When Cinderella's cruel stepmother prevents her from attending the Royal Ball, she gets some unexpected help from the lovable mice Gus and Jaq, and from her Fairy Godmother.
After being snubbed by the royal family, a malevolent fairy places a curse on a princess which only a prince can break, along with the help of three good fairies.
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).
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>
The surrealist painter Salvador Dalí made some illustrations for the movie, but his ideas were later discarded. See more »
Goofs
The dancing ostriches in "Dance of the Hours" are portrayed as females, but it is only the male ostrich that is black and white. The females are gray-brown. See more »
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 ...
See more »
Crazy Credits
The roadshow cut of the film features no credits or title music, just the Art Deco title card placed at the intermission. The general release cut (the one shown most often) places the title card at the beginning, as on most films. See more »
Alternate Versions
The original 124-minute version has never had a wide theatrical release. The only times the original "Fantasound" version of the film played were in roadshow engagements from November 1940 until January 1941. Walt Disney himself had to personally supervise this release, which only played in 12 venues (only 16 "Fantasound" equipped prints were ever made). The original roadshow version, apart from its fifteen-minute intermission, runs 124 minutes (just over two hours). Compared to the more familiar versions, it featured:
much lengthier (and always on-camera) interstitials from Deems Taylor, especially for the then-revolutionary "Rite of Spring" sequence.
Footage of the musicians exiting and re-entering the bandstands immediately before and after the intermission. The sequence after the intermission features an impromptu jam session by the on-screen musicians.
No on-screen credits, save one title card which displayed the film's name, the copyright notice, "In Technicolor", the MPPDA approval certificate, and the RCA Sound System logo. The production credits were featured in a specially prepared collectible program booklet available for purchase by roadshow performance attendees. Since the first editing of the film after its initial roadshow release, none of this extra material (except part of the intermission used for the 50th Anniversary's end credits sequence) has been seen publicly until the 60th Anniversary release.
The Nutcracker Suite, Op. 71a
(1892)
(features the compositions "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy", "Chinese Dance", "Dance of the Reed Flutes", "Arabian Dance", "Russian Dance", and "Waltz of the Flowers")
Composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Played by The Philadelphia Orchestra
Conducted by Leopold Stokowski See more »
2017 is a year of technical marvel. Looking at movies of today, we see massive, stunning works of animation. We can now achieve computer generated images that look nearly indistinguishable from reality, and at the forefront of movie making today is Disney. Through Marvel, Disney creates multiple action packed superhero blockbusters a year. Star Wars, after it's 2015 revival, has new movies being released annually. Pixar, after creating several successful franchises, is now resting on its laurels, creating sequels like Finding Dory, Toy Story 4, Cars 3 and Incredibles 2. Even Disney's in house animation team is finding success, bringing back the Disney princess formula with movies like Frozen and Moana. However, amidst all this success, we have lost the truly human touch. Fantasia perfectly captures all that was lost in today's Disney movies. The movie has a very personal and human feel to every aspect of it. The orchestra, a very tangible presence in the movie, feels alive. They laugh, play their own little tunes during the intermission, but most importantly, they make mistakes. The animation is the same way, It's very rough at times and sometimes lacking, with some animations being reused, however every shot is filled with passion. You can tell that people worked on this, people with ambition, though they were not perfect. In modern movies, this beautiful animation that looks so real lacks the touch of individualism that Fantasia has in spades. The scene of the Sorcerer's apprentice dancing around the broom is burned into our collective memory for a reason. In all its flaws, its rough edges, it feels real to us. We can see all the raw effort and energy that the animator's put into each of Mickey's footsteps and that resonates with us. Fantasia speaks to the viewer not because it's perfect, but because it's flawed.
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2017 is a year of technical marvel. Looking at movies of today, we see massive, stunning works of animation. We can now achieve computer generated images that look nearly indistinguishable from reality, and at the forefront of movie making today is Disney. Through Marvel, Disney creates multiple action packed superhero blockbusters a year. Star Wars, after it's 2015 revival, has new movies being released annually. Pixar, after creating several successful franchises, is now resting on its laurels, creating sequels like Finding Dory, Toy Story 4, Cars 3 and Incredibles 2. Even Disney's in house animation team is finding success, bringing back the Disney princess formula with movies like Frozen and Moana. However, amidst all this success, we have lost the truly human touch. Fantasia perfectly captures all that was lost in today's Disney movies. The movie has a very personal and human feel to every aspect of it. The orchestra, a very tangible presence in the movie, feels alive. They laugh, play their own little tunes during the intermission, but most importantly, they make mistakes. The animation is the same way, It's very rough at times and sometimes lacking, with some animations being reused, however every shot is filled with passion. You can tell that people worked on this, people with ambition, though they were not perfect. In modern movies, this beautiful animation that looks so real lacks the touch of individualism that Fantasia has in spades. The scene of the Sorcerer's apprentice dancing around the broom is burned into our collective memory for a reason. In all its flaws, its rough edges, it feels real to us. We can see all the raw effort and energy that the animator's put into each of Mickey's footsteps and that resonates with us. Fantasia speaks to the viewer not because it's perfect, but because it's flawed.