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{{Short description|1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney}}
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{{Infobox film
| name = Fantasia
| image = Fantasia-poster-1940.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Theatrical release poster
| director = {{plainlist|
* Samuel Armstrong
* [[James Algar]]
* Bill Roberts
* Paul Satterfield
* [[Ben Sharpsteen]]
* [[David Hand (animator)|David D. Hand]]
* [[Hamilton Luske]]
* Jim Handley
* [[Ford Beebe]]
* [[T. Hee]]
* [[Norm Ferguson (animator)|Norman Ferguson]]
* [[Wilfred Jackson]]}}
| story = {{plainlist|
* [[Joe Grant]]
* [[Dick Huemer]]}}
| producer = {{plainlist|
* [[Walt Disney]]
* Ben Sharpsteen}}
| starring = {{plainlist|
* [[Leopold Stokowski]]
* [[Deems Taylor]]}}
| cinematography = [[James Wong Howe]]
| music = [[#Plot|''See plot'']]
| studio = [[Walt Disney Productions]]
| distributor = [[RKO Radio Pictures]]
| released = {{Film date|1940|11|13|ref3=<ref>{{cite web |url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27633-FANTASIA?sid=c1d01ae7-bdaa-499e-a3cf-ab5e416be9f3&sr=17.80453&cp=1&pos=0 |title=Fantasia |website=[[AFI Catalog of Feature Films]] |access-date=April 14, 2014}}</ref>}}
| runtime = 126 minutes<!--Theatrical runtime: 126:14--><ref>{{cite web|title=''Fantasia'' (U)|url=https://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/fantasia-1970-2|publisher=[[British Board of Film Classification]]|date=July 21, 1941|access-date=January 10, 2014}}</ref>
| country = United States
| language = English
| budget = $2.28 million{{sfn|Goldmark|Taylor|2002|p=88}}<ref name=pitts82/>
| gross = $76.4–$83.3 million (United States and Canada)<ref>{{Cite Box Office Mojo |id=0032455 |title=Fantasia |access-date=January 10, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite The Numbers |id=Fantasia |title=Fantasia |access-date=January 10, 2022}}</ref>
}}

'''''Fantasia''''' is a 1940 American animated [[Musical film|musical]] [[anthology film]] produced by [[Walt Disney Productions]], with story direction by [[Joe Grant]] and [[Dick Huemer]] and production supervision by [[Walt Disney]] and [[Ben Sharpsteen]]. It consists of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music conducted by [[Leopold Stokowski]], seven of which are performed by the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]]. Music critic and composer [[Deems Taylor]] acts as the film's [[Master of Ceremonies]] who introduces each segment in live action.

Disney settled on the film's concept in 1938 as work neared completion on ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'', originally an elaborate ''[[Silly Symphony]]'' cartoon designed as a comeback role for [[Mickey Mouse]], who had declined in popularity. As production costs surpassed what the short could earn, Disney decided to include it in a feature-length film of multiple segments set to classical pieces with Stokowski and Taylor as collaborators. The soundtrack was recorded using multiple audio channels and reproduced with [[Fantasound]], a pioneering sound system developed by Disney and [[RCA]] that made ''Fantasia'' the first commercial film shown in stereo and a precursor to [[surround sound]].

''Fantasia'' was first released as a [[roadshow theatrical release|theatrical roadshow]] that was held in 13 cities across the U.S. between 1940 and 1941 by [[RKO Radio Pictures]]; the first began at the [[Broadway Theatre (53rd Street)|Broadway Theatre]] in New York City on November 13, 1940. While acclaimed by critics, it failed to make a profit owing to [[World War II]]'s cutting off distribution to the European market, the film's high production costs, and the expense of building Fantasound equipment and leasing theatres for the roadshow presentations. Since 1942, the film has been [[reissue]]d multiple times by [[RKO Radio Pictures]] and [[Buena Vista Distribution]] with its original footage and audio being deleted, modified, or restored in each version. When adjusted for inflation, ''Fantasia'' is the 23rd [[List of highest-grossing films in the United States and Canada#Adjusted for ticket-price inflation|highest-grossing film of all time in the U.S.]]

The [[Fantasia (franchise)|''Fantasia'' franchise]] has grown to include video games, [[Disneyland]] attractions, and a live concert series. A sequel, ''[[Fantasia 2000]]'', co-produced by Walt's nephew [[Roy E. Disney]], was released in 1999. ''Fantasia'' has grown in reputation over the years and is now widely acclaimed as one of the [[List of films considered the best|greatest animated films of all time]]; in 1998, the [[American Film Institute]] ranked it as the 58th greatest American film in their [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies|100 Years...100 Movies]] and the fifth greatest animated film in their [[AFI's 10 Top 10|10 Top 10]] list. In 1990, ''Fantasia'' was selected for preservation in the United States [[National Film Registry]] by the [[Library of Congress]] as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

== Plot ==
[[File:Fantasia theatrical trailer.png|thumb|right|Title screen in the original theatrical trailer]]
''Fantasia'' opens with live-action scenes of members of an orchestra gathering against a blue background and tuning their instruments in half-light, half-shadow. Master of ceremonies [[Deems Taylor]] enters the stage (also in half-light, half-shadow) and introduces the program.
* [[Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565|Toccata and Fugue in D Minor]] by [[Johann Sebastian Bach]]. Live-action shots of the orchestra illuminated in blue and gold, backed by [[superimposed]] shadows, fade into [[abstract art|abstract]] patterns. Animated lines, shapes and cloud formations reflect the sound and rhythms of the music.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=35}}
* ''[[The Nutcracker|The Nutcracker Suite]]'' by [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky]]. Selections from the 1892 ballet suite underscore scenes depicting the changing of the seasons from summer to autumn to winter. A variety of dances are presented with fairies, fish, flowers, mushrooms, and leaves, including "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy", "Chinese Dance", "Arabian Dance", "Russian Dance", "Dance of the Flutes" and "Waltz of the Flowers".{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=45}}
* ''[[The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Dukas)|The Sorcerer's Apprentice]]'' by [[Paul Dukas]]. Based on [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]'s 1797 poem "[[Der Zauberlehrling]]". [[Mickey Mouse]], the young apprentice of the sorcerer Yen Sid, attempts some of his master's magic tricks but does not know how to control them.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=79}}
* ''[[The Rite of Spring]]'' by [[Igor Stravinsky]]. A visual history of the Earth's beginnings is depicted to selected sections of the ballet score. The sequence progresses from the planet's formation to the first living creatures, followed by the reign and extinction of the [[dinosaur]]s.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=107}}
* [[Intermission]]/''Meet the Soundtrack'': The orchestra musicians depart and the ''Fantasia'' title card is revealed. After the intermission there is a brief [[jam session]] of jazz music led by a clarinettist as the orchestra members return. Then a humorously stylized demonstration of how sound is rendered on film is shown. An animated sound track "character", initially a straight white line, changes into different shapes and colors based on the sounds played.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=128–132}}
* ''[[Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)|The Pastoral Symphony]]'' by [[Ludwig van Beethoven]]. A mythical Greco–Roman world of colorful centaurs and "[[Centaurides|centaurettes]]", cupids, fauns and other figures from [[classical mythology]] is portrayed to Beethoven's music. A gathering for a festival to honor [[Dionysus|Bacchus]], the god of wine, is interrupted by [[Zeus]], who creates a storm and directs [[Vulcan (mythology)|Vulcan]] to forge lightning bolts for him to throw at the attendees.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=133}}
* ''[[Dance of the Hours]]'' by [[Amilcare Ponchielli]]. A comic ballet in four sections: Madame Upanova and her ostriches (Morning); Hyacinth Hippo and her servants (Afternoon); Elephanchine and her bubble-blowing elephant troupe (Evening); and Ben Ali Gator and his troop of alligators (Night). The finale finds all of the characters dancing together until their palace collapses.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=161}}
* ''[[Night on Bald Mountain]]'' by [[Modest Mussorgsky]] and ''[[Ave Maria (Schubert)|Ave Maria]]'' by [[Franz Schubert]]. On [[Walpurgis Night]], the giant devil [[Chernabog]] awakes and summons evil spirits and restless souls from their graves to Bald Mountain. The spirits dance and fly through the air until driven back by the sound of an [[Angelus bell]] as night fades into dawn. A chorus is heard singing ''Ave Maria'' as a line of robed monks is depicted walking with lighted torches through a forest and into the ruins of a cathedral.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=181}}

== Production ==

=== Development ===
====''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' and expansion to feature film====
[[File:Leopold Stokowski LOC 26447u.jpg|right|upright|thumb|[[Leopold Stokowski]] conducted the film's score.]]
In 1936, [[Walt Disney]] felt that [[Walt Disney Productions|his cartoon studio]]'s star character [[Mickey Mouse]] needed a boost in popularity as newcomers [[Donald Duck]] and [[Goofy]] had become a new favourite amongst audiences. He decided to star Mickey in ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'', a deluxe cartoon short based on [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe's]] [[Der Zauberlehrling|poem of the same name]] and set to the [[The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Dukas)|orchestral piece]] by [[Paul Dukas]] also inspired by the original tale.<ref name=la1990>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-26-tv-552-story.html|first=Charles|last=Solomon|title=Fantastic ''Fantasia'' – Disney Channel Takes a Look at Walt's Great Experiment in Animation|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=August 26, 1990|access-date=January 17, 2011}}</ref> Although Disney had explored the concept of matching animation to classical music since 1928 with his ''[[Silly Symphony]]'' cartoons, he wanted to go beyond the usual slapstick in those shorts and produce ones where "sheer fantasy unfolds".{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=13}}{{sfn|Barrier|1999|p=242}} Upon receiving the rights to use the Dukas piece in July 1937,{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=80–84}} Disney considered using a well-known conductor to record the music for added prestige. He happened to meet [[Leopold Stokowski]], then the conductor of the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]], at [[Chasen's]] restaurant in [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]] and talked about his plans for the short. An enthusiastic Stokowski informed Disney that he liked the piece and offered to conduct for free.<ref name=millimeter>{{Cite magazine|last=Smith|first=David R.|date=February 1976|title=The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Birthplace of ''Fantasia''|magazine=Millimeter Magazine|pages=18–20, 22, 24, 64–67}}</ref>

Disney's New York representative met Stokowski on a subsequent train journey, and reported the conductor was serious in his offer and "had some very interesting ideas on instrumental coloring, which would be perfect for an animation medium."<ref name=millimeter/> Disney felt "all steamed up over the idea" and thought the partnership "would be the means of a success and should lead to a new style of motion picture presentation." He had already begun working on a story outline and wished to use "the finest men&nbsp;... from color&nbsp;... down to animators" on the new short that was to be promted as a special and unique film, outside of the [[Mickey Mouse film series|Mickey Mouse cartoon series]].<ref name=fammuseumfant /><ref name=millimeter/>{{sfn|Barrier|1999|p=243}} On December 16, 1937, Stokowski signed a contract with Disney that allowed him to "select and employ a complete symphony orchestra" for the recording of ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'', and was paid $5,000 for his services.<ref name=orchvsdisney93/>{{sfn|Mosley|1985|p=176}} The three-hour recording session began at midnight on January 9, 1938 at [[Culver Studios]] in California, with 85 Hollywood musicians.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=15–16}} When production costs surpassed $125,000, as much as four times greater than the average ''Silly Symphony'', Disney and his brother [[Roy O. Disney|Roy]], who managed the studio's finances, realised that the short could never earn such a sum back on its own.<ref name=la1990 /> Roy urged his brother to keep additional costs to a minimum "because of its very experimental and unprecedented nature&nbsp;... we have no idea what can be expected from such a production."<ref name=millimeter/> [[Ben Sharpsteen]], a production supervisor on ''Fantasia'', recalled that Disney "saw this trouble in the form of an opportunity. This was the birth of a new concept, a group of separate numbers—regardless of their running time—put together in a single presentation. It turned out to be a concert—something novel and of high quality."{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=18}}

Ideas to expand ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' and produce a full-length feature film began in February 1938, when inquiries were made to extend Stokowski's contract with the studio.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=18}} In August, Disney asked Stokowski to return to the studios to help select musical pieces for the new film, which was initially titled ''The Concert Feature''.<ref name=millimeter/> Disney agreed to pay Stokowski $80,000 plus royalties for his services.{{sfn|Mosley|1985|p=176}} The pair further thought of presenting the film with an on-screen host to introduce each number in the program. Both had heard composer and music critic [[Deems Taylor]] provide intermission commentary during radio broadcasts of the [[New York Philharmonic]] and agreed that he would be most suitable for the role.{{sfn|Pegolotti|2003|p=235}} Disney did contact Taylor about the project and invited him to collaborate with Stokowski and himself, but by then work on ''[[Pinocchio (1940 film)|Pinocchio]]'', ''[[Bambi]]'', and development on his new [[Walt Disney Studios (Burbank)|Burbank studio]] kept him too busy to work on the new feature.{{sfn|Pegolotti|2003|p=233}} In a change of plans, Taylor was asked during a call on September 3, 1938, to come to the studios as soon as possible. He was paid $1,440 per week during his one month visit.{{sfn|Pegolotti|2003|p=233, 235}}

==== Story meetings and program selection ====
[[File:Deems Taylor (1885-1966).jpg|right|upright|thumb|[[Deems Taylor]] was the film's [[Master of Ceremonies]], who introduced each segment in live-action interstitial scenes.]]
The program for ''The Concert Feature'' was assembled in a series of meetings in September 1938. Disney made story writers [[Joe Grant]] and [[Dick Huemer]] gather a preliminary selection of music and along with Stokowski, Taylor, and the heads of various departments, discussed their ideas.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=18}} Each meeting was recorded verbatim by stenographers with participants being given a copy of the entire conversation for review. As selections were considered, a recording of the piece was played back at the next gathering.{{sfn|Pegolotti|2003|p=236}} Disney did not contribute much to early discussions; he admitted that his knowledge of music was instinctive and untrained.{{sfn|Allan|2000|p=96}} In one meeting, he inquired about a piece "on which we might build something of a prehistoric theme&nbsp;... with animals".{{sfn|Pegolotti|2003|p=237}} The group was considering ''[[The Firebird]]'' by Igor Stravinsky, but Taylor noted that his "''Le Sacre du printemps'' would be something on that order", to which Disney replied upon hearing a recording, "This is marvelous! It would be perfect for prehistoric animals. There would be something terrific in dinosaurs, flying lizards, and prehistoric monsters. There could be beauty in the settings."<ref name=culhanenytimes1990>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/14/books/l-disney-stravinsky-and-the-sock-232890.html |title=Disney, Stravinsky and 'The Sock' |work=The New York Times |first=John |last=Culhane |date=January 14, 1990 |access-date=January 21, 2011}}</ref>

Numerous choices were discarded as talks continued, including ''Moto Perpetuo'' by [[Niccolò Paganini]] with "shots of dynamos, cogs, pistons" and "whirling wheels" to show the production of a collar button. Other deleted material included ''[[Prelude in G minor (Rachmaninoff)|Prelude in G minor]]'' and ''[[The Seasons (Tchaikovsky)|Troika]]'' by [[Sergei Rachmaninoff]], and a rendition of "The Song of the Flea" by Mussorgsky, which was to be sung by [[Lawrence Tibbett]].{{sfn|Allan|2000|p=97}} On September 29, 1938, around sixty of Disney's artists gathered for a two-and-a-half hour piano concert while he provided a running commentary about the new musical feature. A rough version of ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' was also shown that, according to one attendee, had the crowd applauding and cheering "until their hands were red".{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=308}} The final pieces were chosen the following morning, which included Toccata and Fugue in D minor, ''[[Cydalise et le Chèvre-pied]]'' by [[Gabriel Pierné]], ''The Nutcracker Suite'', ''Night on Bald Mountain'', ''Ave Maria'', ''Dance of the Hours'', ''[[Suite bergamasque|Clair de Lune]]'' by [[Claude Debussy]], ''The Rite of Spring'' and ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice''.{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=308}} Disney had already begun working out the details for the segments, and showed greater enthusiasm and eagerness as opposed to his anxiety while starting on the problematic ''Pinocchio''.{{sfn|Barrier|1999|p=247}}

''Clair de Lune'' was soon removed from the program, and Disney and his writers encountered problems of setting a concrete story to ''Cydalise''. Its opening march, "The Entry of the Little Fauns", attracted Disney to the piece which at first provided suitable depictions of fauns he wanted. On January 5, 1939, following a search for a stronger piece to fit the mythological theme, the piece was replaced with sections of Beethoven's sixth symphony.{{sfn|Barrier|1999|pp=252–253}} Stokowski disagreed with the switch, believing that Disney's "idea of mythology&nbsp;... is not quite what this symphony is about". He was also concerned about the reception from classical music enthusiasts who would criticize Disney for venturing too far from the composer's intent.{{sfn|Gabler|2006|pp=317–318}} Taylor on the other hand welcomed the change, describing it as "a stunning one", and saw "no possible objection to it".{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=134}}

