Fantasia (1940)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Featurette-"Clair de Lune" segment
Rating
Year Of Production	1940
Running Time	114:30
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (85:40)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Various
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Leopold Stokowski The Philadelphia Orchestra Deems Taylor
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$39.95	Music	Various

    First and foremost is the fact that this was, up until recently, an almost completely unique piece of work. This was not an animated feature that told a story, but was rather something very different that was the melding of sight and sound through the avenue of animation. It was an attempt to provide a visual impression of what the music selected was all about. Whilst there are probably others that I do not recall right now, and which will surely be reminded to me many times over after this is published, the only other entry in this genre of animated musical fantasy if you like is Fantasia 2000. Secondly, it was a very early attempt at the combination of live action and animation as well as sight and sound, and it still remains one of the best. Disney have long recognized the uniqueness of the film and this was one of the very first films to be placed on moratorium rotation. This was basically a way for a film only having limited release once in every generation, and has subsequently applied to quite a number of Disney films on video. Indeed, it has now been something in the region of ten years I think since this was last made available on video (I missed out on the last limited issue but my parents VHS tape is looking decidedly ropey now). This is of course a great way of maximizing the sales in every generation. Accordingly, it is with many great thanks that we receive this incarnation of the film on DVD.

   The film was put through something of a restoration process for the last incarnation on video and this is the transfer that we now have on DVD. Of course there is no plot per se to the film, as it is a collection of pieces of classical music, to which have been set eight interpretations done in animation. The pieces of music for the completists are:

• J.S. Bach Toccata And Fugue In D Minor
• Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker Suite
• Dukas The Sorcerer's Apprentice
• Stravinsky The Rite Of Spring
• Beethoven Symphony No.6 "Pastoral"
• Ponchielli Dance Of The Hours
• Mussorgsky Night On Bald Mountain
• Schubert Ave Maria

    The combination of sight and sound was an inspiration from Walt Disney, but the execution was sublime. To use the talents of Leopold Stokowski and The Philadelphia Orchestra, at the time the pre-eminent orchestra and conductor in America (with no disrespect to the New York Symphony and Arturo Toscanini), was an inspired choice and resulted in a soundtrack album that still ranks as one of the very best of all time. The blending of the live action silhouette film of Leopold Stokowski in particular with animated footage was brilliantly executed, even down to the little piece between he and Mickey Mouse. But above all else there is the animation, and this ranks amongst the best that came from the early days of the Disney company.

    The film has almost reached the level of the mystical and even sixty years on is still a great piece of animation that will once again be introduced for the first time to a whole new generation of children. It is of course starting to badly show its age at times, but this is as good as it has looked for a fair old while I would think. Certainly this is significantly better than I have seen it before, even though it is a less than perfect transfer. No collection is complete without some Disney animation, and this is one of the DVDs that should be in the collection, not because it is a great DVD, not because it has great extras, but because this is a classic in the true sense of the word. Disney use it on the front cover of the DVD and on the DVD itself - I have no problem with that at all.

Video

    The main issue here is that the sixty year old transfer is looking decidedly soft at times, which does tend to detract a little from the show. This would not have been too bad if it were consistent, but unfortunately most of the segments also display portions that are very respectable as far as sharpness, detail and clarity go. This really highlights even more the softness of the general transfer. Shadow detail varies from decent to good, with the emphasis in the mid range. The silhouette sequences involving Leopold Stokowski are distinctly to the low end of the scale, but that is as intended. This is not in general a clear transfer at all and at times the grain that riddles the transfer gets pretty woeful. There is some low level noise in the transfer. Despite the obvious flaws in the transfer, I have to say that it was perhaps no worse than I was expecting considering its age, and in certain respects it is a lot better than expected, albeit for rather limited sequences.

    One aspect of this film that was always going to cause a mastering nightmare were the colours. Every VHS tape I have seen of this film has demonstrated significant oversaturation of the colours - especially the blues and reds - and this to some extent is inherent in the source material. Accordingly, as good as the effort made here is, there are still problems at times with oversaturation of the colours. Nothing that gets too bad, but enough to be just a tad noticeable. Similarly there did appear to be some colour bleed in the more intense blues in the orchestra scenes. Just like the general transfer though, there are segments of the film that come up really very well indeed for the age of the transfer, and overall I would have to say that this was a decent transfer with some nice vibrancy to the bright colours on offer, albeit with some inconsistency.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer, nor did there seem to be any significant film-to-video artefacts in the transfer. This was made up for by the film artefacts, as is to be expected in a sixty year old film, even one subject to restoration. The flecks that were there might have been a little frequent but I would not consider any of them to be distracting to the film.

    This is an RSDL formatted DVD, with the layer change coming at 85:40. This is a well placed change, at the end of the music concerned and just before the introduction to the next piece. As a result, it is not too noticeable, and I doubt that any better effort could have been made.

    There are just two subtitle options on the DVD, English and English for the Hearing Impaired. There is nothing wrong with them at all, although they obviously don't have an awful lot to do.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    What little dialogue is here has come up well in the transfer, although the introductions do seem to show just a slight hint of audio sync problems. However, this is not unexpected in a sixty year old film.

    Need any more be said about the music score? Some great classical music performed by a great orchestra conducted by a great conductor. One of the best film soundtracks of all time.

    Despite this being a remastered Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack, there is not much here as evidence. The surround channels barely seem to get any action at all, with the rear channels being especially lacking in detail. The overall sound is just a tad congested at times and whilst it does not suffer from the obvious problems of the Clair de Lune segment in the extras, it is still noticeably poorer than should be expected for a 5.0 remaster. There is obviously no bass channel use here. Not the best restoration I have heard for a sixty year old soundtrack, but I suppose that it could have been a lot worse than this - so be thankful for small mercies, as we can actually hear the music quite well indeed.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Featurette - Clair de Lune segment

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

• Audio Commentary by Roy Disney and others
• Archival Interview material by Walt Disney
• Featurette - The Making Of Fantasia
• THX certification
• Additional DTS soundtrack

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall