--- title: "Fantasia" year: 1940 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/fantasia" fi1m_score: 80 critics_score: 72 critics_reviews: 12 published: "2026-09-17T05:57:39.738060+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T05:58:07.052078+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Fantasia (1940) Directed by Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Wilfred Jackson, Ben Sharpsteen, James Algar, T. Hee, Hamilton Luske, Samuel Armstrong, Jim Handley, Norm Ferguson, David Hand, Ford Beebe Jr. · 2h 04m · MPA G · Animation, Family, Fantasy **Fi1m score: 80** · Critics 72 from 12 reviews *In a sentence:* Beethoven gets the centaurs and Mussorgsky gets the devil, and only one of them is well served > Disney’s concert film is as uneven as its eight pieces: the mouse, the hippos and the devil on the mountain are as good as anything the studio drew, and the Beethoven is a chocolate box. See it for the good three quarters. ## Synopsis On a bare concert stage, the players lit as blue and gold silhouettes, Leopold Stokowski conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra while Deems Taylor stands at a lectern to explain what we are about to hear. Eight pieces of concert music follow, each drawn by Disney’s animators as the music suggests. Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata and Fugue becomes streaks of light and drifting shapes. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite becomes dew fairies, dancing mushrooms and fish in veils. Then, to Paul Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Mickey Mouse (Walt Disney) puts on his master’s pointed hat, orders a broom to carry his water buckets and falls asleep while the water rises through the sorcerer’s cellar. There is no story linking the pieces, only Taylor, the orchestra and an interval. ## Review Walt Disney, producing, takes eight pieces of concert music, hands them to Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and asks a dozen credited directors to draw whatever the music puts in their heads. Deems Taylor introduces each piece from a lectern, like a man who suspects we have not been to many concerts. There is no story, and it runs 124 minutes with an interval. It is the most ambitious thing the studio had made and the least even, and about three quarters of it is as good as animation has been. James Wong Howe photographs the orchestra as shadows against washes of blue, red and gold, the players lit from behind so that we see bows and bells and bald heads. Bach’s *Toccata and Fugue*, which opens the programme, carries on from there: the bows become streaks of light, the streaks become shapes, and for ten minutes there is nothing on screen you could put a name to. Tchaikovsky’s *Nutcracker Suite* brings things back. Fairies hang dew on a spider’s web, thistles and orchids dance a Cossack number, and a ring of mushrooms shuffles round with one small one always a half-beat late and hurrying to catch up. That small mushroom is the whole studio in a single drawing. Mickey Mouse, voiced by Walt Disney, borrows the sorcerer’s hat, sets a broom to carrying water and falls asleep while the cellar fills. Paul Dukas’s music might have been written for it: every splash lands on a beat, and the brooms multiply in step with the strings. Joe Grant and Dick Huemer’s story keeps it to one room and one bad idea. Stravinsky’s *Rite of Spring* follows and is the film at its most solemn, a planet cooling, volcanoes, dinosaurs in the rain, then drought and dust. It is long and grand, and the Tyrannosaurus arriving in a storm is frightening. We would not cut a second of that fight and we would cut most of the lava. After the interval comes the stretch the film’s detractors mean. Beethoven’s *Pastoral Symphony* is set on a pastel Olympus with centaurs, cherubs, a drunk Bacchus on a donkey and a storm. The colours are sugared almonds. The animators, who a reel earlier made a mushroom funny by timing alone, are given nothing to time; the centaurs pose and flirt and the music goes on without them. We sat through it faintly embarrassed, as if a relative had started singing at the table. It is the longest twenty minutes in the film. Ponchielli’s *Dance of the Hours* is a proper comic ballet, with ostriches, elephants, alligators and a hippo in a tutu who is lighter on her feet than anyone in the Beethoven. Then Mussorgsky’s *Night on Bald Mountain*, in which the peak of a mountain unfolds into a pair of wings and a devil the size of the mountain calls the dead up from the churchyard below, pours them into his palm and turns them into fire. We were frightened, by a U certificate from 1940, because the drawing has weight: he moves like something heavy and the flames move like flames. Schubert’s *Ave Maria*, sung by Julietta Novis, closes the evening as a slow line of lights through a forest, the film apologising for having scared us. It is lovely and a little dull. Stephen Csillag’s editing keeps the orchestral interludes short, so they rest the eye rather than test it, and there is a good joke at the interval in which a nervous line on the soundtrack is asked to play the harp and the bassoon. Twelve directors are credited, James Algar, Samuel Armstrong, Ben Sharpsteen and Wilfred Jackson among them, and the film looks like twelve films. [*Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs*](https://film.one/film/snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs) (1937) and [*Pinocchio*](https://film.one/film/pinocchio) (1940) each told one story. This tells eight, one of them badly. Most critics land near where we do; the ones who call the whole thing kitsch have been looking at the centaurs and not at the mountain. Watch it with a child if one is available, make the tea during the Beethoven, and be back in your seat before the devil wakes. *Fi1m score 80, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics take Fantasia on its own terms, as an experiment in setting animation to concert music, and admire the nerve of it. The praise gathers around the ambition first and the drawing second, and the Rite of Spring segment is named more often than any other as the one where reach and craft meet. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is the other fixed point, liked even by those who like little else. The 1940 notices are among the warmest, treating the film as a new kind of entertainment rather than a cartoon. The reservations cluster on taste. Several critics find whole stretches kitsch, and the spread is wide, running from plain enthusiasm to outright dismissal. Time Out is the sharpest dissenter, calling most of the film embarrassing and sparing only Mickey Mouse, while Empire finds the whole thing kitsch with a few sequences still working. The Guardian’s early notice thinks it dallies and lacks the unity of earlier Disney films, a complaint later reviewers echo when they call it uneven. ### Reviews we read (12) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the 50th-anniversary re-release for restoring the film's original look, sound, and aspect ratio after years of poor presentations. He highlights Disney's pioneering ambition in illustrating classical music with innovative animation techniques. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/fantasia-1990) - **The New York Times**, Bosley Crowther (90/100, inferred): The review calls the film an exciting new departure in entertainment that captivates the senses and stimulates the imagination through its novel combination of music, color, and animation. It deems the experiment original and provocative, recommending it as enchanting for those open to its fanciful approach. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1940/11/14/archives/the-screen-in-review-walt-disneys-fantasia-an-exciting-new.html) - **Variety**, John C. Flinn Sr. (90/100, inferred): The review describes the film as a successful experiment lifting animated cartoons and classical music into a higher realm of appeal, with strong segments like the Nutcracker Suite and Rite of Spring. It notes the technical innovations in sound and the wide-ranging entertainment value across its musical selections. [Read](https://variety.com/1940/film/reviews/fantasia-1200413303/) - **Vulture** (90/100, inferred): The critic calls Fantasia a true cinematic masterpiece with gorgeous, painstaking hand-drawn animation that serves as ideal, thoughtful screen time for children. They single out its integration of classical music, including the Rite of Spring segment depicting evolutionary history and the Pastoral Symphony Greek mythology sequence. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/fantasia-disney-mickey-mouse-movie.html) - **Evening Standard**, Derek Malcom (80/100, inferred): The critic credits Fantasia with introducing him and many others to classical music, noting how its once-derided or kitsch segments now seem camp or innovative despite changing fashions. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/fantasia-7381223.html) - **Slant Magazine** (70/100, inferred): The review praises Fantasia's ambition as Disney's grand folly and one of its masterpieces for introducing children to classical composers like Stravinsky, despite some uneven segments. It notes the Blu-ray transfer looks excellent with strong filmic representation and colorful animation. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/fantasia-fantasia-2000/) - **The Hollywood Reporter** (70/100, inferred): The piece highlights the 1940 Fantasia as a classic combining surreal fantasy with symphonic selections, noting its value as part of a limited-time Blu-ray release alongside Fantasia 2000 and various Disney documentaries. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/review-treasure-trove-disney-titles-54799/) - **The Guardian** (65/100, inferred): The film takes eight separate pieces of music conducted by Stokowski and matches them visually with Disney's fancy, including abstract shapes for Bach and a Mickey Mouse cartoon for The Sorcerer's Apprentice. It is not a homogeneous whole like previous Disney films and dallies too long in places, but offers an exciting hint of what Disney might do with human figures. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/jul/17/disney-fantasia-reviewed-archive-1941) - **Empire**, William Thomas (50/100, inferred): The critic finds the 50th anniversary re-release a remorselessly kitsch experience overall, though some sequences like the Sorcerer's Apprentice and certain abstractions remain magical and watchable. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/fantasia-review/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Charles Solomon (50/100, inferred): The piece examines the mixed critical and commercial reception of the 1940 release despite its visual ambition, noting how it failed to meet Disney's hopes of elevating animation as high art. It discusses the film's lasting influence and the studio's later reissues that helped secure its classic status. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-10-07-ca-3186-story.html) - **Time Out**, GB (40/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a 'conglomeration of tastelessness' overall, with most attempts at illustrating classical music resulting in embarrassing kitsch. Only the Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence with Mickey Mouse is singled out as a respectable success. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/fantasia) - **HeyUGuys**, Jon Lyus (85/100, inferred): The critic hails Fantasia as a classic and cinematic oddity that showcases breathtaking imagination in every frame, making it unlike any other film of its era and a joy decades later. They particularly single out the Rite of Spring segment for its grand visuals and intricate effects, while praising the extensive extras for illuminating the film's turbulent production history. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/fantasia-and-fantasia-2000-blu-ray-review/) ## Details - **Director:** Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Wilfred Jackson, Ben Sharpsteen, James Algar, T. Hee, Hamilton Luske, Samuel Armstrong, Jim Handley, Norm Ferguson, David Hand, Ford Beebe Jr. - **Director:** Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Wilfred Jackson, Ben Sharpsteen, James Algar, T. Hee, Hamilton Luske, Samuel Armstrong, Jim Handley, Norm Ferguson, David Hand, Ford Beebe Jr. - **Story:** Joe Grant, Dick Huemer - **Cinematography:** James Wong Howe - **Editor:** Stephen Csillag - **Music:** Franz Schubert, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Igor Stravinsky, Paul Dukas, Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Amilcare Ponchielli - **Producer:** Walt Disney - **Cast:** Deems Taylor as Narrator - Narrative Introductions; Walt Disney as Mickey Mouse (segment 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice') (voice); Julietta Novis as Soloist (segment 'Ave Maria') (singing voice); Leopold Stokowski as Self - Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra - **Runtime:** 2h 04m - **Certificate (MPA):** G - **Release (the US):** 20 June 1941 - **Genres:** Animation, Family, Fantasy - **Budget:** $2 million - **Box office:** $76 million ## Where to watch in the US - Disney+: streaming, hd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Allegro Non Troppo* (1976): Bruno Bozzetto’s Italian answer, ruder and sadder, with a Ravel segment that outdoes Disney - *Fantasia 2000* (1999): The belated sequel keeps the mouse and adds a Gershwin New York worth the wait - *The Red Shoes* (1948), Fi1m 92: Powell and Pressburger stage a ballet as fever dream; the closest live action gets — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-red-shoes.md) - *Yellow Submarine* (1968), Fi1m 74: Pop music drawn as shapes and colours, with the Beatles as amiable passengers — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/yellow-submarine.md) - *The Tale of the Princess Kaguya* (2013), Fi1m 84: Takahata’s brush-and-ink drawing moves like music and ends on a procession too — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-tale-of-the-princess-kaguya.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/fantasia