Fantasia (1940) Review

With two films under his belt ("Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" in 1937 and "Pinocchio" in 1940), a third animated film was inevitable for Walt Disney. Just months after the release of "Pinocchio" Walt released "Fantasia"...which has since been labelled as "Walt Disney's masterpiece". Unlike the other two films mentioned this doesn't tell a story. It was actually a "concert" in which animation was accompanying the amazing classical pieces that was playing in the background.

It is also the longest animated film in history, going over two hours...and for a animated film done in 1940 using pastel it was a huge achievement. Especially for Disney.

The film contains a series of famous classical music such as the memorable "Toccata and Fugue" opening number by Johann Sebastian Bach which features silhouettes of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the instruments that they're playing. The opening also contains the now iconic silhouette of the conductor Leopold Stokowski.

Afterwards we are then introduced to another segment (and my favourite besides Paul Duke's 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' but more of that other memorable scene later); Peter Tchaikovsky's 'The Nutcracker Suite'. The piece of course is from the famous 'The Nutcracker' ballet which was a Christmas story about a nutcracker that came to life. 'The Nutcracker Suit' contains the 'Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy', 'Chinese Dance', 'Dance of the Reed Flutes', 'Arabian Dance', 'Russian Dance' and the very famous 'Waltz of the Flowers' number, all accompanied by what is clearly a showing of the four seasons with amazing animation.

Next we finally get onto one of my favourite parts; Paul Duke's 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice'...staring none other than Mickey Mouse himself in that very iconic wizard's hat.

During the piece, Mickey is the apprentice of Yensid (obviously Disney's last name spelt backwards), a powerful wizard. Tired of hauling water Mickey waits until his master eventually becomes tired and goes upstairs to sleep...before finally taking Yensid's wizard's hat from the table where he left it. Thinking that magic will make the task easier for him, Mickey turns a broomstick to life. What follows next is the main reason why Mickey Mouse and magic don't usually work; chaos!

At the end of the piece, we are greeted with Peter's silhouette and Mickey tugging on his robes trying to get his attention. The voice of Mickey during this little ending is by none other than Walt Disney himself.

There are of course other memorable segments throughout the film including the last scene which is the scary 'A Night On Bald Mountain' by Modest Mussorgsky in which the demon Chernabog is featured.

The amount of effort by both the orchestra and animators themselves is testament to the film's major success at the time. Walt had originally considered doing numerous sequels to it that included other classical pieces whether they be known or unknown but he then turned down the idea as he didn't want his company to do sequels to films because he knew that most wouldn't be as well received as the original films.

A wise move by Walt as the company proved his point in the 1990's with direct to video releases sequels of a lot of their hits like 'The Lion King'. 'Fantasia 2000' in 2000 was one of the very few successful Disney sequels but we've not seen or heard of another Fantasia film since. I guess this generation isn't really fond of classical music.

'Fantasia' left behind a hard to compete against legacy as a result of its success.

To mark its 50th anniversary, a game for the MegaDrive/SEGA Genesis was released. However as it was done in such a rush it turned out to be a horrible and very challenging game even on easy mode. The only worthy thing about it was hearing the film's score in old 16bit format. Believe me; I've got this game myself and that's the only reason why I've still got it for the 16bit soundtrack!

There have also been two live action versions of two of the segments; 'The Nutcracker and the Nine Realms' and 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice'. I've yet to see any, especially 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' as it's very hard to not picture Mickey Mouse during the music! There have been rumours about even more live action remakes of some of the segments. One of them being an origin story for Chernabog from 'A Night On Bald Mountain'. Could that be Disney's first horror film or will modern Disney tone down one of its darkest moments so as not to frighten kids? I think it could be interesting but I don't trust them as much as I used to with their current attitude.

All in all, if you love classical music and animation, I highly recommend this film. After all, it's one of my favourites from the 'Classic Era' of Disney films.