Fantasia Movie Analysis Essay Example

Positive review

Fantasia is a Disney anthology animated feature-length film that nobody talks about.

Most of Walt Disney classics such as Bambi, Snow-white and Pinocchio, to name a few, are embedded in the minds of most people and children everywhere. Fantasia (released in 1941) was created in the same era as these films. Yet it does not have the recognition it deserves. There are reasons for this, but I will now explain why Fantasia is my favourite Disney movie and why it represents Walt Disney’s genius more than any other movie that he had ever produced.

Walt Disney is primarily a storyteller, but he lived and breathed music. He had never ever been able to play an instrument but had a great sense for music. This was shown in the Silly Symphonies series (1932) where musical shorts were like his other animated shorts, but the focus was on sound effects and music, hence the name. The main reason he did these was to take advantage of the technology at the time. But using the latest technology and pushing it to its limits is expensive. Therefore, when Disney and conductor Leopold Stokowski created a new Mickey Mouse short using live orchestra, whose performance had to fit in with animation, it nearly became a financial disaster due to the high cost of hiring the orchestra. This is why they came up with the idea of a two-hour-long series of musical shorts, where the animation was accompanied by a live orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Walt Disney was a dreamer and thought that this project would make a lot of money (which it did not), so he could make more of this type of entertainment, but this was a passion project, and this is what I think elevated it to the highest degree.  

The result: as soon as you see the musicians with their instruments getting to their places and then it switches to the animation you are about to see some amazing visuals and enchanting scenery going with some exquisite music choices, such as  "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" by J.S. Bach, Paul Dukas’ "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", "A Night on Bald Mountain" by Modest Mussorgsky and many more that fit the accompanying animation well to make some timeless scenes.    

At the very beginning, the viewer is instantly enchanted by the unity of sounds and visuals. These are abstract images, colours, and some objects that fade in and fade out – an effect achieved using the multiplane camera system. More methods, techniques and trickery were used to breathe life into the animation, to make movements and landscapes as realistic as possible which still looks good today. This example illustrates the general concept embedded in all the scenes.  Of course, it is not like the animation resembles live action because it is not meant to. It is all there so that the animation goes with the music to the highest standard possible.

Fantasia is not all about happiness and rainbows. It is not afraid to get violent, which may want you to reconsider showing it to a young child. There is more than one violent scene, two examples being a dinosaur murdering and devouring a triceratops and the devil himself sweeping humans inside a depiction of hell, turning them into goblins and monsters.  These scenes make me like the film more because it does not appear like it made for children, it is not talking down to you. One second you are seeing adorable dancing mushrooms and the next you are seeing a depiction (by the help of scientists) of the evolution of the Earth and the slow and painful death of the dinosaurs.

In conclusion, for me, Fantasia is a masterpiece made by professional animators and with the help of dancers, scientists, composers, Stokowski, musicians, and the Imagineering team (to name a few). It is a sight to behold despite the very minuscule animation errors. But the one downside cannot even try to tackle the greatness of the film. this is not for people who cannot appreciate the fine orchestral music and, due to this anthology nature, it may not be right for you. But why not try it out? It is on Disney plus for you to access at any time. 

Negative review 

Never have I seen a film with so few obvious highs and so many obvious lows, obvious being a keyword, because it is an anthology that tries to replicate its original counterpart’s style and grace but does it with a flop and fails to understand why the original was so brilliant. 

The original Fantasia film treated its audience with respect, but not the Fantasia that appeared sixty years later. In the new version, there are forced-in cringy celebrity guests that do not age well. Songs do not go with the animation play, and the questionable choices are shown throughout, such as needing to force in canonical stories into every short when they could have been just abstract or nonsensical. The original Fantasia focused more on powerful imagery and serious subjects, which were balanced with light-hearted ones to create a movie that can display many emotions. 

The sorcerer’s apprentice flooding his master’s place, the evolution of the earth until the death of the dinosaurs, and the war between light and dark. How does Disney top these subjects in the new version? Let us have a stupid flamingo with a yo-yo. There is no grace and there is nothing magical about most of the shorts displayed. In the film, it is almost as if Disney studios knew how stupid it is because before the flamingo scene starts, James Earl Jones explains the next scene: 

“For our next segment ‘The Carnival of the Animals’ by Camille Saint-Saëns. Here, the sensitive strains of impressionistic music combine with the subtle artistry of the animator, to finally answer that age-old question, "What is man's relationship to nature?" (is handed a note) Oh, sorry. That age-old question, "What would happen if you gave a yo-yo to a flock of flamingos?" (turns to look off-camera) Who wrote this? (Taken from the transcript wiki).

All that was said not to hype us up for probably what would have been a good short but turned out it was all said just for a joke. It is almost like the Disney animators wanted to take the easy route. Instead of an interesting take on a subject, you get a short with flamingos with a plain backdrop. And the result is just dumb. 

Another example of a dumb short is the toy soldier one. Before the short begins, Bette Midler explains some of the ideas they had for this next segment. She shows a lot of great concepts like a piece inspired by the “Flight of the bumble bee” or the segment centred around how the baseball was a metaphor for life. But then she explains they chose the toy soldier story. But in my opinion that concept art was the least interesting looking one of them all. And it stood out because It looked like it was meant to be animated in CGI, which it was. And Bette has such an unlikable tone in this part using phrases like “some of the ideas made it to the big screen…but others… how do put this politely. Didn’t” and “Here they are, and there they go.” This was definitely done in an attempt to make this scene comedic but is not for me and I would not have wanted this scene in the first place, since it kind of acts like filler. And the short itself? It is bad. The animation does not go with what is being played most of the time - the animation and song choice (Piano concerto No.2 by Shostakovich).

There is some good in this film, though, believe it or not. First of all, even though this is a cheap move that they added the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice”. Yes, like the one from the original … the exact one from the original Fantasia. They did not remaster it to make it look better, it is the same, not reworked in any way. But it is nice to watch. I can watch that short any time, it is that good. Now, out of all the different segments in the whole film one of them must be good, it is Disney, they are a talented company! Well, you would be correct.

If you really do want to watch this film, I will not deter you from watching it, since it has a lot of high-quality animation. The last short is particularly good, since the animation goes with the music, the general mood fits Fantasia and is topped off with amazing visuals. It looks like they put the most effort into the last short, which is a good thing because it definitely deserved it.