RELEASED IN 1940, THE SAME YEAR AS "PINOCCHIO", "FANTASIA" REPRESENTED A SORT OF LEAP OF FAITH FOR WALT DISNEY: IT WAS AN AUDACIOUS EXPERIMENT FOR THE STUDIO, A GAMBLE IN ALMOST EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD. THE MOVIE IS A “PACKAGE FEATURE” MADE UP OF VARIOUS ANIMATED SEGMENTS SET TO RENOWNED PIECES OF CLASSICAL MUSIC.

Tied together not by a story but by live-action interstitial scenes featuring iconic conductor Leopold Stokowski, the animated segments range from a comedic ballet of ostriches, hippos and elephants to the music of Amilcare Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours” to a muscular clash between dinosaurs set to Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.” Fauns, centaurettes and a family of flying horses gambol in an Arcadian mythological landscape backed by Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony; goldfish entwine and leaves, flowers and mushrooms dance to music from Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker,” and abstract colors and forms flash across the screen to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. A small mountain village is threatened by a giant demon and then saved, to a medley of Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” and Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria.”

Come and enjoy this exhibition of a dozen original artworks created by Disney artists for the 1940 movie and related projects, ranging from concept paintings and drawings to actual cels used in production, all selected from The Hilbert Collection. Disney artists whose works are part of this exhibition include Sylvia Holland, James Bodrero, Campbell Grant and Lee Blair.

Mary Platt, Director