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Fantasia (1940 film)
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== Reception == === Critical response === ==== Early reviews ==== [[File:Cathay Circle Theater.jpg|thumb|right|The film opened at the [[Carthay Circle Theatre]] on January 30, 1941.]] ''Fantasia'' garnered significant critical acclaim at the time of release and was seen by some critics as a masterpiece.<ref name="LAT1941">{{cite news|url=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2011/01/fantasia-acclaimed-as-film-masterpiece.html|title='Fantasia' Acclaimed as Film Masterpiece|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=January 30, 1941|access-date=February 28, 2014}}</ref> The West Coast premiere at the [[Carthay Circle Theatre]] was a grand affair, attracting some 5000 people, including [[Shirley Temple]], [[Cecil B. DeMille]], [[Forrest Tucker]], [[James Cagney]], [[Robert Montgomery (actor)|Robert Montgomery]], James Murphy, [[Edgar Bergen]], and many other notables in the film industry.<ref name="LAT1941"/> Among those at the film's premiere was film critic Edwin Schallert of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' who considered the film to be a magnificent achievement in film which would go down in cinematic history as a landmark film, noting the rapturous applause the film received by the audience during the various interludes. He stated that ''Fantasia'' was "caviar to the general, ambrosia and nectar for the intelligentsia" and considered the film to be "courageous beyond belief".<ref name="LAT1941"/> [[Isabel Morse Jones]], the newspaper's music critic, had high praise for the soundtrack to the film, describing it as a "dream of a symphony concert", and an "enormously varied concert of pictorial ideas, of abstract music by acknowledged composers, of performers Leopold Stokowski and orchestra players of Hollywood and Philadelphia, and, for the vast majority, new and wonderful sound effects".<ref name="LAT1941"/> [[Bosley Crowther]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'', also at the premiere, noted that "motion-picture history was made last night ... ''Fantasia'' dumps conventional formulas overboard and reveals the scope of films for imaginative excursion ... ''Fantasia'' ... is simply terrific."{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=30β31}} Peyton Boswell, an editor at ''Art Digest'', called it "an aesthetic experience never to be forgotten".{{sfn|Goldmark|Taylor|2002|p=87}} ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine described the premiere as "stranger and more wonderful than any of Hollywood's" and the experience of Fantasound "as if the hearer were in the midst of the music. As the music sweeps to a climax, it froths over the proscenium arch, boils into the rear of the theatre, all but prances up and down the aisles."<ref name=time1940 /> ''[[Dance Magazine]]'' devoted its lead story to the film, saying that "the most extraordinary thing about ''Fantasia'' is, to a dancer or balletomane, not the miraculous musical recording, the range of color, or the fountainous integrity of the Disney collaborators, but quite simply the perfection of its dancing".{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=30β31}} ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' also hailed ''Fantasia'', calling it "a successful experiment to lift the relationship from the plane of popular, mass entertainment to the higher strata of appeal to lovers of classical music".<ref name=varity1940>{{Cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/variety140-1940-11/page/n71/mode/2up|title=Film Reviews: ''Fantasia''|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|page=16|date=November 13, 1940|first=John|last=C. Flinn Sr.|access-date=December 13, 2021|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> The ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' assigned three writers to cover the film's Chicago premiere: society columnist Harriet Pribble; film critic Mae Tinee; and music critic Edward Barry. Pribble left amazed at the "brilliantly-attired audience", while Tinee felt the film was "beautiful ... but it is also bewildering. It is stupendous. It is colossal. It is an overwhelmingly ambitious orgy of color, sound, and imagination." Barry was pleased with the "program of good music well performed ... and beautifully recorded" and felt "pleasantly distracted" from the music to what was shown on the screen.<ref name="tribune85"/> In a breakdown of reviews from both film and music critics, Disney author Paul Anderson found 33% to be "very positive", 22% both "positive" and "positive and negative", and 11% negative.{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=342}} Those who adopted a more negative view at the time of the film's release came mostly from the classical music community. Many found fault with Stokowski's rearrangements and abridgements of the music. [[Igor Stravinsky]], the only living composer whose music was featured in the film, expressed displeasure at how in Stokowski's arrangement of ''The Rite of Spring'', "the order of the pieces had been shuffled, and the most difficult of them eliminated", and criticized the orchestra's performance, observing that the simplification of the score "did not save the musical performance, which was execrable".