Movie 3: Fantasia

August 17, 2014November 13, 2015 | Rachel's Reviews

Production- (If you want to read about the segments skip down to Segments)

In modern movies typically we see a hit followed by a million imitators. Not the case with Disney. Even in later, more commercial years they followed Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast with the different feels of Aladdin and Lion King. However, this was never more true than in the early years. A mammoth hit of Snow White was followed by 4 films that couldn’t be more different- Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi.

Fantasia was the 3rd animated feature film by Walt Disney Studios and it is a bold undertaking to be sure. Originally Walt was worried the character of Mickey was going to be forgotten by the public and even the studio. As his master creation Walt didn’t want this to happen and had developed an idea for the Sorcerers Apprentice. Music had been written and the concept had been drawn.

Unfortunately Disney was left with only a short, so he got the idea to create a series of shorts that would build off of his Silly Symphonies series- pairing animation with classical music.

In the end Fantasia was 8 sections including intermission and 8 pieces of music (the intermission has notes but the last segment has 2 numbers Night on Bald Mountain and Ave Maria)

The music was recorded by the Philadelphia Orchestra which was led by famous conductor Leopold Stokowski. Evidently he and Disney had met in a restaurant and Walt mentioned his idea of the Sorcerers Apprentice. Leopold told Walt Disney he ‘liked the music’ and would be willing to conduct the piece at no cost.

Then Disney later ran into Stokowski on a train and they shared ideas for the short. Disney told him later he was ‘all steamed up over the idea of Stokowski working with us’ and that it would ‘lead to a new style of motion picture presentation’.

So work on the Sorcerers Apprentice began in 1937 but by January 1938 the cost had climbed to 125,000 so Disney realized a short could never make that back. A feature film of a series of shorts was discussed. Roy Disney wanted to keep the budget low because of the ‘experimental and unprecedented nature’ of the production.

However, Walt Disney became energized and “saw this trouble in the form of an opportunity. This was the birth of a new concept, a group of separate numbers- regardless of their running time- put together in a single presentation”

It’s clear Walt liked the idea of the combined short subject feature film because after Bambi there are 6 such features (a portion of this project I must admit I am not looking forward to but it should be fun)

Each of the shorts in Fantasia involved different techniques. In Toccata we see an homage to abstract art. In the Nutcracker Suite professional ballet dancers were brought in, filmed and then sketched. In the Pastoral Symphony we see almost a watercolor effect.

The music was recorded in 1939 and took 42 days, 33 microphones, and 483,000 feet of film.

Fantasia was also released in Fantasound which was developed by the engineers at Disney and RCA which had 2 projectors rolling- 1 with the sound, another with the film.

Fantasia has one of the most interesting stories at the box office of any Disney film. Initially Fantasia struggled at the box office because it was rolled out slowly with Fantasound having to be implemented in theaters and the beginning of WWII in 1941

Eventually it was released to the general public with 20 minutes removed and then 45 minutes taken off. It was then released again in theaters 9 more times, finally making money in 1969 release. In that release 4 scenes from the Pastoral Symphony showing black pegasus waiting on a white one were deemed racially insensitive and removed.

In 1982 a new soundtrack was recorded and in 1990 the live action scenes and original uncut film was released. I saw Fantasia in 1990 and it grossed $25 million.

The Segments

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach

It’s neat but probably not my favorite as there is no story at all.