Fantasia (1940) [Blu-ray]

This is my all time favorite movie. I love that I could purchase it so my children can watch it whenever they want.

This movie was clearly way ahead of its time when it was released in the early 1940s and I'm not surprised that it was a box-office flop at that time as it struck me while watching this that this must be the "Sgt. Pepper's" of animation at that time. Another major reason for the lack of success was that the logistics of the times were not up to scratch as few theatres were equiped with stereophonic sound and probably fewer audiences still were able to stand what amounts to more than 2 hours of a collection of music videos and yet it's unmistakeable that this is simply a work of art and this movie alone convinced me that Walt Disney was a genius. Some of the scenes were like Mickey on an acid trip and this movie was clearly targeted at an adult audience more so than say a "Snow White" was clearly targeted at kids. I thoroughly enjoyed these classical music MTVs except for Bach's "Toccata and Fugue In D Minor" which was arranged for orchestra by Stokowski instead of in the original solo pipe organ arrangement which would have been better and the "Meet the Soundtrack" segment both of which should have been left off and would not have been missed. The rest of the videos though were excellent and I found myself better appreciating the original compositions when listened together with the brilliant animation that although is almost 70 years old now still looks very impressive to me although I'm sure the brilliant digital restoration had a large part to play in it as well. My favourite was the Beethoven 6th Symphony video with Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" coming in a close second. Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite" video was charming too and Ponchielli's "Dance of the Hours" was just hilarious! The "Night On Bald Mountain" video was chilling and would give any death metal video ala the band Death a good run for its money in terms of scare value too. What I really liked the best about this DVD though is the brilliant sound quality with Dolby Digital, DTS Surround Sound in 5.0 channels with THX quality which makes it better for me to listen to the classical music tracks off the DVD than off my cds on my high end stereo! The picture quality has been restored very well too and so the minor imperfections were few and far between and you really had to look real hard to find them. The special features were a real treat too with the featurette "The Making of Fantasia" the standout item there. Great picture and sound quality and brilliant content make this my best and favourite music video DVD and to think this was decades before MTV and much, much better too. Highly recommended!

THERE HAD NEVER BEEN A MOVIE LIKE THIS AT THE TIME. IT CAME OUT A COUPLE OF YEARS AFTER I WAS BORN, MY BROTHER WANTED TO SEE IT. I WAS TOO YOUNG, BUT REMEMBER HIS KNOWING ABOUT IT....SO I WAS MAYBE THREE OR FOUR. THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN ENTIRELY TOO YOUNG TO VIEW PARTS OF IT. LUCKILY, I DID NOT SEE IT TILL I WAS AN ADULT....WELL, I AM NEARLY 76, AND WAS TAKEN SHRIEKING FROM THE THEATRE AFTER THEY TOOK THE TWO OF US KIDS TO SEE SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. I NEVER FORGOT SEEING THE QUEEN ONSCREEN, CHANGING INTO HER WITCH-PERSON. ON A BIG SCREEN, THIS WAS TERRIFYING. I MENTION THIS, BECAUSE TODAY'S CHILDREN ARE STILL CHILDREN FIRST. THEY NEED TO BE PREPARED TO KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN REALITY AND IMAGINATION UNDER SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES. WE THOUGHT THAT "LOST IN SPACE" TV SHOW...WAY BACK IN BLACK-AND-WHITE-TV DAYS....A LOW-BUDGET, LAUGHABLE THING NOW....WELL, WE THOUGHT OUR LITTLE THREE-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER WOULD ENJOY IT ALSO. ONLY YEARS LATER DID WE ASK HER WHY SHE WOULD LEAVE HER ROOM AND SLEEP BEHIND THE SOFA, ALL HUDDLED UP WITH NO BLANKET. WE WOULD FIND HER IN THE MORNING. SHE SAID THAT SHE DID NOT WANT TO BOTHER ANYBODY, BUT THAT THERE WERE "CREATURES" IN HER ROOM, SO SHE JUST LEFT! MY HEAVENS! WHAT DID WE, BOTH DEGREED EDUCATORS NOT THINK THROUGH! SO: WHILE FANTASIA - THE ORIGINAL - IS INCREDIBLE AND WONDERFUL AND FANTASTIC, IT MIGHT BE WISE TO DECIDE BY FIRST VIEWING THIS, AS TO HOW TO PREPARE ANY OF YOUR CHILDREN BEFORE THEY SEE IT. "NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN," AND "THE RITE OF SPRING," ARE BOTH ADULT FARE. TOTALLY ADULT. AND YOU HAVE TO HAVE A SOMEWHAT SOPHISTICATED MIND TO UNDERSTAND THESE. THIS IS PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL FILMS EVER MADE, WITH SPLENDID MUSIC, OF COURSE. IT SHOULD BE APPRECIATED BY EVERY PERSON. THE TSCHAIKOVSKY "NUTCRACKER SUITE," WITH LITTLE MUSHROOMS CIRCLING AROUND, THE "DANCE OF THE HOURS," WITH A HIPPOPOTAMUS IN A TUTU AND AN ALLIGATOR AS THE ASSISTING MALE....(PLOP!) WELL, THE ENTIRE THING IS JUST TERRIFIC. A HIGH SCHOOL FRIEND JUST TOLD ME RECENTLY THAT SHE WAS TERRIFIED OF "THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE" WITH MICKEY MOUSE. THE MUSIC FRIGHTENED HER AND THE UNENDING LINE OF BROOMS. I THOUGHT IT WORTHWHILE TO GO INTO THIS MUCH DETAIL. KIDS LOVE HARRY POTTER. BUT NO KID SHOULD BE VIEWING SWEENEY TODD. SO USE DISCRETION AND MONITOR WHAT PARTS YOUNG CHILDREN SEE AND SAVE THE REST FOR LATER......MAYBE HANG ON TO THE DVD AND NOT HAVE IT AVAILABLE IF YOU HAVE VARIOUS AGES OF CHILDREN.....YOU SHOULD, AS A PARENT, ALWAYS WANT WHAT IS BEST FOR YOUR KIDS, RIGHT? AN INVALUABLE FILM BUT FOR THE RIGHT AGES OF THE VIEWERS. NANCY MORSE

