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June 2, 1980: Yes, young persons, “Fantasia” came back in 1980 as a “head film” (note the smoke and mushrooms). In 1982, in an attempt to improve the audio quality, Disney had a pickup orchestra and conductor/composer Irwin “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” Kostal try to duplicate Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, much to everyone’s horror. On the jump, a great obit by Times writer Jerry Belcher. |
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ladailymirror.com 
‘Fantasia’, in it’s 1940 first run release, had a stereophonic sound track. It may be the first movie to have one. My guess is that the Irwin Kostal recreation was done because the original recordings must have been done optically. 1940 was before America had ever heard of high-fidelity, tape based recording.
Remember going to see the 1980 release in Westwood. The sweet smell of ganja permeated the theater’s interior.
A popular rumor at the time was that old Uncle Walt envisioned of the project while on a Mexican vacation after partaking of the local mushroom. A bit hard to believe, but anything is possible.
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