Fantasia (DVD + Blu-ray, with DVD Packaging) Blu Ray – Leopold Stokowski, Deems Taylor

Please note this is a region B Blu-ray and will require a region B or region free Blu-ray player in order to play. Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. Walt Disney’s timeless masterpiece is an extravaganza of sight and sound – now brilliantly presented in high definition with an all-new digital restoration! Blu-ray technology finally makes it possible for you to experience Fantasia the way Walt envisioned! Plus, an exploration of the new Disney Family Museum and dynamic new bonus features allow generations of moviegoers to enjoy this musical masterpiece like never before. No family’s Disney collection is complete without Fantasia! See the music come to life, hear the pictures burst into song and experience the excitement that is Fantasia over and over again through the magic of Blu-ray and DVD!

Groundbreaking on several counts, not the least of which was an innovative use of animation and stereophonic sound, this ambitious Disney feature has lost nothing to time since its release in 1940. Classical music was interpreted by Disney animators, resulting in surreal fantasy and playful escapism. Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra provided the music for eight segments by the composers Tchaikovsky, Moussorgsky, Stravinsky, Beethoven, Ponchielli, Bach, Dukas and Schubert. Not all the sequences were created equally, but a few are simply glorious, such as “Night on Bald Mountain”, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and “The Nutcracker Suite”. The animation ranges from subtly delicate to fiercely bold. The screen bursts with colour and action as creatures transmute and convention is thrust aside. The painstaking detail and saturated hues are unique to this film, unmatched even by more advanced technology. –Rochelle O’Gorman