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The Sorcerer’s Apprentices: Authorship and Sound Aesthetics in Walt Disney’s Fantasia

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Date Issued:
2017
Summary:
This thesis makes three claims new to the critical literature onWalt Disney’s 1940 film Fantasia. Setting the scene by placing a spotlight on the long-serving Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski, it contextualizes his pervasive influence, as well as contributions by others that shaped Fantasia and defined the film’s stylistic elements. Inspired by recent critical debates on post-silent era filmmaking and theories of authorship, it makes a case for Fantasia being the culmination of a “sound film” and notes that its displays of individual artistic talent makes it a noteworthy example of distributed authorship. Fantasia remains a unique experiment in Disney’s filmmaking in that it acquired its eventual form only because of decisions taken during production since no absolute “blue-print” for the finished film existed at the time it went into production, when a large selection of musical numbers were assigned to teams of animators.
Title: The Sorcerer’s Apprentices: Authorship and Sound Aesthetics in Walt Disney’s Fantasia.
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Name(s): Fernandez, Daniel, author
Guneratne, Anthony R., Thesis advisor
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
School of Communication and Multimedia Studies
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Created: 2017
Date Issued: 2017
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 93 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: This thesis makes three claims new to the critical literature onWalt Disney’s 1940 film Fantasia. Setting the scene by placing a spotlight on the long-serving Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Leopold Stokowski, it contextualizes his pervasive influence, as well as contributions by others that shaped Fantasia and defined the film’s stylistic elements. Inspired by recent critical debates on post-silent era filmmaking and theories of authorship, it makes a case for Fantasia being the culmination of a “sound film” and notes that its displays of individual artistic talent makes it a noteworthy example of distributed authorship. Fantasia remains a unique experiment in Disney’s filmmaking in that it acquired its eventual form only because of decisions taken during production since no absolute “blue-print” for the finished film existed at the time it went into production, when a large selection of musical numbers were assigned to teams of animators.
Identifier: FA00004854 (IID)
Degree granted: Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017.
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Includes bibliography.
Subject(s): Stokowski, Leopold--1882-1977.
Authorship.
Animated film music.
Musical films.
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Sublocation: Digital Library
Links: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004854
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004854
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.