Fantasia (film)

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Fantasia

Theatrical release poster
Directed by see below
Produced by Walt Disney
Written by Joe Grant
Dick Huemer
Narrated by Deems Taylor
Starring Leopold Stokowski
The Philadelphia Orchestra
Music by see below
Cinematography James Wong Howe
Studio Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by Walt Disney Productions
RKO Radio Pictures
Release date(s) November 13, 1940 (1940-11-13)
Running time 125 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $2.28 million[1][2]
Box office $76,408,097[3]

Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. The film was the third feature-length Disney production. It consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, seven of which are performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Music critic and composer Deems Taylor introduces each segment in live-action interstitial scenes.

Disney settled on the film's concept as work neared completion on The Sorcerer's Apprentice, an elaborate Silly Symphonies short designed as a comeback role for Mickey Mouse who had declined in popularity. As production costs grew higher than what it could earn, he decided to include the short in a feature-length film with other segments set to classical pieces. The soundtrack was recorded using multiple audio channels and reproduced with Fantasound, a pioneering sound reproduction system that made Fantasia the first commercial film shown in stereophonic sound.

Fantasia was first released in theatrical roadshow engagements held in thirteen U.S. cities from November 13, 1940. It received mixed critical reaction, and was unable to make a profit partly due to World War II cutting off the profitable European market, as well as the high roadshow overhead costs from leasing theatres and installing the Fantasound equipment. Audiences who felt that Disney had suddenly gone "highbrow" also stayed away, preferring the standard Disney cartoons, not ones set to classical music with no dialogue or sound effects. The film was subsequently reissued multiple times with its original footage and audio being deleted, modified, or restored in each version. Fantasia has grossed $76.4 million in domestic revenue and is the 22nd highest-grossing film of all time in the U.S. when adjusted for inflation.[4] Walt's nephew Roy E. Disney co-produced a sequel released in 1999 titled Fantasia 2000.

Contents

Program

See also: List of Disney's Fantasia characters

The program as presented in the 1940 roadshow version.

  • Introduction: Live-action photography of members of the orchestra gathering and tuning their instruments. Deems Taylor joins the orchestra to introduce the film's program.
  • Toccata and Fugue in D Minor: Live-action shots of the orchestra illuminated in blue and gold, backed by superimposed shadows. The number segues into abstract animated patterns, lines, shapes and cloud formations.[5]
  • Nutcracker Suite: A selection of pieces from the ballet depicts the changing of the seasons from summer to autumn to winter. A variety of dances are presented with fairies, fish, flowers, mushrooms, and leaves, including "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy", "Chinese Dance", "Dance of the Flutes", "Arabian Dance", "Russian Dance" and "Waltz of the Flowers".[6]
  • The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Based on Goethe's 1797 poem Der Zauberlehrling. Mickey Mouse, an apprentice of sorcerer Yen Sid, attempts some of his master's magic tricks before knowing how to control them.[7]
  • The Rite of Spring: A visual history of the Earth's beginnings is depicted to selected sections of the ballet, from the planet's formation to the first living creatures, followed by the reign and extinction of the dinosaurs.[8]
  • Intermission/Meet the Soundtrack: The musicians depart and the Fantasia title card is revealed. After the intermission there is a brief jam session of jazz music led by the clarinettist as the orchestra members return. Then a humorously stylized demonstration of how sound is rendered on film is shown, where the sound track "character", initially a straight white line, changes into different shapes and colors based on the sounds played.[9]
  • The Pastoral Symphony: A mythical ancient Greek world of centaurs, cupids, fauns and other figures from classical mythology. A gathering for a festival to honor Bacchus, the god of wine, is interrupted by Zeus who creates a storm and throws lightning bolts at the attendees.[10]
  • Dance of the Hours: A comic ballet featuring Madame Upanova and her ostriches (Morning); Hyacinth Hippo and her servants (Afternoon); Elephanchine and her bubble-blowing elephant troupe (Evening); and Ben Ali Gator and his troop of alligators (Night). The finale sees all the characters dancing together until the palace collapses.[11]
  • Night on Bald Mountain and Ave Maria: At midnight the devil Chernabog summons evil spirits and restless souls from their graves. The spirits dance and fly through the air until driven back by the sound of an Angelus bell as night fades into dawn. A chorus is heard singing Ave Maria as a line of robed monks is depicted walking with lighted torches through a forest and into the ruins of a cathedral.[12]

Production

Development

Walt Disney's cartoon character Mickey Mouse entered a period of decline in the late 1930s. His popularity fell behind Donald Duck, Goofy and in some opinion polls, behind Popeye of Fleischer Studios.[13] In early 1937, Disney decided to feature Mickey in a comeback Silly Symphony cartoon based on Goethe's ballad Der Zauberlehrling set to the music of L'apprenti sorcier, a symphonic poem by Paul Dukas based on the same story.[13] He obtained the rights to use the music by the end of July, and considered using a well-known conductor to score the piece.[14] The first choice was Arturo Toscanini,[15] but the decision was changed when Leopold Stokowski agreed to take on the job. Disney met Stokowski in late 1937 at Chasen's, a noted Hollywood restaurant. The conductor offered his services at no charge. He also suggested the idea of a film that illustrated various selections of classical music, to which Disney passed on.[13] Stokowski was nonetheless "thrilled at the idea" of recording for Disney, and a synopsis of the story was given to each of the 700 studio staff, who were encouraged to give their suggestions.[16][17] Disney expressed his wish to use "the finest men in the plant, from color men down to animators" on the short.[18] Ideas surfaced to have Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the starring role, but Disney insisted upon using Mickey.[19]

On the night of January 9, 1938, over 100 musicians gathered at Culver Studios, California to record The Sorcerer's Apprentice.[16][19][20] Animation for the short began on January 21,[21] and in keeping with the project's ambitious efforts, animator Fred Moore redesigned Mickey by adding pupils to his eyes for greater expression.[15] It became clearer to Disney when costs surpassed $125,000 that as a cartoon short, he could not make the same amount back from revenue.[13] He reconsidered Stokowski's idea to expand the cartoon into a feature-length film, and work began on what was first titled The Concert Feature in February 1938.[13] The idea was to incorporate The Sorcerer's Apprentice as well as "a group of separate numbers, regardless of their running time, put together in a single presentation".[22] Disney hoped the concept would attract a wider audience into classical music. "This film is going to open this kind of music to a lot of people like myself who've walked out on this kind of stuff", he said in a story meeting.[23] Its eventual title was declared by Stokowski, who described what was in the making a "Fantasia", pronounced "fan-ta-zee-ah".[15] Composer, music critic and radio personality Deems Taylor agreed to serve as a technical advisor and to provide narrative introductions for each segment.[24]

The musical pieces in Fantasia were selected during a three-week conference held in September 1938 among Disney, Stokowski, Taylor, and writers Joe Grant and Dick Huemer.[25] Ideas on possible storylines were discussed with stenographers recording each conversation verbatim, after which each participant would receive a copy for review before the next day's meeting. As music selections were being considered for the film, a recording of the piece was brought in for playing amongst the group.[26] Taylor's suggestion to include The Rite of Spring was agreed upon after Disney enquired about a piece to "build something of a prehistoric theme...with prehistoric animals".[27] By the end of the engagements, it was decided to include the pieces seen in the final film plus Cydalise et le Chèvre-pied by Gabriel Pierné and Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy.[28] When Taylor returned to the studios to review the film's progress in May 1939,[29] Clair de Lune had been removed from the program and Cydalise was replaced with Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony due to problems with fitting a story to the music, a change that Taylor had welcomed.[30]

Design and animation

Disney acting out a scene in The Sorcerer's Apprentice for Taylor and Stokowski.

During the production of Fantasia, segments would be color-keyed scene by scene so the colors in a single shot would harmonize between preceding and following ones.[31] Prior to the completion of the narrative pattern of a segment, an overall color scheme was designed to the general mood of the music, and patterned to correspond with the development of the subject matter.[31]

From November 1938 to October 1939, artist Oskar Fischinger worked on the Toccata and Fugue. He was a pioneer in producing abstract animation set to music,[32] but Disney felt his designs were too abstract for a mass audience.[13] Fischinger left the studio in apparent disgust and despair, as he was not used to working in a group and with little control.[33] Disney had plans to make the segment the first commercial 3-D film, with viewers being given glasses with their programs, but this idea was later abandoned.[34]

In The Nutcracker Suite, animator Art Babbitt is said to have credited Curly Howard from The Three Stooges as a guide for animating the dancing mushrooms in the Chinese Dance routine.[35] An Arabian dancer was brought into the studios to study the movements for the goldfish in Arab Dance.[36]

An early concept for The Rite of Spring was to extend the story from the first life forms on Earth up to the age of man, but it was curtailed by Disney to avoid religious controversy.[35] To gain a better understanding of the history of the planet the studio received guidance from Roy Chapman Andrews, the director of the American Museum of Natural History, English biologist Julian Huxley, paleontologist Barnum Brown, and astronomer Edwin Hubble.[18][37] Animators studied comets and nebulae at the Mount Wilson Observatory and observed a herd of iguanas and a baby alligator that were brought into the studios.[38] Stravinsky was the only surviving composer featured in Fantasia during its development. He visited the studios in December 1939 to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice, hear Stokowski's arrangement of The Rite of Spring and view the sketches, storyboards, and models for the segment.[39]