The new feature continued to be known as ''The Concert Feature'' or ''Musical Feature'' as late as November 1938. Hal Horne, a publicist for Disney's film distributor [[RKO Radio Pictures]], wished for a different title, and gave the suggestion ''Filmharmonic Concert''. [[Stuart Buchanan]] then held a contest at the studio for a title that produced almost 1,800 suggestions, but the favorite among the film's supervisors was ''Fantasia'', an early working title. Horne said: "It isn't the word alone but the meaning we read into it."{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=316}} From the beginning of its development, Disney expressed the greater importance of music in ''Fantasia'' compared to his past work: "In our ordinary stuff, our music is always under action, but on this&nbsp;... we're supposed to be picturing this music—not the music fitting our story."{{sfn|Barrier|1999|p=248}} Disney had hoped that the film would bring classical music to people who, like himself, had previously "walked out on this kind of stuff".<ref name=latimesmagic1990>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-10-07-ca-3186-story.html |title=It Wasn't Always Magic |work=Los Angeles Times |first=Charles |last=Solomon |date=October 7, 1990 |access-date=January 21, 2011}}</ref>

=== Segments ===
More than 1,000 artists and technicians were used in the making of ''Fantasia'',<ref name=vhs1991>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Ya0fAAAAIBAJ&pg=1148%2C8087297 |title='Fantasia' marks anniversary with video |work=The Southeast Missourian |access-date=January 16, 2011 |date=October 29, 1991 |first=David |last=Hente |via=Google News Archive}}</ref> which features more than 500 animated characters.<ref name=mont1943>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=z30tAAAAIBAJ&pg=5791%2C1440462 |title='Fantasia' returning in complete version |work=The Montreal Gazette |date=May 8, 1943 |access-date=February 12, 2011 |via=Google News Archive}}</ref> Segments were color-keyed scene by scene so the colors in a single shot would harmonize between preceding and following ones.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=150}} Before a segment's narrative pattern was complete, an overall color scheme was designed to the general mood of the music, and patterned to correspond with the development of the subject matter.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=150}} The studio's character model department sculpted three-dimensional [[Maquette|clay models]] so the animators could view their subject from all angles.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=22}} The live action scenes were filmed using the [[Technicolor#Three-strip Technicolor|three-strip Technicolor]] process, while the animated segments were shot in successive [[CMYK color model|yellow, cyan and magenta]]-exposed frames. The different pieces of film were then spliced together to form a complete print.<ref name=seattle1990/> A [[multiplane camera]] that could handle seven levels, three more than the studio's original model, was built specifically for the film.<ref>{{cite book | last1=Lee | first1=N. | last2=Madej | first2=K. | title=Disney Stories: Getting to Digital | publisher=Springer New York | series=SpringerLink : Bücher | year=2012 | isbn=978-1-4614-2101-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E9GVJJqNjGAC&pg=PA61 | access-date=2021-02-05 | page=61}}</ref> ''Fantasia'' has 3,500 feet of multiplane footage, more than ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' and ''Pinocchio'' combined.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=199}}

====Toccata and Fugue in D Minor====
Disney had been interested in producing abstract animation since he saw ''[[A Colour Box]]'' by [[Len Lye]] from 1935. He explained the work done in the ''Toccata and Fugue'' was "no sudden idea&nbsp;... they were something we had nursed along several years but we never had a chance to try."{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=36–38}} Preliminary designs included those from effects animator [[Cy Young (animator)|Cy Young]], who produced drawings influenced by the patterns on the edge of a piece of sound film.{{sfn|Barrier|1999|pp=252–253}} In late 1938, Disney hired [[Oskar Fischinger]], a German artist who had produced numerous abstract animated films, including some with classical music, to work with Young. Upon review of three [[leica reel]]s produced by the two, Disney rejected all three. According to Huemer all Fishinger "did was little triangles and designs&nbsp;... it didn't come off at all. Too dinky, Walt said."{{sfn|Barrier|1999|p=253}} Fischinger, like Disney, was used to having full control over his work and not used to working in a group. Feeling his designs were too abstract for a mass audience,<ref name=la1990 /> Fishinger left the studio in apparent despair, before the segment was completed, in October 1939.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=42–43}} Disney had plans to make the ''Toccata and Fugue'' an experimental three-dimensional film, with audiences being given cardboard [[Stereoscopy|stereoscopic frames]] with their souvenir programs, but this idea was abandoned.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=36–38}}

====''The Nutcracker Suite''====
In ''The Nutcracker Suite'', animator [[Art Babbitt]] is said to have credited [[The Three Stooges]] as a guide for animating the dancing mushrooms in the ''Chinese Dance'' routine. He drew with a music score pinned to his desk to work out the choreography so he could relate the action to the melody and the counterpoint, "those nasty little notes underneath&nbsp;... so something has to be related to that".{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=53–54}} The studio filmed professional dancers Joyce Coles and [[Marjorie Belcher]] wearing ballet skirts that resembled shapes of blossoms that were to sit above water for ''Dance of the Flutes''. An Arabian dancer was also brought in to study the movements for the goldfish in ''Arab Dance''.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=61}} [[Jules Engel]] also worked on the choreography and color-keying for this sequence.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Biederman|first=Patricia Ward|date=1995-11-11|title=An Animated Personal Vision: CalArts Teacher Jules Engel Is Honored for Lifetime in Film|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-11-11-me-1787-story.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030133814/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-11-11-me-1787-story.html|archive-date=2020-10-30|access-date=2020-10-30|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US}}</ref> To avoid hard ink outlines, new techniques like transparent paint was used on the cels. The snowflakes used in the snowflake fairies sequence was difficult to draw by hand, so a man named Leonard Pickley, from the Special Effects Department, came up with the idea of using stop-motion animation. Diagrams of real snowflakes were traced by the Ink and Paint Department, who used a material a little heavier than regular cels, and painted them in translucent white. They were then cut out and placed on revolving spools attached to small steel rails. The mechanics was hidden under black velvet as the snowflakes were moved one frame at a time. The hand-drawn animation was added later.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://d23.com/5-fascinating-facts-about-fantasias-nutcracker-suite/|title=5 Fascinating Facts About ''Fantasia''{{'}}s Nutcracker Suite|date=December 11, 2015|website=[[D23 (Disney)|D23]]}}</ref>

====''The Sorcerer's Apprentice''====
[[File:Disney taylor stokowski.jpg|right|thumb|Disney acting out a scene in ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' for Taylor and Stokowski]]
Animation on ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' began on January 21, 1938, when [[James Algar]], the director of the segment, assigned animator [[Preston Blair]] to work on the scene when Mickey Mouse wakes from his dream.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=22}} Each of the seven hundred members of staff at the time received a synopsis of Goethe's 1797 poem ''[[Der Zauberlehrling]]'', and were encouraged to complete a twenty-question form that requested their ideas on what action might take place.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=15–16, 80–84}} Early on Disney considered using Dopey from ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' as the apprentice, but he did not want to dilute the impact of his debut feature and chose Mickey Mouse.<ref name=millimeter/> Stokowski suggested the cartoon could star "an entirely new personality" that represented "in the mind and heart of everyone seeing the film their own personality, so that they would enter into all the drama and emotional changes of the film in a most intense manner"; Disney rejected this also.<ref name=millimeter/> In its original form the segment opened with an overture followed by live action shots of Stokowski conducting in silhouette, filming for which took place in January 1938 with cinematographer [[James Wong Howe]].<ref name=millimeter/>

Layout artist Tom Codrick created what Dick Huemer described as "brilliantly colored thumbnails" from preliminary storyboard sketches using [[gouache|gouache paints]], which featured bolder use of color and lighting than any previous Disney short.{{sfn|Barrier|1999|p=251}} Mickey was redesigned by animator [[Fred Moore (animator)|Fred Moore]] who added pupils to his eyes for the first time to achieve greater ranges of expression.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=80–84}}<ref name=chic1990>{{Cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-09-23-9003190603-story.html |title=The Fantasy of Disney's ''Fantasia'' – 50 Years Later, It's Still a Classical Masterpiece |first=Dick |last=Adler |newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=September 23, 1990 |access-date=January 17, 2011}}</ref> Most of the segment was shot in live action, including a scene where a [[UCLA]] athlete was asked to run and jump across one of the studio's sound stages with barrels in the way, which was used for reference when Mickey traverses through water.{{sfn|Barrier|1999|p=244}} English silent film actor [[Nigel De Brulier]] was hired to portray Yen Sid for the camera for the animators to use for reference. A sorcerer's robe and hat was bought from a costume rental shop and decorated with stars and crescent moons.<ref name=millimeter/>

====''The Rite of Spring''====
An early concept for ''The Rite of Spring'' was to extend the story to the age of mammals and the first humans and the discovery of fire and man's triumph. [[John Hubley]], the segment's art director, explained that it was later curtailed by Disney to avoid controversy from [[creationists]], who promised to make trouble should he connect [[evolution]] with humans.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=126}} To gain a better understanding of the history of the planet the studio received guidance from [[Roy Chapman Andrews]], the director of the [[American Museum of Natural History]]; English biologist [[Julian Huxley]]; paleontologist [[Barnum Brown]]; and astronomer [[Edwin Hubble]].{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=120–121}}<ref name=fammuseumfant>{{cite web |author=Holliss, Richard  |url=http://disney.go.com/disneyatoz/familymuseum/exhibits/articles/fantasia/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061128022950/http://disney.go.com/disneyatoz/familymuseum/exhibits/articles/fantasia/index.html |archive-date=November 28, 2006 |title=''Fantasia''|website=Disney.com |url-status=dead |access-date=October 28, 2011}}</ref> Animators studied comets and [[nebula]]e at the [[Mount Wilson Observatory]], and observed a herd of iguanas and a baby alligator that were brought into the studio.<ref name=time1940>{{Cite magazine |url=http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,777534,00.html |title=Music: Disney's Cinesymphony |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220104033239/http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,777534,00.html |url-status=live |archive-date=January 4, 2022 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=November 18, 1940 |access-date=February 12, 2011}}</ref> The viewpoint was kept low throughout the segment to heighten the immensity of the [[dinosaur]]s.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=120–121}}

====''The Pastoral Symphony''====
According to [[Ward Kimball]], the animators were "extremely specific on touchy issues". The female centaurs were originally drawn bare-breasted, but the [[Hays Code|Hays office]] enforcing the [[Motion Picture Production Code]] insisted that they discreetly hung garlands around the necks.{{sfn|Pinsky|2004|p=36}} The male centaurs were also toned down to appear less intimidating to the audience. Originally, the segment included a pair of black centaurs who tended to the others, but these were cut from the film in later releases due to their implications of racism. (see {{slink||Controversies}}).{{sfn|Pinsky|2004|p=36}}

====''Dance of the Hours''====
''Dance of the Hours'' was directed by [[Norman Ferguson (animator)|Norman Ferguson]] and [[Thornton Hee]] and was completed by eleven animators.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=170}} Most of the story was outlined in a meeting in October 1938, including the creation of the main alligator character, Ben Ali Gator. Its story, direction, layout, and animation underwent several rewrites, yet Disney wanted to present animals perform a legitimate caricature ballet sequence with comedic "slips".{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=162, 164}} The design of the elephants and alligators were based on those by German illustrator [[Heinrich Kley]], while the hippos and ostriches were based on those by cartoonist [[T. S. Sullivant]]. To gain a better idea on the animals' movements, the crew visited [[Griffith Park Zoo]] in Los Angeles.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=167–168}} Animator [[John Hench]] was assigned to work on the segment, but resisted as he knew little about ballet. Disney then gave Hench season tickets to the [[Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo]] with backstage access so he could learn more about it.{{sfn|Denney|Williams|2004|p=136}}

The studio filmed several people in live action to help with the animation of the characters. The lead ostrich, Madmoiselle Upanova, is based on [[Irina Baronova]].{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=170–171}}<ref name=chic1990/><ref name=S2014>{{cite magazine|url=https://issuu.com/pubhouse/docs/cso_lsprwrap5_may10_11|title=Symphony at the Movies: Program Notes|first=Alexander|last=Rannie|pages=28–29|magazine=Soundings|date=May 10, 2014|publisher=Colorado Symphony Orchestra|volume=11|issue=5|access-date=January 5, 2019|via=[[Issuu]]}}</ref> Hyacinth Hippo, the prima ballerina, was inspired by dancers [[Marge Champion]] and [[Tatiana Riabouchinska]] and actress Hattie Noel who weighed over {{convert|200|lbs}}, the animators studying the "least quiver of her flesh, noticing those parts of her anatomy that were subjected to the greatest stress and strain".{{sfn|Pinsky|2004|p=36}}{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=170–171}} Riabouchinska's husband [[David Lichine]] was used for Ben Ali Gator's movements.<ref name=S2014/>

====''Night on Bald Mountain'' and ''Ave Maria''====
''Night on Bald Mountain'' was directed by [[Wilfred Jackson]]. Its story closely follows the descriptions that Mussorgsky had written on his original score of the tone poem.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=185}} Chernabog was animated by [[Vladimir Tytla|Vladimir "Bill" Tytla]], his design inspired from a pencil sketch by Swiss artist Albert Hurter of a demon sitting atop a mountain unfolding its wings. Despite Hurter never producing animation for Disney, the studio temporarily hired him to produce pencil sketches for the animators to gain inspiration from.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=185}} Chernabog and parts of the segment were developed further by Danish-born illustrator [[Kay Nielsen]].{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=185}} Tytla conducted research on all the characters he had animated and being [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]], was familiar with the folklore that the story detailed.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=185}} Actor [[Béla Lugosi]], best known for his role in ''[[Dracula (1931 English-language film)|Dracula]]'' (1931), was brought in to provide reference poses for Chernabog, but Tytla disliked the results. He then got Jackson to pose shirtless which gave him the images he needed.<ref name=la1990 /> At one point in its development, the idea of using [[black cat]]s to represent evil was considered, but Disney rejected it as he thought cats had always been used.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=188}}

The film's program reads that ''Ave Maria'' provides "an emotional relief to audiences tense from the shock" of ''Night on Bald Mountain''.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=198}} Disney did not want much animated movement, but wanted the segment to bring the background artwork to the forefront which became a showcase for the multiplane camera.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=199}} An early story outline had the segment end with a [[Madonna (art)|Madonna]] presented on the screen with the clouds, but Disney decided against this as he did not want to suggest overly religious imagery.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=200}} There were ideas of releasing scents throughout the theater during ''Fantasia'', including the smell of [[incense]] during ''Ave Maria''.{{sfn|Barrier|1999|p=246}}

The final shot, beginning with a black foreground and a shining white light in the background, measured 217 feet of film; according to Disney historian John Culhane, this was likely the longest continuous scene in animation history to date.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=203}} Ed Gershman, who worked on the segment, described how the animation of the procession figures was so closely drawn, "a difference in the width of a pencil line was more than enough to cause jitters, not only to the animation, but to everyone connected with the sequence."{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=200}} The jittering created on the first shoot led Disney to order a time-consuming and expensive redo. The studio had no camera that moved slowly and continuously enough to film the segment as Disney wanted, so a custom horizontal camera crane was built that accommodated glass panes four feet wide, with the artwork painted on them, so they could be shifted out of the way as the camera tracked through.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=203–204}} Workers shot continuously for six days and nights, but following processing they discovered the camera was fitted with the wrong type of lens and had photographed the track, stands, and themselves. Three days into the third reshoot, a minor earthquake rocked the wooden stands and panels that kept the glass panes in place. Rather than carry on with the risk of jittered footage, they started over for a fourth time and completed one day before the film's premiere. The finished film was rushed to New York on a charter plane and spliced into place with four hours to spare.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=203–204}}{{sfn|Pegolotti|2003|p=248}}

====Live action====
The live action scenes were the first to be filmed inside [[Walt Disney Studios (Burbank)#The Annette Funicello Stage, Stage 1|Stage 1]], a 11,000 sq ft production sound stage built at Disney's Burbank studios in 1940. It was subsequently dedicated to the film.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=174816|title=The ''Fantasia'' Stage – Stage One – The Walt Disney Studios|publisher=The Historical Marker Database|access-date=July 18, 2023}}</ref> The on-screen musicians were not the Philadelphia Orchestra but in fact local players, with Disney sound effects artist [[Jimmy MacDonald (sound effects artist)|Jimmy MacDonald]] on timpani and composer [[Paul Smith (composer)|Paul Smith]] on violin.{{sfn|Eagan|2010|p=323}} Taylor's introductions were filmed in August 1940, with Howe returning as cinematographer. Howe adds visual energy with brief flashes of colour projected onto some instruments as the musicians tune up, and changes the hues of the side lighting for each introduction for variety.{{sfn|Pegolotti|2003|p=246}} The jam session during the intermission includes a theme from ''The Pastoral Symphony'' and "Bach Goes to Town", a jazz tune popularised by [[Benny Goodman]]. David Butler points out the significance of the brief interlude, demonstrating to the audience that "these musicians aren't serious all the time" and that jazz is seen as an "antidote to serious music."{{sfn|Butler|2002|p=53}}

