Did You Know?
Although this film is number 44 on the list of traditionally animated Walt Disney Feature Animation (WDFA), it is actually only number 35 of the traditionally animated WDFA that is made up of a single story. Fantasia and Fantasia/2000 consists of several animated segments, this is also the case for the so-called "package films" (made up of smaller shorts, rather than one long narrative), which were produced during and shortly after the WWII, from 1941 to 1949. These films are The Reluctant Dragon, Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Make Mine Music, Fun & Fancy Free, Melody Time and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. The same procedure was used once more with The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
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This film marked the beginning of a five-year hiatus of traditionally animated Disney feature films. During its theatrical release (first-run and sub-run) in the United States, the film reportedly earned less than half of its estimated production cost. This was one of the final factors that led to the decision to make this the last traditionally ("hand-drawn") animated Disney feature for theatrical release. In early 2006, at the urging of professionals both in and out of Disney, plans were being considered for resuming traditionally animated features for theatrical release starting with The Princess and the Frog which ended the hiatus.
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This film earned its "PG" rating due to one of Maggie's lines about her udders ("Yeah, they're real. Quit staring.")
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Mexican singer/songwriter Ely Guerra was the voice of Grace in the dubbed Mexican version.
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Alameda Slim is named after Wilf Carter also known as "Montana Slim". Carter was known as a Country Singer and Yodeler.
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The working title of this film was "Sweating Bullets" and an early plot idea was about a calf named Bullets who saved his herd from a band of ghost cattle rustlers called the Willies.
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Writers Will Finn and John Sanford originally pitched the film as an animated feature film based on the myth of the Pied Piper. Maggie the Cow was originally written as a deaf girl. Michael Eisner immediately hated the idea, because he thought no parent would take their children to see a movie where children are murdered. So Will and John wrote this movie, which contains elements from the Pied Piper myth.
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The final feature film to use Disney's CAPS (Computer Animation Production System) pipeline. The system - more than a simple software application, it encompassed a complex UNIX-based network of workstations and servers handling the creation, editing, storage, and workflow of multiple animated sequences - was dismantled when the animation unit was shuttered.
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