Chernabog (Fantasia)

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Chernabog
Chernabog Atop Bald Mountain
First appearance	Fantasia (1940)
Created by	Walt Disney Pictures

Chernabog is a fictional character who appears in the Night on Bald Mountain segment of Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940). He is a huge nocturnal demon who holds power over various restless souls. He is considered among the most visually impressive characters appearing in Disney's films along with the evilest of all Disney villains, and has made appearances in several Disney-related media.^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 Conceptual History 2 Fantasia 3 Kingdom Hearts 4 Theme park appearances 4.1 Fantasmic! 4.2 SpectroMagic 5 Other appearances 6 Trivia 7 External links 8 See also

[edit] Conceptual History

Bela Lugosi served as a live action model for the character, spending several days at the Disney studios making evil, demon-like poses to use as a reference. However, animator Vladimir Bill Tytla discarded much of the footage and recruited director Wilfred Jackson to serve as a visual reference.

[edit] Fantasia

Chernabog is first seen when he awakes on top of Bald Mountain. It is Walpurgis Night and he using the powers of darkness, he raises ghosts and demons from a nearby town. He then also summons fire and makes the damned and the other creatures in his control, dance and fly around, much to his delight before he destroys them. However, Chernabog is crippled and forced to cower when the morning arrives, heralded by the Angelus Bell. This leads into a musical rendition of the Ave Maria, symbolizing the triumph of light over dark.

[edit] Kingdom Hearts

Chernabog appeared in the Disney/Squaresoft crossover game Kingdom Hearts as a powerful surprise boss who ruled over the "End Of The World", serving as the fight before Ansem. His role and motivations are unknown; he receives no dialogue (although he roars wildly), and is even neglected to be given an entry in the game's journal (quite possibly because he is too big to have been able to fit in the journal and be viewed clearly). Night on Bald Mountain serves as the music during this boss battle, thus making him the only Disney villain in the game to have his own unique boss music. Chernabog's size is also altered; In Fantasia, his lower body was able to fit inside of his mountain. Here, he barely has standing room, and the volcano he encompasses in significantly smaller. Just like in Fantasia, Chernabog's attacks mimic those of a orchestra director's movements. He blows fire from his mouth and summons fire from the volcano. After having been damaged enough, he enters his second phase, where his volcanic-eruption attack is much stronger. He also sends what appear to be spirits after the player. After fighting Sora, Donald Duck and Goofy, Chernabog disappears in a massive blue flame going back to his own world, leaving the crater he was in uninhabited and giving the player access to the final sections of the world. Since Sora and his gang do not revisit "End Of The World" (since it was destroyed when all of the worlds were restored), Chernabog was not physically shown in the sequels, although he was shown in the dreams Roxas had of Sora's past adventures.

[edit] Theme park appearances

[edit] Fantasmic!

In Disney theme parks, he appears as one of the villains in both versions of the Fantasmic! nighttime spectacular at Disneyland in Anaheim, California and the Disney-MGM Studios in Orlando, Florida. Here, he appears as one of the villains the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs evokes to fight Mickey Mouse. In both versions, his role in Fantasmic! is similar to his role in Fantasia, with him summoning ghosts. In the end, Mickey defeats the villains with his imagination, and Chernabog is destroyed along the with other villains. Like in Fantasia, he still had no speaking dialogue, but grunted and roared at during his appearances in the show.

[edit] SpectroMagic

He also appears as a parade float in SpectroMagic at the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. His Float is a Volcano which unfolds to reveal Chernabog. His float is not always working.

[edit] Other appearances

Chernabog is also seen as a guest in House of Mouse where he is voiced by Corey Burton. Here, he is more of a provider of comic relief than an actual villain. In one particular episode, he sheepishly admits to Clarabelle Cow that he's afraid of the dark. In the Mickey's House of Villains direct-to-DVD movie, he is shown to have some sort of relationship with Maleficent's dragon form, stating (during the song) that he loves her work. They are seen again together shortly before Mickey's fight with Jafar, during the sequence that parodies the Rite of Spring segment from Fantasia.

[edit] Trivia

• The Night On Bald Mountain sequence fits directly with various songs of heavy metal band Black Sabbath, Hand of Doom, Children of the Grave, and their self titled song
• While officially a pagan god, it should also be noted that Chernabog might have originally been Satan: when "Night on Bald Mountain" appeared on the original Wonderful World of Disney, Walt Disney referred to Chernabog as "Satan himself."
• The name Chernabog is of Slavic origin, meaning "Black God", and is derived from Crnobog, a Slavic god or epithet of unknown importance.
• Ridley Pearson's book The Kingdom Keepers will have a sequel entitled The Kingdom Keepers 2: The Rise of Chernabog, and he says the book will hopefully be released fall 2007.

[edit] External links

• A more detailed profile of Chernabog
• An image gallery dedicated to Chernabog
• A site devoted to his creator Vladimir "Bill" Tytla
• His creator's profile in the Internet Movie Database
• A text presenting Chernobog and other Slavic Gods
• A site devoted to Slavic Pagan beliefs that includes references to Chernabog though with alternate spellings
• A list of Slavic gods, including Chernobog, with an explanation

[edit] See also

• Crnobog