Fantasia (1940)

A collection of animated interpretations of great works of Western classical music.

Directors:

James Algar (uncredited), Samuel Armstrong (uncredited)

Writers:

Joe Grant (story direction), Dick Huemer (story direction)

Stars:

Leopold Stokowski, Deems Taylor, Corey Burton

8 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Leopold Stokowski	...	Himself - Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra
Deems Taylor	...	Himself - Narrative Introductions

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

classical music | disney | mouse | orchestra | apprentice | 

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Taglines:

Fantasia Will Amazia! (1942 re-release)

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Genres:

Animation | Family | Fantasy | Music

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 July 1941 (UK)

Also Known As:

Bach to Stravinsky and Bach

Filming Locations:

Walt Disney Studios, 500 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,280,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$980,798, 10 February 1985, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$76,408,097

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min (2000 roadshow restoration) 125 min (original 1940 roadshow release) 80 min (1942 cut) 120 min (VHS release) 115 min (1946 cut)

Sound Mix:

3 Channel Stereo (RCA Sound System) (as Fantasound)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One frequent complaint against "The Rite of Spring"'s depiction of the extinction of the dinosaurs is that it never depicts how the climate change that did it started. The current dominant theory is that it was caused by the Chicxulub asteroid whose impact caused prolonged winter conditions and consequently killed the plants and plankton. The food chain was disrupted and other species started dying out. What is often overlooked by those who express this complaint is that "Fantasia"'s creators could not have known of this theory. The current dominant theory derives from a 1953 original hypothesis, which was confirmed and further elaborated in 1980. It did not really become the scientific consensus until the 1990s.

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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.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Deems Taylor: How do you do? Uh, 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 ...

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Crazy Credits

This is the second Walt Disney feature-length film ("Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was the first) on which the credit "Walt Disney presents" never appears. It appeared on all the other feature-length films that Disney personally produced.

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Connections

Featured in Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color: All About Magic (1957)

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Soundtracks

A Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria
"A Night on Bald Mountain" (1867) Composed by Modest Mussorgsky (as Modeste Moussorgsky)
"Ave Maria, Op. 52 No. 6" (1825) Composed by Franz Schubert
Orchestrated by Leopold Stokowski (uncredited)
Both Works and Transitional Material Arranged by Leopold Stokowski (uncredited)
Played by The Philadelphia Orchestra
Special Lyrics for "Ave Maria" by Rachel Field
Sung in English by the Westminster Choir of Westminster Choir College with soprano soloist Julietta Novis
Choral Director: Charles Henderson
Conducted by Leopold Stokowski

User Reviews

This is an example of a cinematic milestone

I first remember hearing about this movie when I was very little, and ever since I first watched it on VHS, it has always been one of the many examples of my favorite movies of all time. This is so unique, because unlike a typical Disney movie, in this movie we do not hear any dialog from the characters, and all of the music is instrumental (except for "Ave Maria" at the end). The film is divided into eight sequences, each of them being introduced by a guy named Deems Taylor, who was a very well-known music critique.

The eight segments are as follows:

1.) "Tocatta & Fugue in D-minor" composed by Johanne Sebastian Bach. This segment consists of shots of the Philadelphia Orchestra and their conductor Leopold Stokowski with a lot of cool shadow and color effects during the first three minutes, then we see a lot of shapes and random objects that Taylor would suggest to us might pop into our brains when listening to the music.

2.) "The Nutcracker Suite" composed by Tchaikovsky. In this part of the movie, we listen to excerpts of the famous ballet suite, and we see various fairies, flowers, fish and other nature-related creatures.

3.) Everyone's favorite "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" starring Sorcerer Mickey and Yen Sid (the sorcerer whose name is "Disney" spelled backwards). This is also the only segment to be seen again in this film's sequel, "Fantasia/2000" 60 years later, and in it the apprentice brings to life a magical broomstick to try to fill a cauldron with water, and the spell goes wrong so the apprentice gets reprimanded. This is then followed by Mickey greeting conductor Stokowski.

4.) "Rite of Spring" composed by Igor Stravinsky. This segment takes place billions and billions of years ago with the coming of the dinosaurs, where we see the creation of Earth in the beginning of time, and are later introduced to all of the different dinosaurs including the tyrannosaurus rex, which become extinct in the end of the segment.

5.) "Intermission/Meet the Soundtrack". At this point in the film, Deems Taylor introduces this string thingamajigger called the "Soundtrack" that he asks to make a lot of sounds resembling various instrument sounds.

6.) "Pastoral Symphony No. 6" composed by Beethoven. This segment is about a day in the countryside, and in it we see a lot of Greek mythology creatures like unicorns, satyrs, centaurs and centaurettes, cupids, Bacchus, Zeus, Iris, Apollo and Diana.

7.) "Dance of the Hours". This is where we see dancing ostriches, alligators, elephants and hippos. Each part of the piece suggests different hours of the day, and it all ends with a triumphant finale where the dancing hippo takes center stage.

8.) A combination of two pieces that are utterly different in mood and tone. They are "Night on Bald Mountain" in which a bat villain named Chernabog has Satan's evil spirits dance furiously until the coming of the sacred dawn, and then Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria" which is the one and only part of the whole film in which we hear lyrics sung, and then the movie ends.

I simply must say that not only is this film one of my all time favorite animated masterpieces, but it is also an example of a big highlight of the 1940's in cinematic history, all because of the ways it is so unique and special. In addition to this masterpiece, I also think "The Wizard of Oz", "Gone with the Wind", "Citizen Kane" and "Casablanca" are main icons of cinematic successes. I definitely think this should have been the first animated movie to be nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award instead of "Beauty and the Beast".