This delightful ribald romp is animator Bozzetto's tribute to Disney's Fantasia, but is itself an imaginative collection of vignettes set to classical music.

These animated episodes are funny and sad, erotic and pessimistic. He selects such familiar symphonic works as Stravinsky's Firebird, Sibelius's Valse Triste, Vivaldi's Concerto in C, Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, and Ravel's Bolero, and then he finds ways of illustrating them that are inspired, and amusing, and somehow just right.

The two sequences that your will remember long after you leave the theater are Sibelius' "Valse Triste," with a melancholy cat, and a chronicle of evolution set to Ravel's "Bolero."

Bozzetto's Bolero evokes memories of the dinosaur sequence in Fantasia, beginning with an near-empty Coke bottle, tossed from a spaceship visiting a barren planet. As Ravel's music begins, the remaining liquid in the bottle ferments. Weird and wonderful shapes form, becoming a simple life form that crawls up the side of the bottle and plops onto the ground. As the music relentlessly builds, this little blob begins to march through the stages of a strange evolution, ever-changing into bizarre and humorous monsters, learning to fly and swim, and do the whatever they can to continue their chain of life.

The Sibelius Sad Waltz is beautifully drawn and touching to watch, as a scrawny house cat wanders forlorn through the ruins of a house destroyed by war, remembering the people and events that occured there in happier times.

Other episodes are also brilliant, but not as well executed as the two above. Bozzeto's version of Stravinsky's Firebird, has the serpent in the Garden of Eden eats the apple himself and has a very hard time of it as a result.

Another cute sequence follows the exploits of an oversexed but aging rake, desperately trying to make himself look younger in his doomed pursuit of a nymph to the music of Ravel's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. The nudity of the nymphs is drawn beautifully and without pretention.

Then there is the busy little bee in Vivaldi's Concerto in C, who sets her table at one promising flower after another, only to be disturbed by two gigantic humans who insist on making love in her meadow.

Unfortunately the brilliant animated pieces are connected with some heavy-handed live-action slapstick featuring an oafish maniacal orchestra-conductor that totally misfires. The only gag that works is when the impresario receives a telephone call from Hollywood saying his movie has been done before, by some fellow named Prisney or something. No matter. He'll do it anyway! His orchestra consists solely of little old ladies and his forelorn animator sits nearby, constantly tormented by the conductor.

The movie deserves its place beside Fantasia, is just as delightful and inspired, and will no doubt be around as long. Even what's-his-name, Prisney, would agree.