Sometimes, I think I take for granted just how splendid a film Fantasia is. It's the fully realized form of animation that Walt Disney himself had overseen. Not only is it splendid animation set to some of the most recognizable and finest pieces of Classical Music ever written, but it's also the magnum opus of Walt, serving as the dividing point in his career when Walt went from being Walt the Imagineer to being Walt the Business Man. The film was another in a string of commercial disasters for the fledgling Walt Disney Productions back in 1940, where all of the profits of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were all but evaporated into the costs of the next four features, only one of which (Dumbo) turned a profit for Disney upon initial release.
The film's lack of success and commercial appeal was not lost on Walt or Roy, with it's highly stylized styles of storytelling and emphasis on Classical Music not gelling well with an audience keen to see the next Snow White or Pinocchio. Audiences rejected Fantasia for not being what they expected of Walt and Critics rejected it because they felt Walt wasn't sophisticated or cultured enough to understand what Classical Music was supposed to be. The film, as it was presented in the Fall of 1940, will never exist again. Thanks to the high costs of the film's production, the poor handling of the film's negatives over the years following several disappointing re-releases and constant attempts to market the film to an audience that just wasn't there, the original film is something that only a few people ever got to see and most of them are long since passed on. For nearly thirty years, Fantasia served as the black sheep of Disney's Animated library, with the majority of films released between 1937 and 1967 turning massive profits for Disney through both initial releases and re-releases. All of the films that had failed in the early 1940s found massive appeal and audiences. Pinocchio and Bambi were smash successes upon re-release, but Fantasia remained an unmarketable film for Disney and the film would not see an uptick in sales until after Walt Disney's death.
Then, 1969 happened.
And we have a bunch of young adults high on LSD to other psychedelics to thank for Disney's Concert Feature to finally turn a profit. The film was a sensation with this group of young adults wanting to stand against the older generations they felt did not understand them. And it was through this commercial success that people finally began to look at Fantasia through a critical lens once more and realized not only what a historic and pioneering achievement it was, but also just how splendid of a performance it must have been to see back in 1940.
It's appeal and audience only grew more and more over time. It's re-releases became more successful and the film continued to age so brilliantly that some began to take their kids to it to introduce them to Classical Music. And I was one of those kids, though I never saw the film in theaters. Disney underwent extensive restorative efforts to find some way to salvage the original film as the quality of the film became worse and worse over time. Like with Snow White and Pinocchio, the film was frame by frame restored to try and recapture some bit of brilliance from the original film. For the most part, at least in my opinion, they succeeded and the 1990 Restoration (which is available on VHS in the film's original home video release) is the definitive version of the film. While I will always adore the film and cherish it on Blu Ray and other releases (also Corey Burton for having the impossible task of trying to stand in for Deems Taylor after the original audio of his introductions for most of the original film was lost), I feel that this was the most precise attempt by Disney to replicate the film's stunning majesty.
Fantasia came out on Home Video at the most formative time in the history of Disney Feature Animation. After years of ironing out the kinks and going about their work, Disney Animation was back with a vengeance. Oliver and Company and The Little Mermaid were huge box office successes and with both Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin right around the corner, they were set up for both short term and long term success. Though the newer films were capturing the imagination of kids and adults in theaters, it was the older films that were winning their hearts on Home Video. Disney routinely had success in the Home Video department, but Fantasia (heavily pushed as only being available for 50 days) shattered all expectations and sold a stunning 14 million VHS tapes in the US and Canada alone, selling plenty more overseas and a large amount of Laserdiscs as well. It was clear to Disney that Fantasia truly belonged in same conversations with Snow White, Cinderella and Pinocchio as being the best films Walt Disney ever produced.
Roy Disney, the nephew of Walt and son of Roy O. Disney, had dreamed of one day adding to his uncle's legacy with a sequel to Fantasia to round out the decade of the 1990s. After all, Walt had originally planned on Fantasia continuing along every now and then with a few new pieces being added into the overall flow of the original performance. But the film's lack of success shelved those ideas until the 1980s, when Roy brought it up to Michael Eisner as he came in to assume direct control of the company after years of turmoil. The heads of the Walt Disney Company were gung ho for the idea, particularly after the successful integration of Fantasia to Home Video, but Studio Chief Jeffrey Katzenberg was hostile to the idea of a sequel and was seemingly out to try and stop it from being made (with some even saying Katzenberg would only greenlight the film if they did more modern music from the Beatles or other groups). This prompted Roy to undertake the production of the film himself without Jeffrey's involvement. Once Katzenberg had left the studio in 1994 after a power struggle with both Eisner and Roy, the film went into direct production alongside a slate of Disney Renaissance films including Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Tarzan.
