Fantasia (1940)
A visual and auditory symphony that transports you to magical realms. Ideal for fans of animation and classical music lovers.
Genres: Animation, Family, Fantasy
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Fantasia(1940)
Overview
Walt Disney's timeless masterpiece is an extravaganza of sight and sound! See the music come to life, hear the pictures burst into song and experience the excitement that is Fantasia over and over again.
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Original, most likely impressive for the time, but not my cup of tea.
i try to like it.but not enough to enjoy it.
Truly a thing of beauty; will always strike a chord.
I enjoyed the music, my cat enjoyed the visuals, both of us had a great time.
Listen Iām sure this was revolutionary at the time, and the music/animation is beautiful but damn is it slowwwwwww.
More of an experience than a movie. I think some of the later stories are a lot weaker than the first few. It is hard to stay so focused on this when there is no real narrative thread throughout the whole 2 hours. I kinda wish this would of cut the olympus one and made it shorter. Still it is something unique and I'm sure was really cool at the time to see in theaters.
Beautiful classical music, but not a film I can completely sit and watch whilst doing nothing else. I like to play it in the background whilst drawing.
For many of us, āFantasiaā served as our first proper encounter with classical music, not merely as passive listeners but with thoughtful reflections on the expressive value of sound and images. The intentions behind the film remain exceptionally noble and noteworthy to this day, although I must confess that I found the quality of the segments a little uneven. The introductory first 30 minutes, despite the variety of images, felt somewhat lackluster, mostly due to technical limitations. As a disturbed child, I naturally adored āA Night on Bald Mountainā, although the renowned āThe Sorcerer's Apprenticeā is probably even better.
Upon rewatch as an adult, I was surprised how hilariously mature this is. "Behold Satan, and the creatures of evil gathering to worship their master." "So now, imagine yourself in space, looking down on this lonely, tormented planet, spinning through an empty sea of nothingness." Good one, Deems! Judged in historical context, this movie seems shockingly avant-garde. Really beautiful, wonderful ideas and it must have been a trip to see it at the time. These days, the various segments have aged at various rates. The standout sequences for me were Bach, the Nutcracker, and Bald Mountain. The dinosaurs and the Rite of Spring were quite dull. But the pinnacle was Mickey and the Sorcerer's Apprentice, which is just mainlining classic Disney magic for ten minutes. Doesn't get better than that.
A different way of looking at classical music, I love it.
This film is best appreciated after a basic understanding of the challenges and the craftmanship involved in creating an animated feature at this time, even with Walt Disney's resources there were obstacles and limitations. Many of these challenges and obstacles are removed or at least dampened in modern computer-assisted animation. For me, this is where my enjoyment comes from. I have better recordings of better performances of all the musical pieces in this film, and there are any number of better animated films I could watch. But nothing else like Fantasia exists. Even Fantasia 2000 does quite strike the same awe, knowing that many of the animation was computer-assisted. Everything in Fantasia was animated by hand, and therefore every artist had to be able to visualize the timing in addition to translating it visually. I wouldn't introduce this film to someone without showing them some footage of a 2D animator at work and an explanation of how much work is involved in animating this way.
3 Thoughts After Watching āFantasiaā: 1. How does one possibly rate _Fantasia_? I feel like there are two ways: for what itās accomplished and for its entertainment value ā which, in my mind, are wildly opposing thoughts. Itās iconic, itās gorgeous, and itās groundbreaking for its time. On the other hand, I had to fight to stay awake. 2. Sorcerer Mickey is the best Mickey. 3. The dinosaur scenes were fairly depressing.
Featured User Reviews

The film is a masterpiece of audiovisual art, a delicious experiment where, through a perfect soundtrack and a game of sequences, the logos merges with the mythos. The staging is daring, unique, transgressive and above all magical. A play of light and shadow transports us to a fantasy theater that we will never see or shape. The only hint we are given of the setting is with the American-style opening of the curtain. The film plays with disorientation (as in a magic trick) from the first second, where the fourth wall is broken. It is a unique work of its kind, combining reality with animation, theater with cinema, dance and classical music. It does not need a script adulterated with dialogues to flow, so it is not limited to an age or a time, which is why it has not aged almost, retaining its magic and charm. It is timeless and for all audiences. The only condition is to love art, because if you are one of those who watch movies to be entertained by their stories, without taking into account the mise-en-scĆØne and everything that goes with it (lighting, set design, composition, camera positions...), you will not enjoy the film.

