Fantasia (1940)

This is one of the most fantastic animated features of all time in My opinion! Being a huge fan of movie music scores and classical music this is such an extraordinary movie to watch and enjoy. My favorite pieces in the film is the Nutcracker Suite, Rite of Spring, and Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria. These are three of the greatest pieces of music ever written in My opinion! The animation is crisp, clean, and clear! In fact, this animation is arguably better then today and there hasn't been any animation like the Night on Bald Mountain since in my opinion! Disney did a fabulous achievement here! So if you love Disney, the new fantasia 2000 animated feature, animated films in general, movie scores, and classical music then I strongly recommend that you head over to Amazon.com today and purchase this great animated movie today!

Fmovies: I've recently bought the Silly Symphonies DVD. My daughter Sarah and I have watched one cartoon every day, culminating in Fantasia. We didn't watch it all at once, but spread it over the course of a week (I tend to agree with other comments - it's too much for kids in one viewing). She sat on my lap and loved every minute of it, even 'Night on Bald Mountain'. I must admit I hadn't watched it for years and forgot about this section, but she wasn't scared by it. This is surprising when you consider the spider in 'Mother Goose Melodies' frightened her!

In my opinion Fantasia is the ultimate Silly Symphony. It's obvious all the groundwork for the film came from them, which is why it's so good - the artists had ten years to hone and perfect their skills while Walt Disney had the vision to realise it. I wonder if he had thought of it a decade earlier and waited until the right moment to create it...? It's a real shame he never lived to see its success because he deserved to.

It's hard to find the right words to surmise this film; I suppose I could break each section down and give my opinion as others have done, but as a whole - well, it's got good bits and bad bits; happy and sad bits, it's scary and funny and gloomy and sunny. It's spirited, colourful, sparkling, animated... but let's not get carried away here. It's only a film and some bits of it are quite boring.

If you randomly wound through it you could find yourself watching any one of the above, and this to me sums it up - it's unique. What other film can you say that about?

Fantasia is a light that will shine for generations to come. 9/10.

Disney's "Fantasia" is a pure classic.

What we are shown are a few animated musicals, filled with grand splendor and vivid colors.

"Fantasia" is one of those films that everyone knows by heart, and has watched since being a child.

My personal favorite was always the Mickey Mouse short - one of the darkest Mickey cartoons I've ever seen.

If you haven't seen "Fantasia" yet, then you must be from another planet. It is one of the best Disney musicals ever, which some push aside and forget too easily.

5/5 stars-

John Ulmer

Fantasia fmovies. This without a doubt the greatest animated film in history. While highly acclaimed and well-known today, it was not terribly popular when it was first released. The idea of "Fantasia" is to take great pieces of music and draw animated sequences that match them. In doing so, it reverses the purpose of a movie's score; the movie serves and matches the music, not the other way around. This set up also means that there is no typical formula plot that is present in the vast majority of movies. In the first piece, the animation is vague and abstract, but in later ones it is of definite actions, objects, and stories. The two most famous(and my favorite) parts are probably "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and "Rite of Spring". "Fantasia" is not only the best animated film ever made, but one of the greatest films period.

If there's one thing Walt Disney knew about better than anyone else, it was that the combination of music and animation is one of the most important combinations since bread and butter. This can best explain why most of Disney's animated features are musicals. It's because Walt Disney strongly believed that music and sound were essential keys towards great animated features and shorts. One could make a good argument that his 3rd full-length animated feature, "Fantasia" (1940), was created as further proof regarding why he believed music was so essential to the world of animation.

"Fantasia" is a unique animated feature in terms of its narrative. It starts out with an orchestra taking their places as if they were preparing for a concert. Then, the main narrator of this picture Deems Taylor emerges and introduces us to a new form of entertainment called "Fantasia". We are told that during this new form of entertainment, we will see the images that classical music had inspired in the minds of Walt Disney's massive staff of artists. In short, we're seeing pieces of famous classical music being brought to life visually based on what Disney's artists think these pieces are about. We are also told that there are three types of musical pieces in this program: music that tells a definite story, music that paints a series of pictures, and "absolute music" that exists simply for its own sake.

