Fantasia.

 

                                                     Fantasia.

Fantasia will go down in history as the greatest Micky mouse movie of all 

time with exception to Steamboat Willie. The detail and work it took to 

make this movie was time consuming and at times frustrating but they 

worked together and pulled off one of the greatest movies ever made. I 

hope you watch this and the 2000 version but I want you to see the first 

one then watch the 2000 one after cause you will me amazed at both. 

These movies prove why Disney is the greatest movie production 

company of all time. So, with that, lets get to the story shall we:

Fantasia is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and 

released by Walt Disney Productions, with story direction by Joe 

Grant and Dick Huemer and production supervision by Ben Sharpsteen. 

The third Disney animated feature film, 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.

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 held in 13 cities 

across the U.S. between 1940 and 1941; 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 due to World War II 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 with its original footage and audio being deleted, 

modified, or restored in each version. When adjusted for 

inflation, Fantasia is the 24th 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; 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". In 1936, Walt Disney felt that the Disney studio's star 

character Mickey Mouse needed a boost in popularity. He decided to 

feature the mouse in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, a deluxe cartoon short 

based on the 1797 poem written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and set 

to the 1897 orchestral piece by Paul Dukas inspired by the original 

tale. The concept of matching animation to classical music was used as 

early as 1928 in Disney's cartoon series, the Silly Symphonies, but he 

wanted to go beyond the usual slapstick, and produce shorts where 

"sheer fantasy unfolds ... action controlled by a musical pattern has 

great charm in the realm of unreality." Upon receiving the rights to use 

the music by the end of July 1937, Disney considered using a well-known 

conductor to record the music for added prestige. He happened to 

meet Leopold Stokowski, conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra since 

1912, at Chasen's restaurant in Hollywood, and talked about his plans 

for the short. Stokowski recalled that he did "like the music"; was happy 

to collaborate on the project, and offered to conduct the piece at no cost.

Following their meeting, Disney's New York representative ran into 

Stokowski on a train headed for the East Coast. In writing to Disney, he 

reported that Stokowski was "really serious in his offer to do the music 

for nothing. He had some very interesting ideas on instrumental 

coloring, which would be perfect for an animation medium". In his 

excited response dated October 26, 1937, Disney wrote that he felt "all 

steamed up over the idea of Stokowski working with us ... The union of 

Stokowski and his music, together with the best of our medium, would 

be the means of a success and should lead to a new style of motion 

picture presentation. He had already begun working on a story outline, 

and wished to use "the finest men ... from color ... down to 

animators" on the short. The Sorcerer's Apprentice was to be promoted 

as a "special" and rented to theatres as a unique film, outside of 

the Mickey Mouse cartoon series. An agreement signed by Disney and 

Stokowski on December 16, 1937, allowed the conductor to "select and 

employ a complete symphony orchestra" for the recording. Disney hired 

a stage at the Culver Studios in California for the session. It began at 

midnight on January 9, 1938, and lasted for three hours using eighty-

five Hollywood musicians. Animation on The Sorcerer's Apprentice began 

on January 21, 1938, when James Algar, the director of the segment, 

assigned animator Preston Blair to work on the scene when Mickey 

Mouse wakes from his dream. Each of the seven hundred members of 

staff at the time received a synopsis of Goethe's 1797 poem Der 

Zauberlehrling, and were encouraged to complete a twenty-question 

form that requested their ideas on what action might take place. Layout 

artist Tom Codrick created what Dick Huemer described as "brilliantly 

colored thumbnails" from preliminary storyboard sketches 

using gouache paints, which featured bolder use of color and lighting 

than any previous Disney short. Mickey was redesigned by animator Fred 

Moore who added pupils to his eyes for the first time to achieve greater 

ranges of expression. Most of the segment was shot in live action, 

including a scene where a UCLA athlete was asked to run and jump 

across one of the studio's sound stages with barrels in the way, which 

was used for reference when Mickey traverses through water.