Back to the Drawing Board: Rejected "Fantasia" Segments

Well, we did it, folks. We survived 2020. I don't think I'm alone in saying that it was an awful year. And I don't think I need to tell you WHY it's widely considered to be an awful year. It was the year that made us think, "Gee, maybe we were a little too harsh on 2016." But we made it through. And for my first post of 2021, I thought I'd do another edition of Back to the Drawing Board, where we do a little dumpster-diving to see what got cut from things that are animated.

Let's talk a little about Fantasia.

Fantasia is one of those movies that they would never make nowadays. Modern animated movies, regardless of how good or bad they are, all sort of follow the same template: CGI-animated, celebrity voices, fast-paced humor, stuff like that. Here we have an animated movie that doesn't even have a plot - it's a series of short films set to music with little to no dialogue (there go the celebrity voices!). And it's a movie that focuses on CLASSICAL MUSIC. Have you seen a recent animated movie? Rarely will they include a song that qualifies as "classical music". Even if it's not a pre-existing song, chances are it's still gonna be a pop song. Classical music will only be thrown in there if it fits a joke.

Regardless, it's probably for these same reasons that Fantasia is seen as a classic. It's just a series of shorts set to music, and that's enough. I mean, they're GOOD shorts. And it really is a testament to the Disney animators' talents that they were able to pull all of these off.

And here's a fun fact for you: Walt Disney wanted to re-release the film again and again over the years, swapping out some segments for new ones with each theatrical release. But due to World War II and the film's not making enough money at the box office to justify the cost, that didn't happen. We wouldn't see another Fantasia until fifty-nine years later, when Disney released Fantasia 2000.

And alas, THAT film wound up underperforming too, and since then Disney has canceled another Fantasia film they had planned, Fantasia 2006. Both Fantasia films have so many segments that it's hard to think of how, exactly, they were able to come up with so many different shorts based on musical compositions. But they did it. And they came up with a LOT of them, and some of those shorts wound up not making it into either film. Thus, today we'll be looking at some segments that DIDN'T make it into either short. Some of them would wind up still being completed and released as shorts (as was the case with several segments intended for Fantasia 2006, such as One By One and Lorenzo) or used in other Disney films (a segment set to "Clair de Lune" was later re-edited and featured as the "Blue Bayou" segment in Make Mine Music). Others wound up in the trash bin, sitting in there for years until being found by animation fanatics on the internet like me. Let's get started, shall we?

"Ride of the Valkyries" (Fantasia)

Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" is one of the most well-known pieces of classical music ever written. Even if you don't know the name of it, there's a very good chance that you've heard it before at least once. Y'know that song Elmer sings in the short What's Opera, Doc? You know, "kill da WABBIT, kill da WABBIT, kill da WABBIT!"? That one? That's "Ride of the Valkyries"! Well, obviously the lyrics were original to the cartoon, but still...

Anyhow, concept art for this segment exists online. The short was apparently supposed to focus on a Norse myth about Valkyries who ride (natch) down to battlefields during wars and took fallen soldiers up to Valhalla. However, Walt didn't think it was a good idea to include the sequence because the song was too closely associated with the Germans, due to the fact that Adolf Hitler loved the music of Richard Wagner. So for any of you that still think Walt was an anti-Semite...

"Adventures in a Perambulator" (Fantasia)

"Adventures in a Perambulator", a 1914 piece, was to be the background music of a segment showing us what a day in the park is like through the eyes of a baby in a stroller. A very interesting idea, in my opinion. Concept art for the segment gives us a pretty good idea of what the segment would've been like.

Apparently, it wasn't intended for the original release of the film, but one of the aforementioned planned re-releases. When the "let's re-release Fantasia multiple times adding in new segments for each re-release" plan got the axe, so did Disney's take on "Adventures in a Perambulator".

"Invitation to the Waltz" (Fantasia)

The original Fantasia's segments feature a lot of characters that went on to become as beloved and popular as Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, etc. in their own right... Yensid, the Brooms, Ben Ali Gator, Hyacinth Hippo, the Dancing Mushrooms, and of course, this guy:

"Maleficent can suck it. I'M the most powerful Disney villain!"

One character from the film that became very popular after its release was the little black pegasus in the segment "The Pastoral Symphony" - did you know that he actually has a name? It's Peter. Peter Pegasus. But we'll just call him Peter. Why did they name him Peter? Well, apparently when they came up with the name, they were working on Peter Pan. And both characters can fly, so...

He's angry because he didn't get to audition for My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

Peter was so popular that the Disney studio considered making more segments with him for future Fantasias. One of these proposed segments was set to "Invitation to the Dance", an 1819 piano composition by Carl Maria von Weber. Throughout the segment, Peter would've encountered ducks and a bumblebee and things like that. Likely would've been like the first few scenes in Bambi. Y'know, if Bambi was black and had wings.

"Baby Ballet" (Fantasia)

Okay, I'm perfectly aware that there isn't a composition called "Baby Ballet". Then again, I know very little about classical music so it's entirely possible that there is indeed a composition called that and I just don't know that because I'm an uncultured idiot. But if such a composition DOES exist, they weren't gonna have it be the score of the segment with the name planned for Fantasia - they were gonna have it be set to Frederick Chopin's "Berceuse, Op. No 57".

And yes, I actually did have to look up "berceuse", because I had no idea what that word meant. Apparently, it's a lullaby. In that case, it's fitting that they were going to use it for a segment about babies...

