Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
Seventy five years ago this month, Walt Disney Productions released a film called Fantasia.
The movie is not your typical Disney flick. You won't see any princesses here. Instead, what you see is a collection of eight animated segments set to pieces of classical music. The movie was originally intended to be a short, but it grew.
"It grew, like an acorn grows into a mighty oak," says John Canemaker, Oscar-winning animation director and author of "The Lost Notebook: Herman Schultheis and the secrets of Walt Disney's Movie Magic."
"Because Disney was such an imaginative and expansionist type of entrepreneur, it just grew into an idea to do an entire feature of short classical pieces using classical music."
Today, Fantasia continues to be recognized for its cinematic and sound innovation. It was the first commercial film to be released in stereo.
"[Fantasia was] a singular effort to move beyond conventional narratives and to explore alternative story-telling possibilities in color and graphics," says Canemaker.
To celebrate its big anniversary, there will be screenings held throughout the country. You can find a theater near you here.