Fantasia (movie)

Fantasia is the third animated movie produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was first released on November 13, 1940. It was originally released by itself instead of RKO Pictures, which was the distributor of Disney from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, until Peter Pan. Along with Pinocchio, it was one of the first ever Disney animated movies released in the same year as each other. Fantasia was the first Disney animated movie to have a live-action cast into the mix of animation. In this case, it features Deems Taylor, Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Fantasia
Produced by	Walt Disney
Starring	Deems Taylor Leopold Stokowski The Philadelphia Orchestra Walt Disney (voice)
Production company	Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.
Release date	November 13, 1940
Running time	124 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$2,280,000 (est.)
Box office	$76,408,097

As Disney's first animated anthology movie, Fantasia contains eight classical music pieces. One of them is from Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. It tells the story of life on Earth until the extinction of the dinosaurs. Another famous work that appears in the movie is Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor for organ. The most famous classical music piece in this film is Paul Dukas, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice starring Mickey Mouse from the animated cartoons in his movie debut. This is Mickey Mouse's most famous role. After inflation, Fantasia is the fourth most successful animated movie that anyone has made yet.

A sequel to this movie, Fantasia 2000, was released in 2000.

Segments

Deems Taylor is the narrator of the segments, while Leopold Stokowski conducts the music of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Every animated character in this Disney animated movie is a silent character. The only exception is Mickey Mouse.

The following segments introduced by Taylor are included:

• Toccata and Fugue in D minor - The first segment of the movie. The first half of the segment features colorful silhouettes of Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The second half of the segment features abstract images. The segment ends with Stokowski whisking some wind before he stops playing the music.
  • Music by Johann Sebastian Bach.
• The Nutcracker Suite - A series of poems featuring magical beings. The first half of the segment is Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy which features colorful fairies putting dewdrops on the plants. The second half of the segment is The Chinese Dance which features Chinese mushrooms performing a Chinese ballet. The third half of the segment is Waltz of the Flowers which features flowers doing a Waltz dance on the water led by a white flower. The fourth half of the segment is The Arabian Dance which features an Arabian girl fish performing an Arabian ballet. The fifth half of the segment is The Russian Dance which features thistle cossacks and orchid peasants performing a Russian ballet. The final half of the segment is Dance of the Flutes which features autumn fairies coloring plants with autumn colors, frost fairies ice skating and snowflake fairies dancing in the breeze.
  • Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice - A story about Mickey Mouse as a sorcerer's apprentice. 1 day, Mickey is filling a cauldron with 2 buckets of water while his master, the sorcerer, is practicing his magic skills. After the sorcerer goes upstairs to take a nap, Mickey is tired of doing his job, so he decides to wear his master's hat and have a broom do the job for him. Mickey then takes a nap himself and dreams of controlling the sky and the water on a tall rock. Afterwards, Mickey wakes up and realizes that the broom is filling too much water causing the basement to be flooded. Mickey destroys the broom with an ax. He thinks that the trouble is over, but when the broom splinters turn into a broom army, he gets terrified. The brooms fill the whole place with buckets of water. Mickey uses his master's book to look for instruction of how to stop the brooms, but gets trapped in a whirlpool. The sorcerer wakes up from his nap and sees the trouble. He stops the flood and turns the broom army back into 1 broom. The sorcerer sees that Mickey is behind all this. Mickey gives the hat and broom back to his master. The sorcerer proceeds to get Mickey to go back to work. After the story ends, Mickey and Stokowski congratulate each other.
  • Music by Paul Dukas.
• The Rite of Spring - A story about life on Prehistoric Earth. The first half of the segment features the Big Bang, the birth of Earth and volcanoes. The second half of the segment features the first animals in the Paleozoic. The third half of the segment features Mesozoic animals underwater and in the air. These include Pteranodons, Tylosaurus and Plesiosaurus. The third half of the segment features Mesozoic animals on land. These include dinosaurs, synapsids and Archaeopterx. The fourth half of the segment features the extinction of the dinosaurs. The final half of the segment features an earthquake and the Earth's reformation. The prominent characters in the segment are a Stegosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus in which they battle for dominance. After the segment ends, there's a 15-minute intermission.
  • Music by Igor Stravinsky.
• Meet the Soundtrack - A demonstration of music. After the intermission, Taylor introduces a white line dubbed the "Soundtrack". The Soundtrack changes color when playing the music. This is the only segment in which there's Taylor's monologue.
  • Music originally created for the movie.
• The Pastoral Symphony - A series of gags set in Ancient Greece. The first half of the segment features unicorns and satyrs on a playdate and a pegasus family having fun in the water. The second half of the segment features centaur girls assisted by cupids for their boyfriends. The last half of the segment features the Olympian Gods which include Bacchus, the god of festivals and his unicorn donkey, Zeus, the god of weather storms, Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, Apollo, the god of the day, Morpheus, the goddess of the night and Diana, the goddess of the stars. The prominent characters of the segment are Bacchus, the centaur girls and the unicorn donkey. In the cases of Bacchus and the unicorn donkey, they are drunk because they love to drink grape wine. In the cases of the centaur girls, there are three types: horse centaur girls, donkey centaur girls and zebra centaur girls. The horse centaur girls are colorful while the donkey centaur girls and zebra centaur girls are black. The horse centaur girls represent White Americans while the donkey centaur girls and zebra centaur girls represent African-Americans. The horse centaur girls love to play and flirt with Bacchus. Meanwhile, the donkey centaur girls and zebra centaur girls always do the work. Notably, this is the first Disney animated movie to feature African-American characters.
  • Music by Ludwig van Beethoven.
• Dance of the Hours - A series of gags about animal ballet dancers. The ostriches represent morning. The hippos represent the afternoon. The elephants represent evening. The alligators represent night. The prominent characters are Hyacinth Hippo and Ben Ali Gator.
  • Music by Amilcare Ponchielli.
• Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria - The final segment of the movie. At night, a giant demon named Chernabog plays with fire with his minions which include ghosts, skeletons, harpies, goblins, imps and other monsters. By day, the minions retreat while Chernabog goes back to sleep. Afterwards, monks light up their torches as they walk through cathedral ruins, preparing for morning. The segment ends with an operatic voice singing a song about the sacred as the sun rises. After the song, the movie ends.
  • Music by Mudest Mussorgsky and Franz Schubert.

Other websites

• Fantasia on IMDb
• Fantasia at AllMovie
• Fantasia at AllMovie
• Fantasia at Rotten Tomatoes
• Fantasia at Box Office Mojo
• Fantasia at the Big Cartoon DataBase (Dead link)