Anyhow, "Baby Ballet" was to have parodied grand musical revues. They were gonna have babies prancing around in a nursery...

And also in a... barren wasteland with giant candles topped by deflated baby bottles?

In addition to the babies, the segment would've also featured storks looking after the babies because apparently their parents were off doing who knows what.

Apparently, there also would've been... what are those things? Anthropomorphic diapers? I assume those are anthropomorphic diapers.

Dang, this would've been a really weird segment. Not that most of Fantasia's other segments weren't weird (I mean, one of them features DANCING MUSHROOMS), but even for a Fantasia segment this sounds like it would've been strange. I'm honestly kind of disappointed that they never made this one.

"Flight of the Bumblebee" (Fantasia)

Set to Rimsky Korsakov's 1899 piece called... well, "Flight of the Bumblebee", this segment would've starred a wallaby. Just kidding, of course - it would've starred a bumblebee. One interesting thing about this one is that Sam Armstrong, a storyman at the studio, suggested that if they did this one, Walt could project the image of a bee onto the walls of the theater to make it look like it was flying over the audience. That would've been pretty cool. And this was BEFORE 3-D was a major thing in movie theaters!

While the idea of "Flight of the Bumblee" being included in Fantasia wound up getting the proverbial flyswatter, the song wound up being used for a segment in another Disney film - Melody Time. This time, the segment was called "Bumble Boogie" and had a jazzier version of the song play as a bee is attacked by musical instruments. No, really. Look up the segment if you don't believe me.

The Original Version of "Pomp and Circumstance" (Fantasia 2000)

We can't end the article without discussing this one.

Actually, before we get to the segment, I'll admit - I wasn't able to find any information about any hypothetical rejected Fantasia 2000 segments online. How weird is THAT? Apparently, at one point they were going to have a segment starring Goofy called "The Ugly Goofling", but aside from that? Not much... but I knew I had to talk about this one, even if it's more of an early version of a segment that DID make it into the film than a rejected segment.

Okay, now onto the segment... it was then-CEO Michael Eisner's idea to include a segment based on "Pomp and Circumstance" in Fantasia 2000. But that wasn't his ONLY idea for the segment, no, no... he also suggested having it be a big House of Mouse-esque Disney character crossover.

Found this online when trying to look up concept art for this version of the segment.

George Scribner (you probably know him best as the director of Oliver and Company) was given the task of developing the idea, but he and the rest of the crew weren't huge fans of it. David Bossert described it as being "almost nakedly commercial".

Initially, the idea was to have the Disney characters in an orchestra playing at the Hollywood Bowl (see the concept art above). Then they came up with ANOTHER idea, this one focusing on the Disney Princesses.

They whipped up a story reel that wound up getting shown at various Disney presentations and events (like the Destination D thing) over the years. From what I've heard, the sequence would've had all the Disney characters gathering together for some sort of processional thing where... okay, get ready for this... the Disney Princesses and their Princes (at least the ones made before 1994) were going to show everyone... get ready... their babies. Yes, I am not kidding - we would've seen the children of the Disney Princesses being paraded around in strollers and perambulators. Snow White had twins.

There was going to be a lot of stuff going on here. Donald Duck would've been the one to present the kids with their crowns, but he would've run into trouble with the Disney villains, only to get saved by the Magic Carpet from Aladdin. Speaking of Aladdin, there would've been a gag with the Genie selling merchandise as though he was at a baseball game (which in my opinion doesn't feel appropriate for what would've essentially been a christening). The White Rabbit would've blown a trumpet. Mr. Toad, the Reluctant Dragon, Bongo from Fun and Fancy Free, and even Brer Fox and Brer Bear were going to show up.

On top of that, they also wanted to get several of the animators who originally animated the characters appearing in this segment to come back and animate them again. They wanted Marc Davis to animate Tinker Bell for the segment, Ward Kimball to animate Jiminy Cricket, Frank Thomas to animate the fairies from Sleeping Beauty, and Ollie Johnson was going to animate a character too, but I'm not sure which one.

Of course, they needed to pitch this idea to Frank, Marc, Ollie and Ward to get them on board. So they drove them down to the Disney studio, served them a light lunch, and played the story reel for them and Roy Disney. The story reel finished. The lights went back on. For a few seconds, nobody said anything. Then Ward said this was the stupidest idea that he had ever heard.

Yeah, none of the animators liked the idea of this segment. One of them called it "an appalling abuse of the characters". Roy also didn't like the idea of showing the Disney Princesses' kids because he didn't want to give people the mental images of Aurora, Snow White, Cinderella etc. doing the thing that leads to babies being born. Long story short, they wound up tossing out that idea and eventually came up with the "Donald working on Noah's Ark" plot.

So instead of Snow White's offspring, we got these guys.

So in other words, this early version of the "Pomp and Circumstance" segment would've been very much like scene in Ralph Breaks the Internet where Vanellope goes to OhMyDisney.com and hangs out with the Disney Princesses. Bet Roy, Frank, Ollie, Ward, and Marc would've hated THAT, too.

Thank you for joining me on this crazy trip through the Realm of Rejected Fantasia Segments. Please remain seated until the article comes to a complete stop. See you next time.

P.S. I suppose I should mention that I've never actually seen Fantasia 2000. I don't think I've ever seen the original Fantasia in full, either. I hope that's alright.