Ravel's Boléro, as seen on the movie poster image, is a story of evolution set to the sixteen minute long piece, the animated segment sometimes compared to Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring in Fantasia, in part due to the solar eclipse scene, the similar animation of waterfalls, and the desert like environment.
The segment begins with a fairly 1970s notion, a space ship landing and throwing a nearly empty Coca-Cola or Chinotto bottle out on to the dead landscape of the planet they have found.
To Boléro's growing drum-beat, the remaining liquid in the bottle begins to work its way out of the bottle. Eventually it does, and begins to change shape into a variety of fantastic creatures, colorfully mirroring Earth's own evolution.
The creatures continue to march to an unseen objective, constantly in the same direction, sometimes in conflict with each other along the way, but all going absolutely straight forward except for the monkey in the film, which tends to kill other creatures. The monkey is seen learning to adapt with fur, boats, clubs, and eventually fire, all obtained at the expense of the other creatures.
The creatures, now looking much like dinosaurs, pass by the Egyptian Pyramids, a looming crucifix, and an already-fought 20th century battlefield, all forcing the creatures to gaze in wonder for a moment before continuing on.
Finally, as the piece reaches its amazingly loud climax, the creatures are all destroyed by skyscrapers coming up from the ground suddenly, followed by a looming human above them all. The human's face crumbles though it were made of stone to reveal the monkey inside, having conquered all the other creatures.
