Walt Disney was fearless in trying out new ideas, new techniques, and most of the time he would be proven right — at least in the long run. Exhibit A can be his two-million-dollar musical experiment Fantasia. Disney had long wanted to create serious animation set to classical music — not just the slapstick of his previous Silly Symphonies cartoons. That was the initial concept behind The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, an elaborate short that Disney intended as a comeback vehicle for his star, Mickey Mouse. But production costs turned out to be high for the musical piece, in part because Disney insisted on recording sound in multichannel – something never before attempted. He realized to recoup his costs, he would need not a short, but a feature length production.

On this day, November 13, in 1940, Disney’s Fantasia, which combined The Sorcerer’s Apprentice with several other musical shorts, all with a fantasy-nature theme, opened in theaters.

Fantasia was received fairly well initially, but not well enough to recoup the product costs. The problem lay in part with the technology Disney insisted on. While the sound recording was done in multiple channels, attempting surround-sound acoustics, the technology for recreating it did not exist in any theatre. Disney used a live sound mixer during the premiere in New York, and set up a mobile “Fantasound” system that toured to different theaters. As was usual for Disney, his grand dreams outstripped the capabilities of the age he lived in.