Roy's original vision for "Fantasia Continued" was to have three or four of the segments from the original film combined with three or four newer segments to be added on and perhaps integrated into the original runtime for the film. This proved to be unfeasible for a myriad of reasons, so the film went from being just a few new segments to being mostly new with The Sorcerer's Apprentice returning because of it's popularity among Disney Fans and audiences. In the end, the product became what we know today as Fantasia 2000, which received all of the fanfare the Walt Disney Company could muster as it came to large format theaters in the Fall of 1999
Fantasia 2000, though significantly more successful than the original film had been, was still a commercial failure for the Walt Disney Company, but one the company was more than willing to eat given the string of blockbuster successes they had had with their original animated films and the ones they collaborated with Pixar on. It was made to symbolize the artistry and less about the commercial appeal. Whether you enjoy the film or not, the film still follows in the footsteps of it's predecessor in trying to tell a story through music and stellar Disney Animation. And the film was popular enough where there were even plans to make a third film in the works, with whole segments being animated and completed as the 2000s reached their midway point.
But there were some dark clouds gathering over Disney at that time, as they had done for the first film with the outbreak of World War II. Another power struggle would see Eisner ousted as CEO and his replacement Bob Iger being brought in. At first, it seemed Iger was keen to revitalize all aspects of the company. 2D Animation was coming back (sparingly). Pixar was coming into the fold for good after Eisner had stepped on toes with them and nearly ended their partnership. Live Action would receive a big boost with the Disney acquisitions of Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm. Disney Animation reached it's 3rd Golden Age with the successes of Tangled, Wreck It Ralph, Frozen and Zootopia. But it became clear that what Iger wanted wasn't going to be what fans of the artsy styles of Disney Animation wanted. In fact, it was something he had in common with the producers behind Dreamworks and Illumination Studios. $$$$$$$
Plans for a project called "Fantasia 2006" were scrapped and a few of it's completed stories were released for Audience consumption, chiefly "The Little Match Girl", which was a Bonus Feature on the Platinum Edition release of The Little Mermaid and then "One By One", which was based off of unused music from The Lion King and would be released in the 2004 Special Edition release of The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. And Roy Disney passing away in 2009 all but doomed plans to make a third addition to the lore of one of Walt Disney's most important animated achievements, as he had been it's biggest proponent. But surely with Disney raking in tremendous profits and successes in the Theme Parks and abroad that they would be willing to eat the costs of an artsy film like a third Fantasia Movie, right?
Oh my sweet summer child...
Bob Iger's vision for Disney (which is now in the hands of Bob Chapek) centers around appeasing the shareholders and their ideas for profit over the improvements to the artform of animation. Why make an original and well thought out science fiction movie with a scary budget when we could just make another Star Wars movie? Why let Disney experiment with a movie like "Gigantic" when they could just as easily make a sequel to Frozen? Why try anything new when the current model is making money hand over fist?
Walt Disney, for all his faults as a product of his times and a strictly anti-union capitalist, was an artist. A pioneer and a visionary. At least, that's what he was before Fantasia. The film's failure had definitely changed him. No longer was he out to push the boundaries of animation beyond his own comprehension. He largely left Animation to it's own devices until he had to step in for The Jungle Book a few years before his death. And while some live action films and Disneyland would occupy his creative juices, the artist in Walt had seemingly fell by the wayside after the failures of Fantasia, Pinocchio and Bambi and he was never the same. Let's say that pre-Fantasia Walt was 90:10 an artist first and a capitalist second. He didn't particularly care about money and sought only to revolutionize animation. By the time Cinderella came out, he was more 50:50.
This notion would continue with Michael Eisner. He, like Walt was a dreamer and sought to do the best he could with what he had. But he was also a staunch conservative when it came to spending money and kept things on a budget, doing his best not to go overboard unless absolutely necessary. Eisner had initial success. The Disney Renaissance happened under him, after all. But failures had hardened his businessman nature and he was focused solely on the money and less on the magic.
Iger does not have the creative juices to helm a company like Disney for it's own good. He's a corporatist first and a visionary...well maybe 11th. He is out to make the most money for the shareholders and the audiences come third or fourth. This continued on with Chapek, who has drawn the staunch ire of the public for his handling of the theme park and movie divisions, focusing more on remakes and squeezing drops of money from them than their happiness. They should count themselves lucky that 2020 had all of us inside for the majority of the year, otherwise I think Disney World and Disneyland would be ghost towns.
So what does this mean for Fantasia? Well, I'll sum it up the way my cousin and best friend Chris (AKA Mild) would. It's antiquated and won't make Disney money outside of those who are nostalgic for it. Chris has no caring for this film. He prefers the movies like Lilo and Stitch or The Lion King that hit him hard emotionally, but could really care less how artsy they were. And that seems to be the way the money flows at Disney right now. A third Fantasia has no chance of making it passed the drawing boards of a modern Disney Animation department. They're more focused on making movies like Raya and the Last Dragon or Encanto. The movies that Walt would have wanted to make or that Roy had been desperate to continue will never be made. At least, not by Disney....
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