50 Fun Facts About Fantasia

How many animated segments make up Fantasia?

Seven are performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra; The Sorcerer's Apprentice was recorded earlier with Hollywood session players.

Who conducts the music in Fantasia?

He met Walt at Chasen's restaurant in Hollywood, liked the Dukas piece and offered to conduct The Sorcerer's Apprentice for free.

Which music critic acts as Fantasia's on-screen master of ceremonies?

Disney and Stokowski had both heard him doing intermission commentary on New York Philharmonic radio broadcasts.

Which two newcomers had overtaken Mickey Mouse in popularity by 1936?

Walt's answer was a deluxe Sorcerer's Apprentice short that went beyond the usual Silly Symphony slapstick into sheer fantasy.

Who composed the music for The Sorcerer's Apprentice?

Both the piece and the cartoon draw on Goethe's 1797 poem Der Zauberlehrling.

What is the name of the sorcerer whose apprentice Mickey plays?

The name is Disney spelled backwards; silent-film actor Nigel De Brulier posed as him for the animators.

Which Snow White character did Walt briefly consider as the sorcerer's apprentice?

He decided against diluting the impact of his debut feature and gave the part to a redesigned Mickey instead.

What did animator Fred Moore add to Mickey Mouse's design for Fantasia?

It was the first time Mickey had them, added to allow a greater range of expression.

At what hour did the recording session for The Sorcerer's Apprentice begin?

It ran three hours at Culver Studios on January 9, 1938, with 85 musicians; the conductor felt players would be more alert so late.

What was Fantasia's working title during development?

An RKO publicist suggested Filmharmonic Concert and a studio contest drew 1,800 entries, but the supervisors preferred an early working title, Fantasia.

Which Stravinsky ballet, considered for the dinosaurs, was held back and used in Fantasia 2000?

Taylor steered the group to Le Sacre du printemps instead, and Walt declared it perfect for prehistoric monsters.

Why was The Rite of Spring segment stopped short of the age of mammals and early humans?

Art director John Hubley said creationists had promised to make trouble if evolution was connected to humans.

Which astronomer advised the studio on The Rite of Spring?

Julian Huxley, Barnum Brown and Roy Chapman Andrews also consulted, and animators studied nebulae at the Mount Wilson Observatory.

Which piece replaced Pierné's Cydalise for the mythological segment?

Stokowski objected that Disney's idea of mythology was not what the symphony was about; Taylor called the swap stunning.

What did the Hays Office make the animators hang on the female centaurs?

They had originally been drawn bare-breasted; the male centaurs were also toned down to look less intimidating.

Which Roman god's festival is interrupted by Zeus's storm in The Pastoral Symphony?

Zeus directs Vulcan to forge his lightning bolts before the revelry resumes.

Who composed Dance of the Hours?

The comic ballet runs through ostriches, hippos, elephants and alligators before their palace collapses.

What is the name of the prima ballerina in Dance of the Hours?

She was modelled on dancers Marge Champion and Tatiana Riabouchinska and on actress Hattie Noel.

What is the lead alligator in Dance of the Hours called?

Marge Champion's dance partner Louis Hightower modelled for him.

What did Walt give animator John Hench when he resisted the Dance of the Hours job?

Hench had resisted the assignment because he knew little about ballet; the tickets came with backstage access.

What is the name of the giant devil in Night on Bald Mountain?

His design came from a pencil sketch by Swiss artist Albert Hurter of a demon unfolding its wings atop a mountain.

Which horror star was brought in to pose for the devil on Bald Mountain?

Animator Bill Tytla disliked the results and instead had director Wilfred Jackson pose shirtless.

Which composer's Ave Maria closes the film?

Rachel Field wrote new English lyrics for the film, of which only one verse is sung.

How many times was the final Ave Maria tracking shot filmed before it was right?

One attempt used the wrong lens and photographed the crew; another was wrecked by an earthquake; the last finished a day before the premiere.

Which abstract animator did Disney hire for the Toccata and Fugue, only to reject his designs?

Walt called his triangles too dinky; the German artist left the studio in apparent despair in October 1939.

