Fantasia is unlike any other animated movie. All at once, it is an audio and video experiment, a collection of vignettes held together with a concert, and an overbudget Mickey Mouse cartoon gone wrong, and somehow, totally right. Walt Disney was not only innovative, he was smart about turning a disaster into a masterpiece, and Fantasia is certainly no different. Originally, Fantasia was no more than the famous The Sorcerer’s Apprentice sequence – intended to be a Mickey Mouse cartoon short to springboard the mouse back into the zeitgeist after Walt spent years devoting all his attention into Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. When the short got to be so expensive that Walt and his brother, Roy, were convinced it would never recoup its money, they decided on the feature film we got. Leopold Stokowski, conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, was brought in to conduct the musical segments as well as give input on which pieces of music were chosen. Great attention was given to each segment and the overall experience for the audience, and though it was abandoned before release, there was originally intended to be an early example of smell-o-vision for certain segments. Ballerinas and dancers were filmed for the Dance of the Hours and The Nutcracker Suite segments. For the Rite of Spring dinosaur sequence, Disney brought in the director of the American Museum of Natural History, and Edwin Hubble, the namesake of the Hubble Space Telescope. Bela Lugosi, the quintessential Dracula, was brought in as a character model for Chernabog, the huge demon portrayed in the Night on Bald Mountain segment.

The film is interspersed with introductions and intermissions from master of ceremonies, Deems Taylor, including a segment where he shakes hands with Mickey Mouse – Disney’s first example of the blend of live action and animation they leaned into in the 40s through 60s, and therefore a very impressive feat at the time. Beyond that, each musical segment is its own. Inspired by an abstract animation called A Colour Box, the opening Toccata and Fugue in D Minor segment is a demonstration of the experimental nature of the film. Images of the orchestra turn to animation and then simplify into lines and shapes that move with the nature of the music. The Nutcracker Suite uses the medley from the ballet to carry images of the changing of the seasons and animates faeries, fish, flowers, and mushrooms to visualize it. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a musical piece based on a poem by Goethe, and the animation tells a very Disney-fied version of that poem, starring Mickey Mouse and the new sorcerer character, Yen Sid (read it backwards). The Rite of Spring segment visualize the beginnings of the Earth through the extinction of the dinosaurs. It scared me as a kid, but now, it’s my favorite part of the whole movie. The Pastoral Symphony is a pastiche on Greek mythology. No particular story is told, but it features centaurs, fauns, and cupids as they prepare a celebration of Bacchus. I guess Zeus gets jealous because he starts throwing lightning bolts at everybody. Dance of the Hours follows four groups of animals as they dance the four parts of the day: ostriches (Morning), hippos (Afternoon), elephants (Evening) and alligators (Night). And finally, there are two pieces put together: Night on Bald Mountain and Ave Maria. The demon Chernabog releases the restless, villainous spirits from their graves. They dance and celebrate their release until a church bell tolls, signifying the coming morning. The spirits return to their graves and Chernabog returns to his sleep as a procession of monks pass through the forest to the ruins of a cathedral.

Upon its release, Fantasia was not a financial success. Though that can mostly be attributed to the fact that it came out in 1940. There was a war going on. Since then, it has been rereleased numerous times throughout the years and, adjusted for inflation, is the fourth highest-grossing animated movie of all time. Even with some controversy hanging over its head (the Pastoral Symphony segment had depictions of Black centaurs that were subservient to the White ones in its original release that have since been edited out), it remains one of the greatest cinematic achievements and experiences for animation as a medium.

Bonus Review: Pinocchio

Earlier that same year, Disney released their second feature film, Pinocchio. And much like Fantasia, it scared a very-young me half to death. The scene on Pleasure Island where the children turn into donkeys for doing bad things? The mischievous little boy I was couldn’t bear the thought. Critically comparable to both Fantasia and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Pinocchio still suffered the same fate as Fantasia financially, due to the active World War going on in the background. It too made up its budget over time thanks to Disney’s concept of rereleases (which was started for this very purpose). It also has a permanent place near the top of the Disney canon for what has become the Disney mantra and theme song, “When You Wish Upon a Star”.

Jiminy Cricket attempts to make a home at Geppetto’s workshop as he finishes a wooden marionette named Pinocchio. Geppetto wishes on a star that Pinocchio will be made into a real boy. After Geppetto falls asleep, the Blue Fairy appears and halfway grants Geppetto’s wish, turning Pinocchio, but he will remain a puppet until he learns to be brave, honest and unselfish. The very next day, Pinocchio is led astray by “Honest” John and Gideon on his way to school. They convince him to join Stromboli’s traveling puppet show, despite Jiminy’s objections. Stromboli locks Pinocchio away, only letting him out to perform. The Blue Fairy appears, catches Pinocchio in a lie, but helps him get free and escape. She tells him she can offer no further help. “Honest” John finds Pinocchio again later, and convinces him to join a Coachman who delivers children to a place called Pleasure Island. Along with the other kids, Pinocchio participates in drinking beer, smoking cigars, fighting the other boys and vandalizing the Island. What is initially a rocking good time, quickly becomes a nightmare when the boys physically transform into that which they have already been acting like. Pinocchio barely escapes before completely transforming, but he does have ears and a tail now. Pinocchio discovers that Geppetto has gone looking for him and has been swallowed up by the great whale, Monstro. Pinocchio goes out to find him, and is also swallowed. He reunites with Geppetto and gets Monstro to spit them out by starting a fire. However, the whale gives chase, and soon Pinocchio is killed. As Geppetto mourns Pinocchio, the Blue Fairy returns and turns him into a real boy.

Pinocchio has been called “the most down to earth film Disney ever made”, despite the magic and fairytale nature of the story, because it acts as a simple morality tale. And it’s through changes to the original story that makes this possible. In the original book by Carlo Collodi, Pinocchio is a brat if ever there was one. He baulks at authority figures, especially Geppetto, and he willingly goes astray to explore the world around him. Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio’s conscience, is also original to the Disney movie, though there is a cricket in the book that Pinocchio gleefully smashes to death with a hammer. Walt Disney insisted on finding ways to make Pinocchio likable so the audience could sympathize with him, so he turned the very rude boy into an innocent, albeit ignorant, one, and expanded the cricket’s character to not only have a role, but act as the moral compass for the wayward boy. If you want to see what a “true to the source material” version looks like, watch Guillermo Del Toro’s stop-motion adaptation. It’s practically unwatchable outside of admiring the craft that went into making it.