Studio: Walt Disney Productions
Distributor: RKO Radio Pictures (from April 1941; Disney ran the original roadshow)
Produced by: Walt Disney, Ben Sharpsteen
Short Synopsis
Fantasia has no single story. The critic Deems Taylor introduces eight pieces of classical music, played by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and each becomes an animated sequence. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor moves from shadows of the musicians into pure abstract shapes and light. Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite becomes a ballet of dewdrop fairies, dancing mushrooms and fish. In Dukas's The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Mickey Mouse borrows his master's hat, enchants a broom to carry water, and floods the workshop. Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring tells the history of the Earth from its formation to the age of the dinosaurs and their extinction. Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony is set in a mythological world of centaurs, fauns and Bacchus. Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours is a comic ballet for ostriches, hippos, elephants and alligators. The film ends with Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain, in which the demon Chernabog summons the spirits of the dead, until the dawn bells drive them away and the film moves into Schubert's Ave Maria and a procession of pilgrims at sunrise.
Why It Matters
- Night on Bald Mountain is the sequence to see: Chernabog unfolding his wings over a sleeping village, animated by Vladimir Tytla, is one of the most powerful pieces of character animation ever made. The Sorcerer's Apprentice, with its army of marching brooms, remains Mickey's most famous role.
- It was Disney's boldest experiment, an attempt to merge animation with concert music. For it Disney and RCA developed Fantasound, making it the first commercial film released in stereo and a forerunner of surround sound. It lost money on release, owing to its cost and the loss of European markets in the war, but reissues made it one of the highest-grossing films ever when adjusted for inflation. It was among the first films added to the National Film Registry in 1990.
Notes and Trivia
- It began as a single Silly Symphony, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, meant to revive Mickey's popularity. When its costs outgrew a short, Disney expanded it into a feature.
- Disney intended it as an ongoing programme with new segments; the idea was finally realised in Fantasia 2000.
- See also: Pinocchio (1940).