For inspiration on the routines in Dance of the Hours, animators studied real life ballet performers including Marge Champion and Irina Baronova.[15] Béla Lugosi, best known for his role in Dracula, was brought in to provide reference poses for Chernabog. As animator Bill Tytla disliked the results, he used colleague Wilfred Jackson to pose shirtless which gave him the images he needed.[13]

The Ave Maria segment was to provide "an emotional relief to audiences tense from the shock of Mussorgsky's malignant music and its grim visualization."[40] Its sequence was designed for the studios' multiplane camera, which provides the illusion of depth to the 2-D drawings. Fantasia used more multiplane footage than Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio combined. Ed Gershman, who worked on the segment, described how the animation of the procession figures was so closely drawn, "a difference in the width of a pencil line was more than enough to cause jitters, not only to the animation, but to everyone connected with the sequence."[41] Disney ordered many time-consuming and expensive reshots. A horizontal camera crane was built that could accommodate pictures four feet wide on panes of glass that were mounted on moveable stands, so they could be placed out of the way as the camera progressed through the film. Workers shot for six days and six nights, only to find the camera had the wrong lens on.[42] They shot again for three days and nights before a small earthquake had rocked the wooden stands holding the glass panes. They restarted once more, and completed filming with one day to spare until the premiere. On the day of release, the last piece of film arrived in New York with four hours to spare.[43][44]

Over 1,000 artists and technicians were used in the making of Fantasia,[45] which features more than 500 characters.[46]

Soundtrack

Recording

The Philadelphia Academy of Music.

Disney wanted to experiment in more sophisticated sound recording and reproduction techniques for Fantasia. "We know...that music emerging from one speaker behind the screen sounds thin, tinkly and strainy. We wanted to reproduce such beautiful masterpieces...so that audiences would feel as though they were standing at the podium with Stokowski".[47] For the recording of The Sorcerer's Apprentice in January 1938,[16] engineers at Disney collaborated with RCA Corporation for using multiple audio channels which allowed any desired dynamic balance to be achieved upon playback. The stage was altered acoustically with double plywood semi-circular partitions that separated the orchestra into five sections to increase reverberation.[48] Though as the production of Fantasia developed, the setup used for The Sorcerer's Apprentice was abandoned for different multi-channel recording arrangements.

In January 1939, Stokowski signed an eighteen-month contract with Disney to conduct the remaining pieces with the Philadelphia Orchestra, which he had directed from 1912 to 1938.[49] Recording began in April 1939 and lasted for seven weeks at the Academy of Music, the orchestra's home which was chosen for its excellent acoustics.[47][50] In the recording sessions, thirty-three microphones were placed around the orchestra that captured the music onto eight optical sound recording machines placed in the hall's basement. Each one represented an audio channel that focused on a different section of instruments: cellos and basses, violins, brass, violas, and woodwinds and tympani. The seventh channel was a combination of the first six while the eighth provided an overall sound of the orchestra at a distance.[47][51][52] A ninth was later added to provide a click track function for the animators to time their drawings to the music.[20][51] In the forty-two days of recording 483,000 feet of film was used.[47] Disney paid all the expenses which included the musician's wages, stage personnel, a music librarian, and the orchestra's manager that cost almost $18,000.[49] When the finished recordings arrived at the studio, a meeting was held on July 14, 1939 to allow the artists working on each segment to listen to Stokowski's arrangements, and suggest alterations in the sound to work more effectively with their designs.[53]

Fantasound

The Disney brothers contacted David Sarnoff of RCA regarding the manufacture of a new system that would "create the illusion that the actual symphony orchestra is playing in the theater". Sarnoff backed out at first due to financial reasons, but agreed in July 1939 to make the equipment so long as the Disneys could hold down the estimated $200,000 in costs.[54] Though it was not exactly known how to achieve their goal, engineers at Disney and RCA investigated many ideas and tests made with various equipment setups.[48] The collaboration led to the development of Fantasound, a pioneering stereophonic surround sound system which innovated some processes widely used today, including simultaneous multi-track recording, overdubbing, and noise reduction.[51]

Disney's chief sound engineer William Garity.

Fantasound employed two projectors running at the same time. With one containing the picture film with a mono soundtrack for backup purposes, the other ran a sound film that was mixed from the eight tracks recorded at the Academy to four. Three of which contained the audio for the left, center, and right stage speakers respectively, while the fourth became a control track with amplitude and frequency tones that drove variable-gain amplifiers to control the volume of the three audio tracks.[48] In addition were three "house" speakers placed on the left, right, and center of the auditorium that derived from the left and right stage channels which acted as surround channels.[51] As the original recording was captured at almost peak modulation to increase signal-to-noise ratio, the control track was used to restore the dynamics to where Stokowski thought they should be. For this, a tone-operated gain-adjusting device was built to control the levels of each of the three audio tracks through the amplifiers.

