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Fantasia: Cultural Constructions of Disney's 'Masterpiece'

Luckett explores the cultural discourse surrounding Fantasia at the time of its release, finding mixed reviews of the animated feature film. Positive reception focused on the film's master animation techniques and somewhat abstract narrative structure, while negative criticism came mainly from representatives of the music world who saw classical music and film as incompatible - the former being art and the latter being a "distraction." The author also analyzes the marketing and distribution strategies that made Fantasia a spectacle. Disney positioned the film as a "prestige picture" by releasing it as a roadshow, traveling around the country visiting large theaters in major cities. This strategy of infrequent screenings served popular as well as technical purposes, creating suspense/"buzz" but also allowing time for theaters to install the necessary equipment for the film's multi-channel audio "Fantasound" technology. However, this distribution method also kept the film from earning enough revenue to make up for its enormous budget. As a reslt, the film went on to be re-released many times over the next several decades. Luckett examines the conditions around these re-releases as well as their individual receptions, finding a "double connotation" in the contemporary United States. Some products (e.g. home video copies of the film) signal the film as a children's/family amusement, while other products (e.g. the Collector's Edition tapes, classical music soundtrack, lithograph) associate the film with art. The author concludes that contemporary (1990-91) marketing strategies for Fantasia re-releases mirror those for its original release: both focus on the rarity of the chance to see the film.

This article is important because it represents a kind of meta-analysis of the releases and receptions of Fantasia over time. The author acknowledges the hostility the film originally received from the musical community and argues that Fantasia has consistently been marketed as a rare event. My thesis uses similar information as explored in this article and expands on the author's conclusion by also taking into account how temporal distance from the original film affects its interpretation as art versus mass commercial commodity. While Luckett does mention the "double connotation" of the film in recent years regarding its relationship to art, this aspect of the article is mainly focused on the marketing techniques involved to produce such an effect. In this way the author's explanation here provides a more complete picture of how Fantasia has come to be viewed as art over the years.

Luckett, Moya. "Fantasia: Cultural Constructions of Disney's 'Masterpiece'" Disney Discourse: Producing the Magic Kingdom. Ed. Eric Smoodin. New York, NY: Routledge, 1994. 214-36. Google Books. 22 Nov. 2008 <http://http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=wpxzl1lcr30c&oi=fnd&pg=pr9&dq=fantasia+disney&ots=fdmktnkohv&sig=hx9e44_3n-ovwcn1ikbssvzu1vy#ppr6,m1>.

JSTOR: Disney's 'Fantasia'

This article, appearing in a 1941 issue of The Musical Times, is a review of the original release of Fantasia. The author presents a somewhat biting critique of the film for failing to meet the standards put forth by the classical music pieces it features. The main criticism voiced here is that the film's visual "Disney style" is so overbearing that the character of the music is overshadowed. While the author acknowledges the creative and effective pairing of visuals with music in a few of the film's sequences, the article maintains that Fantasia still does not constitute an innovative work of art. The author argues that the film is merely a second-rate extension of the "Silly Syphonies" series of animated shorts. The article closes with the repitition of its orginial criticism: Fantasia takes on too much in terms of the music at the heart of its presentation.

This article represents the prototypical response from the music community at the time of Fantasia's orginal release. This critic conveys ambivalence at best, describing some redeeming qualities of the film but still condeming it as a failure in both the beginning and end of the article. This relates to my thesis in that it provides an example of negative criticism at the time of the film's release. The author is not able to view the film through a historical lens, so the only perspectives offered are those that relate to the aesthetics and intertextuality of the film. In this case the reviewer is predominantly concerned with the face value of how Fantasia treats classical music, and in his eyes it fails to meet its potential in this respect.

McN. "Disney's 'Fantasia'" The Musical Times sep. 82 (1941): 349-49. JSTOR. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia. 29 Nov. 2008 <http://http://www.jstor.org/stable/922891?&search=yes&term=fantasia&term=disney&list=hide&searchuri=%2faction%2fdoadvancedsearch%3fq0%3dfantasia;f0%3dall;c0%3dand;q1%3ddisney;f1%3dall;c1%3dand;q2%3d;f2%3dall;c2%3dand;q3%3d;f3%3dall;wc%3don;search%3dsearch>.

JSTOR: The Nuisance of Music "Re-Creations"

The author, writing in 1945, offers a lengthy critique of why musical "re-creations" do not qualify as art. The article begins by stating that the addition of images to "absolute" music qualifies as a form of corruption and that Disney is guilty of this crime in Fantasia. The author goes on to list other offenses against canonical musical pieces: betraying the original intention of the composer, disrupting the continuity of the original piece, changing the original instrumentation (including changes to volume), and the introduction of expressiveness. The author uses metaphors of paintings and other visual art forms in order to demonstrate the horrific effects of each of these sins against music. The article closes with the statement that this practice of musical re-creation is merely a passing fad that will surely die out with the "current period of hyperindividualism."

This article is significant because it presents the common opinion of those in the music world that Fantasia is a heretical misuse of classical music, but it puts forth a more methodical reasoning behind this type of disapproval. The highly structured argument is significant because it shows that there existed an organized explanation of why films like Fantasia should not be considered valuable pieces of art. The author classifies this kind of impressionistic reworking of classical music as a passing trend, a fact that relates to my thesis by providing a direct temporal dimension to definitions of art. It seems that this author refuses to accept Fantasia as art partly because it represents what the author sees as a current (at that time) practice. The style of the film did not have the historical precedence behind it to be considered art. This article is especially interesting in terms of comparisons to more recent analyses of the film because it marks as criminal the very thing that Disney is praised for by contemporary cultural critics: the re-editing of classical music pieces in order to make them accessible to a wider audience. Whereas modern critics see this democratization of high art as a positive, artistic aspect of Fantasia, this author gives a methodical explanation of why this is a crime against music.

Balet, Leo. "The Nuisance of Music "Re-Creations"" The Kenyon Review summer 7 (1945): 382-98. JSTOR. University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia. 27 Nov. 2008 .