In its original incarnation, there was a little "nappy" Negro centaur who acted as the handmaiden to the tall, beautiful white centaurs. In 1940, this character, Sunflower, appeared in the segment set to Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony".
Not surprisingly, considering the growing civil rights movement and the backlash from Song of the South, Sunflower was edited out of the film when Disney re-released Fantasia in the 60s. With all the editors at their disposal, you would think Disney might be able to patch their work, but by the end of the Beethoven segment, the audio doesn't sync at all.
Disney denies there ever was a Sunflower character. Strange, considering the clips you can find just searching for her . . .
Fantasia, created in 1940 is arguably Disney's most powerful work of art. State of the art animation set to classical compositions performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Every time it's remastered and released, I marvel at the simple beauty. But there's a dark secret as well.
Read 1579 times
Like this? Tweet it to your followers!
Tagged under
