The DisneyVerse

Fantasia: Rite of Spring

100,000 BCE

As for the when and the where, well it tells us. It takes place on the first few billion years of Earth spanning from its creation to the downfall of the dinosaurs. And that brings us onto our final connection of this entry. Due the constraints of this website we’ll place it as 100,000 bce but note it is far earlier pre-dating time.

Fantasia: The Pastoral Symphony

50,000 BCE

Since it’s shown as a relatively peaceful time on Mt. Olympus we can infer that it’s set after the war with the Titans, in fact we know it is because Zeus is shown as the King of the Gods. With the lack of people we can infer it takes place before humanity and before the age of heroes, without dinosaurs we can infer it takes place long after their extinction but before humanity placing it still in pre-history but a little time after the age of dinosaurs. We’ll place it at 50,000 BCE

Fantasia: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

740

Although we’re not given an exact date our old friend Deems Taylor states it’s set “Almost 2000 years ago” which would place anywhere after 59 BCE. We don’t get an exact date in this segment, but in the 2010 live action remake it states the events take place in the year 740 CE which is what we will run with. This means it takes place 1200 years prior to the live action parts of Fantasia. A bit short of 2000, but I think it still works.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

1547

Despite the 1930s inspiration for Snow White’s look it also takes inspiration from 15th/16th Century fashions such as the puffed sleeves. So we can assume Snow White lived in the DisneyVerse equivalent of 15th/16th Century Germany. We will round it to the year 1500. Snow may be based on a historical figure called Margaretha Von Waldeck who was born in 1533. If we assume she was born in the same year the film would be 14 years later in 1547.

Pinocchio

1830

As for when Pinocchio takes place in the 19th century aka the 1800s the film’s architecture and costuming seem to confirm this as well. What period of the 19th century? Well we can’t be certain but the original novel was published in 1883 so we could assume the film takes place anywhere between the late 1870s to mid 1880s, but I believe the film is set slightly earlier around 1830.

Fantasia: Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria

Apr 30, 1867

Deems Taylor tells us when this segment is set, well kind of he tells us it takes place on Walpurgis Night which falls on the 30th April and ends on the 1st May. As for what year it takes place it’s difficult to say, but it was completed on the 23rd June 1867 so for simplicity sake we will say it takes place on the 30th April that year. Nothing in the segment really dates it before or after, it’s all generically gothic so it feels like a reasonable placement time-wise.

Fantasia: Dance of the Hours

1879

We know the opera it’s based on first premiered in 1876 and ended its original run in 1879. Since we see the set collapse after the performance we can take this to imply it’s one of the later showings of the original run, as the cost of re-renovating the stage after every performance would be phenomenal. So we can infer this particular performance takes place in 1879.

Fantasia: The Nutcracker Suite

1892

it takes place over the course of the year 1892 from Spring through to Winter which feels like it speeds past because fairies don’t experience time in the same way as humans do.

Fantasia: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor

1940

The when isn’t as easy to pinpoint as you’d think although the film was released in 1940, filming took place primarily between 1938-1940 so we could place it anywhere between then. To make life easier though we will say the segment takes place around the time of the film’s release so in 1940.