Walt Disney's Fantasia

by

Various Artists

Edit

For fans of FANTASIA this CD is a nice companion to the DVD. You can relive the magic of the film with the audio tracks of the amazingly vivid and expressive performances of Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Those who just listen to the CD will probably be puzzled by the somewhat odd sound of the recording. These tracks were never intended for home listening. The selections for FANTASIA, with one exception, were recorded in 1939 in Philadelphia on film using a pioneering multitrack system. At a time when stereo recording was still just an experiment at Bell Labs, Disney recorded Stokowski and the Philly Orch using four or more different tracks (all on separate film reels) for a multi-dimensional audio experience. The resulting "Fantasound" was only ever presented at just a few select theatres at the original FANTASIA "road-show" engagements.

This revolutionary sound recording sadly has mostly been lost. When FANTASIA was put into general release, the film was cut and the "Fantasound" soundtracks were mixed down to the standard mono track of films of the time. The mono version persisted through multiple releases while the original multitrack masters decayed or disappeared altogether.

The present CD and DVD soundtracks derive from Disney's engineers recent restoration of the surviving sound elements to recreate something of the magic of the lost original. We can thank them for the effort and enjoy these exciting performances in what is probably the best sound they can be found in today. Although the best way to hear it is in the surround 5.1 tracks on the DVD. The fade effects as the sound moves around to match the screen images can sound very peculiar when the recording is listened to alone.

The history of Fantasia's recording and restoration is well documented in a bonus docu-feature on the 60th Anniversary DVD.

One interesting, but little-known side-fact is that the orchestra heard in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is not the Philadelphia! This piece was recorded in Hollywood in 1938 with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic when the "Sorcerer" was originally planned as a deluxe short subject. It was at this time that Stokowski and Disney conceived the idea of a full "Concert Feature" and the remaining tracks were then recorded with the Phildelphia Orchestra including three others that didn't make it into the film.

Anyway, it's still a unique sound/music experience and well worth a listen! Are there better recordings of these works? Of course there are, including ones made by Stokowski. But there's only one FANTASIA!

I agree with the numerous reviewers who bemoan the questionable sound quality on these CDs. FANTASIA was revolutionary for its time, featuring multitrack "Fantasound" audio 13 years before the first "stereo" films were released. In the opinions of many, FANTASIA was one of Disney's greatest moments, and it remains a visual masterpiece 66 years after its initial release. The music in the film was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Leopold Stokowski, who was one of the (if not THE) most prominent conductors in the country at the time. The Fantasound recordings must have indeed been impressive to say the least, if one was fortunate enough to see the film in one of the few theatres where it was presented as such. However, since the audio equipment necessary for Fantasound was very expensive for theatres to install, the audio tracks were mixed to conventional monaural for general theatrical release. The mono soundtrack has remained through subsequent rereleases; sadly, the multitrack Fantasound masters and release prints are lost or no longer exist, period. When the film was rereleased in 1982, it was presented with an all new digital soundtrack recorded by Irwin Kostal with an uncredited orchestra. While the original Stokowski performances are the preferred versions PERFORMANCE-WISE, the new recording nevertheless allowed the music to be once again experienced in multi-channel stereo the way it was intended.

For the film's 50th anniversary theatrical (and subsequent home video) release in 1990, Disney utilized the monaural Stokowski tracks along with other surviving sources and production records to try to recreate the Fantasound effect as closely as possible. It is with these new audio mixes that the film is presented today, and from which this CD was made.

The result is mixed, however interesting. I admire Disney's desire to try to recreate the Fantasound experience from existing mono sources (the multitrack masters no longer exist) and we must commend them for doing the best they could with the materials at their disposal; it was an ambitious project, I'm sure. But let's be realistic...you can only "enhance" 65 year old monaural audio tracks so much before the result becomes undesirable. I have nothing against mono recordings--some of the finest material ever put on records, as well as some of the finest films, were recorded and released monaurally--and I would have been completely satisfied if Disney had just properly restored the existing tracks and released them in pure mono. The result would have been simply glorious.

I also have the 1982 Irwin Kostal recordings on CD (another reviewer has uploaded pictures of these so you'll know which CDs I'm talking about). Although the performances are somewhat less inspired than the Stokoswki originals, the digital stereo sound is far easier to take than the original soundtrack, so my preference would be for those CDs - which, unfortunately, are out of print and hard to find.

When the film is rereleased on DVD in the next few years, I would love to see the Stokowski tracks presented in true mono (at least as an option), or even an all new recording, maybe by Mauceri and the H'wood Bowl Orchestra? And ultimately, we can still hold out hope that the multi-channel Fantasound sources may turn up somewhere.