1940 was one of the most ambitious years in animation history, with the births of Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry, and Woody Woodpecker. Disney on the other hand released two movies in 1940, Pinocchio, which has gone on to being one of the most beloved Disney movies of all time, and later in the year, Fantasia.

Arguably one of the most famous Disney movies of all time along with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Beauty and the Beast, Fantasia began as an experiment. While a financial failure (mostly due to World War II), Fantasia would quickly become one of Walt Disney’s most cherished works and inadvertently encourage numerous people into getting into animation and even filmmaking careers.

Eight animated mini movies are set to eight separate musical pieces conducted by Leopold Stokowski.
1. Toccata in and Fugue in D Minor
2. The Nutcracker Suite
3. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
4. The Rite of Spring
5. The Pastoral Symphony
6. Dance of the Hours
7. Night on Bald Mountain
8. Ave Maria

Only the classics release has Deems Taylor’s introductions.

The film’s soundtrack was redone by the late Irwin Kostal, composer for Mary Poppins and Mickey’s Christmas Carol.

The three most famous segments in Fantasia are The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Rite of Spring, and Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria.

The t-rex in Rite of Spring was an inspiration for Sharptooth in the Land Before Time. In fact, Sharptooth actually looks more like a twin!

Chernabog would later go down as one of the most famous villains in Disney history. Here he’s known as “Satan” but his real name was heard of not long after (from what I’ve found out of boredom the earliest mention is from 1957 but that probably goes back even further). It’s the same as how the word “Sith” wasn’t used in the original Star Wars trilogy, but it was already around from the beginning.

Sorcerer’s Apprentice was reused in Fantasia 2000, keeping in line with how Walt Disney’s idea of swapping out different segments for new ones.

Excluding the classics release, there aren’t any credits or even a “the end” screen after the sunrise in Ave Maria. It just ends.

The theory of an asteroid slaughtering the dinosaurs wasn’t around in the 1940s, so the extinction scene in Rite of Spring was the closest they could get.

Although I said there were eight segments, there’s actually seven. Night on Bald Mountain and Ave Maria are combined.

One of the centaurs was censored out due to racism in the 60s. You can find part of the removed scene on a trailer from the 1950s.

While Fantasia 2000 is good, the original’s better.

In Ave Maria the sunrise probably was where the creations of Chernabog were destroyed which is implied by some of the books that talk about Fantasia.

My own ranking for the segments from best to worst: 3, 7, 2, 4, 6, 1, 5, 8.

Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria are the segments I’ve seen the most which somewhat lines up with a lot of the parts everyone remembers the most. The Ave Maria segment in particular I’ve seen quite more than Night on Bald Mountain as that part of the segment was used on a Disney sing along tape from the early 90s with Living Voices’ Silent Night being played (which I actually think fits better don’t ask why).

1. The dramatic fight between two dinosaurs holds up really well.
2. A lot of the animation looks like it was done in the 1990s, which really shows how well Fantasia’s aged.
3. Both the Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Night on Bald Mountain (excluding Ave Maria) are some of my favorite animated moments; typically a lot of Disney movies have one or two moments that I never forget.
4. Deems Taylor gives some great narratives to the story of each of the eight segments and what the animators thought would work for animating the segments to the composed piece.
5. There’s an interesting sequence where Deems Taylor explains how the sound system for Fantasia works.
6. Fantasia as a whole has been a major inspiration for so many animators and filmmakers out there. If Snow White wasn’t one, then Fantasia probably was.

1. Some of the segments overstay their welcome badly, most notably the Pastoral Symphony. Rite of Spring may be longer but it’s got more going on.
2. Ave Maria is too depressing for me. I have to fast forward through it on my VCR after seeing the Night on Bald Mountain part.