Fantastic Fantasia

The dream came to fruition in 1940. But it took another six decades to bring Walt Disneys vision to life.

The dream came to fruition in 1940. But it took another six decades to bring Walt Disneys vision to life. The back story of Fantasia,a set of animated features set to classical Western music by an accomplished orchestra is, thus,as fantastic as the animated series.

The Philadelphia Orchestra under conductor Leopold Stokowski created the music pieces for seven of eight segments of animated features that made up Fantasia in 1940. The main reason for creating Fantasia was to revive interest in Mickey Mouse,something that Disney thought would be possible with the story of The Sorcerers Apprentice,that was to be a little more elaborate from the Silly Symphony series of the time. Fantasia was born in 1940 after Stokowski appealed to Disney to make similar feature length pieces and release it commercially when its production costs soared.

Upon release though,the film failed to wow critics and entice viewers. Being one of Disneys pet projects,the film was mixed,edited its portions deleted and restored various times until its sequel,Fantasia 2000,was released in 1999. Now available on DVD,the film soars with Disneys expectations with various animation series set to classical Western music pieces such as Beethovans Symphony No. 5,Piano concerto No. 2,Allegro,Opus 102,the 1919 version of Firebird Suite and various other sets. Lyrical and noble stories,such as The Steadfast Tin Soldier,Donald Ducks search for Daisy set during the time of Noahs Ark and the eternal favourite The Sorcerers Apprentice,where Mickey Mouse tricks his masters broom to work for him while he dozes off and floods the entire labyrinth,are worth watching again and again. The Sorcerers Apprentice is the only part of the DVD that contains the original Stokowski music from 1940 whereas all the others have been performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the stewardship of conductor James Levine. The DVD also features a trailor of last years Jon Turteltaubs film The Sorcerers Apprentice featuring Nicholas Cage and Jay Baruchel in lead roles. The love for this story amongst Disney staff even today is self-evident.

Each piece of music in Fantasia 2000 is introduced by a celebrity with Levine giving the technical details before the animated sequences take off with the music in tow. Famous names such as Steve Martin,Quincy Jones,Penn and Teller,Angela Lansbury form a part of the host sequences. The extra feature also details the back story of the Fantasia series with interviews from various people at Disney. Chief amongst them is a revealing chat with visual effects supervisor Mel Shaw,who has been working on Fantasias storyboard for close to three decades through despair over the fact that the film would never be commissioned.

It is to the credit of such people who persevered in the face of all odds that the sequel was finally made possible in 1999,Disney staff members opine. The storyboard is also an important feature because none of the animated sequences look dated or immature in their execution,a remarkable feat for a series in its seventh decade currently. Fantasia 2000 contains nuggets of nostalgia for older audiences and is a wonderful way of introducing Disneys innocent characters to children of today.