Trailer
Plot summary
A host introduces a program of eight animated pieces set to classical music. In the opening, Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor becomes moving abstract lines and shapes. Selections from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite follow the seasons and a series of dances by fairies, fish, flowers, mushrooms, and leaves. Then, in Paul Dukas's piece, Mickey Mouse is a sorcerer's apprentice who tries some of his master's tricks and finds the magic hard to control.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Fantasia (1940)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- To accommodate Fantasia's ambitious soundtrack, Disney and RCA developed Fantasound, a pioneering stereophonic surround sound system. It made Fantasia the first commercial film released in stereo and a forerunner of surround sound.
- Fantasia finally began to make a profit on its $2.28 million budget when it returned to theaters on December 17, 1969. Advertised with psychedelic-styled campaigns, it became popular with teenagers and college students who treated it as a psychedelic experience, and animator Ollie Johnston recalled that young people "thought we were on a trip when we made it".
- An early plan for The Rite of Spring ran as far as the age of mammals, the first humans and the discovery of fire, but art director John Hubley said Disney curtailed it to avoid controversy from creationists who promised to make trouble if he connected evolution with humans.
- The female centaurs were first drawn bare-breasted until the Hays office, enforcing the Motion Picture Production Code, made them discreetly hang garlands around their necks. A pair of black centaurs who tended to the others was cut from later releases over implications of racism.
- Fantasia ran at the Broadway for 49 consecutive weeks, the longest run achieved by a film at the time, and stayed for a total of 57 weeks until February 28, 1942.
- For the handshake between Mickey Mouse and Leopold Stokowski, Ub Iwerks filmed Stokowski shaking hands with thin air, and animators then laid drawing paper directly over the photographic prints to match Mickey's movements to the live action footage.
