Disney's Fantasia 85th Anniversary
In the year 1940, two well-known and respected people in the artistic community would release a film that would go on to be one of the most ambitious and most acclaimed animated films that any studio would release. Around 1938, after releasing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and while in production of Pinocchio and Bambi, Walt Disney started to see that the character that put his studio on the map, Mickey Mouse, was losing popularity among the story crew because he was a difficult character to write for. Walt soon remembered an idea of adapting the story of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and using the tone poem by Paul Dukas and put Mickey into the story. Soon, Walt had dinner one night at the famous restaurant, Chasen’s, there he would meet the famous conductor, Leopold Stokowski. During the 1930’s, Leopold Stokowski, or Stoki to his associates, had made a big impact in the world of classical music with his masterful conducting skills. He was also a film celebrity, having stared in films such as One Hundred Men and a Girl. Walt was a fan of Stoki and even went to a concert of his in the 1930’s. He pitched his idea of having him conducting a new Mickey cartoon which would feature The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Stoki, who was also a fan of Walt Disney, agreed. While the cartoon was in production, Walt’s brother and business partner Roy started to see that this was more expensive than the short cartoons they did in the past. However, Walt started to see that this could be part of something bigger than a Mickey Mouse cartoon, but as part of a full-length feature film. When everyone at the studio heard that he was planning a new film called The Concert Feature, they knew the boss was up to something very ambitious. Walt and Stoki soon met with each other to discuss which pieces of classical music should be in the film. They also brought in music critic and conductor Deems Taylor to be the master of ceremonies for the project to introduce each number and to contribute to the film’s production. One thing they noted was that the title The Concert Feature was a head scratcher. It was soon decided to name it Fantasia, which is a word that means a free form of music. Walt soon assigned story artists Joe Grant and Dick Huemer to be the story supervisors for the film because of their love of music. For the interstitials, they decided to have it filmed by the legendary cinematographer, James Wong Howe, who filmed a lot of films such as the 1924 silent film version of Peter Pan. Despite that it looks simple now, at the time it was a challenge to figure out where to put the lanterns to cast the necessary shadows of the orchestra.
For the beginning sequence, they chose Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, which Stoki was familiar with. For the style, the studio turned artist German animator Oscar Fishinger because of his abstract style of using geometric shapes. When an early version of this was storyboarded, it proved to be too abstract and not what Walt had in mind. What he envisioned was that it would be as if an audience member was half asleep at concert and the musician’s instruments were combined with his imagination. In that, Fishinger had to strike a balance between his abstract style and representational art in order to not go too far. For the second piece, it was decided to use the familiar tune, The Nutcracker Suite by Peter Tchaikovsky. But, instead of telling the traditional story of The Nutcracker, they chose a different subject. It was Walt’s idea that this could still be a ballet, but the dancers would be things in nature and fairies. Out of all the other sequences, The Nutcracker Suite was close to the style of the Silly Symphony series. Animator Les Clark, who animated the dew drop fairies, came up with the idea that their wings would move like hummingbirds and other insects and this would become the basis for future animation of fairy characters. The next sequence of the film, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, was the first piece completed and would become the ideal Mickey cartoon. The recording of the music lasted from 12 am to 3 am, because, according to Stoki, the orchestra members were drinking coffee, and it kept them up that night. But it helped the musicians be tuned to the music. The part of the apprentice was meant for Mickey to play because it was a chance for him to be in a purely pantomime role, but early development had the idea of using the dwarf Dopey in the role, but Walt vetoed it. A little-known fact: for the design of the sorcerer, Joe Grant used Walt Disney’s nose and the name of the sorcerer, Yen Sid, was Disney spelled backwards. The sequence that would follow was big risk.
For the next sequence, they chose
The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky. When the piece was released
as a ballet in Paris, its premiere would end in a riot because it wasn’t
what the type of ballet audiences were used to. But, while the ballet was about
sacrificial rituals of a primitive pagan tribe, the Disney artists chose to
tell the story of the beginning of life on Earth. Since Stravinsky was still
alive at the time, he came to the studio and saw the story reel of the sequence
and concept art. While there’s different accounts of how he responded to the
piece, it generally believed that he was pleased with how it turned out that
since he soon sold the rights to use his composition, The Firebird. The
opening sequence featuring the newly formed Earth became a tour de
force of effects animation. An example is the boiling of the lava, which the
animators animated it like water, but with more weight. For reference material,
the head of effects, Josh Medor, used orange mud to provide the live
action reference for the lava bubbles when they burst. When it came to the
dinosaur characters, Walt told the animators to animate them as real dinosaurs
and not to animate them as cartoon characters. The layout department also put
the camera at a low angle to make the dinosaurs look big. This sequence of the
film would be used in sciences classes to teach students about how the earth
began and it would later inspire people to become paleontologists.
