Fantasia uses pre-existing classical music as the subject of animation that demonstrates three types of music: program music, music that does not have a plot but paints pictures, and absolute music. The film is an example of Disney's imagineering (engineering and imagination), in which images and stories add meaning to the abstract music. Images in the film create a familiar narrative to describe unfamiliar music to middle-class audiences. The structure of The Rite of Spring was modified to fit the narrative of the animators, and the narrative itself is not one intended by Stravinsky. Fantasia can be understood as an effort to construct ideologies of current social positions and behaviors through imagineering of the music, as seen in the animation for Beethoven's Symphony No. 6.

Works: Walt Disney (producer): Sound track to Fantasia.

Sources: J. S. Bach (arranged by Leopold Stokowski): Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (92-96); Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (97-98); Beethoven: Symphony No. 6 in F Major (Pastorale) (99-105).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Film

Contributed by: Karen Anton Stafford