Fantasia

Disney’s third animated full-length feature would depart spectacularly from the previous two (Snow White (1937) and Pinocchio (1940)). All the animation was non-verbal, the narratives having more in common with ballet.

The sequence featuring Mickey Mouse as the hapless sorcerer’s apprentice (music of Paul Dukas) had grown too expensive to release as a short; thus began Walt Disney’s collaboration with Leopold Stowkowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony was given a Greek/Roman mythological treatment (centaurs, Zeus, cupids); Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring the evolution from amoebas to dinosaurs; Ponchielli’s Dance of the Hours became a comic ballet of dancing hippos, crocodiles, ostriches, and elephants; Mussogorsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, a nightmare featuring the terrifying Chernabog (banished by monks singing Schubert’s Ave Maria.) 

The original release required setting up 14 theaters across the U.S. to install Fantasound, for stereophonic playing. For the film’s 50th anniversary, two years were spent restoring Fantasia from its original negative and soundtrack.

Part of our 100 Years of Disney series