"In a profession that has been an unending voyage of discovery in the realms of color, sound, and motion, Fantasia represents our most exciting adventure. At last we have found a way to use in our medium the great music of all times and the flood of new ideas which it inspires. Perhaps Bach and Beethoven are strange bedfellows for Mickey Mouse, but it's all been a lot of fun."

And now book lovers can share in that fun and join in the adventure with Walt and the talented artists who created the Studio's most ambitious masterpiece. This is the one Disney film that is in continuous release; it is always playing somewhere,
attracting new viewers year after year. For the millions of Fantasia's fans, here is the story of its creation — documented with character sketches, paintings, models, and actual animation frames from the film. Author John Culhane brings the reader into Walt Disney's story meetings and conferences by means of quotes taken from the Studio transcripts in those halcyon early days.

Some of the towering figures of twentieth century music appear in these pages— Leopold Stokowski, conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, the composer of Rite of Spring, George Balanchine, the great choreographer, visiting the Studio when the hippo ballerina was being animated for Dance of the Hours.

This is the definitive book on Fantasia, and the first since a 1940 publication, now a collector's item. Much of the material has never before been published; many of the illustrations come from the valuable collection of original art and animation drawings in the Disney Archives.

A throng of brilliantly imagined Disney characters romp through these pages: everyone's favorite— Mickey Mouse; dancing Chinese mushrooms; mythological flying horses; dinosaurs; hippopotamus ballerinas; plus seductively undulating goldfish and villainous alligators. And the marvelously colorful settings illustrate Disney's assumption that for every beautiful melody there is a beautiful picture.

The new Fantasia release in winter, 1982, with the sound track freshly recorded in Dolby digital stereo, has increased the film's already large following. For those who will be seeing this classic for the first time, as well as for the faithful returnees,
this book will be a revelation.

280 illustrations, including 130 plates in full color.