Year: 1940
Director: Norman Ferguson
Country: US
Language: English
Fantasia was Disney’s attempt to revive classical music by presenting this “concert” film. The film cost two million dollars back in 1940, over four times the cost of the average live action film of the period. Unfortunately it was a massive financial failure that would have been long forgotten if not for being adopted by the 1960's counter culture. Along with Alice in Wonderland, it's one of the few Disney productions that could be considered a "stoner" film.
Disney animators set pictures to Western classical music as Leopold Stokowski conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra. The most famous part of Fantasia is "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" which features Mickey Mouse as an aspiring magician who oversteps his limits.
The film truly sets itself up as a concert in the opening minutes. Members of the orchestra are introduced, they sit down, and start tuning their instruments. There’s no denying this is the most ambitious work put out by Disney to date. It is highly experiment art that strays as far from convention as possible. It's a film that could not be made today (as evident by the failure of Fantasia 2000) and proved to require a great amount of skill back in 1940.
Fantasia is a high point in Disney's filmography; it will make you miss hand-drawn animation as the splashes of colour and unique design cannot be replicated with Pixar's computer generated imagery. Light racism aside (the film has quite a few Asian and African stereotypes) each movement feels epic in scale. The Sorcerer's Apprentice is whimsical, whereas Night on Bald Mountain is so terrifying that Disney still gets calls from concerned parents.
Truly a remarkable piece of art, but won't be easy to show younger generations. The lack of plot can be a bit off-putting and it's not as easy to re-watch as films like Dumbo or Bambi because of its lengthy run-time. Fantasia is a work of genius that might be the most polarizing of the Disney features.
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