An animated medley of satire, surrealism, spoofery, and general nonsense - set to superb music by Vivaldi, Debussy, Stravinsky, Dvorak, Ravel, and Sibelius...

(don't let the name fool you)

Something of a Fantasia for adults, Allegro Non Troppo intercuts slapstick live-action sequences -- which relay the story of a beleaguered animator's (Maurizio Nichetti) ongoing battle with an Oliver Hardy-like orchestra conductor -- and animated sequences, set to classical music, which visually interpret selected works of Debussy, Dvorak, Ravel, Sibelius, Vivaldi, and Stravinsky. The liveliest piece, set to Ravel's Bolero, delineates a series of "spontaneous generations" from an abandoned Coke bottle. The most haunting piece, set to Sibelius' Valse Triste, depicts a forlorn cat wandering the ruins of a condemned building and constantly hallucinating that he is back in the lap of luxury. Allegro Non Troppo is the brainchild of gifted Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto


Allegro Non Troppo is a 1976 Italian animated film directed by Bruno Bozzetto. Featuring six pieces of classical music, the film is a parody of Disney's Fantasia, two of its episodes being arguably derived from the earlier film.[1] The classical pieces are set to color animation, ranging from comedy to deep tragedy. At the beginning, in between the animation, and at the end are black and white live-action sequences, displaying the fictional animator, orchestra, conductor and filmmaker, with many humorous scenes about the fictional production of the film.[1] Some of these sections mix animation and live action.
The film has been released in two versions, the first includes live action sequences in between the classical pieces. The second version of the film omits these, replacing them with animated plasticine letters spelling out the title of the next piece of music.

In music, an instruction of "allegro ma non troppo" means to play "fast, but not overly so". Without the "ma", it means Not So Fast!, an interjection meaning "slow down" or "think before you act". The common meaning of "allegro" in Italian is "joyful". The title reveals therefore a dual meaning of "allegro", and in addition to meaning "Not So Fast!" can also be read as "joyful, but not too much".

1977 was a banner year for animated films that appealed to a broad audience. Children had RAGGEDY ANN & ANDY : A MUSICAL ADVENTURE . RACE FOR YOUR LIFE CHARLIE BROWN and the partially animated PETE'S DRAGON. THE RESCUERS appealed to families while WIZARDS catered to teens . With THE FANTASTIC ANIMATION FILM FESTIVAL and ALLEGRO NON TROPPO, adults had animated amusement. And GULLIVERS TRAVELS saw a live action Richard Harris interplay with animated lilliputians.

An eclectic group of films , but only THE RESCUERS made money.