Fantasia 1940 - Combination of animation and classical music

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IMDB rating: 7,8

Directors: Norman Ferguson, James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, Ford Beebe Jr., Jim Handley, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Ben Sharpsteen

"Fantasia, Walt Disney's animated masterpiece of the 1940s, grew from a short-subject cartoon picturization of the Paul Dukas musical piece The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Mickey Mouse was starred in this eight-minute effort, while the orchestra was under the direction of Leopold Stokowski. Disney and Stokowski eventually decided that the notion of marrying classical music with animation was too good to confine to a mere short subject; thus the notion was expanded into a two-hour feature, incorporating seven musical selections and a bridging narration by music critic Deems Taylor. The first piece, Bach's 'Toccata and Fugue in D Minor', was used to underscore a series of abstract images. The next selection, Tchaikovsky's 'Nutcracker Suite', is performed by dancing wood-sprites, mushrooms, flowers, goldfish, thistles, milkweeds and frost fairies. The Mickey Mouse version of 'Sorcerer's Apprentice' is next, followed by Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring', which serves as leitmotif for the story of the creation of the world, replete with dinosaurs and volcanoes. After a brief jam session involving the live-action musicians comes Beethoven's 'Pastorale Symphony', enacted against a Greek-mythology tapestry by centaurs, unicorns, cupids and a besotted Bacchus. Ponchielli's 'Dance of the Hours' is performed by a Corps de Ballet consisting of hippos, ostriches and alligators. The program comes to a conclusion with a fearsome visualization of Mussorgsky's 'Night on Bald Mountain', dominated by the black god Tchernobog (referred to in the pencil tests as "Yensid", which is guess-what spelled backwards); this study of the 'sacred and profane' segues into a reverent rendition of Schubert's 'Ave Maria'. Originally, Debussy's 'Clair de Lune' was part of the film, but was cut from the final release print; also cut, due to budgetary considerations, was Disney's intention of issuing an annual 'update' of Fantasia with new musical highlights and animated sequences. A box-office disappointment upon its first release (due partly to Disney's notion of releasing the film in an early stereophonic-sound process which few theatres could accommodate), Fantasia eventually recouped its cost in its many reissues. A sequel, Fantasia 2000, was released in theaters in 1999." - www.allmovie.com

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