History

Major Post 4 By Victoria Courchesne

*To begin, watch the side by side comparison of The Pastoral Symphony on YouTube here.*

If you were to see the recent edition of the Disney film Fantasia, you would surely be marveled at the artistry of the film and leave pleasantly content. But, if you were to see the original edition of the film, I’m sure you would not come away from the film with the same feeling. This would be because the original film contained racial stereotypes, largely being in the short The Pastoral Symphony. The short features the character Sunflower, a young centaur who is the groomer to the older centaurs. Upon the films re-release for television in 1969 after the civil rights movement, the frame was cropped in the shots that had Sunflower in it. By sweeping the evidence of the stereotyped character under the rug, Disney has managed to pass the re-releases off as if the controversy never existed. In an Entertainment Weekly article in 1991, Disney editor John Carnochan said that he was appalled that the stereotypes were even in the film. Disney was re-releasing the film for its 50^th anniversary for the first time on DVD, so Carnochan oversaw refurbishing the film. In conclusion, while some films might be viewed as masterpieces of their time, they could have dark pasts as such does Fantasia.

Part two in my major post 5

Sources:

https://ew.com/article/1991/11/29/changes-restored-version-fantasia/