Disney’s missing Fantasia sequel still left four finished shorts behind
Disney’s planned third Fantasia was shelved, but four completed shorts from the project were released between 2003 and 2006.
Disney once imagined Fantasia as a constantly changing concert film, not a one-off. That plan faded, returned for Fantasia 2000, then stalled again on a third movie that never arrived, even though several shorts connected to it were completed and released.
From Walt Disney’s yearly idea to a canceled third film
When Fantasia opened at the Broadway Theater in New York on Nov. 13, 1940, Walt Disney’s goal was much bigger than one feature. He had said in 1940 that the studio intended to create a new version every year, with segments rotating in and out while the film stayed in release.
That did not happen. Fantasia underperformed at the box office, and its early presentation was costly because Fantasound required specially equipped theaters. The film first opened in only 14 theaters, and the idea of regularly replacing segments was dropped.
A few planned pieces found new homes. Clair de Lune was reworked into Blue Bayou for 1946’s Make Mine Music, and Peter and the Wolf also ended up in that film. Other proposed segments, including Invitation to the Waltz, Humoresque, Swan of Tuonela and Ride of the Valkyries, were never made.
The concept finally returned decades later. After Fantasia reached home video in 1991 and sold 8 million copies worldwide, Roy E. Disney pushed forward a sequel. Fantasia 2000 premiered at Carnegie Hall on Dec. 17, 1999, then opened in IMAX on Jan. 1, 2000, with seven new segments plus The Sorcerer’s Apprentice from the original.
What survived from ‘Fantasia 2006,’ and what fans can watch now
Disney began work on a third Fantasia after Fantasia 2000. Fans often refer to it as Fantasia 2006, while Dave Bossert has said he preferred the name Fantasia World because each segment was tied to the music and culture of a different part of the world.
The feature was shelved, but four shorts connected to it were finished. Destino, the long-dormant collaboration started by Walt Disney and Salvador Dali in 1946, was completed in 2003, premiered at the Annecy animation festival in France on June 2, 2003, and later received an Oscar nomination. Lorenzo, directed by Mike Gabriel from an idea by Joe Grant, played with Raising Helen on May 28, 2004, and was also nominated. One by One, directed by Pixote Hunt and Bossert and set in a South African township, was released on the Lion King 2 DVD on Aug. 31, 2004. The Little Matchgirl, Roger Allers’ dialogue-free take on the Hans Christian Andersen story set to Borodin, arrived on The Little Mermaid DVD on Oct. 3, 2006, and was nominated as well.
Bossert has described the abandoned feature as a political hot potato while Roy E. Disney and Michael Eisner were in conflict. Disney was also moving toward computer animation in that period. For viewers now, Fantasia, Fantasia 2000, Destino and The Little Matchgirl are on Disney+, while Lorenzo is not currently streaming in the U.S., and Make Mine Music is not on Disney+ either.
