NFR Project: 'Fantasia' (1940)

 

NFR Project: ‘Fantasia’

Dir: Samuel Armstrong, James Algar, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Ben Sharpsteen, David D. Hand, Hamilton Luske, Jim Handley, Ford Beebe, T. Hee, Norman Ferguson, Wilfred Jackson

Scr: Joe Grant, Dick Huemer

Pho: James Wong Howe

Ed: N/A

Premiere: Nov. 13, 1940

126 min.

One of cinema’s greatest achievements, Fantasia was a huge gamble for the Disney company. The idea of marrying great classical works to animation posed extraordinary technical problems, ones that took an extraordinary amount of time, effort, and money to solve. More than 1,000 workers labored together to produce the finished product – which remains one of the most honored films of all time.

Fantasia is a trip through eight classical music pieces, with animation set to each. The legendary conductor Leopold Stokowski worked in close collaboration with Disney to perfect edited versions of the pieces involved. They were as follows:

Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor is the setting for a collage of abstract images designed to evoke the music. Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite provides the soundtrack for a survey of nature’s seasons, complete with dancing flowers and fairies. Mickey Mouse stars as the hero of the sequence highlighting Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice, in which he plays the servant of a wizard. He uses the wizard’s magic to create inanimate helpers, who quickly get out of hand.

The prehistory of Earth is outlined in the segment devoted to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony is the soundtrack for a fanciful sequence involving centaurs and the ancient Greek gods. Ponchielli’s Dance of the Hours gives us comic ballet dancing by ostriches, alligators, and elephants. To finish, a dark world is conjured to the tune of Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain, and close with a serene rendition of Ave Maria.

There are few words that can indicate the scope and impact of the film. The animated sequences are painstakingly crafted, each colorfully vibrant. The different styles of each passage complement each other wonderfully, and the detail in each segment is still unsurpassed today. For audiences at the time, the sheer intensity of the finished film must have been nearly overwhelming. It is still a memorable viewing experience.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: The Grapes of Wrath.