"Fantasia" is 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 Nutcracker Suite"
- The opening of this segment, with the tiny glowing fairies appearing in the dark, accompanied by Tchaikovsky's "Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy" always creeped this troper out when he was young.
- "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"
- The wizard (Yen Sid) has a very eerie piercing stare in his big eyes. He never ever speaks, which makes him appear all the more menacing.
- Interestingly the opening scene with him sets up this trope, then subverts it—Yen Sid seems to be summoning some sort of creepy, disturbing skull imagery...only for it to blend together and become a beautiful butterfly.
- Mickey chopping up the broom. A Deleted Scene (existing in pencil test form) had Mickey doing it onscreen.
- Mickey almost drowning in the whirlpool.
- "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 appearance of those Gallimimuses who head towards the river to drink. The music is eerie and they move like zombies, complete with glazy stare and jerky movements.
- 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.
- Or what about the solar eclipse at the end of the segment? It's just so eerie that something so similar is so frightening.
- 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.
- The idea that this truly haunting event happens more often than once a year, near that quiet little city near the bald mountain... You just hope that the villagers don't realize what happens near their town each night!
- Chernabog's eyes! And his powerful gigantic arms are also something you don't wish to encounter in real life.
- Chernabog grabbing a handful of demons while he looks at them with an endeared smile. Then he just drops them into the lake of fire, as if he lost interest...
- The harpy grabbing a demon but then (accidentally?) dropping him, causing him to plummit to his doom inside a seemingly bottomless pit of fire!
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...
