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Read on to discover the story behind Disney’s Fantasia, an animated classic featuring a first-class soundtrack of classical music…<\/strong><\/p> For seven glorious years from his first appearance in 1928, the cartoon character Mickey Mouse was the toast of movie-going America… A star of 70 comic shorts and spearhead of a lucrative merchandising business. By the mid-1930s, however, Mickey\u2019s creator Walt Disney was growing anxious about his lovable rodent. Recent surveys had suggested Mickey was now less popular than his Disney stable-mates Donald Duck and Goofy the dog. Or even the spinach-eating sailor Popeye.<\/p> What to do about this lamentable situation? Disney quickly conceived an answer. He would showcase Mickey in a special episode of his long-running \u2018Silly Symphonies\u2019 series, where humorous animations were matched to pieces of music. Snatches of classical music had featured in the \u2018Silly Symphonies\u2019 before, but Disney had a bolder notion… Mickey\u2019s episode would have a single work for its soundtrack: Dukas<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s The Sorcerer\u2019s Apprentice.<\/em><\/p> Why did Walt Disney make Fantasia? A starring vehicle for Mickey Mouse…<\/h2>