Film Notes
Magic and Religion (Aug. 13)
- According to Pinsky, what segment in Fantasia (1940) has “the most clear moral message”? What is the message? (Pinsky 34).
- What is the most explicitly religious segment in Fantasia? (Pinsky 37).
- According to Bruce David Forbes, who is the “high priest” of the Disney religion? (Pinsky 35).
- Describe Disney’s “revisionary medievalism,” marking the past as a “fantasy of potential” (Labbie 98).
- What is the name of the Sorcerer in Disney’s adaptation of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”? Why is this significant? (Labbie 99-100).
- What are some of the typical distinction between religion and magic? (Versnel 178-179).
- How has magic been used as “an instrument of social disqualification?” (Versnel 182).
- Describe Frazer’s tripartite distinction between science, religion, and magic (Versnel 177-178).
- What are other formulations for the relationship between religion and magic? (Versnel 181).
- What is Stark’s definition of science? Supernatural? Religion?
- What did Durkheim mean when he said, “There is no Church of magic”? (Stark 114).
- What types of questions do religions typically engage? (Stark 110).
- What is the relationship between “religion” and “magic” for André Pierre? (Cosentino xxii).
- What is the place of religion in Disney’s The Sword in the Stone (1963)?
What is the place of science in the film?
What is the place of magic?
