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Although never mentioned, the main characters of the "Rhapsody in Blue" segment all have names. The construction worker and aspiring jazz musician is named Duke. The man who needs a job is, appropriately, named Jobless Joe. The little girl is named Rachel, named and modeled after Eric Goldberg and Susan Goldberg's youngest daughter. (Rachel's real-life sister Jenny was the model for a character in Rachel's scenes, the girl with blue hair who can perform all the actions that Rachel cannot. At the time the segment was being produced, the real Jenny had blue hair.) The portly fellow is named John, sometimes referred to by the animators as "Flying John," and he is named after animation historian John Culhane, who was also the inspiration for the character Mr. Snoops in The Rescuers (1977). (He was originally based on Al Hirschfeld's caricature of writer Alexander Woollcott.) Duke is appropriately named after legendary jazz musician Duke Ellington. Jobless Joe is not named after or inspired by any particular individual.
The Broadway ending sequence of "Rhapsody in Blue" contained so many different colors (over 200) that the CAPS system had trouble rendering it, causing delays in the production of Tarzan (1999).
The Firebird sequence depicts the eruption of the volcano Mount Saint Helens in 1980.
The first feature length animated film to be presented in IMAX. IMAX had to agree to Disney's terms and conditions to gain the exclusive first showings of the film. These included a limited engagement of 4 months and 50% of the box office receipts. It was for this reason that, when Fantasia 2000 (1999) had its first run, not all IMAX cinemas showed it as not all of them were prepared to accept Disney's terms. The California Science Center in Los Angeles was one such venue who refused to meet these terms so Disney built a purpose-built IMAX theatre for the 4 month run, costing them $4 million, and demolished it afterwards.
9 years in the making.
George Gershwin himself features in the "Rhapsody in Blue" segment. He's the slender man seen playing the piano through his apartment window above Rachel and her piano lessons.
Eric Goldberg: The animator seen "assisting" James Earl Jones in the intro to "Carnival of the Animals" is the director of that segment and of "Rhapsody in Blue".