The illusion of sound traveling across the speakers was achieved with a device named the "pan pot", which directed the predetermined movement of each audio channel with the control track. Mixing of the soundtrack required six people to operate the various pan pots in real time, while Stokowski directed each level and pan change which was marked on his musical score. To monitor the recording levels at lower frequencies, Disney ordered eight three-color oscillators from the newly-established Hewlett-Packard company,[55] a predecessor from VU meters used today. Between the individual takes, prints, and remakes, approximately three million feet of sound film was used in the production of Fantasia.[47] Almost a fifth of the film's budget was spent on its recording techniques.[56]

Release history

Theatrical runs

1940–1941 roadshows with Fantasound

The Broadway Theatre

RKO baulked at the idea of distributing what it described Fantasia as a "longhair musical",[57] and believed its duration of two hours and five minutes was too long for a general release.[58][59] It relaxed its exclusive distribution contract with Disney, who wanted a more prestigious exhibit in the form of a limited-run roadshow attraction. A total of thirteen roadshows were held across the United States; each involving two daily screenings with seat reservations booked in advance at higher prices and a fifteen-minute intermission. Disney hired film salesman Irving Ludwig to manage the first eleven engagements,[60] who was given specific instructions regarding each aspect of the film's presentation, including the setup of outside theater marquees and curtain and lighting cues. Patrons were taken to their seats by staff hired and trained by Disney,[61] and were given a program booklet illustrated by Gyo Fujikawa.[19]

The first roadshow opened at the Broadway Theatre in New York City on November 13, 1940.[19] The Disneys had secured a year's lease with the venue that was fully equipped with Fantasound, which took personnel a week working around the clock to install.[62] Proceeds made on the night went to the British War Relief Society for the efforts in the Battle of Britain.[63] Ticket demand was so great that eight telephone operators were employed to handle the extra calls while the adjoining store was rented out to cater the box office bookings.[64] Fantasia ran at the Broadway for forty-nine consecutive weeks, the longest run achieved by a film at the time.[65] Its run continued for a total of fifty-seven weeks until February 28, 1942.[66]

The remaining twelve roadshows were held throughout 1941, which included a thirty-nine week run[65] at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles from January 29.[67][68] Fantasia broke the long-run record at the venue in its twenty-eighth week; a record previously held by Gone with the Wind.[69] Its eight-week run at the Fulton Theatre in Pittsburgh attracted over 50,000 people with reservations being made from cities located one hundred miles from the venue.[70] Engagements were also held at the Geary Theatre in San Francisco for eight months,[19] the Hanna Theatre in Cleveland for nine weeks,[71][72] the Majestic Theatre in Boston,[19] the Apollo Theater in Chicago,[73] and those in Philadelphia, Detroit, Buffalo, Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore.[74]

Fantasia grossed over $300,000 in the first sixteen weeks in New York; over $20,000 in the opening five weeks in San Francisco; and almost the same amount in the first ten weeks both in Los Angeles and Boston.[64] The first eleven roadshows earned a total of $1.3 million by April 1941,[65] but the $85,000 in production and installation costs of a single Fantasound setup,[51][75] along with theatres having to be leased,[76] forced the Disneys to exceed their loan limits.[77] The onset of the Second World War ceased plans for a potential release in Europe, which formed as much as forty-five per cent of the studio's income.[63] Up to eighty-eight engagements were outlined across five years, but wartime demands for equipment limited the number of Fantasound prints to sixteen.[65] All but one of the setups were dismantled and given to the war effort.[1] Upon acquiring the film's distribution rights April 1941, RKO continued the roadshow booking policy but presented the film in mono, which was easier to exhibit.[78][79] The combined average receipts from each roadshow was around $325,000, which placed Fantasia at an even greater loss than Pinocchio.[80]

1942, 1946, 1956 and 1963 runs

Disney allowed RKO to handle the general release of Fantasia, but fought their decision to have the film cut. He gave in as the studio needed as much income as possible to remedy its finances, but refused to cut it himself, "You can get anybody you want to edit it...I can't do it."[81] With no input from Disney, musical director Ed Plumb and Ben Sharpsteen reduced Fantasia to one hour and forty minutes at first, then to one hour and twenty minutes by removing most of Taylor's commentary and the Toccata and Fugue.[77][82] Fantasia was re-released in January 1942 at more popular prices with a mono soundtrack, and was placed on the lower half of double bills with the Western film Valley of the Sun.[83]

RKO reissued Fantasia once more in 1946 with most of the animated sequences left intact, while the scenes of Taylor, Stokowski, and the orchestra were either shortened, voiced over or removed. Its running time was restored to one hour and fifty-five minutes. This edit would be the standard form for the next few re-releases, and was the basis for the 1990 reissue.[59]

"I wanted a special show just like Cinerama plays today...I had Fantasia set for a wide screen. I had dimensional sound...To get that wide screen I had the projector running sideways...I had the double frame. But I didn't get to building my cameras or my projectors because the money problem came in...The compromise was that it finally went out standard with dimensional sound. I think if I'd had the money and I could have gone ahead I'd have a really sensational show at that time."