[7.6/10] In a weird way, *Fantasia* is a reminder of the importance of storytelling to what Disney accomplished over its many decades of existence. The film features some of the most melodious and venerated pieces of classical music in history. It can boast some of the studioās best animation, evincing different styles and approaches from the comic to the dramatic to the abstract to the downright frightening. And yet, for all that achievement, it doesnāt hit as hard as many of the studioās other efforts because, outside of the famed āSorcererās Apprenticeā segment, thereās not really a story amid this audio-visual carousel. Sometimes, as our humble presenter notes, thereās a general idea, or an outline of whatās happening as part of a given piece. But this is more of a showcase, a chance to simply give life to the music rather than spin a yarn with a beginning, middle, and end. Love it or hate, though, you have to appreciate the ambition of Disney with *Fantasia*. To put together what amounts to a two-hour classical music concert, light on slapstick, heavy on theatrics, unlikely to hold a moppetās attention for the entire runtime, took guts. Even without knowing the behind-the-scenes history behind it, it reads as a labor of love, one meant to show off the mediumās artistic potential that ought to place its practitioners alongside the classical masters of old. More than that, if you squint, you can make out hints of Disneyās releases to come, both in the near term and the far future. You can see embryonic versions of Tinkerbelle in āthe Nutcracker Suite.ā Early echoes of *The Little Mermaid* are present in āRite of Springāās underwater segments. The foundation for *Hercules* is present in āThe Pastoral Symphony.ā Hell, you can even see shades of *The Land Before Time* and *Primal* in the dinosaur-focused portions of the film. Even as a showcase, you can see the studio trying out different moods and settings, some of which Disney itself would pick up years or decades down the line, and some of which others, inspired by its example, would realize in other ways in other company. The film is, undoubtedly, a feast for the eyes. One of its most impressive aspects is the way that liquid is a unifying element across the different segments, and looks wonderfully realistic while also being just impressionistic enough to seem fantastical. Mickey nearly drowns in an unexpected, magic-induced whirlpool; magma erupts from volcanic spouts and washes over a prehistoric countryside; a flood of wine, of all things, subsumes a collection of mythical revelers. In every instance, the swishes and splashes of the fluids at play capture the unpredictable movement, but also the beauty, of their real life equivalents. It can also boast incredible flashes of color and light. The filmās figures may be bathed in a golden hue or hidden in shadow or creep from one to the other. We might see mythical creatures horsing around in a rainbow forged by a benevolent god, or demons shifting across the grayscale birthed by a malevolent demon. As pure vision, *Fantasia* works at almost every level, sporting beauty in nearly every frame. Just as notably, it has the noble aim of bringing these classic musical pieces to life. Iāll admit to finding myself doing the same while listening to classical music: imagining scenes, conjuring stories, seeing images dance across my mind. Itās hard to know whether that it an essential part of how a human being processes melodic sound, or a chicken-and-egg reversal, where decades of seeing scores compliment images on screen, in movies, music videos, and animation features like this one, have made it the default setting for processing song and melody for folks like me. Whatever the source, Disney finds creative ways to realize these tunes. While thereās a natural bent toward the fantastical, thereās marked differences between an abstract introduction, the journey from the primordial to the present, a tour of Greek myth, a funny animal dance number, a floral boogie, a magical mishap, and an impressionistic rise and fall of evil and good seen as darkness and light. There is, if nothing else, variety to how the famed classical interludes are done up in animated splendor, even if common principles creditably abound between the different segments. And yet, I will sheepishly confess to zoning out at times, despite that variety at hand and the unquestionable visual splendor on display. I can appreciate the artistry of Russian dancers realized in a floral aesthetic, or hippos doing pointe, or melodies visualized as bursts of hue and color over a cloudy vista. But over the course of a two hour block, it starts to become densitizing after a while. Maybe thatās just evidence of the minute modern (read: my) attention span, but itās hard not to think that this film may have been easier to appreciate in 2020 if Iād watched the segments individually (or at least availed myself of that intermission) rather than trying to swallow the whole thing in one big bite. Still, the moments that stood out the most are the ones that had characters, if not exactly stories. āThe Sorcererās Apprenticeā has rightfully become iconic for its splendid animation and iconography, but itās also the most memorable segment because itās the only one that tells a tidy little tale. The other stretches of the film that stand out feature recognizable personalities or clear situations, even if thereās not a great deal of narrative propulsion. Two dinosaurs struggle while others flee in fear; a herd of centaurs court one another while attended to by cherubs; a terrifying demon summons the armies of the night. Thereās not exactly a plot to these sections, but thereās more in the way of major players and scenarios that help give form to the art. That reaction is, in many ways, a failing on my part. The music alone is great art. The imagery by itself is great art as well. Why do I need some tale to envelope both of those things to hold my attention for the length of the feature? The only poverty I can plead is indoctrination by Disney itself, where a lifetime of movie-watching has taught me that beautiful music paired with luminous aesthetic delights should be matched with a story no less engrossing or compelling. Itās invigorating to see the studio step beyond that framework, to experiment, to put its talents on display in a different way than usual. But itās tough for a generation raised on that framework to feel, not just intellectually appreciate, a diversion that represents no less of an achievement, but strips away the stories that roped us in for so long.

5 stars āļøāļøāļøāļøāļø My personal icon for classical music and the source of famed 20th Century conductor Leopold Stokowski being my idol due to his shadowy leading image!!!

Where to start with this wonderfully evocative interpretation of seven timeless pieces of classical music that accompany perhaps not Disney's most detailed, but still wonderful animations. It is essentially a series of short stories - each as different from the other as you can imagine. I think that's the most important principle when enjoying this - you must use your imagination. The representations try, with varying degrees of success, to put more defined, ambiguous and occasionally abstract imagery alongside the music - some with humour (frequently using animals, birds, insects etc.) through to far more sinister and challenging imagery, that at times reminded me of something Fritz Lang might have produced in the 1920s. It is a little too episodically presented - and the intermission needlessly robs it of flow but as a colourful introduction to classical music it takes some beating. (Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice was my favourite!)

It had itās ups and downs. The intermediate was kinda bored and forced, there was way to much exposition. And the moments which I think were supposed to be funny felt so fake that it came across as cringy. The first music was a nice introduction but it was way to long and got boring quick. The second was my favourite, the visuals are all very nice and despise the lack of a concrete story it still conveyed a beautiful image of nature. The third is a classic, itās probably my favourite music but the visuals can get too repetitive. It is also the only one with a concrete story, which honestly I wasnāt that invested in. The forth is definitely the worst. Only Disney can make a story with dinosaurs just boring, this was SO boring, I canāt even describe it in words. I had to stop two times before I fell asleep. The fifth is quite fun, but nothing that original. I mostly had fun because I like Greek and Roman mythology. All of the mythical creatures were a lot of fun. The sixth one is pretty forgettable, I had no memory of watching it. It was just a ballet dance with animals with nothing original about it. The last one was also very boring, I didnāt get what was going on and honestly I didnāt care about it either.
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