In 1940, [[Ub Iwerks]] was re-hired at the Disney studios as a technical supervisor for special visual effects. Among his first assignments was the handshake scene with Mickey Mouse and Stokowski. The scene was produced by filming Stokowski shaking hands in thin air, after which the animators placed drawing paper on top of the photographic print and matched Mickey's actions with his. The animation was photographed with the Stokowski film inside the camera to create a single negative that combined both sequences.<ref name=UB40>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/PopularMechanics1942/Popular_Mechanics_01_1942/page/n87/mode/2up|title=Movie Cartoons Come to Life|first=Ub|last=Iwerks|magazine=Popular Mechanics|pages=35–37|date=January 1942|access-date=July 18, 2023}}</ref>

=== Soundtrack ===

==== Recording ====
[[File:Phila AcademyofMusicl03.JPG|thumb|right|The film's score was recorded at the Philadelphia Academy of Music.]]
Disney wanted to experiment in more sophisticated [[sound recording and reproduction]] techniques for ''Fantasia''. He said: "Music emerging from [[monaural|one speaker]] behind the screen sounds thin, tinkly and strainy. We wanted to reproduce such beautiful masterpieces&nbsp;... so that audiences would feel as though they were standing at the podium with Stokowski".<ref name=popscience>{{cite magazine |last=Boone |first=Andrew R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NicDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA65 |title=Mickey Mouse Goes Classical |magazine=[[Popular Science]] |date=January 1941 |pages=65–67 |via=Google Books}}</ref> ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' was recorded in a three-hour session that began at midnight at the [[Culver Studios]] on January 9, 1938. The venue was chosen as the sound stage at the Disney studio at Hyperion Avenue was too small. Stokowski picked the 85 musicians himself, and felt they would be more alert by working at such a late hour. The session involved a single rehearsal.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=15–16}} Engineers at Disney collaborated with [[RCA Corporation]] that involved recording with multiple audio channels to allow any desired dynamic balance to be achieved upon playback.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=15–16}} The stage was altered acoustically with double plywood semi-circular partitions that separated the orchestra into five sections and acted as a baffle wall to increase [[reverberation]].{{sfn|Telotte|2008|pp=38–40}} Chief Disney sound engineer [[William Garity]] was "very disappointed" with the overall results and was unable to have a full complete rehearsal and record the orchestra in separate sections as scheduled, but Stokowski insisted the recording was satisfactory.<ref name=millimeter/>

On January 18, 1939, Stokowski signed an eighteen-month contract with Disney to conduct the remaining pieces with the Philadelphia Orchestra.<ref name=orchvsdisney93 /> The main recording sessions took place on April 6, 8, and 12, each three hours in length, at the [[Academy of Music (Philadelphia)|Academy of Music]], the orchestra's home which was chosen for its excellent [[acoustics]].<ref name=popscience /><ref name=gazette1990>{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZnghAAAAIBAJ&pg=984%2C3383149 |title=Restored ''Fantasia'' returns to screen |newspaper=[[The Daily Gazette]]|first=Ted |last=Duncombe |date=September 14, 1990 |access-date=February 7, 2011 |via=Google News Archive}}</ref> The 90-piece orchestra included some students at the [[Curtis Institute of Music]], and each musician was paid a flat fee of $10 per hour with principal players receiving as much as $400.<ref name=TPI90>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-fantasia-1990/15692925/|title='Fantasia' and its Phila. connection|first=Lesley|last=Valdes|newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer|date=September 16, 1990|pages=1-D, 12-D|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|access-date=June 22, 2023}}</ref>

[[Westminster Choir College]] (an Ohio-expatriate conservatory which had recently resettled permanently in nearby [[Princeton, New Jersey|Princeton]]) was engaged to furnish the sung elements of the film under the supervision of [[Charles E. Henderson]]. College-affiliate Julietta Novis was selected for the soprano solo.<ref>{{cite web | title=Julietta Novis | website=BFI | url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4de5a2909dd5c | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930220326/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4de5a2909dd5c | url-status=dead | archive-date=September 30, 2017 | access-date=2021-02-05}}</ref> Having first encountered the ensemble during his tenure with the [[Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra|Cincinnati Symphony]], the Westminster Choir (formerly of neighboring [[Dayton]]) established itself thenceforth as one of Stokowski's longtime collaborators-of-preference.

On the sleeve notes of the LP version of the soundtrack, Disney acknowledged the original words were written by [[Walter Scott]], but decided to use original lyrics specially written for ''Fantasia'' by American author [[Rachel Field]].{{sfn|Culhane|1983|p=181}}{{verify source|date=July 2023}} The two sound effects heard in the film are used in ''Dance of the Hours''—a thump when an ostrich ballerina falls to the ground and the crash of the palace doors at the very end.{{sfn|Fernandez|2017}}

The setup used for ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' was abandoned as Disney and RCA wanted to use a different multi-channel recording arrangement.{{sfn|Telotte|2008|pp=38–40}} For the Academy sessions, 33 microphones were placed around the orchestra that captured the music onto eight [[sound-on-film|optical sound]] recording machines placed in the hall's basement, where engineers followed the music in real time and muted microphones when their assigned section was not playing.<ref name=WHYY16/> Each one represented an audio channel that focused on a different section of instruments: cellos and basses, violins, brass, violas, and woodwinds and tympani. The seventh channel was a combination of the first six while the eighth provided an overall sound of the orchestra at a distance.<ref name=popscience />{{sfn|Shepherd|2003|pp=3–6}}<ref name=stokowchic1990>{{Cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-09-23-9003190601-story.html |title=Conductor's Sound Innovations Make The Most Of The Music |work=Chicago Tribune |first=Alan G. |last=Artner |date=September 23, 1990 |access-date=January 21, 2011}}</ref> A ninth channel provided a [[click track]] function for the animators to time their drawings to the music.{{sfn|Shepherd|2003|pp=3–6}}<ref name=fantasoundexperiences>{{Cite journal | last1 = Garity | first1 = William E. | last2 = Jones| first2 = Watson | title = Experiences in Road-Showing Walt Disney's ''Fantasia''| journal =[[Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers]]| volume = 39 | pages = 6–15 | location = United States | date = July 1942 | issue = 7 | doi = 10.5594/J09876 | url = https://archive.org/stream/journalofsociety39socirich#page/6/mode/2up }}</ref> The optical sound film stock was stored in a truck outside the Academy, as keeping the highly flammable material inside the wooden basement posed a fire risk.<ref name=WHYY16/> In the 42 days of recording {{convert|483000|ft}} of film was used.<ref name=popscience /> Disney paid all the expenses which included the musician's wages, stage personnel, a music librarian, and the orchestra's manager that cost almost $18,000.<ref name=orchvsdisney93>{{cite web|url=https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar_case?case=14741774668685946276|title=Philadelphia Orchestra Association v. Walt Disney Co., 821 F.Supp. 341 (1993)|via=[[Google Scholar]]|access-date=October 16, 2011}}</ref> When the finished recordings arrived at the studio, a meeting was held on July 14, 1939, to allow the artists working on each segment to listen to Stokowski's arrangements, and suggest alterations in the sound to work more effectively with their designs.{{sfn|Barrier|2008|p=146}} Some solo parts were subsequently recorded in California, still under Stokowski's direction.<ref name=WHYY16>{{cite web|url=https://whyy.org/articles/modern-movie-sound-was-born-in-a-philadelphia-basement/|title=Modern movie sound was born in a Philadelphia basement|date=October 10, 2016|first=Elana|last=Gordon|publisher=WHYY|access-date=July 17, 2023}}</ref>

==== Fantasound ====
{{main|Fantasound}}
The Disney brothers contacted [[David Sarnoff]] of RCA regarding the manufacture of a new system that would "create the illusion that the actual symphony orchestra is playing in the theater." Sarnoff backed out at first for financial reasons, but agreed in July 1939 to make the equipment so long as the Disneys could hold down the estimated $200,000 in costs (equivalent to about ${{inflation|US|.2|1939|r=1}}{{spaces}}million in {{inflation/year|US}}).{{sfn|Gabler|2006| pp=328–329}} Though it was not exactly known how to achieve their goal, engineers at Disney and RCA investigated many ideas and tests made with various equipment setups.{{sfn|Telotte|2008|pp=38–40}} The collaboration led to the development of Fantasound, a pioneering [[stereophonic sound|stereophonic]] [[surround sound]] system which innovated some processes widely used today, including simultaneous [[multitrack recording]], [[overdubbing]], and [[noise reduction]].{{sfn|Shepherd|2003|pp=3–6}}

Fantasound, developed in part by Garity, employed two projectors running at the same time. With one containing the picture film with a mono soundtrack for backup purposes, the other ran a sound film that was mixed from the nine tracks recorded at the Academy to four: three of which contained the audio for the left, center, and right stage speakers respectively, while the fourth became a control track with amplitude and frequency tones that drove [[variable-gain amplifier]]s to control the volume of the three audio tracks.{{sfn|Telotte|2008|pp=38–40}} In addition were three "house" speakers placed on the left, right, and center of the auditorium that derived from the left and right stage channels which acted as [[surround channels]].{{sfn|Shepherd|2003|pp=3–6}} As the original recording was captured at almost peak modulation to increase [[signal-to-noise ratio]], the control track was used to restore the dynamics to where Stokowski thought they should be. For this, a tone-operated gain-adjusting device was built to control the levels of each of the three audio tracks through the amplifiers.{{sfn|Shepherd|2003|pp=3–6}}

The illusion of sound traveling across the speakers was achieved with a device named the "[[panning (audio)|pan pot]]", which directed the predetermined movement of each audio channel with the control track. Mixing of the soundtrack required six people to operate the various pan pots in real time, while Stokowski directed each level and pan change which was marked on his musical score. To monitor recording levels, Disney used [[oscilloscope]]s with color differentiation to minimize eye fatigue.<ref>{{cite web |title=FANTASOUND* |url=http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/sound/fantasound1.htm |work=The American Widescreen Museum |date=1998 |access-date=October 18, 2016 |archive-date=October 15, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015043609/http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/sound/fantasound1.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> To test recording equipment and speaker systems, Disney ordered eight [[electronic oscillator]]s from the newly established [[Hewlett-Packard]] company.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/timeline-history-of-hewlett-packard |title=Timeline: History of Hewlett-Packard |website=Fox News |date=February 9, 2005 |access-date=October 18, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220104034519/https://www.foxnews.com/story/timeline-history-of-hewlett-packard |archive-date=January 4, 2022 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=HP Virtual Museum: Model 200B audio oscillator, 1939 |url=http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/museum/earlyinstruments/0008/index.html |work=[[Hewlett-Packard]] |date=2012 |access-date=October 18, 2016}}</ref> Between the individual takes, prints, and remakes, approximately three million feet of sound film was used in the production of ''Fantasia''.<ref name=popscience /><ref>It's perhaps a different measure, but Disney's technicians elsewhere wrote that the production "excluding release prints, required the use of five million feet of film!" (Garity, Wm. E. and Hawkins, J.N.A., "'Fantasound': A Technological Epoch." International Projectionist, August 1941, 16.</ref> Almost a fifth of the film's budget was spent on its recording techniques.{{sfn|Gelder|1990|pp=87–90}}

== Release history ==

=== Theatrical runs ===

==== 1940–1941 roadshows with Fantasound ====
[[File:Promises Promises at Broadway Theatre.JPG|right|thumb|upright=0.75|The film's first roadshow opened at the Broadway Theatre in New York City on November 13, 1940.]]
RKO balked at the idea of distributing ''Fantasia'', which it described as a "longhair musical",{{sfn|Thomas|1994|p=161}} and believed its duration of two hours and five minutes plus intermission was too long for a general release.{{sfn|Grant|1998|p=178}}<ref name=dvdreleasehistory>{{cite AV media |title=Re-Release Schedule ''The Fantasia Legacy'' |medium=DVD |year=2000 |publisher=Walt Disney Home Entertainment}}</ref> It relaxed its exclusive distribution contract with Disney, who wanted a more prestigious exhibit in the form of a limited-run [[Roadshow theatrical release|roadshow attraction]]. A total of thirteen roadshows were held across the United States; each involving two daily screenings with seat reservations booked in advance at higher prices and a fifteen-minute intermission. Disney hired film salesman Irving Ludwig to manage the first eleven engagements,{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=340}} who was given specific instructions regarding each aspect of the film's presentation, including the setup of outside theater marquees and curtain and lighting cues. Patrons were taken to their seats by staff hired and trained by Disney,<ref name=makingofdvd>{{cite AV media notes |title=The Making of Fantasia |type=Documentary film |year=2000 |publisher=Walt Disney Home Entertainment}}</ref> and were given a program booklet illustrated by [[Gyo Fujikawa]].<ref name=15facts />

The first roadshow opened at the [[The Broadway Theatre|Broadway Theatre]] in New York City on November 13, 1940.<ref name=15facts>{{cite web |url=http://d23.disney.go.com/articles/120210_NF_FEAT_Fantasia.html |title=15 Fascinating Facts About ''Fantasia'' |website=D23 |access-date=January 16, 2011 |date=December 2, 2010 |first=Jim |last=Fanning |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120109071743/http://d23.disney.go.com/news/2010/12/15-fascinating-facts-about-fantasia|archive-date=2012-01-09}}</ref> The Disneys had secured a year's lease with the venue that was fully equipped with Fantasound, which took personnel a week working around the clock to install.{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=341}} Proceeds made on the night went to the [[British War Relief Society]] following the [[Battle of Britain]].{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=30–31}} Ticket demand was so great that eight telephone operators were employed to handle the extra calls while the adjoining store was rented out to cater the box office bookings.{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=345}} ''Fantasia'' ran at the Broadway for forty-nine consecutive weeks, the longest run achieved by a film at the time.{{sfn|Hall|Neale|2010|p=110}} Its run continued for a total of fifty-seven weeks until February 28, 1942.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1942/03/01/archives/by-way-of-report.html |title=By Way of Report |work=The New York Times |page=X3 |date=March 1, 1942 |first=Thomas M. |last=Pryor |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

The remaining twelve roadshows were held throughout 1941, which included a 39-week run{{sfn|Hall|Neale|2010|p=110}} at the [[Carthay Circle Theatre]] in Los Angeles from January 29.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21162302/the-los-angeles-times/|title=Celebrities attend film premiere |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|access-date=June 6, 2011 |date=January 30, 1941 |first=Read |last=Kendall |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}} {{Open access}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fO08AAAAIBAJ&pg=3789%2C5540970 |title=''Fantasia'' in last 2 weeks |work=Oxnard Press-Courier |access-date=June 6, 2011 |date= October 7, 1941 |via=[[Google News Archive]]}}</ref> ''Fantasia'' broke the long-run record at the venue in its twenty-eighth week; a record previously held by ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=S-08AAAAIBAJ&pg=6973%2C3119681 |title=''Fantasia'' passes ''Gone With Wind'' Theater Record |newspaper=[[Oxnard Press-Courier]]|access-date=February 12, 2011 |date=August 5, 1941 |via=Google News Archive}}</ref> Its eight-week run at the [[Byham Theater|Fulton Theatre]] in [[Pittsburgh]] attracted over 50,000 people with reservations being made from cities located one hundred miles from the venue.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=EcwaAAAAIBAJ&pg=3082%2C3940441 |title=Disney movie to be held at the Fulton Theater eighth and final week |work=The Pittsburgh Press |access-date=January 16, 2011 |date=April 18, 1941 |via=Google News Archive}}</ref> Engagements were also held at the [[American Conservatory Theater|Geary Theatre]] in [[San Francisco]] for eight months,<ref name=15facts /> the [[Hanna Theatre]] in [[Cleveland]] for nine weeks,<ref>{{cite news|title=''Fantasia'' Stays another Week|last=March |first=W. Ward |date=May 8, 1941 |newspaper=[[The Cleveland Plain Dealer]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Disney at highest and best with ''Fantasia''|last=March |first=W. Ward |date=March 19, 1941 |newspaper=[[The Cleveland Plain Dealer]]}}</ref> the [[Cutler Majestic Theatre|Majestic Theatre]] in [[Boston]],<ref name=15facts /> the [[Apollo Theater, Chicago|Apollo Theater]] in [[Chicago]],<ref name=tribune85>{{Cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1985-02-08-8501080333-story.html|title=The Film That Saved Mickey|first=David|last=Prescott|date=February 8, 1985|newspaper=The Chicago Tribune|access-date=January 6, 2012}}</ref> and also in [[Philadelphia]], [[Detroit]], [[Buffalo, New York|Buffalo]], [[Minneapolis]], [[Washington, D.C.]], and [[Baltimore]].{{sfn|Amernic|Craig|2006|p=194}}

