Fantasia premieres in New York City in 1940. Walt Disney’s most daring and experimental film is eight animated interpretations of famous classical pieces, including Dukas’ “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” starring Mickey Mouse and the final segment on Mussorsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain,” depicting the devil rising from the mountain top on Walpurgis Night to summon ghosts, witches, demons and various mythological spirits, before the Angelus Bell tolls and the scene melds into monks marching through a forest to Shubert’s “Ave Maria.”
This Day in Halloween: Walt Disney's "Fantasia" premieres in New York City in 1940. / Illustration by Justin Pakneshan.