'Fantasia' to return in full stereo sound
Deseret News, 12 October 1977, page 6E
For the first time, Utah moviegoers will have the opportunity of hearing the music in Walt Disney's "Fantasia" in stereophonic sound, when the film is presented at the Regency Theater next week.
This is the sound system in which it was released to a few theaters in 1940. When it played in Utah on the first release, no theater was equipped to handle the sound. Since then, the movie has been re-released at least five times, but never in Utah in the full stereo sound.
The difference between earlier exhibitions of the film and the new exhibition will be about like that between the first print of "Star Wars" and the one that currently is showing at the Centre. The film's full sound value was not possible until the new print. Now, it is like a new movie, according to moviegoers who have seen both prints.
For "Fantasia," this sound means even more than it does in "Star Wars" because Disney produced "Fantasia" for stereophonic sound.
"Fantasia" was Disney's only "failure" at the box office for many years. It failed to make money during its first release and during subsequent issues until about seven years ago when the psychedelic colors were discovered. Then young moviegoers flocked to the film. Also, when it was first released World War II had started and the foreign market was closed.
"Fantasia" has meant much to Utahns. The late Leigh Harline, a native of Utah, was musical director for the film. A couple of Utahns worked on various phases of the cartooning. Twice now, the Mormon Youth Symphony and Choir has included a number from "Fantasia" on a special program, and in September a program in the Salt Palace featured the orchestra and choir doing "Sorcerer's Apprentice" and other numbers from the picture with film from the movie being shown.
Actually, "Fantasia" began as an attempt by Disney to upgrade his "Silly Symphonies," which had started in 1932. In 1937, Disney received the rights to make a movie short based on "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," with Mickey Mouse as the star. (Incidentally, in the completed film, Mickey had pupils in his eyes for the first time.)
Before "Apprentice" was completed, Disney had talked to Leopold Stokowski, then conductor of the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, about adding other music to the "Sorcerer" film. Out of these talks the "Fantasia" project came into being.
This was Disney's wedding of classical music and art. Besides "Sorcerer's Apprentice," the production features Tschaikiwsky's "Nutcracker Suite," Bach's "Toccata and Fuge in D Minor," Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony," Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring," Ponchelli's "Dance of the Hours," Moussorgsky's "Night On Bald Mountain" and Schubert's "Ave Maria."
Each musical piece is accompanied by suitably descriptive animated work, such as the hippos dancing in one scene, with delicate light music being played, and like Mickey racing up and down stairs carrying buckets of water and then using the Sorcerer's magic wand to make the broom do the carrying.
The film has become one of Hollywood's classics.