The beginnings of Disney as a company are marked by a good handful of animation shorts, the release of Snow White in 1937 as the first movie all at once. That is precisely what Fantasia is, a film of over 2 hours full of shorts set to music. It was released in 1940 as the third feature film of the company after the release of Pinocchio and, although nowadays it is considered one of the best animated films, its beginnings were not as pleasant as we might think.
A great movie in a tough time
Fantasia was conceived as a work with 8 different episodes in which classical music accompanied each story. In it, we can find some famous shorts like “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, in which we see Mickey Mouse dressed as a wizard and handling brooms, or “Night on Bald Mountain” where the evil demon Chernabog is introduced. As a curiosity, this segment had to be removed from the later video version because, years later, Disney still received complaints about the fear that children felt when seeing the winged monster. Later on, he returned to the world of video games through the first installment of Kingdom Hearts.
Despite being considered one of the best animated films in history today, its release was one of Disney’s biggest box office failures. This was due to the start of World War II, which prevented the film from being distributed in Europe with its corresponding financial loss. This failure also caused many networks to not want to bet on the film even on the small screen, so gradually, it fell into oblivion.
It was not until 1969, almost 30 years later, that the film began to generate interest in its reissue, because the audience at that time considered it “psychedelic” at a time when the hippie movement was booming. Undoubtedly, a fortunate and curious event that led to subsequent restructurings like Fantasia 2000, but that thwarted Walt Disney’s plans to release an edition every year with new shorts.
Despite being one of Disney’s biggest failures at the time, the critical reception of the film was good and even countries like Japan decided to ban it, claiming that it was better for the Japanese audience not to see that Americans could create such beautiful works of art. Over time, this fame has grown and Fantasia is credited with iconic moments in the history of the company that still endure.
Fortunately, and despite the passing of years, the film has not been forgotten and, thanks to Disney+, we can watch it at any time. It is true that the lack of dialogue may be a deterrent for younger audiences, but it compensates visually with truly moving stories, and also, older audiences who have grown up with Disney can find the origin of many characters that later appeared in films like Hercules, as well as other very interesting nods. A gem that is worth recovering.
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