Walt Disney on the widescreen release in 1956.[80]

By 1955 the original sound negatives began to deteriorate, though a four-track copy had survived in good condition. Using the remaining Fantasound system at the studio, a three-track stereo copy was transferred across telephone wires onto magnetic film at an RCA facility in Hollywood.[1] This copy was used when Fantasia was reissued in stereo by Buena Vista Distribution in SuperScope, a derivative of the anamorphic widescreen CinemaScope format, on February 7, 1956.[59] The projector featured an automatic control mechanism designed by Disney engineers that was coupled to a variable anamorphic lens, which allowed the picture to switch between its Academy standard aspect ratio of 1.33:1 to the wide ratio of 2.35:1 in twenty seconds without a break in the film. This was achieved by placing the cues that controlled the mechanism on a separate track in addition to the three audio channels. Only selected parts of the animation were stretched, while all live action scenes remained unchanged.[84] This reissue garnered some criticism from viewers, as the widescreen format led to the cropping and reframing of the images.[85]

On February 20, 1963, Fantasia was re-released in both standard and SuperScope versions with stereo sound, though existing records are unclear. Its running time was fifty-six seconds longer than the previous issue which is unexplained.[59] This was the final release that occurred before Disney's death in 1966.

1969, 1977, 1982, 1985 and 1990 runs

Fantasia began to make a profit from its $2.28 million budget after its return to theaters on December 17, 1969.[1][59] The film was promoted with a psychedelic-styled advertising campaign, and it became popular among teenagers and college students who were reported to have taken drugs for a psychedelic experience.[86] Animator Ollie Johnston recalled that young people "thought we were on a trip when we made it...every time we'd go to talk to a school or something, they'd ask us what we were on."[87] The release is also noted for the controversial removal of four scenes from The Pastoral Symphony over racial stereotyping. Fantasia was issued on a regular basis, typically for exhibition in art houses in college towns, until the mid-1970s.[59]

Tim Matheson (left) provided the narration in the 1985 re-release.

The film was reissued nationwide once more on April 15, 1977, this time with simulated stereo sound.[1][63] This edit featured the RKO distribution logo being replaced with that of Buena Vista Distribution, since RKO had not been part of a release since 1946. It had not been removed earlier as the credit sequence would have required to be re-shot. A two-and-a-half-minute reduction in the film's running time in this version remains unclear in existing records.[59]

For the 1982 and 1985 releases Disney presented Fantasia with a completely new soundtrack recorded in Dolby Stereo. First released on April 2, 1982[59] this version of the film marked the first time a film's soundtrack had been digitally re-recorded in its entirety. To replace Stokowski's recordings, the noted film conductor Irwin Kostal was engaged. He directed a 121-piece orchestra and 50-voice choir[88] for the recording that took place over eighteen sessions and cost $1 million.[89] To maintain continuity with the animation Kostal based his performance on the tempos and pacing of the Stokowski recordings, including the cuts and revisions to The Rite of Spring. However, for Night on Bald Mountain he used Mussorgsky's original orchestration instead of the more standard version by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov that was used by Stokowski. The new recording also corrected a two-frame lag in projection caused by the old recording techniques used in the 1930s.[2] Deems Taylor's scenes were deleted and a much briefer voiceover narration was recorded by Hugh Douglas[59] as the studio felt the modern audience "is more sophisticated and knowledgeable about music."[2] This version returned to around 400 theaters in 1985,[90] this time with actor Tim Matheson providing the narration.[91]

For its fiftieth anniversary, Fantasia returned to 550 theaters nationwide on October 5, 1990 in its traditional 1946 version including the live action scenes with Taylor and the original Stokowski score. The film underwent a two-year restoration process which began after a six-month search to piece together the original negatives that had been in storage since 1946. This marked the first time since then that a release of the film had been processed from the original and not from a copy.[92] Each of its 535,680 frames were restored at YCM Laboratories,[93] and an untouched print from 1951 was used for guidance on color and tone.[92] Theaters were required to have specific stereo equipment installed, and to present the film in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio with black borders on the side of their screens.[87][94] The Stokowski soundtrack was digitally remastered using the 1955 magnetic soundtrack, with an estimated three thousand pops and hisses being removed in the process.[50][51][94] The 1990 reissue of Fantasia went on to gross $25 million domestically.[95]

Home media

Audio

Disneyland Records released a three-LP set of the Stokowski score in 1957 under the catalog number WDX-101.[19] The soundtrack was remastered and issued as a two-disc CD in 1991 which attracted sales of 100,000 units [19][96] and was re-released in 2006. In 1982, Buena Vista Records released a two-disc edition of the Kostal recording.[88]