Which comedy act did Art Babbitt cite as a guide for the dancing mushrooms?

He drew with the score pinned to his desk so he could match the choreography to the melody and the counterpoint.

How were the snowflake fairies' snowflakes animated?

Traced from diagrams of real snowflakes, painted translucent white and moved a frame at a time, with the fairies drawn in later.

Which Debussy piece was recorded for Fantasia but dropped before release?

Stokowski's recording of the cut segment finally surfaced on the 2015 Legacy Collection album.

How many levels could the multiplane camera built for Fantasia handle?

Three more than the studio's original model; the film has more multiplane footage than Snow White and Pinocchio combined.

Which ensemble performs most of the Fantasia soundtrack?

Sessions took place at the Academy of Music in April 1939, with players paid a flat $10 an hour.

How many microphones were placed around the orchestra for the Academy of Music sessions?

They fed eight optical recorders in the basement, plus a ninth click-track channel for the animators.

Why was the film stock stored in a truck outside the Academy of Music?

The highly flammable nitrate could not be left in the basement where the engineers were working.

What was the name of the pioneering stereo sound system built for Fantasia?

Developed with RCA, it used two projectors, three stage speakers and a control track, and almost a fifth of the budget went on sound.

Which company supplied the eight oscillators Disney ordered to test the sound equipment?

The firm was newly founded; the order is one of the most famous early sales in Silicon Valley lore.

What did Disney engineers call the device that adjusted the three audio tracks' volume?

The Tone-Operated Gain Adjusting Device read the control track to restore the dynamics Stokowski wanted.

Which effects pioneer rejoined Disney in 1940 and handled the Mickey-Stokowski handshake?

Stokowski was filmed shaking hands with thin air, and the animators drew Mickey over the prints to match.

Where did Fantasia open on November 13, 1940?

The same New York house had shown Steamboat Willie twelve years earlier; the run lasted 57 weeks.

In how many US cities did the original stereo roadshow play?

Wartime demand for materials limited Fantasound prints to sixteen, and all but one setup was dismantled for the war effort.

Where did the proceeds from Fantasia's opening night go?

The premiere came just after the Battle of Britain; the war then shut off the European market that supplied up to 45 percent of Disney's income.

Which Western did a cut-down Fantasia share double bills with in 1942?

RKO trimmed the film to 80 minutes, dropping the Toccata and Fugue; Walt refused to do the cutting himself.

Which 1969 reissue audience embraced Fantasia as a psychedelic experience?

Ollie Johnston recalled students asking the animators what they had been on when they made it; the film finally turned a profit on this run.

Which conductor re-recorded the Fantasia score in digital stereo in 1982?

He led a 121-piece orchestra over 18 sessions; five players had been in the 1940 recording.

Which cut character, a black centaurette polishing hooves, was removed from later releases?

A second, Otika, also disappeared; Walt approved the edits, which have held since the 1969 reissue.

Which living composer complained that Stokowski shuffled and simplified his score?

He was the only living composer in the film and called the performance execrable.

How many home-video cassettes of Fantasia were pre-ordered for its limited 1991 release?

The 50-day window drove a record 200,000 LaserDisc orders too, and by 1992 it was the best-selling sell-through cassette ever.

Which music publisher sued in 1993 over the video rights to The Rite of Spring?

A district court agreed that Stravinsky's 1940 permission covered only theatres, but the appeals court reversed it in 1998.

In which widescreen format was Fantasia reissued with stereo sound in 1956?

A Disney-designed projector mechanism switched between 1.33:1 and 2.35:1 mid-film in twenty seconds, and viewers grumbled about the cropping.

In which year was Fantasia added to the US National Film Registry?

The same year as the 50th-anniversary restoration, which rebuilt the film from original negatives untouched since 1946.

Which 1992 Disney release overtook Fantasia as the best-selling sell-through video?

Fantasia had sold 14.2 million US copies before losing the record later that year.

Where did AFI place Fantasia on its 2008 list of the ten greatest animated films?

It had ranked 58th on the 1998 100 Years...100 Movies list before dropping off the 2007 revision.