Fantasia gets a Pixar homage and a Disney remake

It’s been an interesting week for fans of Disney’s Fantasia.

First, Disney-Pixar released a teaser for The Good Dinosaur — and a key moment in it just happens to pay homage to the ‘Rite of Spring’ sequence in the earlier film.

Here is the teaser for The Good Dinosaur:

Here is the key shot from that teaser:

And here are the key shots from Fantasia to which this image pays homage:

Second, it was announced that Disney is developing a live-action version of the ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ sequence from Fantasia.

The Hollywood Reporter says the new film’s approach will be “similar to what Disney did with Maleficent”, which makes one wonder if the new film will suggest that the demonic Chernobog was really just a poor, abused, misunderstood fairy.

Anyway, this wouldn’t be the first time that Disney has made a live-action film based on a sequence from Fantasia. Five years ago, they released The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, a modern-day story starring Nicolas Cage and Jay Baruchel that had very little in common with the Mickey Mouse sequence in Fantasia but did pay homage to it, in a scene where Baruchel’s mops are out of his control and flooding the room.

In addition to that film and Maleficent (the latter of which was a subversive retelling of Sleeping Beauty), over the last twenty years the studio has produced live-action versions of 101 Dalmatians, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast, the last two of which are still in production. Disney is also developing live-action versions of Dumbo, Mulan, Pinocchio, Winnie the Pooh and, again, 101 Dalmatians (though this new version will be called Cruella).

Props to my friend Steven D. Greydanus for catching the Fantasia homage in The Good Dinosaur. Speaking of whom: if you haven’t checked out his article celebrating the 75th anniversary of Fantasia and comparing it to the Sistene Chapel, do.

Here is the original ‘Night on Bald Mountain’ sequence from Fantasia, though this version features a different recording than the one used in the film:

And here is the ‘Rite of Spring’ sequence: