Allegretto is a 1936 abstract short (and we mean short—it's only 2 1/2 minutes long) film by German-American abstract animator Oskar Fischinger, with music by Ralph Rainger. The film is a purely visual experience that experiments with abstract animation combined with music, and has absolutely no plot or characters to speak of.
See it here.
Tropes:
- Color Contrast: The film uses this visual tool as part of its abstract animation vocabularly.
- Meaningful Name: The word Allegretto is a musical term for "at a fairly brisk tempo." or "a movement or piece to be played fairly briskly." The films visuals are built around a soundtrack paced like this.
- Mickey Mousing: The movement of the shapes is synchronized with the music.
- Minimalism: The film is an experiment in abstract animation, being a collection of simplistic animated shapes and colors set to music.
- No Plot? No Problem!: There is no plot or characters and no words other than those in the opening credits, as the film is meant to be a purely abstract visual experience.
- Short Film: It's only 2 and a half minutes long.
- The Tropeless Tale: Probably as close as you can get to the nebulous quality of one due to the film's utter lack of content. Even Roundhay Garden Scene spawns a myriad a tropes despite only being 2 seconds long. Even Hemingway's Six-Word Story and the Tropeless Tale page itself has more tropes than this film.