This animated feature consists of eight separate segments which all are devoted to one of the three types of music. Sometimes, one could make an argument that some segments have more than one, since some segments are more clearly cut in the type of music they're going for than other segments. For instance, the first segment "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" is clearly an example of absolute music that exists simply for its own sake. All this segment composes of are visuals that one might think of whenever this classical music is being played. But then there are segments like "The Rite of Spring" which could easily count as music that paints a series of pictures as well as music that tells a definite story. The reason I believe this segment could apply to both is because while it tells us the history of the dinosaurs, you aren't exactly sure what to make of the overall vision Disney was going for with this segment. This is precisely why "Fantasia" is such a fascinating piece of filmmaking, because what it shows its audience is so unconventional and diverse that it's hard not to admire the fact that it's so original with its story structure.

After seeing this picture a couple times, I have a better understanding of why "Fantasia" was immensely influential in the film industry, particularly with music videos. If you think about it, this film is just a series of silent animated short films perfectly synchronized to famous pieces of classical music. "Fantasia" would easily qualify as one of the films I would be most interested in learning more about the making behind. I would be more than eager to learn what Walt Disney's animators thought when he wanted to pursue executing this specific project so soon after the ambitious production of "Snow White". I would also be interested in learning the process behind the animation for these segments and how the animators synchronized the animation and music as well as they did, since I know the animation process was probably painstaking to say the least.

Fantasia was to be the crowning achievement of Walt Disney Studios, their magnum opus, a work of art that finally convinced the people that animated films could be more than "mere" children's entertainment. Unfortunately, it was too much too soon. People went in expecting children's entertainment - after all, that's what Disney was known for - and instead were treated to high art. Nothing wrong with that, but you need to expect it first. And thus, Fantasia flopped financially, and what was meant to be a continuing series of films, remained just one until the turn of the century.

But oh what a film it is. Music by the best classical composers ever lived, performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, hosted by Deems Taylor, featuring some the finest animated segments Disney had ever done. It's a stone cold classic, was from the very first moment, and it's a shame it didn't do so well. Luckily it has gone down in history as one of Disney's finest and will be watched and appreciated for centuries to come.

As for the individual segments, they're not of equal quality, though they are all very good in their own ways.

The opening segment, Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, is not one of my personal favourites, but it works as a good opening intro to the idea behind Fantasia and is pretty to look at in its own way. It hasn't aged as well as some of the other segments, but it does its job more than adequately.

Nutcracker Suite, on the other hand, is fantastic. Beautiful images, perfectly accompanied by one of the most recognizable pieces of music there is. After seeing this segment once, it's hard not to see fairies and seasons dancing around whenever you hear the piece.

And then there's The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Everyone knows this one and has most probably seen it, even if they haven't seen the whole film. It's the segment with the most story and is one of the strongest Mickey Mouse shorts ever made. Grandeur, funny and even a bit threatening, it's probably the film's strongest moment.

Rite of Spring is another one with a story, this time about the history of our small blue orb floating in the space. It's intriguing to watch, but once again the animation shows a bit of its age and it's perhaps even a little bit too ambitious for its running length. Not the strongest segment, but once again very good nonetheless.

The Pastoral Symphony and Dance of the Hours, the next two segment, are to me very similar and while they're both fine, I cannot admit to liking them all that much. They're mostly just general gallivanting and while that's fine and fits the music, it can become a bit boring. The Pastoral Symphony is also the segments that has aged the least gracefully with some really rough character designs.

Luckily we have Night on Bald Mountain and Awe Maria to close the film. And they are awe-inspiring. The devil on his lone mountain top is one of the scariest images Disney has ever produced and the rest of the segment is equally haunting, eerie and threatening. Which is why the following tranquility and quietness of Awe Maria works so well and allows you to drift over the finish line with a smile on your face and peace in your heart.

Fantasia is not a perfect film, but it's still one of the finest pieces of art I've ever seen and a perfect introduction to animated films meant for adults. As a child I found it slightly boring. As an adult I'm in awe.