"What If?" Scenario #1

[Dirty Skunk]

One thing that I recently learned about classic cartoons is that The Sorcerer's Apprentice, set to the classical piece of the same name by Paul Dukas, was originally intended as a stand-alone cartoon to bolster Mickey Mouse's flagging popularity in the late 1930s. Only later was it decided that, due to the high cost of production, it would be better to make a feature length compilation of animated works set to music, hence Fantasia. Now rightly considered a visual, musical and theatrical classic, it was a box office failure at the time.

So...let's all imagine that Fantasia was never made, and The Sorcerer's Apprentice was a nine-minute short cartoon as originally intended.

What would the consequences have been? How would this have affected Mickey's career, particularly at a time when Donald Duck's star was rising? How would the Disney feature length films have fared sans Fantasia? Or would the difference have been negligible at best?

Discuss.

[Leviathan]

Disney would've entered World War II in better shape than it did, since Fantasia was a tremendous financial flop.

[The Spectre]

Hmmm, would they have continued to make integrated feature-films into the 40s instead of the "package films" they did make, I wonder? (The Wind in the Willows as a feature-length? An earlier Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan?)

[Ray Pointer]

If SORCERER'S APPRENTICE has been made as a MICKEY MOUSE short, it would have been the most expensive MICKEY MOUSE cartoon, and probably would have brought his screen career to a close due to its inherent cost. As a stand alone, it may have been too "high class" as a short. So its inclusion into a concert feature concept elevated it to acceptance on an artistic level.