This film is aesthetically beautiful, it's Disney's wonderous fantasy and I love every moment of it. My favorite scenes are :

· Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.....excerpts from the "Nutcracker Suite"
· Paul Dukas.....The Sorcerer's Apprentice featuring Mickey Mouse, my favorite cartoon character.
· Ludwig Van Beethoven.....Symphony No. 6 op. 68 "The Pastoral" with the setting of ancient Greece (I studied Mythology as a hobby).
· Modest Mussorgsky ....Night on Bald Mountain and...
· Franz Schubert....."Ave Maria" op. 52, no. 6, the climatic depiction of the struggle between the profane an the sacred.

this movie is a classic one of the best disney movies of all time the best segment is the one with mickey mouse in it and the animation is fantastic this movie is much better than bambi if you love classic music get this.

Let's put it this way: if "Fantasia" came today I'd think it's great. But taking into considaration that it was made over 65 years ago take it to masterpiece level. Unless you don't like classical music at all, you should really check this one out. 4 stars!

I'm not sure why some people make a link between this movie and drug use, but I guess it is kind of a trippy movie. I see it more as a stroll through a museum of modern art. You either enjoy that sort of thing or you don't. Fantasia is more for the lover of classical music. Me? I LOVE classical music. The music in Fantasia is simply like none other in any other Disney movie. It's neither lyrical like Snow White or Bambi. It's not pop music or Broadway extravaganzas like in Beauty and the Beast. But the music's relationship to the animation on screen is simply a work of art. Fantasia is greatly superior to Fantasia 2000 by possessing better classical pieces and more evocative sequences. The Sorceror's Apprentice is a bit outdated now, but is still a classic. However, I love Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and the sequence with the gold fish(the name escapes me). The Pastoral Symphony is bright and cheerful but not afraid to show nudity in an innocent sense. Night On Bald Mountain is brilliantly terrifying and powerful and definitely not one children should watch, as it contains scary imagery like skeletal ghosts and harpies that actually show their breasts. However, Night On Bald Mountain's fade into the serene and religious Ave Maria is a wonderful contrast. All in all, a great animated movie.

Fantasia is fabulouse, a movie like no other. Each piece of glorious classical music is accompanied by gorgeous animation depicting what you might see in your mind listening to the piece. My personal favorite segments are the Nutcracker Suite and the Pastoral sequence by Beethoven.

Hrm....I agree with Athena. I might be a bit biased, because I just never was a fan of classical music. I enjoy rock music MUCH more. If you love classical music, you will love this film. If not, just skip ahead to The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and the little part with Chernabog. The film has no story whatsoever. It is all music. Only consider watching this film all the way through if you are a classical music fan or a Disney fanatic.

To call this film 'experimental' or 'daring' is putting it mildly. Remember that Disney had made the world's first feature length animated movie only 3 years before 'Fantasia'. Then again, perhaps that's how Disney was able to try something this different on: there was barely a tradition to defy back in 1940.

It's a bit ironic: 'Fantasia' was a critical but not a commercial success at the time. I grew up decades later with my father telling me how it was so far ahead of its time, and that nobody was ready for it - and throughout the later quarter of the 20th century I think 'Fantasia' was held in a sort of awe, as Disney's greatest masterpiece. A film that was too highbrow for a 1940's audience.

Today, things have swung back the other way a bit. Nobody really cares any more whether it was highbrow or not, and if you do away with the snob value of digging such an experimental, unsuccessful, 'artistic' film, you find that it's not quite the masterpiece you were brought up to believe. Absolutely 10 out of 10 for daring, and 'Night on the Bald Mountain' is so awesome that it lifts 'Fantasia' up to three stars all by itself - but I have a similar reaction to Athena. Maybe I'm a lazy viewer, but I like a fairly straightforward narrative, too. Add to that the fact that some of the 'segments' work quite a lot better than others, and that the spoken introduction seems awfully dated and clunky, and you're left with a film that I'm glad Disney made, but equally glad he only made once. As a matter of fact, I'm inclined to enjoy the Italian spoof/tribute 'Allegro non Tropo' a little more!

HistNote: I think this is the last feature movie Disney himself actually does voice work in (Mickey in the Sorcerer's Apprentice scene)

I'm very much a story person, which is probably why I didn't enjoy this film--there is no story. It's basically two-hours worth of music videos. The score is entirely classical music and, if you like classical music, you'll probably be in seventh heaven... if you don't, I definately wouldn't recommend this movie. Parts of the film are quite enjoyable, but this is definately a movie I watch with my finger on the fast-forward button. In my books, that doesn't say much about the complete package.

The animation style varies from segment to segment. Some of it is very "experimental," just playing with shapes and colours while some feels very "traditional-Disney" like the dancing hippos and the crocodiles or Mickey as the Sorceror's apprentice. The most impressive animation is likely the 'Night on a Bald Mountain' which I recall watching with my hands over my eyes as a child.