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Fantasia

DinosaursSorcerer's Apprentice

"Fantasia" was originally called "The Concert Feature." It started life as a Silly Symphony starring Mickey Mouse, telling the familiar story of the Sorcerer's Apprentice and his futile efforts to control an ever-expanding army of water-toting brooms. But Walt soon expanded on the idea and developed the concept of using animation not just as a potent story-telling device but as a kind of new art form, conceptualizing serious music on a screen in a way that had never been done before. "We have worlds to conquer here," he said. Walt's animators were challenged in a different way than they ever had been. Walt himself engaged in long conversations with conductor Leopold Stokowski about the way music appeared to them. They saw Beethoven's Sixth Symphony as a story about the Greek gods, while Amilcare Ponchielli's "Dance of the Hours" became an animal ballet featuring memorably silly hippos cavorting in ballerinas' tutus. Meanwhile, Walt really wanted to include dinosaurs someplace in this film. Deems Taylor, a well-known music commentator, suggested that Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" would be ideal to support the activities of giant thunder lizards.

Walt working on FantasiaWalt Disney

Walt was full of ideas for "Fantasia," including extra-wide screens, 3-D, even pumping smells into the movie theater. One concept that actually made it past the drawing boards was so-called Fantasound, an elaborate and expensive sound system. Unfortunately, although Fantasound was used for the film's opening, the government stopped Walt from producing the necessary equipment -- claiming that national defense priorities had a higher call on the necessary technology. Not only was "Fantasia" put into general release with a standard sound track, Walt was forced by his distributors at RKO to cut it from 125 to 81 minutes (losing much footage of Deems Taylor's narration). The film could not be called a success. People who loved serious music were put off by the very idea that animation could be linked to Beethoven. As author Richard Hollis writes, "Purists were also quick to criticize Disney and Stokowski for offering what they saw as nothing more than abridged versions of the music accompanied by some garish illustrations." Meanwhile, others were simply uninterested in spending their movie money on something that included Beethoven. Walt protested that it "isn't highbrow to like good music," but the public didn't listen. Once again, however, history has proven Walt's wisdom: "Fantasia" has become a classic, repeatedly rereleased.

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