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Anderson|first1=Don|title=The Rite of Spring programme notes|url=http://www.tso.ca/en-ca/Discover-the-music/Programme-Notes/The-Rite-of-Spring.aspx?ID=2673&pID=2522&YearMonth=2015,06|publisher=Toronto Symphony Orchestra|access-date=May 10, 2015}}{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name=Barron /> Other composers and music critics leveled criticism at the premise of the film itself, arguing that presenting classical music with visual images would rob the musical pieces of their integrity. Composer and music critic [[Virgil Thomson]] praised Fantasound which he thought offered "good transmission of music", but disliked the "musical taste" of Stokowski, with exception to ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice'' and ''The Rite of Spring''.{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=30β31}} [[Olin Downes]] of ''The New York Times'' too hailed the quality of sound that Fantasound presented, but said, "much of ''Fantasia'' distracted from or directly injured the scores".{{sfn|Culhane|1983|pp=30β31}} Film critic [[Pauline Kael]] dismissed parts of ''Fantasia'' as "grotesquely [[kitsch]]y".{{sfn|Ward|2010|p=52}} Some parents resisted paying the higher roadshow prices for their children, and several complained that the ''Night on Bald Mountain'' segment had frightened them.{{sfn|Thomas|1994|p=162}} There were also a few negative reactions that were more political in nature, especially since the film's release happened at a time when [[Nazi Germany]] [[German-occupied Europe|reigned supreme in Europe]]. One review of the film in this manner, written by [[Dorothy Thompson]] for ''The New York Herald Tribune'' on November 25, 1940, was especially harsh. Thompson claimed that she "left the theater in a condition bordering on nervous breakdown", because the film was a "remarkable nightmare". Thompson went on to compare the film to rampant Nazism, which she described as "the abuse of power" and "the perverted betrayal of the best instincts". Thompson also claimed that the film depicted nature as being "titanic" while man was only "a moving lichen on the stone of time". She concluded that the film was "cruel", "brutal and brutalizing", and a negative "caricature of the Decline of the West". In fact, Thompson claimed that she was so distraught by the film that she even walked out of it before she saw the two last segments, ''Night on Bald Mountain'' and ''Ave Maria'', because she did not want to be subject to any more of the film's "brutalization".<ref>{{Cite news|title=Minority Report|first=Dorothy|last=Thompson|author-link=Dorothy Thompson|date=November 25, 1940|newspaper=[[New York Herald Tribune]]}}</ref> ==== Later reviews ==== {{Rotten Tomatoes data|prose|consensus=A landmark in animation (and a huge influence on the medium of music video), Disney's ''Fantasia'' is a relentlessly inventive blend of the classics with phantasmagorical images.|ref=yes}} {{Metacritic film prose |score=96 |count=18 |ref=yes |access-date=May 21, 2022}} ''[[TV Guide]]'' awarded the film four stars, calling it "the most ambitious animated feature ever to come out of the Disney studios", noting how the film "integrates famous works of classical music with wildly uneven but extraordinarily imaginative visuals that run the gamut from dancing hippos to the purely abstract".<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.tvguide.com/movies/fantasia/review/2030346787/|title=''Fantasia''|magazine=[[TV Guide]]|access-date=February 28, 2014|archive-date=December 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211213183851/https://www.tvguide.com/movies/fantasia/review/2030346787/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Roger Ebert]] of the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' rated the film four stars out of four, and noted that throughout ''Fantasia'', "Disney pushes the edges of the envelope".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/fantasia-1990 |title=''Fantasia''|newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|first=Roger |last=Ebert|author-link=Roger Ebert|access-date=February 28, 2011 |date=October 5, 1990 |via=[[RogerEbert.com]]}}</ref> However, ''Empire'' magazine only rated it 2 stars out of 5 (poor), concluding "this is a very patchy affair β while some of the animated pieces work, others come across as downright insane".<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.empireonline.com/reviews/review.asp?FID=967|title=''Fantasia''|magazine=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]|access-date=February 28, 2014}}</ref> Remarks have also been made about ''Fantasia'' not being a children's film. Religion writer Mark I. Pinsky considers ''Fantasia'' to be one of the more problematic of Disney's animated features in that it was intended as much as for adults as children and not what people had come to expect.{{sfn|Pinsky|2004|p=33}} === Awards and honors === ''Fantasia'' was ranked fifth at the [[National Board of Review Awards 1940|1940 National Board of Review Awards]] in the [[National Board of Review: Top Ten Films|Top Ten Films]] category.<ref>{{cite web|title= Awards for 1940 |url= http://www.nbrmp.org/awards/past.cfm?year=1940 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121109143604/http://www.nbrmp.org/awards/past.cfm?year=1940 |archive-date= November 9, 2012 |publisher= National Board of Review |access-date=March 11, 2011 }}</ref> Disney and Stokowski won a Special Award for the film at the [[1940 New York Film Critics Circle Awards]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1941/01/06/archives/screen-awards-are-presented-by-the-critics-at-a-reception.html |title=Screen Awards Are Presented By the Critics at a Reception |work=The New York Times|date=January 6, 1941}}</ref> ''Fantasia'' was the subject of two [[Academy Honorary Award]]s on February 26, 1942βone for Disney, William Garity, John N. A. Hawkins, and the RCA Manufacturing Company for their "outstanding contribution to the advancement of the use of sound in motion pictures through the production of ''Fantasia''", and the other to Stokowski "and his associates for their unique achievement in the creation of a new form of visualized music in Walt Disney's production ''Fantasia'', thereby widening the scope of the motion picture as entertainment and as an art form".