When the 15-minute
intermission was over and before the rest of the program continued, Deems
Taylor took the time to introduce a big part in the film, the Soundtrack. This
sequence would become an inspiration for personality animation because
animator, Josh Meador, took this simple line and was able make it have a
personality such as shyness and cheekiness. The next sequence proved to be a
challenge when they started. When they came up with the ideas of using
mythology from Greece, they first planned to use either Cydalise or
The Afternoon of the Faun, but Walt felt neither was big enough. He
decided to use Beethoven’s 6thsymphony, The Pastoral Symphony. Stoki wasn’t
sure if it was a good idea to use The Pastoral Symphony because
Beethoven had a clear idea of the theme, which would be an afternoon in the
local countryside. But Walt knew this would fit and he also knew this would
help introduce Beethoven’s work to a new audience. In a way, they still
had a bit of the original theme, because they are not inside Mount Olympus, but
around it in a country like setting around Olympus. Thanks to master animator,
Eric Larson, this would also be the first time anyone had seen Pegasus captured
on film.
For the next
sequence, they chose a piece of music that, as some people said, got what it
deserved. Once they chose to use Dance of the Hours by Amilcare Ponchielli,
they decided to poke fun at ballet, however, instead of using human dancers, they
used animals such as ostriches, hippos, elephants, and alligators. But they
still behaved like they were in a real ballet because it was Walt’s idea to
take these screwy animals and make them sincere with their dancing. John
Hench was assigned to direct this sequence, but he didn’t know or appreciate
ballet, so Walt let him go backstage at the Ballet Russ and he understood
ballet and became enthusiastic about directing the piece. The next sequence
proved to be a bold one in the entire film.
For the finale, the
Disney artists chose two pieces of music that were extremely different, they go
together perfectly. The two would be Night on Bald Mountain by Modest
Mussorgsky and Franz Schubert’s Ave Maria. For inspiration, the Danish
artist Kay Nelson was brought in to draw concept art. What he brought was not
only his own style, but also Art Nuevo and a combination of Japanese and
Chinese wood cuts, which made it into the final film. Legendary animator Vladimir Tytla was
given the character Chernabog, and this would become his most famous work
because he was able to give power to his character in the same way he did with
Stromboli in Pinocchio. As it was before with The Skeleton Dance short,
this part wasn’t supposed to scare the audience, but to captivate them with its
atmosphere of unease. Once the piece was over, the sound of church bells
signaled the beginning of Schubert’s Ave Maria as a symbol of the
triumph of good over evil. This sequence had extensive use of a device
called the multiplane camera, which meant to give startling depth to
animation. When the film was edited, they realized that they used the wrong
lens and had to animate again and while they were shooting it, an earthquake
happened. While going over the storyboards for this piece, one of the
story artists said that he thinks that they weren’t using the “cartoon
medium” as they should. Walt soon told him that this was not the cartoon medium
because they have worlds to build.
When Fantasia was
ready to be released, Walt and Stoki decided to take a new step in the
film medium. To give the feeling of being in a live concert, the company
created a system where the theater would include stereos on the left and the
right of the theater. This would be very groundbreaking because this was the
first time stereophonic sound was introduced to a commercial film.
Releasing the film, however, proved to be extremely problematical. The studio’s
distributor, RKO Radio Picture, didn’t want to distribute the film because they
didn’t believe in it, so Walt decided to distribute the film himself.
Unfortunately, when Fantasia was released on November 13th,
1940, it wasn’t a financial success because, despite being very bold,
audiences weren’t ready for this type of experiment. But the big reason was
because World War II was going on in Europe and the studio lost the European
market. When RKO was convinced to distribute the film, they edited it from 124
minutes to 81 minutes and released it as part of a double feature with a low
budget Western. They deleted the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and all
Deems Taylors interstitials. The failure of the film became a thorn in Walt’s
side for many years because this was his most personal and innovative and it
was unappreciated by the public in its first release.
However, when the studio
started their tradition of re- releasing their films every seven or ten years, Fantasia
became increasingly popular and first made a profit in 1969. The film went
on to become one the most acclaimed animated and would be an inspiration to
people who want to become animators. It also inspired future
composers after watching the film when they were kids.
Another interesting
aspect of the film is the different versions of it. After the first RKO
distributed version, the 1946 re-release edited the film to 115 minutes which shortened
most of the interstitials by Deems Taylor. In 1982, a new score composed by
Irwin Kostal and new narration by Tim Matheson was edited into the film. The
full 124-minute version wouldn’t be seen until the year 2000 to celebrate its
60th anniversary.
Today, Walt Disney’s most
ambitious and personal film is considered a classic and in 1990, which was the
year of its 50th anniversary, Fantasia was inducted into the
National Film Registry. And thus, Fantasia will continue to amaze audiences
as a celebration of the art of animation and the worlds it can conquer.
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