Fantasia (film)

• Release Date: 1940
• Writer(s): Joe Grant; Dick Huemer

Fantasia is a 1940 animated film from Walt Disney that is arguably his greatest masterpiece. He had been considering the project since 1936, calling it "the concert feature." His idea was to marry his animation to a series of pieces of classical music, as if the music were being presented in an orchestra hall. His concept was to expand the list of musical numbers as time went on, but that part of his vision never came to pass.

Disney teamed up with Leopold Stokowski, an internationally famous orchestra conductor who had conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra since 1912. Both men were taking a risk, but both shared Disney’s vision of using entertaining or exotic animations to introduce beautiful classical music to a wider, movie-going audience. Stokowski’s Philadelphia Orchestra performs seven of the eight animated musical segments in the film.

Fantasia was a new approach to animation. Short films had been set to music of various types, but they usually had a tinny sound and uninventive animation techniques. Disney’s vision included inviting his best animators to spend as much time as they needed to create lush, vividly accurate images to accompany the music. So when the hippos wearing tutus dance in the Ponchielli ballet segment, late in the film, the grace and precision of their movements are exactly what a top ballet troupe would offer an audience.

Likewise, Disney needed better sound than accompanied most animated films for his feature-length opus. So he invented a new system he called Fantasound. It included the standard speaker behind the screen but added side speakers to make the entire experience as enveloping as possible. Because of the demands of Fantasound and the unique nature of the movie, Fantasia was first released as if it were a traveling theater performance. It opened in just thirteen theaters. Unfortunately, World War II prevented it from initial success.

Plot

Because Fantasia blends animation with fourteen different pieces of classical music, the usual idea of a "plot" is irrelevant. Each segment offers a visualization of the music as conceived by Disney and his animators. The movie opens with live shots of the orchestra assembling and tuning their instruments. The players are almost in silhouette against a blue background. A master of ceremonies enters, also against the background, and introduces the musical program.

The first selection is "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach. It forms a transition into the animated magic of the film by bleeding from live-action shots of the orchestra into startling abstract interpretations of the music. Colored lines and shapes flow across the screen in perfect synchronization with the music.

Bach is followed by five dances from Tchaikovsky’s "Nutcracker Suite." Mushrooms, fish, flowers, leaves, and fairies perform a series of selections from the ballet. "The Sorcerer’s Apprentice" by Paul Dukas features Mickey Mouse as the apprentice. Mickey puts on his master’s hat and begins to mimic his magic but is unable to control the tricks. The animation of water that dominates the consequences of the apprentice’s foolishness is unlike anything done previously, but the same could be said of much of Fantasia’s extraordinary animation.

From the amusing antics of Mickey Mouse the movie moves into Stravinsky’s "Rite of Spring." Selections from the ballet are used as the soundtrack for a history of the Earth from its formation to the beginnings of life, then the rise and extinction of the dinosaurs.

An intermission is inserted as the live musicians leave, followed by a free-form jazz interlude as the musicians return. Various musical sounds are represented in an abstract animation that begins with a straight white line. The line changes shape and color as different musical sounds are heard.

Ludwig von Beethoven’s "Pastoral Symphony" is re-interpreted in a classical world of figures from Greek mythology celebrating a Bacchanal. An angry Zeus flinging lightning bolts interrupts the Bacchanal. Conductor Stokowski had warned Disney that this departure from the original meaning of Beethoven’s sixth symphony would be controversial, and he was right. In addition, some fans of classical music were offended by much of Fantasia’s irreverent use of dancing cartoon characters. But the general audience that was being introduced to the music loved the film.

"Dance of the Hours" by Amicare Ponchielli is a case in point. The comic ballet is presented in four sections, with animation of ostriches for morning, hippos for afternoon, bubble-blowing elephants for evening, and a troop of alligators for night. Audiences howled as all of the hefty animals danced together for the finale, ending with a collapsing palace.

Fantasia ends on a reverent tone, though, featuring "Night on Bald Mountain" by Modest Mussorgsky and "Ave Maria" by Franz Schubert. Evil spirits are summoned from their graves to dance and fly through the night. But they are driven back to their graves by an angelic bell as dawn approaches. Finally monks file through a forest carrying torches and approaching a ruined cathedral as "Ave Maria" is sung. The image is hauntingly beautiful.

Significance

Although it was not a commercial success in 1940, posterity has treated the movie very well—it is among the twenty-five highest-grossing films in the United States, in inflation-adjusted terms. Fantasia has inspired amusement-park attractions at Disneyland, a live concert, a successful sequel called Fantasia 2000, and video games. In 1998 the American Film Institute ranked it at fifty-eighth place in the one hundred films named in the organization’s 100 Years . . . 100 Movies list. In addition, the AFI considers Fantasia the fifth-greatest animated film of all time. It is also noteworthy for introducing "surround sound" to movie audiences.

The rich detail of the animation went beyond anything that had ever been done before, and the expressive illustration introduced an entire generation of moviegoers to the depth and pleasure of classical music. Jay Gabler refers to it as an artistic watershed, stating, "[Fantasia] remains unique in the history of motion pictures and one of the most persistently fascinating intersections between classical music and popular culture."

Bibliography

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Gabler, Jay. "Disney’s Fantasia at 75: Why There’s Still Nothing Like It." Your Classical. American Public Media, 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 17 Aug. 2015. <http://www.classicalmpr.org/story/2015/01/30/disney-fantasia-75>.

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