{{sfn|Holden|1993|p=584}} In 1990, ''Fantasia'' was selected for preservation in the United States [[National Film Registry]] by the [[Library of Congress]] as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/19/movies/library-of-congress-adds-25-titles-to-national-film-registry.html |title=Library of Congress Adds 25 Titles to National Film Registry |work=The New York Times |first=Barbara |last=Gamarekian |access-date=February 12, 2011 |date=October 19, 1990 }}</ref> On the 100th anniversary of cinema in 1995, the [[Holy See|Vatican]] included ''Fantasia'' in its list of [[Vatican's list 45 films|45 "great films"]] made under the Art category (the other categories being Religion and Values).<ref>{{cite web|title=Vatican Best Films List |url=http://old.usccb.org/movies/vaticanfilms.shtml |publisher=Catholic News Service Media Review Office |access-date=October 31, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120422064928/http://old.usccb.org/movies/vaticanfilms.shtml |archive-date=April 22, 2012 }}</ref> ''Fantasia'' is featured in three lists that rank the greatest American films as determined by the [[American Film Institute]]. The film ranked number 58 in [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies|100 Years... 100 Movies]] in 1998,<ref name=afi98andtop10>{{cite web |url=http://connect.afi.com/site/DocServer/TOP10.pdf |title=AFI's 10 Top 10 |publisher=American Film Institute |year=2008 |access-date=March 9, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707092536/http://connect.afi.com/site/DocServer/TOP10.pdf |archive-date=July 7, 2011 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> before it was dropped from its ranking in the [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)|10th Anniversary]] revision in 2007,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/100Movies.pdf |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies -- 10th Anniversary Edition |publisher=American Film Institute |year=2007 |access-date=March 9, 2011}}</ref> though it was nominated for inclusion.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/Movies_ballot_06.pdf |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies Official Ballot |publisher=American Film Institute |year=2006 |access-date=March 9, 2011 |archive-date=September 21, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170921090928/http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/Movies_ballot_06.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[AFI's 10 Top 10|10 Top 10]] list formed in 2008 placed ''Fantasia'' fifth under Animation.<ref name=afi98andtop10 /> === Controversies === {{see also|Disney animators' strike}} In April 1939, Philadelphia advertising agent Mark S. Tutelman filed an injunction suit in an attempt to prevent the film being made. Tutelman claimed the film originated from an idea of synchronizing animation with classical music which he first described to Stokowski in 1937, had prepared scenarios and orchestral arrangements at Stokowski's request without acknowledgement or credit, and demanded a cut of the film's proceeds.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-sues-disney-an/128727126/|title=Sues Disney and Stokowski|newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer|date=April 8, 1939|via=Newspapers.com|page=11|access-date=July 23, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-post-stokowski-and-disney-su/128727507/|title=Stokowski and Disney Sued in Tale of Scrambled Harmony|newspaper=The Morning Post|page=6|date=April 8, 1939|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=July 23, 2023}}</ref> In April 1940, Tutelman's case was dismissed.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-abandons-suit/128727309/|title=Abandons Suit Against Disney|newspaper=The Philadelphia Inquirer|page=19|date=April 9, 1940|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=July 23, 2023}}</ref> In 1942, Tutelman filed a $25,000 damage suit against Stokowski, charging the conductor of a misappropriation of ideas without credit.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-critic-says-fantasia-idea-sto/128727395/|title=Critic says ''Fantasia'' idea is stolen|newspaper=The Daily News|page=19|date=January 27, 1942|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=July 23, 2023}}</ref> In April 1942, the [[Irish Film Classification Office|Irish Film Censor]] insisted the film cut Taylor's scientific introduction to ''The Rite of Spring'' due to its "materialistic portrayal of the [[Abiogenesis|origins of life]]".<ref>{{cite web|date=30 April 1942|title=Irish Film Censors' Records β ''Fantasia''|url=https://www.tcd.ie/irishfilm/censor/show.php?fid=3386|website=Trinity College Dublin|access-date=June 24, 2021}}</ref> In the 1960s, four shots from ''The Pastoral Symphony'' were removed that depicted two characters in a racially stereotyped manner. A black centaurette called Sunflower was depicted polishing the hooves of a white centaurette, and a second named Otika appeared briefly during the procession scenes with Bacchus and his followers.