Fantasia (1940 film)
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This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 1990. | ||
"When we consider a new project, we really study it—not just the surface idea, but everything about it"
— Walt Disney
"I like symphonic music. A good concert, if you're kind of relaxed, it can do something to you. It's sort of an emotional break you get by listening to music."
— Walt Disney
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 Walt Disney's Technicolor Feature Triumph
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Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released by Walt Disney Productions. With story direction by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer, and production supervision by Ben Sharpsteen, it is the third Disney animated feature film. The film 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 acts as the film's Master of Ceremonies, providing a live-action introduction to each animated segment.
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, Disney 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.
Program
Fantasia opens with live action scenes of members of an orchestra gathering against a blue background and tuning their instruments in half-light, half-shadow. Master of ceremonies Deems Taylor enters the stage (also in half-light, half-shadow) and introduces the program.
- Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach: Live-action shots of the orchestra illuminated in blue and gold, backed by superimposed shadows, fade into abstract patterns. Animated lines, shapes and cloud formations reflect the sound and rhythms of the music.
- The Nutcracker Suite by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Selections from the ballet suite underscore scenes depicting 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", "Arabian Dance", "Russian Dance", "Dance of the Flutes" and "Waltz of the Flowers".
- The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas: Based on Goethe's 1797 poem "Der Zauberlehrling". Mickey Mouse, the young apprentice of the sorcerer Yen Sid, attempts some of his master's magic tricks but does not know how to control them.
- Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky: A visual history of the Earth's beginnings is depicted to selected sections of the ballet score. The sequence progresses from the planet's formation to the first living creatures, followed by the reign and extinction of the dinosaurs.
- Intermission/Meet the Soundtrack: The orchestra musicians depart and the Fantasia title card is revealed. After the intermission there is a brief jam session of jazz music led by a clarinettist as the orchestra members return. Then a humorously stylized demonstration of how sound is rendered on film is shown. An animated sound track "character", initially a straight white line, changes into different shapes and colors based on the sounds played.
- The Pastoral Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven: A mythical Greco-Roman world of colorful centaurs and "centaurettes", cupids, fauns and other figures from classical mythology is portrayed to Beethoven's music. A gathering for a festival to honor Bacchus, the god of wine, is interrupted by Zeus, who creates a storm and directs Vulcan to forge lightning bolts for him to throw at the attendees.
- Dance of the Hours by Amilcare Ponchielli: A comic ballet in four sections: 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 finds all of the characters dancing together until their palace collapses.
- Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky and Ave Maria by Franz Schubert: At midnight the devil Chernabog awakes and summons evil spirits and restless souls from their graves to Bald Mountain. 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.
Why It's More Than An Apprentice
- Walt Disney was an early proponent in combining music and animation, such as through his Silly Symphonies shorts. His meet-up meeting with famous conductor Leopold Stokowski led to a Mickey Mouse cartoon short set to "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". The soundtrack had an orchestra of 85 freelance musicians, and the overall short cost three times the average Mickey cartoon. Searching for a way to justify its costs indirectly led to Fantasia being formed. (aside from Disney being allowed to pursue a more expensive project thanks to Snow White.)
- With the Philadelphia Orchestra performing nearly all of the classical music within the film, the chosen half-dozen numbers used to support animation are all gorgeous and beautiful.
- The most darling choice of music was Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. The Disney team reimagined the score for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes as a creation story that started in the mists of the cosmos, dabbled in molecular biology, then showed the rise and fall of dinosaurs. The animators achieved such striking effects in the sequence.
- It should be noted that most of the segments had their "story" changed behind its music (with Disney being uncomfortable with the "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" segment being abstract, for example, or a potential storyline for the "Nutcracker Suite" segment) with the notable exception of the aforementioned The Sorcerer's Apprentice. In that segment, Mickey Mouse himself had changed, with a larger head, eyes with pupils, and a pear shaped body, which would make it easier for animators to show his emotions.
- The Dance of the Hours segment, spoofs the music from Amilcare Ponchielli’s opera La Giaconda. The typical human dancers were replaced by ostriches, hippos, elephants, and alligators. The sequence was staged as an actual ballet with complex visual motifs.
- The final sequence combines pieces of Modest Mussorgsky's "A Night on Bald Mountain" with Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria," featuring new English lyrics by Rachel Field. A journey from the profane to the sacred, it features some truly terrifying effects by an animator, and the longest single shot ever attempted in animation up to that point. Using a horizontal multiplane camera, it lasted 217 feet.
- During the film’s initial premiere, the studio positioned "Fantasia" an event, an experience different from going to a normal movie. As Griffith did with The Birth of a Nation, Disney publicized the film as a "road show" with programs, reserved seating, and specially trained ushers. "Fantasia" was meant to be seen more like a concert than a film, even omitting credits on the screen.
Bad Qualities
- The Pastoral Symphony segment, while still good, is overall is the weakest segment of the film. It highlights the tricky part about supplying a story to music. By reducing Beethoven's piece to a plotline, it limits what his music can represent and you're forced to supply an explanation or narrative to all the piece's themes and melodies and contrast to the rest of the film where viewers and decide whether the visuals or music is more essential. (The main reason The Sorcerer's Apprentice worked but this didn't, is because the former's storyline was unchanged, and doesn't distract from the music)
- Sunflower in particular has caused a lot of controversy due to her being an African-American stereotype to the point where she was edited out on later re-releases of this film.
Trivia
- In 1980, Wolfgang Reitherman and Mel Shaw announced they were working on a Fantasia-inspired project named Musicana. According to them, the film had "an ambitious concept mixing jazz, classical music, myths, modern art and more". Unfortunately, the project never went through.