Fantasia/Nightmare Fuel

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


"Fantasia" is already the most "adult" classic full length animated film Disney ever made. This makes it already a bit different than most of their other full length animated films. Almost all of the segments take place in the dark.

  • Near the end of the "Toccata and Fuga" segment a strange shape can be seen walking from the camera back to the distance. It is shaped as a coffin and accompanied by very frightening music.
  • "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"
    • The wizard has a very eerie piercing stare in his big eyes. He never ever speaks, which makes him appear all the more menacing.
    • Mickey chopping up the broom. A Deleted Scene (existing in pencil test form) had Mickey doing it onscreen.
  • "The Rite of Spring".
    • The creation of the universe is very eerie, due to the threatening music. Especially when Earth comes closer and it seems as if the viewer will be crushed by the planet.
    • The brutal battle between the Stegosaurus and the T-rex.
    • The dinosaurs dying from starvation is also very disturbing. Especially the one who wants to dig up something to eat and then slowly realizes there isn't anything there. While he sits there, tired of his fruitless search the desert wind starts blowing against his back and you realize he is doomed.
  • The Night On Bald Mountain. Everything that ever went bump in the night, all rolled up in one burning Black Mass presided over by a 50-foot Chernabog, complete with Glowing Eyes of Doom, demonic leers of delight, and terrifying snarls. Do NOT watch this after dark with the lights off. It's one of Disney's highest points in animation, with stellar special effects... and they just make it worse.

From Fantasia 2000

  • The Firebird Suite.
    • The embodiment of life and nature destroyed by a horrific firebird. Which comes in the form of a volcanic eruption.
    • One of the most heart-stopping, jump-scaring, Eye Open moments ever. The song already came prepackaged with its very own music sting, and the animators ran with it.
    • The scene where the Nature Sprite scrambles up a tree to escape the Firebird. It really looks like she might escape... and then we see the Firebird slowly rise up from behind her...