In this series, I’m going to be watching and reviewing all of the Disney Animated Classics, starting from Snow White (1937) all the way up to… well, the end of time, I guess!
This is the third post in the series. If you want to see the full list of films and links to all of my reviews so far, head to the Disney Animated Classics tab on my A-Z Index page. I also now have an Instagram for this challenge where I’ll be posting little snippet reviews as I watch the films, so go follow me there @charlottesdisneyreviews!
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Walt Disney’s timeless masterpiece is an extraordinary blend of classical music with innovative animation. Featuring eight sequences—see the music come to life and hear the pictures burst into song in this groundbreaking film. – Description from Disney+
Title: Fantasia
Year: 1940
Duration: 2h 6m
Director: Samuel Armstrong, James Algar, Bill Roberts
Starring: Deems Taylor, Leopold Stokowski
Rotten Tomatoes score: 94%
Seen before: Maybe? I remember watching Fantasia as a child. However, I can’t remember if it was this Fantasia, or Fantasia 2000. I have a feeling it might have actually been Fantasia 2000. So maybe I haven’t seen this one. Either way, I couldn’t remember any of it.
Date watched: March 27, 2020
Review
I think the easiest way to review this will be to talk about each film individually. I’ll include a short description of each film, which I’ve taken from a very trusty source, Wikipedia.
For some of them I’ve written fairly short comments, but for others, I had more to say. I also had some notes about the animation and the film in general, which will be at the end. Let’s get straight into it!
FYI, before I start, I mention Deems Taylor, the Master of Ceremonies, a few times throughout this. (The Master of Ceremonies is the man who presents the show and introduces each piece.) So I don’t have to keep repeating “the Master of Ceremonies”, I’ll call him by his name. So if you see Taylor mentioned and wonder who the heck I’m talking about, that’s who.
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1. Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach
Live-action shots of the orchestra illuminated in blue and gold, backed by superimposed shadows, fade into abstract patterns. Animated lines, shapes and cloud formations reflect the sound and rhythms of the music.
The first film is very odd and I wondered if anything was going to happen, because most of it is just the orchestra playing. I guess it’s a way to warm up the show and give us time to focus on the orchestra itself before we see the animations start to happen. Towards the end of the piece, there are some experimental visuals that were mildly interesting to watch.
It was just okay, but a weird one to start with because it didn’t really do a lot to capture my attention right off the bat.
2. The Nutcracker Suite by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Selections from the ballet suite underscore scenes depicting the changing of the seasons from summer to autumn to winter. A variety of dances are presented with fairies, fish, flowers, mushrooms, and leaves, including “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy”, “Chinese Dance”, “Arabian Dance”, “Russian Dance”, “Dance of the Flutes” and “Waltz of the Flowers”.
The second film, based on the Nutcracker, I loved! It’s so pretty and the visuals matched with the music perfectly. After the first piece, which left me wondering what I was getting myself into for the next two hours, this one started to warm me up to the film in general and feel more hopeful that I wasn’t going to feel a bit bored.
I was transfixed the whole time watching the changing of the seasons and the pretty animations. It’s just so relaxing and it gave me such a calm feeling. I can imagine this would definitely be a good one to watch at night before bed, or if you need something to help you chill out if you’re stressed.
3. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice by Paul Dukas
Based on Goethe’s 1797 poem “Der Zauberlehrling”. Mickey Mouse, the young apprentice of the sorcerer Yen Sid, attempts some of his master’s magic tricks but does not know how to control them.
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is the first piece that has a proper story, of sorts. It was also, I’m pretty sure (but don’t quote me on this), the first time audiences were introduced to Mickey Mouse outside of the short film Steamboat Willie (1928).
It’s a simple story that still focuses a lot on the animation and what they can do with it. When it finishes, we also see maybe the beginning of Disney experimenting with mixing live action and animation, as we watch Mickey Mouse coming up the stairs where the orchestra sits to greet the conductor on the podium, and they shake hands.
I bet at the time, that little 10-second piece was revolutionary, even if we do only see them as silhouettes against the backdrop!
4. Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky
A visual history of the Earth’s beginnings is depicted to selected sections of the ballet score. The sequence progresses from the planet’s formation to the first living creatures, followed by the reign and extinction of the dinosaurs
This film instantly caught my attention: dinosaurs and space! The piece begins with colourful meteorites and asteroids flying through space, before coming down to hit the earth’s surface. On Earth, volcanoes erupt with colourful pink and orange lava and bubbles burst on the surface of great lava pools, perfectly in time to the orchestrations.
We then see the earth’s life start to form, starting with strange neon cells that turn into various types of sea life before progressing into amphibians, and then they become dinosaurs that take to the land and the sky.
This one has some amazing animation, and also shows how quickly you can tell a story that spans thousands of years in just one piece of music.
(By the way, if you want an example of how much the animation style has changed from then to now, look at the difference between this and The Good Dinosaur (Pixar, 2017):
Fantasia, 1940:
The Good Dinosaur, 2017:
5. Intermission/Meet the Soundtrack
The orchestra musicians depart and the Fantasia title card is revealed. After the intermission there is a brief jam session of jazz music led by a clarinettist as the orchestra members return. Then a humorously stylized demonstration of how sound is rendered on film is shown. An animated soundtrack “character”, initially a straight white line, changes into different shapes and colors based on the sounds played.
