Fantasia is a 1940 American animated anthology film produced by Walt Disney Productions. The third Disney animated feature film, 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 acts as the film's Master of Ceremonies who introduces each segment in live-action. The film's production was supervised by Walt Disney and Ben Sharpsteen, with story direction by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer.
Disney conceived the project in 1938 during the completion of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which was originally planned as an elaborate Silly Symphony cartoon to revive the declining popularity of Mickey Mouse. When rising production costs threatened to outpace the short's potential revenue, Disney expanded the concept into a feature-length musical compilation with Stokowski and Taylor as collaborators. To accommodate the ambitious soundtrack, Disney and RCA developed Fantasound, a pioneering sound system that made Fantasia the first commercial film released in stereo and a precursor to surround sound.
Fantasia was first released as a theatrical roadshow that premiered at the Broadway Theatre in New York City on November 13, 1940. Disney funded and managed the roadshow himself until RKO Radio Pictures took over the roadshow distribution from April 1941, showing the film in a total of 13 U.S. cities. Despite widespread critical acclaim, the film was an initial box office failure. Its high production costs, the steep expense of leasing theatres and installing Fantasound equipment, and the loss of the European market due to World War II left the studio unable to turn a profit. Beginning in 1942, the film was reissued in a standard format by RKO and Buena Vista Distribution multiple times, with subsequent releases deleting, modifying, or restoring original footage and audio. Over time, these re-releases proved highly profitable; when adjusted for inflation, Fantasia ranks as the 23rd highest-grossing film of all time in the U.S.
Fantasia has since earned a reputation as one of the greatest animated films ever made. In 1990, it was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." The American Film Institute ranked it as the 58th greatest American film overall in its 100 Years...100 Movies and the fifth greatest animated film on the 10 Top 10 list. The film's legacy has expanded into a multimedia franchise encompassing video games, theme park attractions, live concert tours, and the 1999 sequel, Fantasia 2000.
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 1892 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. The 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. On Walpurgis Night, the giant 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.
Production
Development The Sorcerer's Apprentice and expansion to feature film
In 1936, while Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was still in production, Walt Disney felt that his cartoon studio's star character Mickey Mouse needed a boost in popularity as newcomers Donald Duck and Goofy had become new favorites amongst audiences. He decided to star Mickey in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, a deluxe cartoon short based on Goethe's poem of the same name and set to the orchestral piece by Paul Dukas also inspired by the original tale. Although Disney had explored the concept of matching animation to classical music since 1928 with his Silly Symphony cartoons, he wanted to go beyond the usual slapstick in those shorts and produce ones where "sheer fantasy unfolds". Upon receiving the rights to use the Dukas piece in July 1937, Disney considered using a well-known conductor to record the music for added prestige. He happened to meet Leopold Stokowski, then the conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, at Chasen's restaurant in Hollywood and talked about his plans for the short. An enthusiastic Stokowski informed Disney that he liked the piece and offered to conduct for free.
Disney's New York representative met Stokowski on a subsequent train journey, and reported the conductor was serious in his offer and "had some very interesting ideas on instrumental coloring, which would be perfect for an animation medium." Disney felt "all steamed up over the idea" and thought the partnership "would be the means of a success and should lead to a new style of motion picture presentation." He had already begun working on a story outline and wished to use "the finest men ... from color ... down to animators" on the new short that was to be promoted as a special and unique film, outside of the Mickey Mouse cartoon series. On December 16, 1937, Stokowski signed a contract with Disney that allowed him to "select and employ a complete symphony orchestra" for the recording of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and was paid $5,000 for his services. The three-hour recording session began at midnight on January 9, 1938 at Culver Studios in California, with 85 Hollywood musicians. When production costs surpassed $125,000, as much as four times greater than the average Silly Symphony, Disney and his brother Roy, who managed the studio's finances, realised that the short could never earn such a sum back on its own. Roy urged his brother to keep additional costs to a minimum "because of its very experimental and unprecedented nature ... we have no idea what can be expected from such a production." Ben Sharpsteen, a production supervisor on Fantasia, recalled that Disney "saw this trouble in the form of an opportunity. This was the birth of a new concept, a group of separate numbers—regardless of their running time—put together in a single presentation. It turned out to be a concert—something novel and of high quality."
Ideas to expand The Sorcerer's Apprentice and produce a full-length feature film began in February 1938, when inquiries were made to extend Stokowski's contract with the studio. In August, Disney asked Stokowski to return to the studios to help select musical pieces for the new film, which was initially titled The Concert Feature. Disney agreed to pay Stokowski $80,000 plus royalties for his services. The pair further thought of presenting the film with an on-screen host to introduce each number in the program. Both had heard composer and music critic Deems Taylor provide intermission commentary during radio broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic and agreed that he would be most suitable for the role. Disney did contact Taylor about the project and invited him to collaborate with Stokowski and himself, but by then work on Pinocchio, Bambi, and development on his new Burbank studio kept him too busy to work on the new feature. In a change of plans, Taylor was asked during a call on September 3, 1938, to come to the studios as soon as possible. He was paid $1,440 per week during his one-month visit.
Story meetings and program selection
The program for The Concert Feature was assembled in a series of meetings in September 1938. Disney made story writers Joe Grant and Dick Huemer gather a preliminary selection of music and along with Stokowski, Taylor, and the heads of various departments, discussed their ideas. Each meeting was recorded verbatim by stenographers with participants being given a copy of the entire conversation for review. As selections were considered, a recording of the piece was played back at the next gathering. Disney did not contribute much to early discussions; he admitted that his knowledge of music was instinctive and untrained. In one meeting, he inquired about a piece "on which we might build something of a prehistoric theme ... with animals". The group was considering The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky (which was used later in the sequel Fantasia 2000), but Taylor noted that his "Le Sacre du printemps would be something on that order", to which Disney replied upon hearing a recording, "This is marvelous! It would be perfect for prehistoric animals. There would be something terrific in dinosaurs, flying lizards, and prehistoric monsters. There could be beauty in the settings."