Fantasia

A masterpiece of the art of animation. The concept and some of the episodes are tainted with kitsch, but there's no other animated film with its scope and ambition—it is, in Otis Ferguson's words, “one of the strange and beautiful things that have happened in the world.” Read full review

Throughout Fantasia, Disney pushes the edges of the envelope. Read full review

Fantasia is simply terrific—as terrific as anything that has ever happened on a screen. Read full review

It is icon, uplift, art of the future, nostalgia, psychedelic journey, Americana, technological triumph, classic. Read full review

Fantasia is caviar to the general, ambrosia and nectar for the intelligentsia. It makes no compromises; it is the noblest experiment of a wizard in his bright field of artistry and creativeness. [30 Jan 1941, p. 9]

The most ambitious animated feature ever to come out of the Disney studios, Fantasia integrates famous works of classical music with wildly uneven but extraordinarily imaginative visuals that run the gamut from dancing hippos to the purely abstract. It's like a feature-length compilation of elaborate Silly Symphonies Read full review

This is a bold work that seeks to educate its young audience about classical music. But it is also playful and delightfully imaginative. Read full review

To fully appreciate Fantasia, it's best not to think of the animated sequences as visual adaptations of the music. Instead, think of the music as accompanying the images. [01 Nov 1991, p.28]

Like those other one-in-a-million films (E.T., for example), Fantasia is truly entertainment for kids of all ages. [31 Oct 1991, p.4E]

Fearless mix of classical music and animation, the one movie to satisfy that oft-misused adjective ''unique.'' [01 Nov 1991, p.3D]

Envisioned as a musical symphony come to life, Fantasia is a bizarre, almost trippy experience rich with hypnotic visuals, dazzling animation and beautiful music. Read full review

Though Disney's toddling cannot keep pace with the giant strides of Ludwig van Beethoven, Fantasia as a whole leaves its audience gasping. Critics may deplore Disney's lapses of taste, but he trips, Mickey-like, into an art form that immortals from Aeschylus to Richard Wagner have always dreamed of. Read full review

Fantasia best can be described as a successful experiment to life the relationship from the plane of popular, mass entertainment to the higher strata of appeal to lovers of classical music. Read full review

Fantasia is mashed potatoes and gravy but there's more than a hint of beluga there too. Read full review

It’s unquestionably among Disney’s masterpieces. Read full review

Disney's attempts at the visual illustration of Beethoven and Co - a dubious exercise anyway - produce Klassical Kitsch of the highest degree. Awesomely embarrassing; but some great sequences for all that, and certainly not to be missed. Read full review

Walt Disney meets classical music with a film that didn't become famous until it was re-released in the '60s and became the ultimate drug film for folks fond of LSD. It is a wonderful animation trip for adults but children might be a bit bored by the lack of story and long running time. Treat it like MTV - a few bits here and there instead of one sitting. [01 Nov 1991, p.35]

This is a very patchy affair - while some of the animated pieces work, others come across as downright insane. Read full review