A collection of lavishly animated visualizations of classical music, Disney’s 1940 movie Fantasia is a true cinematic masterpiece. Each frame overflows with thought and intention. The hand-drawn imagery is gorgeous, clearly painstaking to animate. It’s a film very much out of time with today’s children’s entertainment, the fast-paced cartoons with mile-a-minute jokes and cartoon avatars that break the fourth wall. Which is why showing your children Fantasia is an incredible parenting hack. For little audiences, the film’s relatively staid nature could be a turn-off, but for the harried parent who can’t handle the spillover noise from another episode of a frenetic kids cartoon, Fantasia is a balm and about as guilt-free a choice for screen-time-as-child care any mom or dad could hope for.
A key part of Fantasia’s appeal is that it functions almost like a classical radio station. Though Baby Einstein’s thesis that classical music makes your kids smarter was basically debunked, it still feels smarter to fill your home with Bach or Beethoven. The music, written long before phrases like “screen time” or “Baby Shark” existed, dictates the pace. So Fantasia’s visuals are as rich and languid as Tchaikovsky. The music has recurring motifs, lengthy crescendos that the animation respects, lingering on bacchanalian scenes or Mickey Mouse and the marching of an army of enchanted brooms. It’s trippy but wholesome in equal measures. And if the kids are watching while you try to get some work done in the other room, the music is much less distracting than even the best modern kids entertainment — to say nothing of whatever Cocomelon is yelling about.
The film’s first segment is an animated synesthesia, an abstract vision of colors and shapes accompanying Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, with the only dialogue coming from Fantasia’s master of ceremonies, composer and critic Deems Taylor. In his introductions to each piece, Taylor has a comforting mid-century patter. Other segments do have clear narratives, like the one featuring Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” which turns the Russian composer’s ballet into a history of life on Earth. To watch Fantasia, you’d think Stravinsky wrote it intending to be a natural-history lesson, so perfectly does the music thematically match the action. Timpani drums boom as volcanoes explode with lava on a newly formed planet. Uneasy strings soundtrack a creature’s tentative first steps out of the primordial sea, and intense, dissonant horns blare as a T. rex engages in an epic battle with a powerful planet eater. It’s a nice surprise that, 80-plus years later, evolutionary science holds up better than you might expect.
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Another highlight is a segment scored to Beethoven’s “The Pastoral Symphony,” classical music about the Classics. The tale of Greek mythology has centaurs, satyrs, and baby Pegasi frolicking around until Zeus decides to rain on (and throw lightning bolts at) the parade. And then, rather than adapt the actual plot of “The Nutcracker Suites,” the film’s interpretation of the piece eschews a clear narrative of any sort. Instead, it dazzles with dancing mushrooms and fairies twinkling the morning dew.
Even when Mickey Mouse appears, it’s far more magical than any other cartoon he’s been in — literally and figuratively. The “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” casts Mickey as a would-be wizard whose spell goes awry when he tries on his master’s magical hat in an effort to get out of doing his chores. Enchanted brooms come to life to do his bidding, but they lose control and flood the sanctum with bucket after bucket of water. Mickey scrambles to fix his mistake. He’s a familiar character doing funny things, but in Fantasia, this Mickey isn’t using his squeaky voice to explain anything to young viewers or literalize any feelings. It’s something more profound. Fantasia invites viewers to get lost in his dance; kids and adults alike might find themselves enthralled.
Turning on the TV to occupy your child’s attention for a little bit is hardly a new idea, but streaming and YouTube have made this necessary parenting evil all the more fraught, relentless, and in many cases, annoying. Fantasia is the solve. Its classical melodies are a relief to a busy parent’s ear and stimulating for a child’s. Showing your child Fantasia encourages them to sink into something crafted with human hands, which is likely not what you’re consuming either. For as well as Fantasia plays in the background, it might benefit parents to sit down next to their kids and watch, too.
