WDAC announces Fantasia 2000 Limited Edition sericel "Apprentic

A Whirlpool of Adventure Awaits Mickey Mouse in new Walt Disney Animation Art Release from Walt Disney's Upcoming Animated Film Fantasia / 2000

New Interpretive Limited-Edition Sericel Showcases Mickey Mouse in His Most Famous Role as “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.”

November 1, 1999. - - The highly-anticipated release of the new feature-length animated film Fantasia / 2000 (January 1, 2000) is celebrated with an all-new limited-edition sericel of Walt Disney Animation Art, published by Walt Disney Art Classics. Entitled “Apprentice Adventure” and published in an edition size of 2,000, the innovative sericel is derived from “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” segment of Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940) and from Disney’s new feature animated film Fantasia / 2000.

This new Walt Disney Animation Art limited-edition sericel premieres in galleries worldwide in late November and has a framed (dimensions: 17 ½ x 29 ½ ), retail price of $325. The interpretive artwork depicts Mickey riding the waves of mayhem aboard his master’s book of spells as his own initial magic spell goes awry and he gets caught up in a terrible deluge of water. The pan artwork depicts various stages of Mickey’s watery dilemma.

Walt Disney Art Classics has created this character image using the fine art screen-printing process of color reproduction known as serigraphy. Disney artists, working from original animation drawings and film reference materials used for the production of Fantasia, specially created master a hand-inked, hand-painted animation cel which was used in the production of these sericels. A total of 15 colors are used to recreate the color image, each of which has been exactingly screen-printed, one color at a time, onto the acetate cel.

Disney artists have created the background scene accompanying this cel. It is not an original production background. However, original layouts, sketches and frames from Fantasia were used as reference. The resulting artwork has been lithographically printed on premium-quality, acid-free paper.

The original character drawings are archived in the Walt Disney Animation Research Library. The hand-inked and hand-painted master cel and the original background utilized to create “Apprentice Adventure” are archived with Walt Disney Art Classics.

The story of Walt Disney's 1940 classic Fantasia is fairly well-known in the popular culture: A chance meeting between Walt Disney and famed conductor Leopold Stokowski resulted in a collaboration on an animated version of “The Sorcerer's Apprentice,” which was then expanded into a complete "Concert Feature" which eventually developed into the feature-length animated masterpiece Fantasia.

Walt Disney’s original plan for Fantasia was to continue developing and changing the concert components of the film over the anticipated years of its release. Disney abandoned the plan when Fantasia proved unprofitable, but with its renewed success in the ensuing decades, and the resurgence of Walt Disney Feature Animation in the 1990s, Walt Disney Company Vice Chairman Roy E. Disney told Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner that he wanted to keep Walt's promise of a revived and continually renewed Fantasia.

The result is Fantasia / 2000, which builds upon Walt Disney’s original idea with the creation of a musical repertoire program that includes seven exciting new animated segments and one returning favorite (“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”). Using breakthrough animation technology along with time-honored traditions of Disney craftsmanship, the film showcases the talents of a new generation of animators and filmmakers as they push the boundaries of their imaginations and visually interpret the classical compositions of such music masters as Beethoven, Shostakovich, Respighi, Saint-Saëns, Elgar, Gershwin and Stravinsky.

Adding to the fun and entertainment are celebrity hosts from the various performing arts that appear on screen to introduce each of the segments. Included in that prestigious group are Steven Martin, Itzhak Perlman, Bette Midler, Quincy Jones, James Earl Jones, Penn & Teller and Angela Lansbury. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Maestro James Levine provides the music for the film. Fantasia / 2000 (opens in select IMAX Theaters around the world on January 1, 2000).

“Apprentice Adventure” is released as part of the portfolio of Walt Disney Animation Art, published by Walt Disney Art Classics (the art and collectibles division of The Walt Disney Company). The Walt Disney Animation Art portfolio includes one-of-a-kind original production art, hand-painted, limited-editions cels, limited edition sericels, limited-edition prints and maquettes (character models).

Walt Disney Animation Art limited-edition sericels are available at independently owned Preferred Gallery retailers worldwide, The Disney Store, The Walt Disney Gallery and the Disney Theme Parks. Walt Disney Animation Art - - which captures the timeless images of Disney’s classic animated films in beautiful two-dimensional gallery artwork - - has charmed serious art collectors and Disney enthusiasts alike for nearly six decades since its debut back in the late 1930s.

For more information on Walt Disney Art Classics Fantasia 2000, click here to visit their official website.