Fantasia

     

     For some reason I always think 'Fantasia' came later in the Disney order of things not as the third animated feature. To me you either really like the concept of 'Fantasia' or really dislike it. I said 'Pinocchio' has one of the biggest influences on Disney as one of its Animated films, but when you look at the big picture 'Fantasia' really takes the cake for influence and for me I don't really consider it one of the classic Disney animated films, because its not really telling a story and its more than just about the animation, to me its in its own little category. I mean let's look at some of what 'Fantasia' has inspired or touched at WDW: Philharmagic, Fantasmic, Spectromagic, Sorcerer's Hat icon,  The infamous Epcot wand, Great Movie Ride, Fantasia Gardens mini-golf, All-Star Movies resort, Magic of Disney Animation entrance, the old Sorcery in the Sky fireworks at the studios, and you can even go to say the Universe of Energy drew inspiration by the Stegosaurus/T-Rex fight sequence.

     You can tell there's been a change in audiences that watch Disney animated films, because this was clearly aimed at adults as many kids would of probably been bored sitting through two hours of classical music. When you think it's only one of two Feature Animation to have a sequel that was a theatrical release and not straight to DVD, 'Fantasia 2000', the only other being 'The Rescuers' and 'The Rescuers: Down Under' says alot about the strength the film had. Look at any Imagineer's name tag and see what the icon for an Imagineer is and lets not forget also how many Disney buildings sport the Sorcerer's Hat into their design world wide, from the animation building in California to a show building in Disneyland Paris.

     Need we also forget that it just also was the inspiration for the film 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice', complete with recreation of the title sequence from the animated film.

     Then you can even get into all the actual merchandise that they sell in the parks from recreations of the Sorcerer's hat to even t-shirts resembling Sorcerer Apprentice Mickey's robe.

     Those are all reasons why I put this film above it's status as just one of the 50 animated Walt Disney Feature Animation films. A movie with so much pull I feel deserves its own plateau to stand on, because this is truly the icon and image of all that is Walt Disney and Disney in general and never has one single Disney character had so much of a presence than Sorcerer Apprentice Mickey.