User blog:ARTaylor/75 Years of Fantasia

Today is the seventy-fifth anniversary of the release of Fantasia. The classic film was the third feature from Walt Disney Productions. Fantasia is a series of animated shorts set to classical music, composed by the famous Leopold Stokowski who also stars in the film. It was to be something different for the studio, playing with music and visuals rather than delivering family-oriented entertainment. It does hold the distinction of being the first film presented with stereo sound. The film was intended to launch a series of features based around similar musical shorts. Sadly, the film was not well-received upon its initial release failing to get back its budget, though this was partially due to the war in Europe. Fantasia has since become one of the studio's most famous features, been inducted into the National Film Registry, spawned a sequel fifty-nine years later, has been included in numerous Disney projects since, one segment having gotten remade into live-action with another in production, and is currently considered one of the greatest films ever made.