Video

Fantasia has received three home video releases. The first, featuring the 1990 restored theatrical version, was released on VHS and laser disc on November 1, 1991 as part of the "Walt Disney Classics" line. The 50-day release prompted 9.25 million advance orders for cassettes and a record 200,000 for discs, doubling the figure of the previous record. The "Deluxe Edition" package included the film, a "making of" feature, a commemorative lithograph, a 16-page booklet, a two-disc soundtrack of the Stokowski score and a certificate of authenticity signed by Roy E. Disney, the nephew of Walt.[95] Fantasia became the biggest-selling sell-through cassette of all time with 14.2 million copies being purchased.[97] The record was surpassed by Beauty and the Beast in December 1992.[98] This version was also released as a DVD in 2000, outside of the U.S. in the United Kingdom and other countries, again under the "Walt Disney Classics" banner.[99]

In November 2000, Fantasia was released on video for the second time, this time along with Fantasia 2000, on DVD with 5.1 surround sound. The films were issued both separately and in a three-disc set called The Fantasia Anthology. A variety of bonus features were included in the bonus disc, The Fantasia Legacy. This edition attempted to follow as closely as possible the runtime and format of the original roadshow version, and included additional restored live-action footage of Taylor and the orchestra, including the bookends to the film's intermission.[100] In the 2000 and 2010 releases, Deems Taylor's voice has been overdubbed throughout by Corey Burton because most of the audio tracks to Taylor's restored scenes have been lost.[101] The 2000 UK release, however, was in the 1991 video version.[99]

Both films were reissued again by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment in November 2010 separately, as a two-disc DVD/Blu-ray set and a combined DVD and Blu-ray four-disc (named the "Fantasia 2 Movie Collection") set that featured 1080p high-definition video and 7.1 surround sound.[102] The 2010 version of Fantasia featured a new restoration by Reliance MediaWorks and a new sound restoration,[103] but was editorially identical to the 2000 version.[104] This marked the first time the roadshow version was released in Europe. Fantasia was withdrawn from release and returned to the "Disney Vault" moratorium on April 30, 2011 (although it remains on sale until existing stocks are depleted).[105][106]

Reception

Critical response

Among those at the film's premiere was film critic Bosley Crowther of The New York Times, who noted that "motion history was made last night...Fantasia dumps conventional formulas overboard and reveals the scope of films for imaginative excursion...Fantasia...is simply terrific."[63] Peyton Boswell, an editor at Art Digest, called it "an aesthetic experience never to be forgotten."[75] Time magazine described the premiere as "stranger and more wonderful than any of Hollywood's" and the experience of Fantasound "as if the hearer were in the midst of the music. As the music sweeps to a climax, it froths over the proscenium arch, boils into the rear of the theatre, all but prances up and down the aisles."[38] Dance Magazine devoted its lead story to the film, saying that "the most extraordinary thing about Fantasia is, to a dancer or balletomane, not the miraculous musical recording, the range of color, or the fountainous integrity of the Disney collaborators, but quite simply the perfection of its dancing."[63] Variety also hailed Fantasia, calling it "a successful experiment to life the relationship from the plane of popular, mass entertainment to the higher strata of appeal to lovers of classical music."[107] The Chicago Tribune assigned three writers to cover the film's Chicago premiere: society columnist Harriet Pribble; film critic Mae Tinee; and music critic Edward Barry. Pribble left amazed at the "brilliantly-attired audience", while Tinee felt the film was "beautiful...but it is also bewildering. It is stupendous. It is colossal. It is an overwhelmingly ambitious orgy of color, sound, and imagination." Barry was pleased with the "program of good music well performed...and beautifully recorded" and felt "pleasantly distracted" from the music to what was shown on the screen.[73] In a breakdown of reviews from both film and music critics, Disney author Paul Anderson found 33% to be "very positive", 22% both "positive" and "positive and negative", and 11% negative.[108]

Those who adopted a more negative view at the time of the film's release were mostly music critics who resisted the idea of presenting classical music with visual images. Composer and music critic Virgil Thomson praised Fantasound which he thought offered "good transmission of music", but disliked the "musical taste" of Stokowski, with exception to The Sorcerer's Apprentice and The Rite of Spring.[63] Olin Downes of The New York Times too hailed the quality of sound that Fantasound presented, but felt that "much of Fantasia distracted from or directly injured the scores."[63] Film critic Pauline Kael dismissed parts of Fantasia as "grotesquely kitschy".[109] Some parents resisted paying the higher roadshow prices for their children, and several complained that the Night on Bald Mountain segment had frightened them.[81]