How weird that there’s an interval?! Seems so funny to watch all the musicians get up and leave, and it’s not cut out at all. It feels like we’re actually there, watching the show.
After the interval, there’s a small segment where Taylor speaks to a literal soundtrack, like what we’d now call a waveform. He explains that the soundtrack is integral to Fantasia but it’s very shy and needs to be coaxed out of its shell. He asks the soundtrack to make some sounds of various instruments, teaching us not only the names of various types of instruments, but also what their waveforms might look like. So cool.
6. The Pastoral Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven
A mythical Greco-Roman world of colorful centaurs and “centaurettes”, cupids, fauns and other figures from classical mythology is portrayed to Beethoven’s music. A gathering for a festival to honor Bacchus, the god of wine, is interrupted by Zeus, who creates a storm and directs Vulcan to forge lightning bolts for him to throw at the attendees.
The next film is set upon Mount Olympus and sees various Greek deities presented in very cutesy Disney form. The animation here is very different to what we’ve seen so far – not just in Fantasia, but in any of the feature films we’ve seen so far, too.
It’s very pastel and smooth without a huge amount of detail, and it almost feels a bit like children’s cartoons like My Little Pony. It’s very odd! I mean, you’ve got to admit that this reminds you at least a little of My Little Pony…
This piece, despite having a story, didn’t keep me engaged like some of the others, maybe because it was so long. It went on for ages and I started to lose interest and focus after a while. (Maybe it’s also because I was playing Animal Crossing at the same time. Oops.)
7. Dance of the Hours by Amilcare Ponchielli
A comic ballet in four sections: Madame Upanova and her ostriches (Morning); Hyacinth Hippo and her servants (Afternoon); Elephanchine and her bubble-blowing elephant troupe (Evening); and Ben Ali Gator and his troop of alligators (Night). The finale finds all of the characters dancing together until their palace collapses.
The next film is very interesting. One thing I love about Fantasia in general is that Taylor tells you what’s going to happen before the piece starts, which I usually hate. (I remember in the London Olympics opening ceremony in 2012, the commentator kept telling us what was going to happen 10 seconds before something happened, so literally nothing was a surprise and there was no point watching it.) However, once the film actually starts, it’s nothing like what you’d expect.
For this one, Taylor’s introduction mentions that they’re going to show one of the most famous pieces of ballet and explained that the dancers represent the different times of day, from subtle light of the morning to the brightness of the afternoon to the somber tones of night. But when the film starts, the ballerinas are actually… ostriches?! And there’s also a hippo seductively eating grapes in a watering hole, who is then joined by other ballet dancing hippos with tiny tutus.
This one definitely has the trippy imagination of some of the earlier Disney films. (I’m looking at you, Dumbo – which, incidentally, is next up for me to watch.) It was interesting… I’m not entirely sure how it matched up to Taylor’s initial introduction, but it was fun!
As a side note, it reminded me a bit of the manic animal football match in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I definitely drew a lot of parallels between this film and that scene. Here’s a quick example:
Fantasia, 1940:
Bedknobs and Broomsticks, 1971:
8. Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky and Ave Maria by Franz Schubert
At midnight the devil Chernabog awakes and summons evil spirits and restless souls from their graves to Bald Mountain. The spirits dance and fly through the air until driven back by the sound of an Angelus bell as night fades into dawn. A chorus is heard singing Ave Maria as a line of robed monks is depicted walking with lighted torches through a forest and into the ruins of a cathedral.
The final film is quite a lot darker than the rest of them: it’s literally about Satan and it’s set in the fiery depths of hell. Pits of fire, balls of fire dancing women made of fire that transform into weird, mutated wolves and then ghouls with crazy limbs… there’s a lot of fire, and it’s all very weird. It’s very dark and spooky. It felt like a strangely dark and creepy thing to end on, and I don’t know if I liked it! Am I going to have nightmares tonight?!
The mood then suddenly shifts when the dramatic music that helps to create the eerie, hellish atmosphere changes to Ave Maria, and the film turns mostly into vignettes of scenery. (I kind of mentally switched off by this point.)
Then Fantasia just… ends. I thought it was going to go back to the orchestra for them to say goodbye or wrap it up, but nope—the music peaks, the sun comes up, filling the screen with warm, orange rays, it fades to black, and then… the Disney+ logo appears. That’s the end.
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General Notes About the Animation
The animation in every single film feels completely unique, with varying colour palettes and art styles. You can tell they were experimenting with techniques and art styles because a lot of it is beautiful and experimental, but you also get cartoons like The Sorcerer’s Apprentice starring Mickey Mouse.
Light reflections in water, the light shining off snowflakes with the texture of glass which then turn into dancing fairies with the snowflakes transforming into their skirts… there are moments that are weird, wonderful, trippy, downright scary—but it’s beautiful, and I’m sure this film alone was made groundbreaking progress in Disney’s animation journey.
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Enjoyment rating: 3/5
Would watch again: If someone asked me to watch it, sure. But I wouldn’t choose it over something else.
Question of the day… Have you seen Fantasia, and if you have, which part of it is your favourite? Which did you like the least?
