Worlds to Conquer: The Art and Making of Walt Disney’s Fantasia
The third in the “Making Of” series chronicles the history behind the third Disney animated feature, Fantasia—an audacious, groundbreaking production that challenged existing preconceptions of the arts. This monumental endeavor resulted from the meeting of two geniuses: Walt Disney, who had utterly transformed the art of animation within the space of a decade, and Leopold Stokowski, the celebrity conductor who boldly broke barriers to bring great music to new and diverse audiences. The concept was nothing less than a program of the world’s greatest music, illustrated on the screen by the leading animation studio at the peak of its powers. The resulting film was controversial, eliciting both paeans of praise and howls of outrage from the critics, but has since taken its place as one of the masterworks of the twentieth century. Here, based on years of archival research and interviews with some of the surviving filmmakers, is the full story of this remarkable achievement.
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Chapters
Part One: A Classic is Born
In 1937 the Walt Disney studio is a hotbed of activity. Among many other things, Walt and his artists are working on a special vehicle for Mickey Mouse, based on the music of Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. The project is recharged by Walt’s meeting with Leopold Stokowski, who volunteers his services and brings ambitious new concepts of recording and playback to the production. Before long these two creators have dramatically upscaled their plans, laying the foundation for a feature-length animated “concert” which will include not only The Sorcerer’s Apprentice but a broad selection of other musical classics. Deems Taylor, a prominent classical-music commentator, is added to the team, and the Disney writers and artists are encouraged to unleash their imaginations. Under the guidance of resident technical wizard Bill Garity, an innovative new process called “Fantasound”—a precursor of latter-day surround sound systems—is created to give Fantasia audiences a uniquely immersive listening experience. More artistic and technological innovations follow, and after three years the studio unveils a motion picture event like nothing else seen before.
Part Two: The Film
Although the entire production was guided by Walt’s vision, and the various segments were carefully coordinated for their cumulative effect on an audience, they were essentially crafted as eight separate productions. As the house lights dim and the feature begins, we join the audiences of 1940 to embark on this journey of sight and sound:
- Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Deems Taylor introduces the program and discusses the various types of music, starting with Bach’s great exercise in “absolute music.” As the orchestra plays the Toccata and Fugue, the screen is gradually overtaken by the Disney studio’s first venture into pure abstract animation.
- Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker Suite. Discarding the story of the Nutcracker ballet, the Disney artists pair Tchaikovsky’s lovely melodies with another kind of ballet: a ballet of nature, starting with dewdrop fairies, progressing with dancing flowers and other creatures, and ending with the changing of the seasons.
- Dukas: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. The story that planted the seed of Fantasia, with Mickey Mouse in the title role. Inspired by the Sorcerer’s feats of magic, Mickey dares to dream of commanding the stars and planets in their courses—only to pay a price for his unbridled ambition.
- Stravinsky: Rite of Spring. Stravinsky’s landmark 1913 composition, already controversial in its own right, is combined with a raw, disturbing depiction of the beginnings of life on earth. The segment culminates in a stark account of the age of dinosaurs, ending with their extinction in the harsh, forbidding environment of the late Cretaceous period.
- Intermission. The orchestra relaxes briefly, giving the audience the chance to do the same. In a playful interlude, Deems Taylor introduces the soundtrack, “a screen personality” in its own right.
- Beethoven: Symphony no. 6 (“Pastoral”). A wealth of fanciful imagery, based on mythological themes, is devised to accompany Pierné’s Cydalise—then separated from that composition and applied to Beethoven’s sixth Symphony instead. The result is one of the most wildly imaginative segments in Fantasia, and one of the most controversial.
- Ponchielli: Dance of the Hours. A light moment in the midst of the serious content: the famous ballet from Ponchielli’s La Gioconda—performed by a company of ostriches, hippos, elephants, and alligators.
- Mussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain/Schubert: Ave Maria. The climactic segment is a powerful combination of two diametrically opposed compositions. Night on Bald Mountain, Mussorgsky’s eerie musical evocation of a witch’s sabbath, is highlighted by Bill Tytla’s terrifying animation of Chernabog, the dark god who summons lost souls to the top of Bald Mountain. Their revels are cut short by church bells and the coming of dawn, and the night of dread gives way to the lovely, reassuring strains of Schubert’s Ave Maria as sunrise brings a new message of hope and peace.
Part Three: Fantasia and Beyond
After three years of intense effort, Fantasia is completed and unveiled to the public in November 1940. The critics’ reactions range from rapturous praise to furious outrage. Audiences lucky enough to see the film in its first-run showings, with the full Fantasound apparatus, are treated to an unparalleled viewing/listening experience.
But Fantasia is a box-office gamble from the beginning, and its compromised earnings are not helped by the enormous cost of building and installing new Fantasound units. Soon Disney’s distributor steps in with cost-cutting measures, and over the years Fantasia will be seen in a variety of different editions, some of them poorly serving Walt’s and Stokowski’s original vision. Ultimately, however, Fantasia survives all this and gains its rightful recognition as a major artistic milestone. Today, after the better part of a century, its place in the gallery of great cinematic achievements is more secure than ever.
Appendix A: Production credits
Appendix B: Original first-run bookings of Fantasia
Appendix C: The unfinished Fantasia