''Fantasia'' grossed over $300,000 in the first sixteen weeks in New York; over $20,000 in the opening five weeks in San Francisco; and almost the same amount in the first ten weeks both in Los Angeles and Boston.{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=345}} The first eleven roadshows earned a total of $1.3&nbsp;million by April 1941,{{sfn|Hall|Neale|2010|p=110}} but the $85,000 in production and installation costs of a single Fantasound setup,{{sfn|Shepherd|2003|pp=3–6}}{{sfn|Goldmark|Taylor|2002|p=87}} along with theatres having to be leased,{{sfn|Eagan|2010|pp=323–324}} forced Disney to exceed their loan limits.{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=347}} The onset of the Second World War prevented plans for a potential release in Europe, normally the source of as much as forty-five per cent of the studio's income.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=30–31}} Up to eighty-eight engagements were outlined across five years, but wartime demands for material limited the number of Fantasound prints to sixteen.{{sfn|Hall|Neale|2010|p=110}} All but one of the Fantasound setups were dismantled and given to the war effort.{{sfn|Goldmark|Taylor|2002|p=88}} Upon acquiring the film's distribution rights in April 1941, RKO initially continued the roadshow booking policy but presented the film in mono, which was easier to exhibit.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1941/04/28/archives/rko-will-distribute-goldwyn-productions-and-acquires-rights-to.html |title=RKO Will Distribute Goldwyn Productions and Acquires Rights to ''Fantasia''|first=Douglas W. |last=Churchill |work=[[The New York Times]]|date=April 28, 1941}}</ref>{{sfn|Hall|Neale|2010|p=110}} The combined average receipts from each roadshow was around $325,000, which placed ''Fantasia'' at an even greater loss than ''Pinocchio''.{{sfn|Barrier|2008|p=162}}

==== 1942–1963 runs ====
Disney allowed RKO to handle the general release of ''Fantasia'', but fought their decision to have the film cut. He gave in as the studio needed as much income as possible to remedy its finances, but refused to cut it himself, "You can get anybody you want to edit it&nbsp;... I can't do it."{{sfn|Thomas|1994|p=162}} With no input from Disney, musical director [[Edward H. Plumb|Ed Plumb]] and Ben Sharpsteen reduced ''Fantasia'' to one hour and forty minutes at first, then to one hour and twenty minutes by removing most of Taylor's commentary and the ''Toccata and Fugue''.{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=347}}<ref>{{cite AV media notes|last1=Disney|first1=Roy E.|author1-link=Roy E. Disney|last2=Levine|first2=James|author2-link=James Levine|last3=Canemaker|first3=John|author3-link=John Canemaker|last4=MacQueen|first4=Scott|title=Fantasia|type=DVD audio commentary|year=2000 |publisher=Walt Disney Home Entertainment}}</ref> ''Fantasia'' was re-released in January 1942 at more popular prices with a mono soundtrack, and was placed on the lower half of [[double feature|double bills]] with the Western film ''[[Valley of the Sun (film)|Valley of the Sun]]''.<ref name=fantdelayed>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZRtKAAAAIBAJ&pg=6683%2C5633957 |title='Fantasia' success delayed |work= The Press-Courier |first=Bob |last=Thomas |access-date=March 4, 2011 |date=September 28, 1990 |via=Google News Archive }}</ref>

RKO reissued ''Fantasia'' once more on September 1, 1946, with the animated sequences complete and the scenes of Taylor, Stokowski, and the orchestra restored but shortened. Its running time was restored to one hour and fifty-five minutes. This edit would be the standard form for subsequent re-releases, and was the basis for the 1990 restoration.<ref name=dvdreleasehistory/>

{{Quote box|width=30%|quote=I wanted a special show just like [[Cinerama]] plays today&nbsp;... I had ''Fantasia'' set for a wide screen. I had dimensional sound&nbsp;... To get that wide screen I had the projector running sideways&nbsp;... I had the double frame. But I didn't get to building my cameras or my projectors because the money problem came in&nbsp;... The compromise was that it finally went out standard with dimensional sound. I think if I'd had the money and I could have gone ahead I'd have a really sensational show at that time.|source=—Walt Disney on the widescreen release in 1956.{{sfn|Barrier|2008|p=162}}}}

By 1955, the original sound negatives began to deteriorate, though a four-track copy had survived in good condition. Using the remaining Fantasound system at the studio, a three-track stereo copy was transferred across noise-free telephone wires onto magnetic film at an RCA facility in Hollywood.{{sfn|Goldmark|Taylor|2002|p=88}}<ref name=seattle1990/> This copy was used when ''Fantasia'' was reissued in stereo by [[Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures|Buena Vista Distribution]] in SuperScope, a derivative of the [[anamorphosis|anamorphic]] widescreen [[CinemaScope]] format, on February 7, 1956.<ref name=dvdreleasehistory /> The projector featured an automatic control mechanism designed by Disney engineers that was coupled to a variable anamorphic lens, which allowed the picture to switch between its [[Academy ratio|Academy standard]] [[aspect ratio (image)|aspect ratio]] of 1.33:1 to the wide ratio of 2.35:1 in twenty seconds without a break in the film. This was achieved by placing the cues that controlled the mechanism on a separate track in addition to the three audio channels. Only selected parts of the animation were stretched, while all live action scenes remained unchanged.<ref name=projectionist>{{Cite journal | last1 = Wasserman | first1 = Norman | title = Special Projection Process Gives ''Fantasia'' New Look | journal = International Projectionist | pages = 14–15 | location = United States | date = March 1956  }}</ref> This reissue garnered some criticism from viewers, as the widescreen format led to the cropping and reframing of the images.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=7OxjAAAAIBAJ&pg=2127%2C4278836 |title=Favourite films revived |first=Colin |last=Bennett |work=The Age |access-date=June 6, 2011 |date=August 29, 1958 |via=Google News Archive}}</ref>

On February 20, 1963, ''Fantasia'' was re-released in both standard and SuperScope versions with stereo sound, though existing records are unclear. Its running time was 56 seconds longer than the previous issue which is unexplained.<ref name=dvdreleasehistory /> This was the final release that occurred before Disney's (and Taylor's) death in 1966.<ref name=dvdreleasehistory />

==== 1969–1990 runs ====

[[File:Fantasia 1969 Re-release poster.jpg|thumb|right|150px|1969 psychedelic-style re-release poster]]
''Fantasia'' began to make a profit from its $2.28&nbsp;million budget after its return to theaters on December 17, 1969.{{sfn|Goldmark|Taylor|2002|p=88}}<ref name=dvdreleasehistory /> The film was promoted with a psychedelic-styled advertising campaign, and it became popular among teenagers and college students who reportedly appreciated it as a [[psychedelic experience]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=cc0bAAAAIBAJ&pg=7439%2C1680455 |title= Revisited ''Fantasia'' still thrills |work=[[The Pittsburgh Press]]|first=Kaspar |last=Monahan |access-date=March 6, 2011 |date=April 5, 1970 |via=Google News Archive}}</ref> Animator [[Ollie Johnston]] recalled that young people "thought we were on a trip when we made it&nbsp;... every time we'd go to talk to a school or something, they'd ask us what we were on."<ref name=herald1990 /> The release is also noted for the [[#Controversies|removal]] of four scenes from ''The Pastoral Symphony'' over racial stereotyping. ''Fantasia'' was issued on a regular basis, typically for exhibition in art houses in college towns, until the mid-1970s.<ref name=dvdreleasehistory />

The film was reissued nationwide once more on April 15, 1977 (the same year as Stokowski's death), this time with simulated stereo sound.{{sfn|Goldmark|Taylor|2002|p=88}}{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=30–31}} This edit featured the RKO distribution logo being replaced with that of Buena Vista Distribution, since RKO had not been part of a release since 1946. It had not been removed earlier as the credit sequence would have required to be re-shot. A two-and-a-half-minute reduction in the film's running time in this version remains unclear in existing records.<ref name=dvdreleasehistory />

In 1980, the studio shipped a damaged segment of ''The Nutcracker Suite'' to various film restoration companies; each advised that the sound recording could not be upgraded to a quality suitable for theatre screenings.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.amps.net/media/files/library/journals/16_December_1995_1.pdf#page=6|title=Fantastic ''Fantasia''|first=John|last=Aldred|page=7|magazine=The Newsletter of the Association of Motion Picture Sound|date=December 1995|via=AMPS.net|issue=16|access-date=November 20, 2020}}</ref> In late 1981, Disney executives decided to replace the Stokowski soundtrack with a new, digital recording in [[Dolby Stereo]] with conductor [[Irwin Kostal]]; president and CEO [[Ron W. Miller]] said that the original had degraded and "no longer matched the extraordinary visuals."<ref name=1982backcover/> Kostal directed a hand-picked 121-piece orchestra and 50-voice choir for the recording that took place across 18, three-hour sessions in January 1982 at [[CBS Studio Center]] in Los Angeles, costing almost $1.4&nbsp;million to produce.<ref name=1982backcover/><ref name=sound1982>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mv0rAAAAIBAJ&pg=2289,2168778 |title=Disney Gives ''Fantasia'' New Sound Work-Over|newspaper=[[Kentucky New Era]]|access-date=February 6, 2011 |date=March 13, 1982 |first=Bob |last=Thomas |via=Google News Archive}}</ref><ref name=CON82/><ref name=ARE82>{{cite magazine|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-Recording-Engineer/80s/Recording-1982-10.pdf#page=114|title=Re-Recording and Post-Production for Disney's ''Fantasia''|first=Larry|last=Blake|date=October 1982|pages=116, 118, 120, 122, 124, 126|magazine=Recording Engineer/Producer|access-date=July 17, 2023}}</ref> Five musicians who took part in the 1940 recording performed on the new one.<ref name=CON82>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/connoisseurillus213janlon/page/n337/|title=Rescoring ''Fantasia''|first=Ronald|last=Haver|date=July 1982|pages=22, 24, 26|magazine=[[The Connoisseur (magazine)|The Connoisseur]]|access-date=July 17, 2023}}</ref> Kostal had the difficult task of pacing his conducting to match Stokowski's, but chose Mussorgsky's orchestration of ''Night on Bald Mountain'' instead of the arrangement Stokowski had used which was based on [[Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov]]'s version.<ref name=sound1982/><ref name=CON82/> The new recording also corrected a two-frame lag in projection caused by the recording techniques used at the time the film was made.<ref name=pitts82/> The Kostal soundtrack was prepared for the film's reissue from April 2, 1982, which had Taylor's scenes replaced with briefer voiceover narration from Hugh Douglas as the studio felt audiences by now had become "more sophisticated and knowledgeable about music."<ref name=dvdreleasehistory /><ref name=pitts82>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=8tBRAAAAIBAJ&pg=6877%2C3362530 |title='Fantasia' gets a re-recorded soundtrack |work= Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |access-date=March 6, 2011 |date= November 13, 1982 |first=Barry |last=Paris}}</ref> Mickey Mouse and Stokowski's voices in the handshake scene were also redubbed, the former by [[Wayne Allwine]], who would do so again in ''Fantasia 2000''{{'}}s version of the same scene.<ref name=ARE82/>

The 1982 version was reissued from February 1985, which kicked off with a run at the Plitt Century Plaza Theatre in Los Angeles that was fitted with the HPS-4000 digital speaker system. This allowed the digital stereo recording of the Kostal soundtrack to be presented for the first time, and made ''Fantasia'' the first theatrical feature film presented in digital stereo sound.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.americanradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-Audio/Archive-REP-IDX/IDX/80s/Recording-1986-02-OCR-Page-0094.pdf|magazine=Recording|title=Digital sound for motion pictures|first=Larry|last=Blake|volume=17|number=1|date=February 1986|page=100|via=American Radio History|access-date=November 14, 2019}}</ref> The standard recording was used for the film's wide release to around 400 theaters.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Ko5PAAAAIBAJ&pg=3206%2C3173404 |title='Fantasia' to get new soundtrack |work=Ocala Star-Banner |access-date=March 4, 2011 |date=February 20, 1985 |via=Google News Archive }}</ref> This time, actor [[Tim Matheson]] provided the narration.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://d23.com/a-to-z/matheson-tim/ |title=Matheson, Tim |website=D23 |access-date=January 3, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906013304/https://d23.com/a-to-z/matheson-tim/ |archive-date=September 6, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

For its fiftieth anniversary reissue, ''Fantasia'' underwent a two-year restoration process that began with a six-month search to locate the original negatives, which had been in storage since 1946, and piece them together. This was the first time since then that a print of the film had been prepared using the original negative and not a copy.<ref name=prov1990>{{cite news|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/396822008|title=A Fantastic ''Fantasia''|newspaper=[[The Providence Journal]]|date=September 30, 1990|first=Michael|last=Janusonis|access-date=August 15, 2023|archive-date=February 19, 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219035429/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/projo/doc/396822008.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:&type=current&date=&author=&pub=&edition=&startpage=&desc=|id={{ProQuest|396822008}} }}</ref> A new print was formed that was identical to the 1946 version with Taylor's introductions restored but with a new end credits sequence added. As the original opening shots of ''Rite of Spring'' could not be found, footage from the Disney educational film ''A World is Born'', which used footage from the segment, was used instead. This was also the case for a sequence in ''The Pastoral Symphony'', so a duplicate was used.<ref name=seattle1990>{{cite news|url=http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19900930&slug=1095890|title=Restoring Classics: ''Fantasia'' Leads Way|newspaper=[[The Seattle Times]]|first=John|last=Hartl|date=30 September 1990|access-date=13 September 2018|archive-date=September 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180913185110/http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19900930&slug=1095890|url-status=dead}}</ref> Each of the 535,680 frames were restored by hand with an untouched print from 1951 used for guidance on the correct colors and tone.<ref name=prov1990 /><ref name=nytimes1990>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/30/movies/film-disney-sweeps-the-dust-off-fantasia-at-50.html |title=Disney Sweeps the Dust Off ''Fantasia'' at 50 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=January 16, 2011 |date= September 30, 1990 |first=Max |last=Alexander}}</ref> Theaters that agreed to screen the film were required to install specific stereo sound equipment and present it in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio.<ref name=herald1990>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=SQYqAAAAIBAJ&pg=5566%2C990584 |title='Fantasia' won't show locally |work=Herald-Journal |date=October 5, 1990 |access-date=March 25, 2011}}</ref><ref name=beaver1990>{{cite news | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9LUiAAAAIBAJ&pg=1244%2C1060169 |title=At 50, Disney's restored ''Fantasia'' is more fantastic |newspaper=[[The Beaver County Times]] |first=Lawrence |last=Toppman |date=October 5, 1990 |access-date=March 25, 2011 |via=Google News Archive}}</ref> The 1990 reissue also had the Stokowski soundtrack restored, which underwent digital remastering by [[Terry Porter (sound engineer)|Terry Porter]] who worked with the 1955 magnetic soundtrack. He estimated 3,000 pops and hisses were removed from the recording.<ref name=gazette1990/>{{sfn|Shepherd|2003|pp=3–6}}<ref name=beaver1990/> Released on October 5, 1990, the reissue grossed $25&nbsp;million domestically.<ref name=fantasiahitchic1991 />

=== Home media ===

==== Audio ====
Disney considered releasing the film's soundtrack around the time of the film's roadshow release, but this idea was not realized.<ref name=orchvsdisney93 /> The soundtrack was first released as a mono [[triple album|three LP]] set<ref>{{cite AV media notes|author=Various|title=Walt Disney's Fantasia|year=1957|type=LP|publisher=Disneyland Records|id=WDX-101}}</ref> in sixteen countries<ref name=ehrbar /> by [[Disneyland Records|Disneyland]] and [[Buena Vista Records]] in 1957, containing the musical pieces without the narration. A stereo edition LP was issued by Buena Vista Records in 1961.<ref>{{cite AV media notes|author=Various|title=Walt Disney's Fantasia|year=1961|type=LP|publisher=Buena Vista Records|id=STER 101}}</ref> Disney was required to obtain permission from Stokowski, who initially rejected its sale unless the Philadelphia Orchestra Association received a share of the royalties.<ref name=ehrbar>{{harvnb|Ehrbar|Hollis|2006|pp=38–39}}</ref>

The Kostal recording was released on two CDs, two LPs and two audio cassettes by Buena Vista Records, in 1982.<ref name=1982backcover>{{cite AV media notes|author=Various|title=Walt Disney's Fantasia: New Digital Motion Picture Soundtrack|year=1982|type=LP|publisher=Buena Vista Records|id=V-104}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media notes|author=Various|title=Walt Disney's Fantasia: Motion Picture Soundtrack|year=1982|type=CD|publisher=Buena Vista Records|id=CD-001}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media notes|author=Various|title=Walt Disney's Fantasia: Music From the New Digital Motion Picture Soundtrack|year=1982|type=Audio cassette|publisher=Buena Vista Records|id=104VC}}</ref>

