The Night On Bald Mountain sequence was cut from the film when originally released on video. When the sequence was shown in 1940 the studio was overrun with calls and letters from parents who complained that the sequence scared their children. It has since been restored to its original place in the film on subsequent home video releases.
The only Walt Disney animated feature film that reaches the two hour mark.
The orchestra that appears in the interstitial segments of the film is not the actual The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, but rather a collection of local Hollywood musicians and Disney studio employees such as Paul J. Smith and James MacDonald.
The primeval Earth scene was filmed using a mixture of porridge, mud, and other ingredients and was enhanced by animation; apart from the orchestra sequences, it is the only live-action sequence in the whole movie.
The soundtrack album, a 3-LP set of all the music used in the film, was not released until 1957. In 1990, in conjunction with the film's 50th Anniversary restoration, it was released on CD. (The soundtrack for the 1982 version, newly recorded in digital sound, and conducted by Irwin Kostal instead of Leopold Stokowski, had already been released on CD but was soon deleted in favor of the Stokowski version.)
The static title card was originally shown at the film's midway-point instead of at the beginning to introduce a 15-minute intermission used in the roadshow release; the "FANTASIA" title would remain projected on the house curtains until the beginning of the film's second act. Subsequent edited re-releases of the film shifted the title card from its intermission to its actual beginning, but for the 2000 DVD restoration the title card is returned to the original midway-point, and even includes the 'RKO Radio Pictures' distribution credit.
The surrealist painter, Salvador Dalí, made some illustrations for the movie, but his ideas were later discarded.
This is thought to be the first American film to be released with no credits at all shown on-screen (not even the customary "Walt Disney presents"). Other than the film's title, the phrases "Color by Technicolor," "copyright 1940 by The Walt Disney Company" "certificate # 5940" and "RCA Sound Recording" are on the one frame. Programs containing the credits were distributed to patrons at the initial showings of the movie in 1940. The data was added to the 1990 50th anniversary edition at the end of the movie and is used in IMDb's credits as though they were in the original movie.
Unused cell-prints exist of the "Pastoral Symphony" sequence during the bathing scene in the brook, which show the female centaurs as bare-busted while they wash themselves.
When Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971, the only featured composer still living in 1940) was contacted about the rights to use "The Rite of Spring," he offered to compose a completely new piece for Walt Disney. This was not taken, and Stravinsky hated Leopold Stokowski's re-orchestration and re-organization of the piece (the original order of the sections was jumbled, and two of them were completely left out of Fantasia).
When the Ostrich slips and falls on her rump, there is an added drum beat to the score. It was omitted (possibly overlooked) in the 1982 digital re-master since it was not part of the original score. It has since been restored.