Fantasia (1940 film)
Fantasia is a 1940 American animated musical anthology film produced by Walt Disney Productions, with story direction by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer and production supervision by Walt Disney and Ben Sharpsteen. 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.
Fantasia
- Samuel Armstrong
- James Algar
- Bill Roberts
- Paul Satterfield
- Ben Sharpsteen
- David D. Hand
- Hamilton Luske
- Jim Handley
- Ford Beebe
- T. Hee
- Norman Ferguson
- Wilfred Jackson
- Walt Disney
- Ben Sharpsteen
- November 13, 1940
126 minutes[1]
United States
English
Disney settled on the film's concept in 1938 as work neared completion on The Sorcerer's Apprentice, originally an elaborate Silly Symphony cartoon designed as a comeback role for Mickey Mouse, who had declined in popularity. As production costs surpassed what the short could earn, Disney decided to include it in a feature-length film of multiple segments set to classical pieces with Stokowski and Taylor as collaborators. The soundtrack was recorded using multiple audio channels and reproduced with Fantasound, a pioneering sound system developed by Disney and RCA that made Fantasia the first commercial film shown in stereo and a precursor to surround sound.
Fantasia was first released as a theatrical roadshow that was held in 13 cities across the U.S. between 1940 and 1941 by RKO Radio Pictures; the first began at the Broadway Theatre in New York City on November 13, 1940. While acclaimed by critics, it failed to make a profit owing to World War II's cutting off distribution to the European market, the film's high production costs, and the expense of building Fantasound equipment and leasing theatres for the roadshow presentations. Since 1942, the film has been reissued multiple times by RKO Radio Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution with its original footage and audio being deleted, modified, or restored in each version. When adjusted for inflation, Fantasia is the 23rd highest-grossing film of all time in the U.S.
The Fantasia franchise has grown to include video games, Disneyland attractions, and a live concert series. A sequel, Fantasia 2000, co-produced by Walt's nephew Roy E. Disney, was released in 1999. Fantasia has grown in reputation over the years and is now widely acclaimed as one of the greatest animated films of all time; in 1998, the American Film Institute ranked it as the 58th greatest American film in their 100 Years...100 Movies and the fifth greatest animated film in their 10 Top 10 list. In 1990, Fantasia was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
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.
Additional material
Disney had wanted Fantasia to be an ongoing project, with a new edition being released every few years.[207] His plan was to replace one of the original segments with a new one as it was completed, so audiences would always see a new version of the film.[104] From January to August 1941, story material was developed based on additional musical works, including Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner, The Swan of Tuonela by Jean Sibelius, Invitation to the Dance by Carl Maria von Weber, the Polka and Fugue from Schwanda the Bagpiper by Jaromír Weinberger, a "baby ballet" set to Berceuse by Frédéric Chopin and a "bug ballet" set to Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov,[14][104] which was later adapted into the Bumble Boogie segment in Melody Time (1948). The film's disappointing initial box office performance and the USA's entry into World War II brought an end to these plans.[208] Deems Taylor 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".[207][209]
Another segment, Debussy's Clair de lune, was developed as part of the film's original program. After being completely animated, it was cut out of the final film to shorten its lengthy running time. The animation depicted two Great white herons flying through the Florida Everglades on a moonlit night, with more focus towards the segment's background art than story and animation. The sequence was later edited and re-scored for the Blue Bayou segment in Make Mine Music (1946). In 1992, a workprint of the original was discovered and Clair de Lune was restored, 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.[210]
Destino, a collaboration between Walt Disney and surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, was also considered for inclusion as a future Fantasia segment, but was shelved until it was re-discovered during production of Fantasia 2000. In her host sequence for The Steadfast Tin Soldier in that film, Bette Midler mentions several cancelled sequences, specifically Ride of the Valkyries, Destino, Flight of the Bumblebee, Berceuse and the Polka and Fugue.