In September 1990, the remastered Stokowski soundtrack was released on CD and audio cassette by Buena Vista Records.,<ref>{{cite AV media notes|author=Various|title=Walt Disney's Fantasia: Remastered Original Soundtrack Edition|year=1990|type=CD|publisher=Buena Vista Records|id=600072}}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media notes|author=Various|title=Walt Disney's Fantasia: Remastered Original Soundtrack Edition|year=1990|type=Audio cassette|publisher=Buena Vista Records|id=600074}}</ref> and was later re-released in 2006. In the United States, it debuted the [[Billboard 200|''Billboard'' 200]] chart at number 190, its peak position, for the week of November 17, 1990.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.billboard.com/charts/billboard-200/1990-11-17|title=Billboard 200: The Week of November 17, 1990|magazine=Billboard|access-date=September 15, 2016}}</ref> Two months after its release, the album was certified [[RIAA certification|gold]] by the [[Recording Industry Association of America]] (RIAA) for 500,000 copies sold in the United States. In January 1993, it was certified platinum for sales in excess of one million copies.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&ar=Soundtrack&ti=Fantasia#search_section|title=American album certifications – Soundtrack – ''Fantasia''|publisher=[[Recording Industry Association of America]]|access-date=September 15, 2016}}</ref>

For the film's 75th anniversary in 2015, the Stokowski and Kostal recordings were released by [[Walt Disney Records]] on a four-disc album as [[Walt Disney Records: The Legacy Collection#Fantasia|the fifth volume]] of ''[[Walt Disney Records: The Legacy Collection|The Legacy Collection]]''. The set includes Stokowski's recording of the deleted ''Clair de Lune'' segment, and a recording of ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' and ''Peter and the Wolf'' (from ''Make Mine Music'') with added narration by [[Sterling Holloway]]; he himself narrated the latter originally.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://disneymusic.shop.musictoday.com/product/XVCD07/legacy-collection-fantasia-cd?cp=81712_82044|title=Legacy Collection: ''Fantasia'' CD|publisher=Disney Music Emporium|date=July 18, 2013|access-date=September 15, 2016}}</ref>

==== Video ====
''Fantasia'' has received four home video releases. The first, featuring the 1990 restored theatrical version, was released on VHS, Betamax and [[LaserDisc]] on November 1, 1991, as part of the [[Walt Disney Classics]] line. The original soundtrack returned when Fantasound was also recreated in Dolby Stereo for the film's 1990 theatrical release. The result, named "Fantasound 90," was used as a basis of the audio for these releases.<ref name=fant90>{{cite news|url=http://articles.philly.com/1990-10-05/news/25891247_1_fantasound-fantasia-disney-animators|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120906043135/http://articles.philly.com/1990-10-05/news/25891247_1_fantasound-fantasia-disney-animators|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 6, 2012|title=Stokowski Restored Old Orchestra Sound Is Found in New ''Fantasia''|date=October 5, 1990|first=Desmond|last=Ryan|newspaper=[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]|access-date=August 18, 2011}}</ref> The release was limited to just 50 days, prompting 9.25&nbsp;million advance orders for cassettes and a record 200,000 for discs, doubling the figure of the previous record. The "Deluxe Edition" package included the film, a "making of" feature, a commemorative [[lithograph]], a 16-page booklet, a two-disc soundtrack of the Stokowski score, and a certificate of authenticity signed by [[Roy E. Disney]], the nephew of Walt.<ref name=fantasiahitchic1991>{{Cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1991-10-31-9104070928-story.html |title='Fantasia' A Hit With Video Audience |work=Chicago Tribune |first=Richard |last=Christiansen |date=October 31, 1991 |access-date=January 21, 2011}}</ref> In 1992, ''Fantasia'' became the biggest-selling [[sell-through]] cassette of all time in the US with 14.2&nbsp;million copies being purchased.<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bBAEAAAAMBAJ&q=walt%20disney%27s%20fantasia&pg=PA66 |title= Weathering "Desert Storm," Basking in the Sell-Through Reign |magazine=Billboard |first=Jim |last=McCullaugh |date=August 1, 1992 |access-date=February 27, 2011 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> The record was surpassed later that year by ''[[Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)|Beauty and the Beast]]''.<ref name=nytimesfantno21992>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/03/business/disney-beauty-is-a-best-seller.html |title=Home Video |work=The New York Times |first=Peter M. |last=Nichols |date=December 3, 1992 |access-date=January 21, 2011}}</ref> It was also the UK's top selling video at the time, with sales of 3 million.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Screen International]]|title=International pace-setter|date=October 22, 1993|page=16}}</ref> By October 1994, 21.7 million copies of the video had been sold worldwide.<ref name=orlando1994>{{cite news |url=http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1994-10-22/lifestyle/9410200880_1_fantasia-disney-artists-walt-disney|title=Disney Waves Magic Wand And Sequel Comes To Life After 54 Years|date=October 22, 1994|first=Cathy|last=Taylor|work=Orlando Sentinel|access-date=July 31, 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911130710/http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1994-10-22/lifestyle/9410200880_1_fantasia-disney-artists-walt-disney | archive-date=September 11, 2016}}</ref>

In November 2000, ''Fantasia'' was released on video for the second time, this time along with ''[[Fantasia 2000]]'', on DVD with [[5.1 surround sound]]. The films were issued both separately and in a three-disc set called ''The Fantasia Anthology''. A variety of bonus features were included in the bonus disc, ''The Fantasia Legacy''. This edition attempted to follow as closely as possible the runtime and format of the original roadshow version, and included additional restored live action footage of Taylor and the orchestra, including the bookends to the film's intermission.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/movies/homevideo/28kehr.html |title=O. K., Hippos, Grab Your Tutus |newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|first=Dave|last=Kehr|author-link=Dave Kehr|date=November 24, 2010|access-date=March 20, 2011}}</ref> In addition to these changes, this DVD release would be [[THX]] certified.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner-fantasia-se/156499082/ |title='Fantasia' set features old, new versions |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241004000630/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner-fantasia-se/156499082/ |date=November 11, 2000 |access-date=October 4, 2024 |archive-date=October 4, 2024 |page=17 |publisher=[[The San Francisco Examiner]] |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |url-status=live}} {{Open access}}</ref> Since the 2000 release, Taylor's voice was re-recorded throughout by [[Corey Burton]] because most of the audio tracks to Taylor's restored scenes had deteriorated to the point that they could no longer be used.<ref>{{Cite web|title=I've Heard That Voice Before: Corey Burton|url=https://allears.net/ive-heard-that-voice-before-corey-burton/|access-date=2020-12-04|website=AllEars.Net|language=en-US}}</ref> Oddly, the UK DVD still uses the 1990 theatrical version for its video content, albeit with the new audio restoration from the US version.<ref name=dvd>{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fantasia-DVD-Leopold-Stokowski/dp/B00004ZBXH|title=''Fantasia'' DVD 1941|website=Amazon.com|date=November 24, 2000 |access-date=August 9, 2011}}</ref>

Both films were reissued again by [[Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment]] in November 2010 separately, as a two-disc DVD/Blu-ray set and a combined DVD and Blu-ray four-disc set (named the "Fantasia 2 Movie Collection") that featured [[1080p]] [[high-definition video]] and [[7.1 surround sound]].<ref name=dvdizzy>{{cite web|url=http://www.dvdizzy.com/fantasia-fantasia2000-2moviecollection-pressrelease-1130.html |title=''Fantasia'' & ''Fantasia 2000'': 2-Movie Collection Special Edition |publisher=Ultimate Disney/DVDizzy |date=September 1, 2010 |access-date=March 8, 2011}}</ref> The 2010 version of ''Fantasia'' featured a new restoration by [[Lowry Digital|Reliance MediaWorks]] and a new sound restoration,<ref>{{Cite news| url=https://www.variety.com/article/VR1118020924 | work=Variety | first=Karen | last=Idelson | title=One-stop global firms offer gamut of services | date=June 28, 2010}}</ref> but was editorially identical to the 2000 version.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thehdroom.com/news/Fantasia-and-Fantasia-2000-Blu-ray-Review/7989 |title=''Fantasia'' and ''Fantasia 2000'' Blu-ray Review |publisher=Thehdroom.com |date= November 30, 2010 |access-date=January 25, 2014}}</ref> This also marked the first time in Europe, where it was originally denied a release due to the war, that the roadshow version was released. ''Fantasia'' was withdrawn from release and returned to the "[[Disney Vault]]" [[Moratorium (entertainment)|moratorium]] on April 30, 2011.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://disneydvd.disney.go.com/fantasia-fantasia-2000-2-movie-collection-special-edition.html |title=''Fantasia''/''Fantasia 2000'' 2 Movie Collection Special Edition |publisher=Disney DVD |access-date=March 18, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110312005736/http://disneydvd.disney.go.com/fantasia-fantasia-2000-2-movie-collection-special-edition.html |archive-date=March 12, 2011 |df=mdy }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/Fantasia-2000-Special-Bette-Midler/dp/B0040QTNSU |title=''Fantasia'' & ''Fantasia 2000'' Special Edition: Leopold Stokowski, James Levine, Steve Martin, Deems Taylor, Corey Burton, Walt Disney, James MacDonald, Julietta Novis, Paul J. Smith, Ralph Grierson, Kathleen Battle, Itzhak Perlman, Ben Sharpsteen, Bill Roberts, Don Hahn, Eric Goldberg, Ford Beebe Jr., Francis Glebas, Gaëtan Brizzi, Hamilton Luske: Movies & TV |website=Amazon |access-date=January 25, 2014}}</ref>

In 2021, both films, along with the 2018 compilation ''Celebrating Mickey'', a collection of 13 Mickey Mouse shorts, were reissued on DVD, Blu-ray, and digitally as part of the U.S. Disney Movie Club exclusive ''The Best of Mickey Collection''.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Best of Mickey Collection Blu-ray |url=https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Best-of-Mickey-Collection-Blu-ray/284994/ |website=Blu-ray.com |access-date=23 May 2021}}</ref> They were also released for the first time on multiple U.S. purchased streaming platforms, including [[Movies Anywhere]] and its retailers.<ref>{{cite web |title=''Fantasia''|url=https://moviesanywhere.com/movie/fantasia-1940 |website=Movies Anywhere |access-date=23 May 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=''Fantasia 2000''|url=https://moviesanywhere.com/movie/fantasia-2000 |website=Movies Anywhere |access-date=23 May 2021}}</ref>

== Reception ==

=== Critical response ===
==== Early reviews ====
[[File:Cathay Circle Theater.jpg|thumb|right|The film opened at the [[Carthay Circle Theatre]] on January 30, 1941.]]
''Fantasia'' garnered significant critical acclaim at the time of release and was seen by some critics as a masterpiece.<ref name="LAT1941">{{cite news|url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2011/01/fantasia-acclaimed-as-film-masterpiece.html|title='Fantasia' Acclaimed as Film Masterpiece|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=January 30, 1941|access-date=February 28, 2014}}</ref> The West Coast premiere at the [[Carthay Circle Theatre]] was a grand affair, attracting some 5000 people, including [[Shirley Temple]], [[Cecil B. DeMille]], [[Forrest Tucker]], [[James Cagney]], [[Robert Montgomery (actor)|Robert Montgomery]], James Murphy, [[Edgar Bergen]], and many other notables in the film industry.<ref name="LAT1941"/> Among those at the film's premiere was film critic Edwin Schallert of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' who considered the film to be a magnificent achievement in film which would go down in cinematic history as a landmark film, noting the rapturous applause the film received by the audience during the various interludes. He stated that ''Fantasia'' was "caviar to the general, ambrosia and nectar for the intelligentsia" and considered the film to be "courageous beyond belief".<ref name="LAT1941"/> [[Isabel Morse Jones]], the newspaper's music critic, had high praise for the soundtrack to the film, describing it as a "dream of a symphony concert", and an "enormously varied concert of pictorial ideas, of abstract music by acknowledged composers, of performers Leopold Stokowski and orchestra players of Hollywood and Philadelphia, and, for the vast majority, new and wonderful sound effects".<ref name="LAT1941"/> [[Bosley Crowther]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'', also at the premiere, noted that "motion-picture history was made last night&nbsp;... ''Fantasia'' dumps conventional formulas overboard and reveals the scope of films for imaginative excursion&nbsp;... ''Fantasia''&nbsp;... is simply terrific."{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=30–31}} Peyton Boswell, an editor at ''Art Digest'', called it "an aesthetic experience never to be forgotten".{{sfn|Goldmark|Taylor|2002|p=87}} ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine described the premiere as "stranger and more wonderful than any of Hollywood's" and the experience of Fantasound "as if the hearer were in the midst of the music. As the music sweeps to a climax, it froths over the proscenium arch, boils into the rear of the theatre, all but prances up and down the aisles."<ref name=time1940 /> ''[[Dance Magazine]]'' devoted its lead story to the film, saying that "the most extraordinary thing about ''Fantasia'' is, to a dancer or balletomane, not the miraculous musical recording, the range of color, or the fountainous integrity of the Disney collaborators, but quite simply the perfection of its dancing".{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=30–31}} ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' also hailed ''Fantasia'', calling it "a successful experiment to lift the relationship from the plane of popular, mass entertainment to the higher strata of appeal to lovers of classical music".<ref name=varity1940>{{Cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/variety140-1940-11/page/n71/mode/2up|title=Film Reviews: ''Fantasia''|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|page=16|date=November 13, 1940|first=John|last=C. Flinn Sr.|access-date=December 13, 2021|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> The ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' assigned three writers to cover the film's Chicago premiere: society columnist Harriet Pribble; film critic Mae Tinee; and music critic Edward Barry. Pribble left amazed at the "brilliantly-attired audience", while Tinee felt the film was "beautiful&nbsp;... but it is also bewildering. It is stupendous. It is colossal. It is an overwhelmingly ambitious orgy of color, sound, and imagination." Barry was pleased with the "program of good music well performed&nbsp;... and beautifully recorded" and felt "pleasantly distracted" from the music to what was shown on the screen.<ref name="tribune85"/> In a breakdown of reviews from both film and music critics, Disney author Paul Anderson found 33% to be "very positive", 22% both "positive" and "positive and negative", and 11% negative.{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=342}}

Those who adopted a more negative view at the time of the film's release came mostly from the classical music community. Many found fault with Stokowski's rearrangements and abridgements of the music. [[Igor Stravinsky]], the only living composer whose music was featured in the film, expressed displeasure at how in Stokowski's arrangement of ''The Rite of Spring'', "the order of the pieces had been shuffled, and the most difficult of them eliminated", and criticized the orchestra's performance, observing that the simplification of the score "did not save the musical performance, which was execrable".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Anderson|first1=Don|title=The Rite of Spring programme notes|url=http://www.tso.ca/en-ca/Discover-the-music/Programme-Notes/The-Rite-of-Spring.aspx?ID=2673&pID=2522&YearMonth=2015,06|publisher=Toronto Symphony Orchestra|access-date=May 10, 2015}}{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name=Barron /> Other composers and music critics leveled criticism at the premise of the film itself, arguing that presenting classical music with visual images would rob the musical pieces of their integrity. Composer and music critic [[Virgil Thomson]] praised Fantasound which he thought offered "good transmission of music", but disliked the "musical taste" of Stokowski, with exception to ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' and ''The Rite of Spring''.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=30–31}} [[Olin Downes]] of ''The New York Times'' too hailed the quality of sound that Fantasound presented, but said, "much of ''Fantasia'' distracted from or directly injured the scores".{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=30–31}} Film critic [[Pauline Kael]] dismissed parts of ''Fantasia'' as "grotesquely [[kitsch]]y".{{sfn|Ward|2010|p=52}} Some parents resisted paying the higher roadshow prices for their children, and several complained that the ''Night on Bald Mountain'' segment had frightened them.{{sfn|Thomas|1994|p=162}} There were also a few negative reactions that were more political in nature, especially since the film's release happened at a time when [[Nazi Germany]] [[German-occupied Europe|reigned supreme in Europe]]. One review of the film in this manner, written by [[Dorothy Thompson]] for ''The New York Herald Tribune'' on November 25, 1940, was especially harsh. Thompson claimed that she "left the theater in a condition bordering on nervous breakdown", because the film was a "remarkable nightmare". Thompson went on to compare the film to rampant Nazism, which she described as "the abuse of power" and "the perverted betrayal of the best instincts". Thompson also claimed that the film depicted nature as being "titanic" while man was only "a moving lichen on the stone of time". She concluded that the film was "cruel", "brutal and brutalizing", and a negative "caricature of the Decline of the West". In fact, Thompson claimed that she was so distraught by the film that she even walked out of it before she saw the two last segments, ''Night on Bald Mountain'' and ''Ave Maria'', because she did not want to be subject to any more of the film's "brutalization".<ref>{{Cite news|title=Minority Report|first=Dorothy|last=Thompson|author-link=Dorothy Thompson|date=November 25, 1940|newspaper=[[New York Herald Tribune]]}}</ref>

