Fantasia (1940)

Fantasia
Directed by Norman Ferguson et al
Written by Joe Grant, Dick Huemer et al
1940/USA
Walt Disney Pictures
Repeat viewing/Disney DVD
#142 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Narrator: You know, it’s funny how wrong an artist can be about his own work. The one composition of Tchaikovsky’s that he really detested was his “Nutcracker Suite”, which is probably the most popular thing he ever wrote. It’s a series of dances taken out of a full-length ballet called “The Nutcracker” that he once composed for the St. Petersburg Opera House. It wasn’t much of a success and nobody performs it nowadays, but I’m pretty sure you’ll recognize the music of the suite when you hear it. Incidentally, you won’t see any nutcracker on the screen; there’s nothing left of him but the title.  (poor unloved ballet … now performed everywhere with a suitable stage and dancers each Christmas.)

I think I love this movie more every time I see it.

The film consists of a number of animated segments set to classical music.  They are:

Tocata and Fugue in D Minor (orchestrated) (J.S. Bach) – images abstracted from musical instruments

Nutcracker Suite (Tchaikovsky) – seasons of the year with sprites animating plants and flowers in a garden

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Dukas) – Mickey Mouse as the title character putting on his master’s hat and losing control over some brooms toting water for him

Rite of Spring (Stravinski) – Evolution of life on earth ending with the dinosaurs

Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”) (Beethoven) – Mythical creatures on Mount Olympus enjoying a day in the country

Dance of the Hours (Ponchielli) – comic take on the  ballet from “La Gioconda” with ostriches, hippos, elephants, and alligators subbing for the dancers

A Night on Bald Mountain (Mussorsky)/Ave Maria (Schubert) – Revels of demons and ghosts on Walpurgis night end in the triumph of good over evil.

I think I first saw this in my late teens in a somewhat “altered” state, as was fashionable at that time.  It certainly wasn’t necessary as this movie is mind-blowing when one is perfectly sober.  I love every single segment but of course I gravitate to the one that makes me smile.  I adore those crazy ostriches!

Leopold Stokowski (and his associates) won an Honorary Oscar for “their unique achievement in the creation of a new form of visualized music in Walt Disney’s production Fantasia, thereby widening the scope of the motion picture as entertainment and as an art form”.   Walt Disney, William E. Garity, J.N.A. Hawkins (RCA Manufacturing Co.) won an honorary award for “their outstanding contribution to the advancement of the use of sound in motion pictures through the production of Fantasia”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMlIpQ5pbCk

Original theatrical trailer