Fantasia holds a "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a website which aggregates film reviews. Its consensus — "A landmark in animation and a huge influence on the medium of music video, Disney's Fantasia is a relentlessly inventive blend of the classics with phantasmagorical images". 98% of critics gave the film a positive review based on a sample of 48 reviews, with an average score of 8.6 out of 10. Among the website's "top critics" it holds a positive rating of 86% from seven reviews.[110] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated the film four stars out of four, and noted that throughout Fantasia, "Disney pushes the edges of the envelope".[111]

Remarks have also been made about Fantasia not being a children's film. Reporting on the popular culture site Inside Pulse and in The Eagle newspaper, Robert Saucedo remembered to be "not the only one...having to sit through the movie as a kid fidgeting in your seat as the film delivers abstract image after abstract image", concluding that Fantasia is "for adults and very nerdy kids,"[112][113] while news and gossip website PopSugar included Fantasia in its "10 Movies That Scared Buzz Readers as Kids" list.[114] Paul Trandahl of the non-profit advocacy group Common Sense Media, referred to both of the aforementioned criticism, saying "While there are enchanting dancing flowers, hippos, unicorns,...there are at least as many very threatening images intensified by the shadowy dark music" and that "some additional selections...are very long, slow and may not fully engage today’s kids", with the site giving the film an 'Ages 6 and Up' rating.[115]

Awards and honors

Fantasia ranked fifth at the 1940 National Board of Review Awards in the Top Ten Films category.[116] Disney and Stokowski won a Special Award for the film at the 1940 New York Film Critics Circle Awards.[117] Fantasia was the subject of two Academy Honorary Awards on February 26, 1942 — one for Disney, William Garity, John N. A. Hawkins and the RCA Manufacturing Company for their "outstanding contribution to the advancement of the use of sound in motion pictures through the production of Fantasia", and the other to Stokowski "and his associates for their unique achievement in the creation of a new form of visualized music in Walt Disney's production Fantasia, thereby widening the scope of the motion picture as entertainment and as an art form".[118]

In 1990, Fantasia for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[119] On the 100th anniversary of cinema in 1995, the Vatican included Fantasia in its list of 45 "great films"made under the art category; the others being religion and values.[120]

Fantasia is featured in three lists that rank the greatest American films as determined by the American Film Institute. Fantasia ranked #58 in 100 Years... 100 Movies in 1998[121] before it was dropped from its 10th Anniversary revision in 2007,[122] though it was nominated for inclusion.[123] The 10 Top 10 list formed in 2008 placed Fantasia fifth under Animation.[121]

Controversies

In the late 1960s, four short scenes from The Pastoral Symphony were removed that depicted two characters in a racially-stereotyped manner. A black centaurette called Sunflower was depicted polishing the hooves of a white centaurette, and a second named Otika appeared briefly during the procession scenes with Bacchus and his followers.[124] According to Disney archivist David Smith, the sequence was aired uncut on television in 1966 before the edits were made for the film's 1969 theatrical reissue.[125] John Carnochan, the editor responsible for the change in the 1991 video release, said "It's sort of appalling to me that these stereotypes were ever put in".[126] Film critic Roger Ebert commented on the edit – "While the original film should, of course, be preserved for historical purposes, there is no need for the general release version to perpetrate racist stereotypes in a film designed primarily for children."[127] The edits have been in place in all subsequent theatrical and home video reissues.

In May 1992, the Philadelphia Orchestra filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company and Buena Vista Home Video. The orchestra maintained that as a co-creator of Fantasia, the group was entitled to half of the estimated $120 million in profits from video and laser disc sales.[96] The orchestra dropped its case in 1994 when the two parties reached an undisclosed settlement out of court.[128] British music publisher Boosey & Hawkes filed a further lawsuit in 1993, contending that Disney did not have the rights to distribute The Rite of Spring in the 1991 VHS home video release because the permission granted to Disney by Stravinsky in 1940 was only in the context of a film to be shown in theaters.[129] The United States district court backed Boosey & Hawkes's case in 1996,[130] but the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the ruling in 1998, stating that Disney's original "license for motion picture rights extends to video format distribution."[131]

Additional material

Disney had wanted Fantasia to be an ongoing project, with a new edition being released every few years.[132] His plan was to substitute one of the original segments with a new one as it was complete, so the viewer would always see a new version of the film.[19] From January to August 1941, story material was developed based on additional pieces, including Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner, The Swan of Tuonela by Jean Sibelius, Invitation to the Dance by Carl Maria von Weber, Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov,[13][19] which was later adapted into the Bumble Boogie segment in Melody Time (1948), and there was even consideration for a segment inspired by the Polka and Fugue from Schwanda the Bagpiper by Jaromír Weinberger. The film's disappointing initial box office performance and the advent of World War II brought an end to these plans.[133] Taylor had prepared introductions for The Firebird by Stravinsky, La Mer by Claude Debussy, Adventures in a Perambulator by John Alden Carpenter, Don Quixote by Richard Strauss, and Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky "to have them for the future in case we decided to make any one of them".[132][134]