==== Later reviews ====
{{Rotten Tomatoes data|prose|consensus=A landmark in animation (and a huge influence on the medium of music video), Disney's ''Fantasia'' is a relentlessly inventive blend of the classics with phantasmagorical images.|ref=yes}} {{Metacritic film prose |score=96 |count=18 |ref=yes |access-date=May 21, 2022}} ''[[TV Guide]]'' awarded the film four stars, calling it "the most ambitious animated feature ever to come out of the Disney studios", noting how the film "integrates famous works of classical music with wildly uneven but extraordinarily imaginative visuals that run the gamut from dancing hippos to the purely abstract".<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.tvguide.com/movies/fantasia/review/2030346787/|title=''Fantasia''|magazine=[[TV Guide]]|access-date=February 28, 2014|archive-date=December 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211213183851/https://www.tvguide.com/movies/fantasia/review/2030346787/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Roger Ebert]] of the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' rated the film four stars out of four, and noted that throughout ''Fantasia'', "Disney pushes the edges of the envelope".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/fantasia-1990 |title=''Fantasia''|newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|first=Roger |last=Ebert|author-link=Roger Ebert|access-date=February 28, 2011 |date=October 5, 1990 |via=[[RogerEbert.com]]}}</ref> However, ''Empire'' magazine only rated it 2 stars out of 5 (poor), concluding "this is a very patchy affair – while some of the animated pieces work, others come across as downright insane".<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.empireonline.com/reviews/review.asp?FID=967|title=''Fantasia''|magazine=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]|access-date=February 28, 2014}}</ref> Remarks have also been made about ''Fantasia'' not being a children's film. Religion writer Mark I. Pinsky considers ''Fantasia'' to be one of the more problematic of Disney's animated features in that it was intended as much as for adults as children and not what people had come to expect.{{sfn|Pinsky|2004|p=33}}

=== Awards and honors ===
''Fantasia'' was ranked fifth at the [[National Board of Review Awards 1940|1940 National Board of Review Awards]] in the [[National Board of Review: Top Ten Films|Top Ten Films]] category.<ref>{{cite web|title= Awards for 1940 |url= http://www.nbrmp.org/awards/past.cfm?year=1940 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121109143604/http://www.nbrmp.org/awards/past.cfm?year=1940 |archive-date= November 9, 2012 |publisher= National Board of Review |access-date=March 11, 2011 }}</ref> Disney and Stokowski won a Special Award for the film at the [[1940 New York Film Critics Circle Awards]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1941/01/06/archives/screen-awards-are-presented-by-the-critics-at-a-reception.html |title=Screen Awards Are Presented By the Critics at a Reception |work=The New York Times|date=January 6, 1941}}</ref> ''Fantasia'' was the subject of two [[Academy Honorary Award]]s on February 26, 1942—one for Disney, William Garity, John N. A. Hawkins, and the RCA Manufacturing Company for their "outstanding contribution to the advancement of the use of sound in motion pictures through the production of ''Fantasia''", and the other to Stokowski "and his associates for their unique achievement in the creation of a new form of visualized music in Walt Disney's production ''Fantasia'', thereby widening the scope of the motion picture as entertainment and as an art form".{{sfn|Holden|1993|p=584}}

In 1990, ''Fantasia'' was selected for preservation in the United States [[National Film Registry]] by the [[Library of Congress]] as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/19/movies/library-of-congress-adds-25-titles-to-national-film-registry.html |title=Library of Congress Adds 25 Titles to National Film Registry |work=The New York Times |first=Barbara |last=Gamarekian |access-date=February 12, 2011 |date=October 19, 1990 }}</ref> On the 100th anniversary of cinema in 1995, the [[Holy See|Vatican]] included ''Fantasia'' in its list of [[Vatican's list 45 films|45 "great films"]] made under the Art category (the other categories being Religion and Values).<ref>{{cite web|title=Vatican Best Films List |url=http://old.usccb.org/movies/vaticanfilms.shtml |publisher=Catholic News Service Media Review Office |access-date=October 31, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120422064928/http://old.usccb.org/movies/vaticanfilms.shtml |archive-date=April 22, 2012 }}</ref> ''Fantasia'' is featured in three lists that rank the greatest American films as determined by the [[American Film Institute]]. The film ranked number 58 in [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies|100 Years... 100 Movies]] in 1998,<ref name=afi98andtop10>{{cite web |url=http://connect.afi.com/site/DocServer/TOP10.pdf |title=AFI's 10 Top 10 |publisher=American Film Institute |year=2008 |access-date=March 9, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707092536/http://connect.afi.com/site/DocServer/TOP10.pdf |archive-date=July 7, 2011 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> before it was dropped from its ranking in the [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)|10th Anniversary]] revision in 2007,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/100Movies.pdf |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies -- 10th Anniversary Edition |publisher=American Film Institute |year=2007 |access-date=March 9, 2011}}</ref> though it was nominated for inclusion.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/Movies_ballot_06.pdf |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies Official Ballot |publisher=American Film Institute |year=2006 |access-date=March 9, 2011 |archive-date=September 21, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170921090928/http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/Movies_ballot_06.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[AFI's 10 Top 10|10 Top 10]] list formed in 2008 placed ''Fantasia'' fifth under Animation.<ref name=afi98andtop10 />

=== Controversies ===
{{see also|Disney animators' strike}}

In April 1939, Philadelphia advertising agent Mark S. Tutelman filed an injunction suit in an attempt to prevent the film being made. Tutelman claimed the film originated from an idea of synchronizing animation with classical music which he first described to Stokowski in 1937, had prepared scenarios and orchestral arrangements at Stokowski's request without acknowledgement or credit, and demanded a cut of the film's proceeds.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-sues-disney-an/128727126/|title=Sues Disney and Stokowski|newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer|date=April 8, 1939|via=Newspapers.com|page=11|access-date=July 23, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-post-stokowski-and-disney-su/128727507/|title=Stokowski and Disney Sued in Tale of Scrambled Harmony|newspaper=The Morning Post|page=6|date=April 8, 1939|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=July 23, 2023}}</ref> In April 1940, Tutelman's case was dismissed.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-abandons-suit/128727309/|title=Abandons Suit Against Disney|newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer|page=19|date=April 9, 1940|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=July 23, 2023}}</ref> In 1942, Tutelman filed a $25,000 damage suit against Stokowski, charging the conductor of a misappropriation of ideas without credit.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-critic-says-fantasia-idea-sto/128727395/|title=Critic says ''Fantasia'' idea is stolen|newspaper=The Daily News|page=19|date=January 27, 1942|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=July 23, 2023}}</ref>

In April 1942, the [[Irish Film Classification Office|Irish Film Censor]] insisted the film cut Taylor's scientific introduction to ''The Rite of Spring'' due to its "materialistic portrayal of the [[Abiogenesis|origins of life]]".<ref>{{cite web|date=30 April 1942|title=Irish Film Censors' Records – ''Fantasia''|url=https://www.tcd.ie/irishfilm/censor/show.php?fid=3386|website=Trinity College Dublin|access-date=June 24, 2021}}</ref>

In the 1960s, four shots from ''The Pastoral Symphony'' were removed that depicted two characters in a racially stereotyped manner. A black centaurette called Sunflower was depicted polishing the hooves of a white centaurette, and a second named Otika appeared briefly during the procession scenes with Bacchus and his followers.{{sfn|Cohen|p=69}} The characters were initially removed for a 1963 re-run of the ''[[Disney anthology television series|Disneyland]]'' episode ''Magic and Music'', which originally aired uncut in 1958. Disney himself approved of the changes.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Korkis |first1=Jim |title=Lost ''Fantasia'': The Disappearance of Sunflower |url=https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/lost-fantasia-the-disappearance-of-sunflower/ |website=Cartoon Research |date=27 March 2020 |access-date=28 June 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Korkis |first1=Jim |title=Whatever Happened to Little Sunflower? |url=https://www.mouseplanet.com/9413/Whatever_Happened_to_Little_Sunflower |website=MousePLanet |date=27 October 2010 |access-date=28 June 2023}}</ref> The episode aired uncut on television once again in 1966, before the edits were incorporated into the film's 1969 theatrical reissue and has remained on all releases since.{{sfn|Cohen|p=201}}{{sfn|Ebert|1997|p=176}} [[John Carnochan]], the editor of the 1991 video release, said: "It's sort of appalling to me that these stereotypes were ever put in".<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Daly |first=Steve |title=New Rating for ''Fantasia'': PC |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|date=November 29, 1991 | url=https://ew.com/article/1991/11/29/changes-restored-version-fantasia/| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222213520/https://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,316319,00.html |access-date=August 16, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-date=December 22, 2008}}</ref> Film critic Roger Ebert commented on the edit: "While the original film should, of course, be preserved for historical purposes, there is no need for the general release version to perpetrate racist stereotypes in a film designed primarily for children."{{sfn|Ebert|1997|p=176}}

In May 1992, the Philadelphia Orchestra Association filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company and [[Buena Vista Home Video]]. The orchestra maintained that as a co-creator of ''Fantasia'', the group was entitled to half of the estimated $120&nbsp;million in profits from video and laser disc sales.<ref name=nytimessuit1992>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/07/movies/fantasia-orchestra-sues-disney.html |title=''Fantasia'' Orchestra Sues Disney|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|first=Allan |last=Kozinn|author-link=Allan Kozinn|date=May 7, 1992 |access-date=January 21, 2011}}</ref> The orchestra dropped its case in 1994 when the two parties reached an undisclosed settlement out of court.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vwwxAAAAIBAJ&pg=6622%2C7376551 |title= Philadelphia Orchestra drops Disney lawsuit|newspaper=[[The Daily Gazette]]|date=October 26, 1994 |access-date=February 12, 2011 |via=Google News Archive}}</ref> British music publisher [[Boosey & Hawkes]] filed a further lawsuit in 1993, contending that Disney did not have the rights to distribute ''The Rite of Spring'' in the 1991 video releases because the permission granted to Disney by Stravinsky in 1940 was only in the context of a film to be shown in theaters.<ref name=Barron>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/22/nyregion/who-owns-the-rights-to-rite.html |title= Who owns the rights to ''Rite''?|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|first=James|last=Barron|author-link=James Barron (journalist)|date=January 22, 1993 |access-date=January 21, 2011}}</ref> A [[United States District Court for the Southern District of New York|federal district court]] backed Boosey & Hawkes's case in 1996,<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers v. Walt Disney |vol=934 |reporter=F. Supp. |opinion=119 |pinpoint= |court=[[United States District Court for the Southern District of New York|S.D.N.Y.]] |date=1996-08-09 |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/934/119/1955750/ |access-date=2022-06-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/90513964/the-orlando-sentinel/ |title=Music Publisher: Court Backs Its ''Fantasia'' Case |newspaper=[[Orlando Sentinel]]|page=C10 |date=August 10, 1996 |access-date=December 13, 2021 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}</ref> but the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit|Second Circuit Court of Appeals]] reversed the ruling in 1998, stating that Disney's original "license for motion picture rights extends to video format distribution".<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers v. Walt Disney |vol=145 |reporter=F.3d |opinion=481 |court=[[United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit|2d Cir.]] |date=1998-04-30 |url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-2nd-circuit/1396668.html |access-date=2022-06-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://library.findlaw.com/1998/Oct/1/127402.html |title=Second Circuit Reversal Regarding Disney's ''Fantasia'' on Videocassettes |work=[[FindLaw]]|first=Stanley|last=Rothenberg|author-link=Stanley Rothenberg|date=October 1998 |access-date=May 10, 2011 |archive-date=August 7, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807132554/http://library.findlaw.com/1998/Oct/1/127402.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

== Additional material ==
Disney had wanted ''Fantasia'' to be an ongoing project, with a new edition being released every few years.<ref name="Pegolotti, p. 249">Pegolotti, p. 249.</ref> His plan was to replace one of the original segments with a new one as it was completed, so audiences would always see a new version of the film.<ref name=15facts /> From January to August 1941, story material was developed based on additional musical works, including ''[[Ride of the Valkyries]]'' by [[Richard Wagner]], ''[[The Swan of Tuonela]]'' by [[Jean Sibelius]], ''[[Invitation to the Dance (Weber)|Invitation to the Dance]]'' by [[Carl Maria von Weber]], the Polka and Fugue from ''[[Schwanda the Bagpiper]]'' by [[Jaromír Weinberger]], a "baby ballet" set to ''[[Berceuse (Chopin)|Berceuse]]'' by [[Frédéric Chopin]] and a "bug ballet" set to ''[[Flight of the Bumblebee]]'' by [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov]],<ref name=la1990 /><ref name=15facts /> which was later adapted into the ''Bumble Boogie'' segment in ''[[Melody Time]]'' (1948). The film's disappointing initial box office performance and the USA's entry into World War II brought an end to these plans.<ref>{{cite web|author=Michael|date=February 8, 2011|url=http://progresscityusa.com/2011/02/08/future-fantasias-1940/#more-4854 |title=Future Fantasias, 1940|website=Progress City, U.S.A.|access-date=August 26, 2024}}</ref> Deems Taylor prepared introductions for ''[[The Firebird]]'' by Stravinsky, ''[[La mer (Debussy)|La Mer]]'' by [[Claude Debussy]], ''Adventures in a Perambulator'' by [[John Alden Carpenter]], ''[[Don Quixote (Strauss)|Don Quixote]]'' by [[Richard Strauss]], and ''[[Pictures at an Exhibition]]'' by Mussorgsky "to have them for the future in case we decided to make any one of them".<ref name="Pegolotti, p. 249"/><ref>Pegolotti, p. 382</ref>

Another segment, Debussy's ''[[Clair de lune (Debussy)|Clair de lune]]'', was developed as part of the film's original program. After being completely animated, it was cut out of the final film to shorten its lengthy running time. The animation depicted two [[Great blue heron|Great white heron]]s flying through the Florida [[Everglades]] on a moonlit night, with more focus towards the segment's background art than story and animation. The sequence was later edited and re-scored for the ''Blue Bayou'' segment in ''[[Make Mine Music]]'' (1946). In 1992, a [[workprint]] of the original was discovered and ''Clair de Lune'' was restored, complete with the original soundtrack of Stokowski with the Philadelphia Orchestra. It was included as a bonus feature in ''The Fantasia Anthology'' DVD in 2000.<ref name=2000dvd>{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-nov-16-ca-52534-story.html|title=Triple Dose for ''Fantasia'' Fans |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|first=Susan |last=King |date=November 16, 2000 |access-date=March 20, 2011}}</ref>

''[[Destino]]'', a collaboration between Walt Disney and surrealist artist [[Salvador Dalí]], was also considered for inclusion as a future ''Fantasia'' segment, but was shelved until it was re-discovered during production of ''Fantasia 2000''. In her host sequence for ''[[The Steadfast Tin Soldier]]'' in that film, Bette Midler mentions several cancelled sequences, specifically ''Ride of the Valkyries'', ''Destino'', ''Flight of the Bumblebee'', ''Berceuse'' and the Polka and Fugue.

== Legacy ==
''Fantasia'' will enter the American [[Public domain in the United States|public domain]] on January 1, 2036.<ref>{{Cite web |last=University |first=Santa Clara |title=The Courthouse of Mouse: How the Public Domain Benefits Art |url=https://www.scu.edu/illuminate/thought-leaders/tyler-t-ochoa/the-courthouse-of-mouse-how-the-public-domain-benefits-art.html |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=www.scu.edu |language=en}}</ref>

=== Sequel ===
{{Quote box|width =28%|quote=''Fantasia'' is timeless. It may run 10, 20 or 30 years. It may run after I'm gone. ''Fantasia'' is an idea in itself. I can never build another ''Fantasia''. I can improve. I can elaborate. That's all.|source=—Walt Disney<ref name=la1990 />}}

In 1980, the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' reported that [[Wolfgang Reitherman]] and Mel Shaw had begun work on ''Musicana'', "an ambitious concept mixing jazz, classical music, myths, modern art and more, following the old ''Fantasia'' format".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Warga|first=Wayne|title=Disney Films: Chasing the Changing Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34342018/disney-in-trouble-1980/|work=Los Angeles Times|at=Calendar, pp. 1, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34342338/disney-in-trouble-page-2/ 36], [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/34342373/disney-in-trouble-page-3/ 37]|date=October 26, 1980|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}</ref> Animation historian Charles Solomon wrote that development took place between 1982 and 1983, which combined "ethnic tales from around the world with the music of the various countries". Proposed segments for the film included a battle between an ice god and a sun goddess set to ''[[Finlandia]]'' by Sibelius, one set in the [[Andes]] to the songs of [[Yma Sumac]], another featuring caricatures of [[Louis Armstrong]] and [[Ella Fitzgerald]] and an adaptation of [[The Nightingale (fairy tale)|The Emperor's Nightingale]] which would have featured Mickey as the nightingale's owner, similar to his role in ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice''. The project was shelved in favor of ''[[Mickey's Christmas Carol]]'',{{sfn|Solomon|1995|p=154}} though the artwork made for The Emperor's Nightingale would later be used for a book adaptation by Teddy Slater in 1992.