It's easy for people now to be unaware of just what a miracle Fantasia is. It's been 68 years or so since it was released, and most people tend to focus only on the events of their own lifetimes. For those unaware, Fantasia was a huge gamble for Disney. It was the first feature-length animated film, and the first film of any kind with stereo sound. There was a huge effort to outfit the theaters for it, and resistance from theater owners over the expense. The classical music it embodied was not what the average man in the street preferred. The film opened to critical - and box office - disdain. But Walt wasn't trying to satisfy only the mass audiences of 1940, he wanted to hit one out of the park - one for the ages. And, he largely succeeded. Disney originally called it 'The Concert Film', which shows what the intent was. To let audiences experience the beauty and majesty of great music by giving them a new way to perceive it. Visually. Fantasia is a visual concert of eight pieces of music, in order, 'Toccata and Fugue in D Minor' by Johann Sebastian Bach, 'The Nutcracker Suite' by Tchaikovsky, 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' by Paul Dukas, 'The Rite of Spring' by Igor Stravinsky, 'The Pastoral Symphony' by Beethoven, 'Dance of the Hours' by Ponchielli, 'Night on Bald Mountain' by Moussorgsky, and 'Ave Maria' by Franz Schubert. The score is performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Leopold Stokowski; the segments are introduced by host Deems Taylor. Taylor gives a brief background on each piece, and explains a bit of what the artists were trying to do with it, interpret a definite story inherent in the music or allow their imaginations free range to fantasize. In creating Fantasia, Disney allowed his artists a much greater range of freedom than normal. It was usual at the time for an animation studio to have a set of 'ground rules' in place regarding things such as the permissible color palettes in use. For Fantasia, the limits were removed and the artists were encouraged to experiment and get creative. Supposedly, one animator used jelly from his sandwich to get just the right color. The film starts perhaps a bit slowly, with Toccata and Fugue given a more timid and less imaginative rendering than it deserves, but the rest of the film, from Nutcracker to Ave Maria, will take your breath away, climaxing with a near-terrifying version of Walpurgisnacht in 'Night on Bald Mountain', segueing into a calming return to the world of sanity and daylight with 'Ave Maria'. If you've never seen Fantasia, give yourself a treat. Pick this up and watch it some evening. Turn out the lights, stifle all interruptions, and immerse yourself in beautiful, glorious music and artwork.

Movie cd 💿 complete in package and working thank you

I don't know whatever happened to my other copy, but it's awesome to have it now on Blu-ray!! Fast shipping in time for my son to get this as a Xmas gift!! My children and I love this movie and the music actually inspired my son to start playing the violin and clarinet.

This remastered version of the 1940 original is well worth the money. The visuals and the music are both outstanding.

