Review of Fantasia (1940) by Stuart K — 28 Apr 2014

A labour of love for Walt Disney, hot off the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and while simultaneously working on Pinocchio (1940), this grew from a comeback for Mickey Mouse into something more epic, after Disney had consulted Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski about how they could pictures to classical music.

The result was an animation which was unlike anything done at the time. The film is introduced in segments by American composer Deems Taylor, and the film begins with the orchestra playing Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, then an animated take on Nutcracker Suite by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky with dancing flowers and leaves.

Then, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which needs no introduction. Then the big bang theory with Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky, after an interval, we have a take on Beethoven's The Pastoral Symphony with fawns.

Then Ponchielli's Dance of the Hours with animals doing ballet, then the rise and fall of darkness with Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky and Schubert's Ave Maria. It was a brave thing to attempt a film like this back then.

While it would have been groundbreaking back then, it does look twee and a tad dated now, especially when you consider where animation has gone since then. The episodic format works against it, but it is lovely to look upon at times.