[[Roy E. Disney]], the nephew of Walt, co-produced ''[[Fantasia 2000]]'' which entered production in 1990 and features seven new segments performed by the [[Chicago Symphony Orchestra]] with conductor [[James Levine]].<ref>{{Cite news | last=Brennan | first=Judy| title=Coming, Sooner or Later | work=Los Angeles Times | date=August 17, 1997| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-aug-19-ca-28270-story.html |access-date=March 13, 2011}}</ref> ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' is the only segment retained from the original film. ''Fantasia 2000'' premiered at [[Carnegie Hall]] on December 17, 1999, as part of a five-city live concert tour, followed by a four-month engagement in [[IMAX]] cinemas<ref>{{Cite news | last=Matthews| first=Jack | title='Fantasia 2000' grows to IMAX height | work=New York Daily News | date=December 17, 1999 | url=http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/entertainment/1999/12/17/1999-12-17__fantasia_2000__grows_to_ima.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111125110314/http://articles.nydailynews.com/1999-12-17/entertainment/18124832_1_fantasia-imax-french-composer-paul-dukas | archive-date=November 25, 2011 |access-date=February 12, 2011}}</ref> and a wide release in regular theatres, in 2000.<ref>{{Cite news | last=Robert W. | first=Welkos | title=Animated Clash of the 'Titan' | work=Los Angeles Times | date=June 12, 2000 | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-jun-12-ca-40023-story.html |access-date=February 12, 2011 |url-access=limited}}</ref>

Early development for a third film began in 2002, with a working title of ''Fantasia 2006''. The proposed segments included ''[[The Little Matchgirl (2006 film)|The Little Matchgirl]]'' by [[Roger Allers]], ''[[One by One (2004 film)|One by One]]'' by [[Pixote Hunt]], ''[[Lorenzo (film)|Lorenzo]]'' by [[Mike Gabriel]], and ''[[Destino]]'' by [[Dominique Monféry]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Ziebarth |first=Christian |url=https://animatedviews.com/2008/disney-event-at-newport-festival-2008/ |title=''Roy Disney Presents'' At The Newport Film Festival 2008 |website=Animated Views |date=May 5, 2008 |access-date=May 26, 2022}}</ref> The project was shelved in 2004, with the proposed segments released as individual short films.<ref>{{cite web |last=Hill |first=Jim |title=Why For? |url=http://www.jimhillmedia.com/legacy/index.htm?../articles/04092004.2.htm~contentFrame |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040505034835if_/http://www.jimhillmedia.com:80/legacy/index.htm?../articles/04092004.2.htm~contentFrame |website=Jim Hill Media |date=April 9, 2004 |archive-date=May 5, 2004 |access-date=May 26, 2022 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

On October 25, 2019, it was announced that Disney is developing a project based on ''Fantasia'' for its streaming service, [[Disney+]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Palmer |first1=Roger |title=New Fantasia, Jiminy Cricket, Cheshire Cat & Seven Dwarfs Animated Projects Rumored For Disney+ |url=http://whatsondisneyplus.com/new-fantasia-jimny-cricket-cheshire-cat-seven-dwarfs-animated-projects-rumored-for-disney/ |website=[[iO9]] |access-date=October 25, 2019 |date=October 25, 2019 }}</ref>

===Live-action adaptations===
* ''[[The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Dukas)#Fantasia|The Sorcerer's Apprentice]]'' segment was adapted by [[Jerry Bruckheimer]] into the feature-length movie, ''[[The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010 film)|The Sorcerer's Apprentice]]'' (2010).
* ''The Nutcracker Suite'' segment serves as a partial inspiration for the feature-length movie, ''[[The Nutcracker and the Four Realms]]'' (2018), which itself contains several references to ''Fantasia''.
* The ''[[Night on Bald Mountain#Leopold Stokowski's arrangement: Night on Bald Mountain (1940)|Night on Bald Mountain]]'' segment was reported in 2015 as being in development by Disney Productions for a feature-length live-action film with a treatment written by [[Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless]].<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/disney-adapt-iconic-fantasia-sequence-799554|title=Disney to Adapt Iconic ''Fantasia'' Sequence Into Live-Action Movie (Exclusive)|magazine=[[The Hollywood Reporter]]|first=Rebecca|last=Ford|date=June 3, 2015|access-date=September 23, 2015}}</ref> In 2021, it was reported that the project had been scrapped.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

=== Parodies and spin-offs ===
''Fantasia'' is parodied in ''[[A Corny Concerto]]'', a [[Warner Bros.]] cartoon from 1943 of the ''[[Merrie Melodies]]'' series directed by [[Bob Clampett]]. The short features [[Elmer Fudd]]<ref>{{Cite news | last=Kehr| first=Dave|author-link=Dave Kehr| title=''Shrek 2'', More Looney Tunes and ''Animal Farm''
|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]| date=November 2, 2004 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/02/movies/02dvd.html |access-date=March 13, 2011}}</ref> in the role of Taylor, wearing his styled glasses, who introduces two segments set to pieces by [[Johann Strauss II|Johann Strauss]] (''Tales from the Vienna Woods'' and the ''Blue Danube Waltz'', the former featuring Porky and Bugs and the latter featuring Daffy). In 1976, Italian animator [[Bruno Bozzetto]] produced ''[[Allegro Non Troppo]]'', a feature-length parody of ''Fantasia''.<ref>{{Cite news | title='Fantasia' Satire Reissued, But Don't Take The Kids | work=Chicago Tribune | date=October 18, 1990 | url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1990/10/18/fantasia-satire-reissued-but-dont-take-the-kids/ |access-date=February 12, 2011}}</ref>

The animated television series ''[[The Simpsons]]'' references ''Fantasia'' in a few episodes. [[Matt Groening]], the creator of the series, expressed a wish to make a parody film named ''Simpstasia''; it was never produced, partly because it would have been too difficult to write a feature-length script.<ref>{{cite video|people=Groening, Matt|date=2004|title=The Simpsons The Complete Fourth Season DVD commentary for the episode "[[A Streetcar Named Marge]]"|medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> In "[[Treehouse of Horror IV]]", director [[David Silverman (animator)|David Silverman]] had admired the animation in ''Night on Bald Mountain'', and made the first appearance of Devil [[Ned Flanders|Flanders]] resemble Chernabog.<ref>{{cite video | people=Silverman, David|date=2004|title=The Simpsons season 5 DVD commentary for the episode "Treehouse of Horror IV"| medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref> The episode "[[Itchy & Scratchy Land]]" references ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' in a snippet titled "Scratchtasia", which features the music and several shots parodying it exactly.<ref>{{cite video | people=Mirkin, David|date=2005|title=The Simpsons season 6 DVD commentary for the episode "Itchy & Scratchy Land"| medium=DVD|publisher=20th Century Fox}}</ref>

In 2014, [[BBC Music]] created a music education scheme similar to ''Fantasia'' called ''[[Ten Pieces]]'', intended to introduce children to classical music. Spanning two films (in 2014 and 2015), several pieces featured in the ''Fantasia'' films are also included.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01vs08w |title=CBBC – Ten Pieces |publisher=BBC |access-date=May 15, 2015}}</ref>

The 2018 film ''[[Teen Titans Go! To the Movies]]'' references ''Fantasia'' during the musical sequence "My Superhero Movie".{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

=== Theme parks ===
[[File:MGM sorcererhat.jpg|thumb|right|The Sorcerer's Hat in Disney's Hollywood Studios]]

From 2001 to 2015, the [[Sorcerer's Hat]] was the icon of [[Disney's Hollywood Studios]], one of the four theme parks located at [[Walt Disney World Resort]]. The structure was of the magic hat from ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice''.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/hollywood-studios/|title=Disney's Hollywood Studios|publisher=Walt Disney World Resort|access-date=August 24, 2011}}</ref> Also located at the resort is [[Fantasia Gardens]], a miniature golf course that integrates characters and objects from the film in each hole.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/recreation/miniature-golf/|title=Miniature Golf|publisher=Walt Disney World Resort| access-date=August 24, 2011}}</ref> The fireworks and water show ''[[Fantasmic!]]'' features scenes from ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' and other ''Fantasia'' segments on water projection screens, and involves the plot of Mickey as the apprentice doing magic whilst also battling the [[Disney Villains]].<ref>{{cite web| url=http://disneyland.disney.go.com/disneyland/fantasmic/|title=Fantasmic!| publisher=Disneyland Resort| access-date=August 24, 2011}}</ref>

For the 20th anniversary of [[Disneyland Paris]], Mickey was depicted in a special version of his Sorcerer's Apprentice outfit with his friends wearing similar outfits. The "Night on Bald Mountain" segment is featured in the [[Storybook Land Canal Boats]] attraction at [[Disneyland Park (Paris)|Disneyland Park]] in [[Disneyland Paris|Paris]] along with the  Fantasia Gelati ice cream shop in [[Fantasyland]] which is also inspired by the film.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.dlrppressinternational.com/viewpressrelease.aspx?pressreleaseid=117764&siteid=10&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1 |title=Disneyland Paris News |publisher=Dlrppressinternational.com |date=April 1, 2012 |access-date=January 25, 2014}}</ref>

Mickey's outfit, water buckets, and Yen Sid's spell book and chair are on display as props from ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' segment in the queue of the [[Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway]] attraction at [[Disneyland]].<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.laughingplace.com/w/news/2023/01/25/photos-first-look-inside-the-mickey-minnies-runaway-railway-queue-at-disneyland/|title=Photos: First Look Inside the Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway Queue at Disneyland| website=laughingplace.com| date=January 25, 2023|accessdate=March 26, 2023}}</ref>

=== Video games ===
In 1983, [[Atari]] released a game called ''[[Sorcerer's Apprentice (Atari 2600)|Sorcerer's Apprentice]]'' for the [[Atari 2600]], based on that segment of ''Fantasia''. The player, as Mickey Mouse, must collect falling stars and comets which will prevent the marching brooms from flooding Yen Sid's cavern.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.mobygames.com/game/atari-2600/sorcerers-apprentice |title = Sorcerer's Apprentice | publisher = MobyGames | access-date= July 12, 2014}}</ref>

In 1991, a side-scrolling [[Fantasia (video game)|''Fantasia'' video game]] developed by [[Infogrames]] was released for the [[Sega Mega Drive|Sega Mega Drive/Genesis]] system. The player controls Mickey Mouse, who must find missing musical notes scattered across four elemental worlds based upon the film's segments.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.mobygames.com/game/genesis/fantasia |title = Fantasia | publisher = MobyGames | access-date= February 27, 2011}}</ref>

There are several film reel levels based on some of the movie's segments such as ''Sorcerer's Apprentice'' and ''Night on Bald Mountain'' that appear in the ''[[Epic Mickey]]'' games. Yen Sid and Chernabog also make cameo appearances in the games (Yen Sid the sorcerer from ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' narrates the openings and endings of the two games and served as the creator of the Wasteland. Chernabog the demon from the ''Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria'' segment appears as a painting in the first game and appears in the Night on Bald Mountain film reel levels in the second).<ref>{{Cite news| url= https://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2010-11-23-mickeyinside23_ST_N.htm |title = 'Epic Mickey' designer lays waste to Magic Kingdom |date=November 22, 2010 | work = USA Today |first=Mike |last=Snider | access-date= March 14, 2011}}</ref>

The Disney/[[Square Enix]] crossover game series ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' features Chernabog as a [[boss (video games)|boss]] in the [[Kingdom Hearts (video game)|first installment]].<ref name=kh1guide>{{Cite book| last= Birlew| first= Dan| year= 2003| title= Kingdom Hearts Official Strategy Guide| publisher= BradyGames| isbn= 978-0-7440-0198-3| url= https://archive.org/details/kingdomheartsoff00birl}}</ref> The ''Night on Bald Mountain'' piece is played during the fight. Yen Sid appears frequently in the series beginning with ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'', voiced in English by [[Corey Burton]]. Symphony of Sorcery, a world based on the movie, appears in ''[[Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance]]''. Like the Timeless River world in ''[[Kingdom Hearts II]]'', it is featured as a period of Mickey Mouse's past.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/28950 |title=Fantasia World Confirmed for Kingdom Hearts 3D – News |publisher=Nintendo World Report |access-date=January 25, 2014}}</ref>

''[[Fantasia: Music Evolved]]'', a [[music game]], was developed by [[Harmonix]] in association with [[Disney Interactive]] for the [[Xbox 360]] and [[Xbox One]] consoles. The game utilizes the [[Kinect]] device to put players in control of music in a manner similar to Harmonix' previous rhythm games, affecting the virtual environment and interactive objects within it. The game features licensed contemporary rock music such as [[Queen (band)|Queen]] and [[Bruno Mars]].<ref>{{cite news | url = https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2013/06/04/harmonix-fantasia-video-game/2384195/ | title =  Music, movement are new realms for classic ''Fantasia''| first = Mike | last = Snider | date = June 4, 2013 | access-date = June 4, 2013| work =[[USA Today]] }}</ref>

Mickey, in his Sorcerer's Apprentice guise, appears as a playable character in ''[[Disney Infinity (video game)|Disney Infinity]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.walmart.com/ip/Disney-Infinity-Figure-Sorcerer-s-Apprentice-Mickey/33858967|title=Disney Infinity Figure – Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey: Games |website=Walmart.com |access-date=January 25, 2014}}</ref>

=== Concert ===
A live concert presentation of the film named ''Disney Fantasia: Live in Concert'', showcases various segments from both ''Fantasia'' and ''Fantasia 2000''. The concert version features a live symphony orchestra and piano soloist accompanying projected high definition video segments. The ''Fantasia'' concert was still touring throughout the world as late as 2022.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/event-archive/2022/mso/fantasia |title=''Fantasia''|publisher=[[Arts Centre Melbourne]]|date=2022 |access-date=April 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220411014708/https://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/event-archive/2022/mso/fantasia |archive-date=April 11, 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://manncenter.org/events/2013-07-23/disneys-fantasia-live-concert |title=Disney's ''Fantasia'': Live in Concert |publisher=[[Mann Center for the Performing Arts]]|date=July 23, 2013 |access-date=January 25, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202234207/http://manncenter.org/events/2013-07-23/disneys-fantasia-live-concert |archive-date=February 2, 2014 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cami.com/?webid=2275 |title=Disney ''Fantasia'': Live in Concert |publisher=Columbia Artists Management Inc. |date=July 23, 2013 |access-date=March 2, 2014 |archive-date=March 2, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140302215302/http://www.cami.com/?webid=2275 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Television===
Several elements from the film appear in television series ''[[Once Upon a Time (TV series)|Once Upon a Time]]''. The hat from ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' appears in the [[Once Upon a Time season 4|fourth season]] episode "[[A Tale of Two Sisters (Once Upon a Time)|A Tale of Two Sisters]]". As the series progressed, the hat was shown to have the ability to absorb others, and those it absorbed would appear as a star on the hat. The Sorcerer's Apprentice himself makes an appearance, where he is an old man who guards the hat in the Enchanted Forest.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/09/28/once-upon-time-fantasia-sorcerers-hat-season4/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141219033728/http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/09/28/once-upon-time-fantasia-sorcerers-hat-season4/|archive-date=December 19, 2014|title='Once Upon a Time' postmortem: Rumple finds a surprising Disney icon|newspaper=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|date=September 28, 2014|access-date=December 19, 2014}}</ref>

Chernabog from ''Night On Bald Mountain'' also makes an appearance in the episode "[[Darkness on the Edge of Town (Once Upon a Time)|Darkness on the Edge of Town]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://comicbook.com/2015/03/02/once-upon-a-time-season-4-episode-12-recap-with-spoilers-darknes/ |title=Once Upon A Time Season 4 Episode 12 Recap With Spoilers: Darkness on the Edge of Town |publisher=Comicbook.com |access-date=May 15, 2015}}</ref>