I recently viewed the 60th anniversary edition of Walt Disney's "Fantasia", and I think that this is the closest we will ever come to seeing and hearing Disney's original vision for this film. This DVD Edition sets things right by incorporating all of Deems Taylor's spoken introduction and linking narratives into the film for the first time since the film's premiere in 1940. If anyone has seen the 1990 restoration that appeared on video in 1991, they will know to what I'm referring. In that edition we only see Taylor's face in the opening prologue. Later on, we hear his comments as a voice-over to medium shots of the orchestra as they tune their instruments. Those players on the screen, by the way, are not members of the Philadelphia Orchestra: they are actually studio musicians. The music for Fantasia was pre-recorded months prior to shooting in the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. The DVD presents what was then known as the "roadshow" version of Fantasia, which toured a limited number of cities upon it's initial release. The film's distributor, RKO Radio Pictures, balked at the added expense involved in setting up special amplifiers and speaker systems to accomodate the requirements for the Fantasound soundtrack. The decision was made to trim some of the film's length, beginning with altering the narrative links, but also making horrendous cuts in some release prints (indeed, some later prints do not even contain the Bach Toccata and Fugue sequence.) At one point, Disney decided to take matters into his own hands and handle the distribution of the "roadshow" version himself. That version differs from subsequent release prints in that Taylor's face is visible throughought every linking narrative; and that the blue title card appears at the start of the intermission that follows Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. In the 1990 restoration the title card appears at the start of the film. Also, the original release had no screen credits: special programs with those details were distributed to patrons. The DVD edition also doesn't have screen credits, but information about the animators is touched upon during the commentary by Rudy Behlmer, et al. With regard to the soundtrack, the original optical, nine-track elements (which were mixed down to three tracks for the master print) have been missing for several decades. In 1955, the decision was made to transfer the extremely fragile and potentially unstable nitrate soundtracks to a four-track magnetic tape, because it was feared that the original tracks might not survive for much longer. This was done by playing the original tracks at RCA in Los Angeles and relaying the audio over telephone wires to the Disney Studios in Burbank. Unfortunately, during the transfer electronic hum and other noises ended up on the tape. Also, the telephone wires cut off at 8,000 Hz, so many viewers have never heard the full frequency and dynamic range that was capable utilizing the Fantasound system (which was a precursor of today's Dolby Surround-Sound.) For the 1990 restoration, Terry Porter of YCM Labs had reportedly removed 2,000 clicks and pops from the four-track magnetic copy. Also, using technical data from the Disney Archives, he managed to replicate the mixing format of the original optical tracks; so that the sound would eminate from the left, right, front and rear speakers as originally planned. I viewed my VHS copy of the 1990 restoration first, so that I could make my own comparisons. The 1990 edition suffers from too much use of noise-reduction software, which makes the violins and high wind instruments sound "glassy" and distorted. I also listened to my CD copy of the 1990 restored soundtrack album. The sound on the CD was a little cleaner and well defined, but the DVD has the most improved sound. One must remember that Fantasound was an experimental process. Optical tracks, in general, while offering an expanded dynamic and frequency range, were often quite noisy. All this means that what we hear is a 60-year-old recording that is by no means state-of-the-art by today's standards, but nevertheless remains impressive in its own right. I don't remember seeing any negative racial depictions in the Beethoven Pastoral Symphony sequence, either in 1975 or in 1981 (which had a newly-recorded digital soundtrack). Then, again, Disney wouldn't have allowed anything like that in his films. The only questionable scene shows Bacchus entering with two nubile, African Zebra-type centaurettes. I can see how that might draw an unfavorable response from viewers. In fairness, however, they are not depicted doing anything of a derrogatory nature. They come in, toss some petals, and then they're gone... Some who reviewed the DVD edition claim that something was cut from the Beethoven sequence, but I can't imagine what that could be. Certainly the music itself has been truncated, but Stokowski did that only for dramatic reasons and to maintain story continuity. All of the music in Fantasia, except perhaps the Bach, was edited from the original scores in one way or another. I said that the DVD itself rates only 4 stars. That is because the good folks at Disney are only offering the pencil tests, unused animation, and alternate music pieces as part of the 3-DVD "Legacy" set. The extras on the single DVD are good, but one wishes the archival materials had been included as a second disc. Post-Script 12/26/07: Since I first wrote the above review, I have learned that there was indeed a negative ethnic stereotype that was excised from subsequent release prints of Fantasia. A black centaurette, by the name 'Sunflower' could be seen originally waiting on one of the white centaurettes (polishing her hoofs in the manner of a shoe-shine boy, braiding her hair, etc.) as they prepared to meet with their male counterparts. In subsequent prints the images of Sunflower were often obscured by zooming in abruptly to the white centaurette (which unfortunately resulted in a temporary blurring of the picture). Original character sketches of Sunflower and frame-grabs of her excised scenes in Fantasia may be viewed on the "Snopes" website, under "Disney".

Classical music mixed with art and a little bit of culture equals the indescribable delight that is Fantasia! With each sequence given an introduction by host Deems Taylor, the music conducted by Leopold Stokowski, and the animation synchronized with each note and beat, there's nothing bad to say about this film. Walt Disney's choice in the musical pieces used for this picture truly show that he was quite a knowledgeable and creative man. The selected musical pieces used in Fantasia include Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite, the famous Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas, Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, Dance of the Hours by Amilcare Ponchielli, Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky, and the closing piece of Ave Maria by Franz Schubert. The 60th anniversary version of this film, which is the version I got, has a behind-the-scenes look into the making of Fantasia which includes never before seen clips of Walt Disney himself talking about the efforts that went into making the movie, as well as old animators who worked for the big man sharing their thoughts and experiences as they contributed to its creation. For those who love Disney and classical music, this movie is a must have!

ファンタジアのミッキーが大好きな私にはたまりません！

Brilliant idea. Classical concert (including 15 min interval!!). Visual effects reflecting thoughts going through mind while watching.

Buenos recuerdos

It's been a long time since I've seen the uncut Fantasia but there is still one seen that has been changed to cut out the zebra that is a black one and that is just wrongand that has a close up of a centorette replacing the black centorette.