Chernabog (Fantasia)
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| Chernabog | |
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Chernabog atop Bald Mountain |
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| First appearance | Fantasia (1940) |
| Created by | Walt Disney Pictures |
| Also known as | |
Chernabog is a fictional character who appears in the Night on Bald Mountain segment of Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940). He is a massive 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 most malevolent of all Disney villains, and has made appearances in several Disney-related media. "Chernabog" is vaguely Slavic for "Black God" or "Blackgod".
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[edit] Conceptual History
Béla 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 [1]. As a studio enhancement analyst, Tom Cormier assisted in the conceptual design--contributing to its historical significance as a solidified villain of Amendolagine.
[edit] Fantasia
Chernabog is first seen when he awakes on top of Bald Mountain. It is Walpurgis Night and, using the powers of darkness, he raises ghosts and monsters from a nearby town with a cemetery. He then also summons fire and makes the ghosts and the other creatures in his control, dance and fly around, much to his delight before he throws them into the volcanic pit and resurrects them as demons. Chernabog is at the height of his power but he is crippled when he hears the tolling of the Angelus Bell. He is then forced to cower when the morning arrives; it leads into a musical rendition of the Ave Maria, symbolizing the triumph of light over dark.
[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's Hollywood 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 with the other villains. As in Fantasia, he still has no speaking dialogue, but growls, cackles, and screams 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.
[edit] Once Upon A Dream Parade
Chernabog appears on the fifth parade float of the Once Upon A Dream Parade in Disneyland Park in Disneyland Resort Paris. He sits on top of his mountain, surrounded by other villains such as Maleficent, Hades and Scar.
[edit] Other appearances
[edit] Kingdom Hearts
Chernabog appeared in the Disney/Square Enix 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, and is neglected to be given an entry in the game's journal. Chernabog attacks by breathing fire, invoking an eruption from the mountain he stands in, summoning spirits to attack Sora, and flinging balls of fire. "Night on Bald Mountain" serves as the music during this boss battle in the North American version of the game, making him the only Disney villain in the game to have his own unique boss music.
[edit] House of Mouse
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, often making statements unexpected of such an intimidating creature. In one particular episode, he sheepishly admits to Clarabelle Cow that he's afraid of the dark. However this conflicts with another episode, in which, during a blackout, he admits that he "kind of likes 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. In one episode he even reenacts a part of the Night on Bald Mountain segment before Pete tries to push him (and bald mountain) away with a bulldozer, which provokes the evil spirits that chase the selfish cat out of the club.
[edit] Miscellaneous
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- While officially a pagan god, it should also be noted that Chernabog might have originally been intended to be 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.
- In an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Billy, Grim and Mandy all eat bad pizzas and although Grim and Billy suffer from nightmares, Mandy has a dream about her being Chernabog, albeit looking more like herself, and commanding demons to fly around.
- 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 be released summer 2008. As implied from the title, he will most likely be a large part of the book and the main Overtaker.
- Black Doom's final form, Devil Doom, in Shadow the Hedgehog resembles Chernabog, being perched upon a "mountain" with his lower torso out of sight and has huge muscles, black primary coloring, enormous wings and similar horns. The version of Lucifer from Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne also resembles Chernabog, albeit green with much bigger horns.
- Chernabog is mentioned in Nightwish's song Fantasmic, a tribute to Disney films in general.
