
“Kung Fu Panda” 1:25
“The Road to El Dorado” 1:38
“Dragon Trainer 2” 1:42
“Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” 1:48
“Isle of Dogs” 1:58
“Princess Mononoke” 2:03
“Howl’s Moving Castle” 2:09
“Monsters, Inc.” 2:12
“Spirited Away” 2:22
“The Wind Rises” 2:29
“The Tale of the Princess Kaguya” 2:40
“The Iron Giant” 2:50
“Millennium Actress” 2:57
“Neon Genesis Evangelion” 3:00
“Cowboy Bebop” 3:05
“WALL•E” 3:12
“Redline” 3:18
“The Thief and the Cobbler” 3:27
“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” 3:35
“Dumbo” 3:41
“Alice in Wonderland” 3:47
“Atlantis” 3:51
“Who Framed Roger Rabbit” 3:57
“Akira” 4:04
