Fantasia is unlike any Disney movie that came before it. Instead of telling one complete story this movie tells many short stories and some of them are more abstract than others. All these stories are set to music conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Some of the pieces of music are familiar tunes that you may recognize and some of them are completely original. This was a major experiment done with the help of producer Walt Disney himself and luckily, it paid off in the long run despite it bombing hard at the box office at the time.
The film has several different stories that are all introduced by the film's narrator Deems Taylor. The first story titled “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor” is a piece of abstract animation that flows along with the music of the orchestra. The second story titled “The Nutcracker Suite” sees the orchestra playing familiar tunes from the ballet of the same name and originally conducted by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The story shows the beautiful animation from fairies who change the seasons to attractive fish swimming elegantly underwater. The third story is the most popular of the bunch titled “The Sorcerer's Apprentice”. The short stars Mickey Mouse as he borrows his master’s magic hat and practices his bag of tricks to bring a broomstick to life to carry water for him. Unfortunately, he soon realizes that he doesn't know how to make the magic stop working.
The fourth story titled “The Rite of Spring” shows the evolution of life on earth from organisms living in the water to Dinosaurs walking the earth and leading to their eventual extinction. The fifth story Titled “The Pastoral Symphony” brings us into a world of centaurs,cupids,pegasus and all sorts of greek mythical creatures. The sixth story titled “Dance of the Hour” features a comedic ballet split into four sections with different breeds of dancing animals entering one by one. The seventh and final story is titled “Night on Bald Mountain”. The devil has arisen on Bald Mountain and summons his evil minions to celebrate all that is evil. The only thing that can stop him is a singing choir singing Ave Maria which symbolises all that is good and pure in this world.
The best way to describe Fantasia is almost like being at a short film festival mixed in with an orchestra concert. In fact, It feels more like an experience than an actual movie. Each story is totally unique from one another and the stories keep building on the experience which gets more and more interesting and unique as you keep watching. All the stories are silent which allows the music and visuals to do the talking. Between segments we get introductions of the different stories we are about to see by Deems Taylor, who does a great job of being the right amount of serious while still having this calm personality to guide us through the magical work the artists have set up for us.
The animation in this movie is downright impressive to the point that almost feels timeless. Even as a modern moviegoer, I still appreciate the time and care that went into making each story unique and memorable. Sometimes the animation can be so vivid and insane that it can leave so many thoughts and feelings that anyone can walk away with both young and old. Along with the visuals comes the music and it's just as captivating. Conductor Leopold Stokowski expertly guides the orchestra through all the wonderful magic the animation has to offer and matches the visuals with the stories they tell.
This may be Disney’s 3rd ever motion picture, but it may honestly be one of their best as it still holds up to the standards of modern filmmaking and introduces a new way to see animation through the sounds of music. This is the kind of movie that makes me wish there was more like it, the closest we got was its sequel Fantasia 2000 but even then it still had to repeat a lot from the original. This is lighting that may never strike again and I might be okay with that because this, in my opinion, is Walt Disney’s masterpiece and a true testament to what animation storytelling can do.
(Final Grade: A+)