Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends.
If your account is linked with Facebook and you have turned on sharing, this will show up in your activity feed. If not, you can turn on sharing
here
.
Donald receives his birthday gifts, which include traditional gifts and information about Brazil (hosted by Zé Carioca) and Mexico (by Panchito, a Mexican Charro Rooster).
Jiminy Cricket hosts two Disney animated shorts: "Bongo," about a circus bear escaping to the wild, and "Mickey and the Beanstalk," a take on the famous fairy tale.
Stars:
Edgar Bergen,
Dinah Shore,
Charlie McCarthy
Disney animators set pictures to Western classical music as Leopold Stokowski conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra. "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" features Mickey Mouse as an aspiring magician who oversteps his limits. "The Rite of Spring" tells the story of evolution, from single-celled animals to the death of the dinosaurs. "Dance of the Hours" is a comic ballet performed by ostriches, hippos, elephants, and alligators. "Night on Bald Mountain" and "Ave Maria" set the forces of darkness and light against each other as a devilish revel is interrupted by the coming of a new day. Written by
David Thiel <d-thiel@uiuc.edu>
In "The Nutcracker Suite," considerable live-action footage was shot of Joyce Coles and Marge Champion (who, as Marjorie Belcher, had modeled for Snow White), in long ballet skirts to simulate the movements of the blossoms for "The Dance of the Reed Flutes." For the same segment, Walt insisted that his effects technicians devised a way of transferring Elmer Plummer's (an art teacher at the Chouinard Art Institute) preliminary drawings into animation. After various attempts were rejected, they finally came up with stippled cels, on which the painted characters had a delicate pastel-like look. See more »
Goofs
The creatures gathered at the dinosaur water hole include animals exclusive to different time periods. Stegosaurs lived only in the Jurassic Period, Ceratopsians only in the Cretaceous, and Dimetrodons only in the Permian. It is possible that this was not yet known in 1940. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Narrator:
How do you do? My name is Deems Taylor, and it's my very pleasant duty to welcome you here on behalf of Walt Disney, Leopold Stokowski, and all the other artists and musicians whose combined talents went into the creation of this new form of entertainment, "Fantasia". What you're going to see are the designs and pictures and stories that music inspired in the minds and imaginations of a group of artists. In other words, these are not going to be the interpretations of trained ...
See more »
Crazy Credits
The "Fantasia" title card for all releases prior to 1990 (including the original roadshow version) was slightly different from the one seen in the 1990 re-release and in the videocassette version. In the original title card, the letters spelling out the word "Fantasia" are of a slightly different shade of color, as is the blue background, and the title card reads "In Technicolor", just below the word "Fantasia". There is also an RKO logo at the bottom. In the 1990 version, there is no RKO logo, and below the title it says "Color By Technicolor". See more »
This is one of the truly rare, one of a kind movie going experiences, kind of in the same league as watching 2001: A Space Odyssey. I like to watch this film repeatedly; often times I'll just close my eyes and daydream, letting my own imagination go in place of whats on the screen. My favorite part is the opening sequence, with its dramatic music and free flowing imagery foreshadowing the state of the world in 1940. The end of Ave Maria is the perfect bookend to this masterpiece; death has withdrawn and peace has finally arrived. It would, but not for another five years and millions of lives. I can never watch this movie without seeing it in this context; for me its a work of art, both a part and ahead of its time.
32 of 34 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
This is one of the truly rare, one of a kind movie going experiences, kind of in the same league as watching 2001: A Space Odyssey. I like to watch this film repeatedly; often times I'll just close my eyes and daydream, letting my own imagination go in place of whats on the screen. My favorite part is the opening sequence, with its dramatic music and free flowing imagery foreshadowing the state of the world in 1940. The end of Ave Maria is the perfect bookend to this masterpiece; death has withdrawn and peace has finally arrived. It would, but not for another five years and millions of lives. I can never watch this movie without seeing it in this context; for me its a work of art, both a part and ahead of its time.