Clair de Lune was another segment that was part of the film's original program. After being completely animated, it was cut out of the final film to shorten its already long running time. The segment featured two egrets flying through the Everglades on a moonlit night. The sequence was later edited and re-scored for the Blue Bayou segment in Make Mine Music (1946). A workprint of the original was discovered and Clair de Lune was restored in 1992, complete with the original soundtrack of Stokowski with the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was included as a bonus feature in The Fantasia Anthology DVD in 2000.[101]

Legacy

Sequel

"Fantasia is timeless. It may run 10, 20 or 30 years. It may run after I'm gone. Fantasia is an idea in itself. I can never build another Fantasia. I can improve. I can elaborate. That's all."

Walt Disney[13]

In 1980, the Los Angeles Times reported that animators Woolie Reitherman and Mel Shaw had begun work on Musicana, "an ambitious concept mixing jazz, classical music, myths, modern art and more, following the old Fantasia format."[135] Animation historian Charles Solomon wrote that development took place between 1982 and 1983, which combined "ethnic tales from around the world with the music of the various countries". Proposed segments for the film included a battle between an ice god and a sun goddess set to Finlandia by Sibelius, one set in the Andes to the songs of Yma Sumac, and another featuring caricatures of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. The project was shelved in favor of Mickey's Christmas Carol.[136]

Roy E. Disney, the nephew of Walt, co-produced Fantasia 2000 which entered production in 1990 and features seven new segments performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with conductor James Levine.[137] The Sorcerer's Apprentice is the only segment retained from the original film. Fantasia 2000 premiered at Carnegie Hall on December 17, 1999 as part of a five-city live concert tour, followed by a four-month engagement in IMAX cinemas[138] and a wide release in regular theatres, in 2000.[139]

Parodies and spin-offs

Fantasia is parodied in A Corny Concerto, a Warner Bros. cartoon from 1943 of the Merrie Melodies series. The short features Elmer Fudd[140] in the role of Taylor, wearing his styled eyeglasses, who introduces two segments set to pieces by Johann Strauss. In 1976, Italian animator Bruno Bozzetto produced Allegro Non Troppo, a feature-length parody of Fantasia.[141] Walt Disney Pictures used the story of The Sorcerer's Apprentice as a basis for its eponymous fantasy-adventure film in 2010.[142]

The animated television series The Simpsons references Fantasia in a few episodes. Matt Groening, the creator of the franchise, expressed a wish to make a parody film named Simpstasia; it was never produced, partly because it would have been too difficult to write a feature-length script.[143] In "Treehouse of Horror IV", director David Silverman had admired the animation in Night on Bald Mountain, and made the first appearance of Devil Flanders resemble Chernabog.[144] The episode "Itchy & Scratchy Land" references The Sorcerer's Apprentice in a snippet titled "Scratchtasia" that features the music and several shots parodying it exactly.[145]

Fantasia is also referenced in the animated series South Park in the episode "Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls", where Mr. Hankey dons a wizard outfit and drives out an independent film festival by summoning a wave of sewage, similar to Mickey's dream of summoning a storm in The Sorcerer's Apprentice.

Theme parks

The Sorcerer's Hat in Disney's Hollywood Studios.

The Sorcerer's Hat is the icon of Disney's Hollywood Studios, one of the four theme parks located at Walt Disney World Resort. The structure is of the magic hat from The Sorcerer's Apprentice.[146] Also located at the resort is Fantasia Gardens, a miniature golf course that integrates characters and objects from the film in each hole.[147] The fireworks and water show Fantasmic! features scenes from The Sorcerer's Apprentice and other Fantasia segments on water projection screens, and involves the plot of Mickey as the apprentice doing battle with the Disney Villains.[148]

Video games

In 1991, a side-scrolling eponymous video game developed by Infogrames was released for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis system.[149] The player controls Mickey Mouse, who must find missing musical notes scattered across four elemental worlds based upon the film's segments.

The Disney/Square Enix crossover game series Kingdom Hearts features Chernabog as a boss in the first installment.[150] The Night on Bald Mountain piece is played during the fight. In Kingdom Hearts II, Yen Sid is given a speaking role and is voiced in English by Corey Burton. Yen Sid also appears in Epic Mickey, a game released in 2010 for the Wii console,[151] and Chernabog makes a cameo appearance in the form of a painting.

Symphony of Sorcery, a video game world based on Fantasia, will appear in the upcoming game Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.[152]

Credits

Musical score conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, except as noted.

Segment Personnel
Live-action scenes
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
Nutcracker Suite
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
The Rite of Spring
Intermission/Meet the Soundtrack
The Pastoral Symphony
Dance of the Hours
Night on Bald Mountain and Ave Maria

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