I've booked this at least 4 different times over the years (each one requiring a fight with Phil Barlow -- you remember Phil -- to be "allowed to book it). Each booking was with almost as many print types (mono IBTec, that horrid anamorphic mag version, mono Eastman, and the 50th Anniversary release - Dolby SR). None of these had an intermisison, but that doesn't mean there wasn't one in the original release (how many roadshow titles are re-released without the original intermissions?!), especially since the whole Fantasia concept was that it was supposed to be a "concert."

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From their web site:

.The most controversial animated feature ever made has always been Fantasia. Whatever its much-debated merits and faults, there is no doubt that many sections are among the most incredible visions ever presented on motion picture screens. Walt's original concept was to have "the concert feature" in continuous release by periodically updating it with new segments, but the film's initial failure negated that. The idea seems to have stuck, however, as Fantasia has been cut, enlarged, rescored, excerpted, censored, and anamorphized for numerous reissues and other purposes. This is the roadshow edition and includes more restored footage than has been seen since its 1940 release.
http://www.lacma.org

Anyway, I have a feeling that the LA County Museum of Art's statement that it "restored" even more material might be just a tad bit more hype than it is fact.

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The phase shifting was a problem with the original masters. I am not sure if the original Fantasound recording system was a Westrex optical vane recorder that was modified to record 8 tracks plus the control onto a single strip of film, or if there were multiple film records running in interlock. If it were the latter, this certainly would account for the phase shift problem (which is abundant, hence Disney's strong admonition never to play the print in Mono). But I can tell you that I got to run the mag print sometime in the late 70s (it was released in that format in the 50s), and the phase shift distortion was definitely present; the mag format predated any of the Anniversary work that might have been done at Bell Labs.

I saw the version with the Irwin Kostal digital recording and found it very satisfying, if only they hadn't messed around with the order of the pieces and the removal of all the Deems Taylor sequences. The FANTASIA lovers went bizerk, and rightfully so. Adding a very well recorded new soundtrack was a great idea, especially since Kostal vowed that he would be true to Stokowski's interpretation, which I feel he did accomplish. You wind up with a superb sounding soundtrack to the classic animation. Disney and Stokowski were experimenting with untested technology from the beginning of this project. I think they would have approved updating the sound with new technology as it became available. Too bad they didn't re-record the soundtrack when Stokowski was still alive conduction the American Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall (like I suggested to Tippie Spirty [yes, that was his real name] head of Buena Vista here in New York). Had Disney made the re-recording with Stokowski when he was alive, it would have shut the purists up. Only if they also left the rest of the film alone, that is.

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"Even if for some reason they wanted to go with land lines, Dolby had perfected a system that allowed CD quality transmission over telco copper years before."

This transfer technique was performed in the mid-50's when Disney was preparing for a SuperScope magnetic stereo release. Apparently the original optical stereo tracks had since been either lost or destroyed after this transfer, since the 50th Anniversary release used these 50's mag phone line transfers (which had also been used for the 70's 4-track mag re-release).

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