{{sfn|Cohen|p=69}} The characters were initially removed for a 1963 re-run of the ''[[Disney anthology television series|Disneyland]]'' episode ''Magic and Music'', which originally aired uncut in 1958. Disney himself approved of the changes.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Korkis |first1=Jim |title=Lost ''Fantasia'': The Disappearance of Sunflower |url=https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/lost-fantasia-the-disappearance-of-sunflower/ |website=Cartoon Research |date=27 March 2020 |access-date=28 June 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Korkis |first1=Jim |title=Whatever Happened to Little Sunflower? |url=https://www.mouseplanet.com/9413/Whatever_Happened_to_Little_Sunflower |website=MousePLanet |date=27 October 2010 |access-date=28 June 2023}}</ref> The episode aired uncut on television once again in 1966, before the edits were incorporated into the film's 1969 theatrical reissue and has remained on all releases since.{{sfn|Cohen|p=201}}{{sfn|Ebert|1997|p=176}} [[John Carnochan]], the editor of the 1991 video release, said: "It's sort of appalling to me that these stereotypes were ever put in".<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Daly |first=Steve |title=New Rating for ''Fantasia'': PC |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|date=November 29, 1991 | url=https://ew.com/article/1991/11/29/changes-restored-version-fantasia/| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222213520/https://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,316319,00.html |access-date=August 16, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-date=December 22, 2008}}</ref> Film critic Roger Ebert commented on the edit: "While the original film should, of course, be preserved for historical purposes, there is no need for the general release version to perpetrate racist stereotypes in a film designed primarily for children."{{sfn|Ebert|1997|p=176}} In May 1992, the Philadelphia Orchestra Association filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company and [[Buena Vista Home Video]]. The orchestra maintained that as a co-creator of ''Fantasia'', the group was entitled to half of the estimated $120 million in profits from video and laser disc sales.<ref name=nytimessuit1992>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/07/movies/fantasia-orchestra-sues-disney.html |title=''Fantasia'' Orchestra Sues Disney|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|first=Allan |last=Kozinn|author-link=Allan Kozinn|date=May 7, 1992 |access-date=January 21, 2011}}</ref> The orchestra dropped its case in 1994 when the two parties reached an undisclosed settlement out of court.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vwwxAAAAIBAJ&pg=6622%2C7376551 |title= Philadelphia Orchestra drops Disney lawsuit|newspaper=[[The Daily Gazette]]|date=October 26, 1994 |access-date=February 12, 2011 |via=Google News Archive}}</ref> British music publisher [[Boosey & Hawkes]] filed a further lawsuit in 1993, contending that Disney did not have the rights to distribute ''The Rite of Spring'' in the 1991 video releases because the permission granted to Disney by Stravinsky in 1940 was only in the context of a film to be shown in theaters.<ref name=Barron>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/22/nyregion/who-owns-the-rights-to-rite.html |title= Who owns the rights to ''Rite''?|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|first=James|last=Barron|author-link=James Barron (journalist)|date=January 22, 1993 |access-date=January 21, 2011}}</ref> A [[United States District Court for the Southern District of New York|federal district court]] backed Boosey & Hawkes's case in 1996,<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers v. Walt Disney |vol=934 |reporter=F. Supp. |opinion=119 |pinpoint= |court=[[United States District Court for the Southern District of New York|S.D.N.Y.]] |date=1996-08-09 |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/934/119/1955750/ |access-date=2022-06-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/90513964/the-orlando-sentinel/ |title=Music Publisher: Court Backs Its ''Fantasia'' Case |newspaper=[[Orlando Sentinel]]|page=C10 |date=August 10, 1996 |access-date=December 13, 2021 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}}</ref> but the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit|Second Circuit Court of Appeals]] reversed the ruling in 1998, stating that Disney's original "license for motion picture rights extends to video format distribution".<ref>{{cite court |litigants=Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers v. Walt Disney |vol=145 |reporter=F.3d |opinion=481 |court=[[United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit|2d Cir.]] |date=1998-04-30 |url=https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-2nd-circuit/1396668.html |access-date=2022-06-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://library.findlaw.com/1998/Oct/1/127402.html |title=Second Circuit Reversal Regarding Disney's ''Fantasia'' on Videocassettes |work=[[FindLaw]]|first=Stanley|last=Rothenberg|author-link=Stanley Rothenberg|date=October 1998 |access-date=May 10, 2011 |archive-date=August 7, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807132554/http://library.findlaw.com/1998/Oct/1/127402.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
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