How Animators Created the Elaborate “Ave Maria” Sequence for ‘Fantasia’
You know what doesn’t help an already challenging multiplane camera set up? An earthquake.
Published Features, MoviesBy Meg ShieldsDisclaimerWhen you purchase through affiliate links on our site, we may earn a commission.
Welcome to How’d They Do That? — a bi-monthly column that unpacks moments of movie magic and celebrates the technical wizards who pulled them off.This entry explains why the “Ave Maria” sequence in Disney’s Fantasia was one of the most challenging filmmaking moments in animation history.
Fantasiawas Walt Disney’s greatest and weirdest experiment. Conceived as a technical playground unfettered from linear narrative, the 1940 film is as much an artifact of Disney’s relentless desire to innovate as it is a glimpse into what feature animation could have looked like had the film been a success. Conceptually, Fantasia was to demonstrate what the studio, and the medium of animation itself, couldaccomplish. Nearly a century later, Fantasia remains the most surreal, phantasmagoric, and ambitious feature film Disney has ever produced.
Fantasia consists of seven sequences set to classical music arranged by Leopold Stokowski. The lights go down and our master of ceremonies, music critic Deems Taylor, warmly introduces us to the premise of Fantasia itself.
Soon, the concert hall fades away and Stokowski’s famous free-hand conducting takes on a grand and patently cinematic aspect, his fingers arcing with the purpose and power of an especially fearsome magician. And so, by Stokowski’s back-lit machinations, we are transported: to impressionistic miasma, to the dawn of life, to a mythic past, and to a final act that sees life and hope triumph over death and chaos.
Based in the Pacific North West, Meg enjoys long scrambles on cliff faces and cozying up with a good piece of 1960s eurotrash. As a senior contributor at FSR, Meg's objective is to spread the good word about the best of sleaze, genre, and practical effects.