The fifth segment of the film, called The Pastoral Symphony, features elements of Greek mythology.With the dream of combining classical musical and animation into one grand concert feature, Disney worked on getting the rights to the story of The Sorcerers Apprentice, and then he started to build a team to help bring his unconventional film to life.Fantasia released in select theaters in 1940, and now over 75 years later, it is still regarded as his masterpiece and one of the most important and ambitious animated features of all time.
Here are 10 things that you probably didnt know about the film that revolutionized the animation industry. According to A.P. Disney Fantasia Upgrade Their EquipmentPeck of Scientific American, a dozen or so theaters across the country had to upgrade their equipment to show Fantasia in what was called Fantasound. This involved installing more speakers around the room instead of the few that were typically placed behind the screen (the installation at the Broadway Theater in New York included 90 speakers), as well as new projectors and sound reproduction machines. The estimated cost for the upgrades was around 85,000 per theater, which is close to 1.5 million today when adjusted for inflation. The segment was later re-scored and included in the comedy musical Make Mine Music. Having assembled a classical music super squad helmed by Leopold Stokowski, Disneys imagination was moving at full tilt. Technical suggestions that he contributed to the planning phase included ways to stimulate the audiences senses, according to Disney historian Didier Ghez. Disney thought it would be a good idea to have fans blow perfume into the theater during The Nutcracker Suite, he wanted the smell of gunpowder to fill the room during The Sorcerers Apprentice, and he and Stokowski both liked the idea of having a portion of the concert shown using 3D projection, which was limited to black-and-white imagery at the time. Because of the special equipment needed to show the film, the theatrical release was very small, as were the sales. It also returned to theaters several times over the course of 50 years. ![]() The character did evolve over the years from his first official appearance in Steamboat Willie, but Fantasia marked a pretty major change by artist Fred Moore. One of the adjustments that Moore made to the design of the character was to give him pupils for the first time, instead of the black ovals that once stood for his eyes. Moore is also credited with shortening Mickeys nose and giving him his now-signature white gloves. According to the book Walt Disneys Fantasia by John Culhane, Stokowski wrote a letter to Disney suggesting that Mickey was not right for the Apprentice role. What would you think of creating an entirely new personality for this film instead of Mickey A personality that could represent you and me in other words, someone that would represent 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 matter. His argument made sense, because the Mickey of the late 1930s was not the dominant force that he is today, but Disney obviously did not agree. Dopey (one of the Seven Dwarfs) was also considered for the part, but Disney didnt like that idea either. The team gave the character Walts signature eyebrow raise and named him Yen Sid, which is Disney spelled backwards. Artists also used people as models for centaurs in The Pastoral Symphony segment, though some have called that a mistake. I look back at the centaurs, and I kick myself and could kick anybody else, because this was a case of lack of analysis, animator Eric Larson said in an interview in 1979. How much nicer an effect the picture would have gotten if we had studied circus horses and what they could do to music.Instead of that, Ken Anderson, myself, and a heavy-set story man named Don got out on a sound stage one night and the three of us carried baskets on our backs and we skipped around like centaurs, but we were skipping like human beings, not like horses.
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