== Credits ==
Musical score conducted by [[Leopold Stokowski]]. Performed by the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]], except as noted.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Segment
! Personnel
|-
| Live-action introduction scenes
|
{{hidden
|
|
* '''Master of Ceremonies and narrator:''' Deems Taylor
* '''Cinematography:''' [[James Wong Howe]]

| headerstyle
| style=text-align:left;
}}
|-
| Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
|
{{hidden
|
|
* '''Musical score:''' [[Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565]] by [[Johann Sebastian Bach]] (transcribed for orchestra by Leopold Stokowski)
* '''Director:''' Samuel Armstrong
* '''Story development:''' Lee Blair, Elmer Plummer & Phil Dike
* '''Art director:''' Robert Cormack
* '''Background painting:''' Joe Stahley, John Hench and Nino Carbe
* '''Visual development:''' [[Oskar Fischinger]]
* '''Animation:''' [[Cy Young (animator)|Cy Young]], Art Palmer, Daniel MacManus, George Rowley, Edwin Aardal, [[Joshua Meador]], and Cornett Wood, Russel Dyson, Jack Harbaugh, [[Milicent Patrick|Mildred Rossi]], Gifford Hiser & Dwight Stark

| headerstyle
| style=text-align:left;
}}
|-
| ''The Nutcracker Suite''
|
{{hidden
|
|
* '''Musical score:''' ''[[The Nutcracker Suite]] Op. 71a'' by [[Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky]] (excerpts)
* '''Director:''' Samuel Armstrong
* '''Story development:''' Sylvia Moberly-Holland, Norman Wright, Albert Heath, [[Bianca Majolie]] and Graham Heid
* '''Character designs:''' John Walbridge, Elmer Plummer and Ethel Kulsar
* '''Art direction:''' Robert Cormack, Al Zinnen, Curtiss D. Perkins, Arthur Byram and Bruce Bushman
* '''Background painting:''' John Hench, Ethel Kulsar and Nino Carbe
* '''Animation:''' [[Art Babbitt]], [[Art Fitzpatrick]], Brad Case, [[Cornett Wood]], [[Les Clark]], Don Lusk, Cy Young, [[Hawley Pratt]], Frank Follmer, Jim Will, Vernon Witt, Tom Barnes, Ugo D'Orsi and Robert Stokes
* '''Choreography:''' [[Jules Engel]]

| headerstyle
| style=text-align:left;
}}
|-
| ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice''
|
{{hidden
|
|
* '''Musical score:''' ''[[The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Dukas)|The Sorcerer's Apprentice]]'' by [[Paul Dukas]] (arranged by Leopold Stokowski)
** Performed by an ad-hoc makeshift orchestra of Los Angeles-based musicians, conducted by Stokowski
* Featuring [[Mickey Mouse]] and [[List of Fantasia (franchise) characters#Yen Sid|Yen Sid]]
* '''Director:''' [[James Algar]]
* '''Story development:''' Perce Pearce & Carl Fallberg
* '''Art direction:''' Tom Codrick, Charles Phillipi & Zack Schwartz
* '''Background painting:''' Claude Coats, Stan Spohn, Albert Dempster & Eric Hansen
* '''Animation supervisors:''' [[Fred Moore (animator)|Fred Moore]] & [[Bill Tytla]]
* '''Animation:''' Les Clark, Riley Thompson, Marvin Woodward, [[Preston Blair]], [[Ed Love]], Ugo D'Orsi, George Rowley & Cornett Wood
* '''Outro featuring:''' Leopold Stokowski & Mickey Mouse (voice of [[Walt Disney]])

| headerstyle
| style=text-align:left;
}}
|-
| ''Rite of Spring''
|
{{hidden
|
|
* '''Musical score:''' ''[[The Rite of Spring]]'' by [[Igor Stravinsky]] (abridged and arranged by Leopold Stokowski)
* '''Directors:''' Bill Roberts & Paul Satterfield
* '''Story development and research:''' William Martin, Leo Thiele, Robert Sterner & John Fraser McLeish
* '''Art direction:''' McLaren Stewart, Dick Kelsey & [[John Hubley]]
* '''Background painting:''' Ed Starr, [[Brice Mack]] & Edward Levitt
* '''Animation supervision:''' [[Wolfgang Reitherman]] & Joshua Meador
* '''Animation:''' Philip Duncan, John McManus, Paul Busch, Art Palmer, Don Tobin, Edwin Aardal, Paul B. Kossoff, John Sibley, [[Stephen Bosustow]], John Noel Tucker, Frank Follmer, Cornett Wood, Art Fitzpatrick, George DeBeeson, John Harbaugh, Jack Gayek, Jim Will & Jerome Brown
* '''Special camera effects:''' Gail Papineau & Leonard Pickley

| headerstyle
| style=text-align:left;
}}
|-
| Intermission/''Meet the Soundtrack'' (live-action sequence)
|
{{hidden
|
|
* '''Narrator:''' Deems Taylor
* '''Directors:''' [[Ben Sharpsteen]] & [[David Hand (animator)|David Hand]]
* '''Animation:''' Joshua Meador, Art Palmer, Harry Hamsell & George Rowley

| headerstyle
| style=text-align:left;
}}
|-
| ''The Pastoral Symphony''
|
{{hidden
|
|
* '''Musical score:''' [[Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)|Symphony No. 6]] in F major, Op. 68 "Pastorale" by [[Ludwig van Beethoven]] (abridged)
* '''Directors:''' [[Hamilton Luske]], Jim Handley & Ford Beebe
* '''Story development:''' Otto Englander, Webb Smith, Erdman Penner, Joseph Sabo, [[Bill Peet]] & George Stallings
* '''Character designs:''' James Bodrero, John P. Miller & Lorna S. Soderstrom
* '''Art direction:''' Hugh Hennesy, [[Ken Anderson (animator)|Ken Anderson]], J. Gordon Legg, [[Herbert Ryman]], Yale Gracey, and Lance Nolley
* '''Background painting:''' Claude Coats, Ray Huffine, W. Richard Anthony, Arthur Riley, Gerald Nevius & Roy Forkum
* '''Animation supervision:''' [[Fred Moore (animator)|Fred Moore]], [[Ward Kimball]], [[Eric Larson]], Art Babbitt, [[Ollie Johnston]] & [[Don Towsley (animator)|Don Towsley]]
* '''Animation:''' [[Bernard Wolf]], Jack Campbell, [[Jack Bradbury]], James Moore, Milt Neil, [[Bill Justice]], John Elliotte, [[Walt Kelly]], Don Lusk, Lynn Karp, Murray McClellan, Robert W. Youngquist & Harry Hamsel

| headerstyle
| style=text-align:left;
}}
|-
| ''Dance of the Hours''
|
{{hidden
|
|
* '''Musical score:''' ''[[Dance of the Hours]]'' from the opera ''[[La Gioconda (opera)|La Gioconda]]'' by [[Amilcare Ponchielli]] (extended and arranged by Leopold Stokowski)
* '''Directors:''' [[T. Hee]] & [[Norm Ferguson (animator)|Norm Ferguson]]
* '''Character designs''': Martin Provensen, James Bodrero, Duke Russell & Earl Hurd
* '''Art direction:''' Kendall O'Connor, Harold Doughty & Ernest Nordli
* '''Background painting:''' Albert Dempster & Charles Conner
* '''Animation supervision:''' Norm Ferguson
* '''Animation:''' [[John Lounsbery]], Howard Swift, Preston Blair, Hugh Fraser, Harvey Toombs, Norman Tate, Hicks Lokey, Art Elliott, Grant Simmons, [[Ray Patterson (animator)|Ray Patterson]] & Franklin Grundeen

| headerstyle
| style=text-align:left;
}}
|-
| ''Night on Bald Mountain'' and ''Ave Maria''
|
{{hidden
|
|
* '''Musical scores:''' ''[[Night on Bald Mountain]]'' by [[Modest Mussorgsky]] and ''[[Ellens dritter Gesang|Ave Maria]]'', Op. 52 No. 6 by [[Franz Schubert]] (both works and transitional material arranged by Leopold Stokowski)
* '''Director:''' [[Wilfred Jackson]]
* '''Story development:''' Campbell Grant, Arthur Heinemann & Phil Dike
* '''Art direction:''' [[Kay Nielsen]], Terrell Stapp, Charles Payzant & Thor Putnam
* '''Background painting:''' Merle Cox, Ray Lockrem, Robert Storms & W. Richard Anthony
* '''Special English lyrics for ''Ave Maria'':''' [[Rachel Field]]
* '''Choral director:''' Charles Henderson
* '''Soprano solo:''' Julietta Novis
* '''Animation supervision:''' Bill Tytla
* '''Animation:''' John McManus, William N. Shull, Robert W. Carlson Jr., Lester Novros & [[Don Patterson (animator)|Don Patterson]]
* '''Special animation effects:''' Joshua Meador, Miles E. Pike, John F. Reed, Daniel MacManus, Sandy Strother & Don Tobin
* '''Special camera effects:''' Gail Papineau & Leonard Pickley

| style=text-align:left;
}}
|}

==See also==
* [[List of films featuring dinosaurs]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|colwidth=25em}}

===Bibliography===
'''Books'''
{{Refbegin}}
{{div col}}
* {{Cite book|last=Allan|first=Robin|title=Walt Disney and Europe: European Influences on the Animated Feature Films of Walt Disney|publisher=Indiana University Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0-253-21353-2}}
* {{Cite book | last1 = Amernic | first1 = Joel Henry | last2 = Craig |first2 = Russell |title = CEO-Speak: The Language of Corporate Leadership |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UtWg20olrl0C | publisher = McGill-Queen's Press | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-0-7735-3037-9}}
* {{Cite book|last=Barrier|first=Michael|title=Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age|url=https://archive.org/details/hollywoodcartoon00barr |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0-19-516729-0|url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book | last = Barrier | first = Michael | title = The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney | url = https://archive.org/details/animatedmanlifeo00barr | url-access = registration | publisher = University of California Press | year = 2008 | isbn = 978-0-520-25619-4}}
* {{cite book|last=Butler|first=David|title=Jazz Noir: Listening to Music from "Phantom Lady" to "The Last Seduction"|year=2002|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|isbn=978-0-275-97301-8}}
* {{Cite book | last = Cohen | first = Karl F. |title = Forbidden Animation: Censored Cartoons and Blacklisted Animators in America |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gIyH_DLYhoIC | publisher = McFarland | year = 2004 | isbn = 978-0-7864-2032-2|ref={{sfnRef|Cohen}}}}
* {{Cite book | last = Culhane | first = John| title = Walt Disney's Fantasia |url=https://archive.org/details/waltdisneysfanta00culh/ | publisher = Harry N. Abrams Inc. | year = 1983 | isbn = 978-3-8228-0393-6 | url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book|last1=Denney|first1=Jim|last2=Williams|first2=Pat|title=How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life|publisher=HCI|year=2004|isbn=978-0-7573-0231-2|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/howtobelikewalt0000will}}
* {{cite book | last = Ebert | first = Roger |title = Questions for the Movie Answer Man |url = https://archive.org/details/questionsformovi00eber | url-access = registration | publisher = Andrews McMeel Publishing | year = 1997 | isbn = 978-0-8362-2894-6}}
* {{Cite book | last = Eagan| first = Daniel| title = America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry| url = https://archive.org/details/americasfilmlega0000eaga| url-access = registration| publisher = Continuum International Publishing Group | year = 2010 | isbn = 978-0-8264-2977-3}}
* {{Cite book|last1=Ehrbar|first1=Greg|last2=Hollis|first2=Tim|title=Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|year=2006|isbn=978-1-57806-849-4}}
* {{cite book |last=Gabler |first=Neal |title=[[Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination]] |year=2006 |location=New York |publisher=Vintage Books |isbn=978-0-6797-5747-4}}
* {{Cite book |last=Gelder |first=Peter Van |title=That's Hollywood: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at 60 of the Greatest Films of All Time |publisher=Harper Collins |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-06-096512-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/thatshollywoodbe00vang }}
* {{Cite book | last1 = Goldmark | first1 = Daniel | last2 = Taylor |first2 = Yuval |title = The Cartoon Music Book |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=5rfRdOMfTqsC | publisher = Chicago Review Press | year = 2002 | isbn = 978-1-55652-473-8}}
* {{Cite book|last=Grant|first=John|title=The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters: From Mickey Mouse to Hercules|edition=3rd|publisher=Hyperion Books|year=1998|isbn=978-0-7868-6336-5}}
* {{Cite book | last1 = Hall| first1 = Sheldon | last2 = Neale |first2 = Stephen |title = Epics, Spectacles, and Blockbusters: A Hollywood History |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=jhvrSwOOsRgC | publisher = Wayne State University Press | year = 2010 | isbn = 978-0-8143-3008-1}}
* {{Cite book | last = Holden | first = Anthony | title = Behind the Oscar: The Secret History of the Academy Awards | publisher = Simon & Schuster | year = 1993 | isbn = 978-0-671-70129-1 | url = https://archive.org/details/behindoscarsecre00hold }}
* {{cite book|last=Mosley|first=Leonard|title=Disney's World: A Biography|url=https://archive.org/details/disneysworldbiog0000mosl|url-access=registration|year=1985|publisher=Stein and Day|isbn=978-0-812-83073-6}}
* {{Cite book | last = Pegolotti | first = James A. | title = Deems Taylor: A Biography | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=n5G_Lqh3h4UC | publisher = UPNE | year = 2003 | isbn = 978-1-55553-587-2}}
* {{cite book|last=Pinsky|first=Mark I.|title=The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust|url=https://archive.org/details/gospelaccordingt0000pins_f7r0|url-access=registration|year=2004|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press|isbn=978-0-664-23467-6}}
* {{Cite book | last = Shepherd | first = Ashley| title = Pro Tools for Video, Film and Multimedia| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=EYRSVPMO4mMC| publisher = Cengage Learning | year = 2003 | isbn = 978-1-59200-069-2}}
* {{Cite book | last = Solomon| first = Charles| title = The Disney That Never Was: The Stories and Art of Five Decades of Unproduced Animation | publisher = Hyperion | year = 1995 | isbn = 978-0-7868-6037-1}}
* {{Cite book | last = Telotte | first = Jean-Pierre | title = The Mouse Machine: Disney and Technology | url = https://archive.org/details/mousemachinedisn0000telo | url-access = registration | publisher = University of Illinois Press | year = 2008 | isbn = 978-0-252-07540-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Bob |title=Walt Disney: An American Original |url=https://archive.org/details/waltdisneyameric0000thom/ |url-access=registration |orig-year=1976 |year=1994 |location=New York |publisher=Hyperion |isbn=978-0-7857-5515-9}}
* {{Cite book|last=Ward|first= Glenn |title =Understand Postmodernism: Teach Yourself | publisher = Hachette UK | year = 2010 | isbn = 978-1-4441-3398-1}}
{{div col end}}
{{Refend}}

'''Academic papers'''
* {{cite thesis|url=http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004854|title=The Sorcerer's Apprentices: Authorship and Sound Aesthetics in Walt Disney's Fantasia|first=Daniel|last=Fernandez|type=Master of Arts thesis|date=May 2017|publisher=[[Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters]], Florida Atlantic University|access-date=August 26, 2024}}

== Further reading ==
* {{Cite book|last=Kenworthy|first=John|title=The Hand Behind the Mouse: An Intimate Biography of Ub Iwerks|publisher=Disney Editions|year=2001|isbn=978-0-7868-5320-5|ref=none}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Fantasia (1940 film)}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb title}}
* {{AllMovie title}}
* {{Mojo title}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes}}
* {{AFI film}}
* {{TCMDb title}}

{{Disney's Fantasia}}
{{Disney theatrical animated features}}
{{The Nutcracker}}
{{Academy Honorary Award}}
{{Walt Disney Animation Studios}}
{{David Hand}}
{{Retro Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation}}
{{Portal bar|Animation|Disney|Film}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fantasia}}
[[Category:Fantasia (franchise)]]
[[Category:1940 animated films]]
[[Category:1940 films]]
[[Category:1940 musical films]]
[[Category:1940s American animated films]]
[[Category:1940s dance films]]
[[Category:1940s English-language films]]
[[Category:1940s musical fantasy films]]
[[Category:African-American-related controversies in film]]
[[Category:American animated fantasy films]]
[[Category:American anthology films]]
[[Category:American dance films]]
[[Category:American films with live action and animation]]
[[Category:American musical fantasy films]]
[[Category:Animated anthology films]]
[[Category:Animated films about demons]]
[[Category:Animated films about dinosaurs]]
[[Category:Animated films about fairies]]
[[Category:Animated films about magic]]
[[Category:Animated films about mice]]
[[Category:Animated films about talking animals]]
[[Category:Animated films based on classical mythology]]
[[Category:Animated films based on poems]]
[[Category:Animated films set in the Mesozoic]]
[[Category:Animated films without speech]]
[[Category:Animated musical films]]
[[Category:Ballet films]]
[[Category:Censored films]]
[[Category:Dance animation]]
[[Category:The Devil in film]]
[[Category:Dionysus]]
[[Category:Disney controversies]]
[[Category:Films about classical music and musicians]]
[[Category:Films based on works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]]
[[Category:Films directed by Ben Sharpsteen]]
[[Category:Films directed by Bill Roberts]]
[[Category:Films directed by David Hand]]
[[Category:Films directed by Ford Beebe, Jr.]]
[[Category:Films directed by Hamilton Luske]]
[[Category:Films directed by James Algar]]
[[Category:Films directed by Jim Handley]]
[[Category:Films directed by Norman Ferguson]]
[[Category:Films directed by Paul Satterfield]]
[[Category:Films directed by Samuel Armstrong]]
[[Category:Films directed by T. Hee]]
[[Category:Films directed by Wilfred Jackson]]
[[Category:Films produced by Ben Sharpsteen]]
[[Category:Films produced by Walt Disney]]
[[Category:Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form winning works]]
[[Category:Mickey Mouse films]]
[[Category:Pegasus in popular culture]]
[[Category:Race-related controversies in animation]]
[[Category:Rotoscoped films]]
[[Category:Self-censorship]]
[[Category:United States National Film Registry films]]
[[Category:Visual music]]
[[Category:Vulcan (mythology)]]
[[Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios films]]
[[Category:Works based on The Sorcerer's Apprentice]]
[[Category:Zeus]]
[[Category:Disney animated films based on fairy tales]]
[[Category:English-language musical fantasy films]]