Fridge / Fantasia

Fridge Logic for Fantasia.

Fridge Brilliance

• During the "Rite Of Spring" segment, there is a moment where an entire landscape of volcanos all erupt in unison before the whole landscape blows up at once leaving nothing but fire and smoke in its wake. In an example of Accidentally-Correct Writing, this could be interpreted as a direct result of the rogue planet Theia colliding with the young Earth, as it sends the Earth's crust and mantle clean off its surface and out into space where it would condense and eventually form the Moon. This would also indicate that the body next to Earth was not the Moon, but rather Theia slowly approaching the Earth during the outer-space sequence.
• The sequence from Rite of Spring where the dinosaurs die in a drought and dust storms may have been inspired by the Dust Bowl, which would have been just a few years before Fantasia was created. Even if that specifically was the leading theory at the time, the animators could have easily taken imagery from the Dust Bowl and applied it to the dinosaurs in the film. Especially because Disney Studios, where the film was made, is in California (and I'm pretty sure it was there back in 1940, too), and California is where many of the migrants from the Dust Bowl came to. At the very least, it would be extinction imagery that audiences at the time period would relate to.
  • In the narrator's introduction before the sequence, he specifically compares prehistoric Earth to a "giant Dust Bowl."
• And the other Stravinsky piece, the Firebird, has a Fridge moment as well. The nature spirit regrows the forest better than it was before, once the eruption is over. And volcanic soils are especially good ones. The result of what the Firebird did helped with the "renewal" aspect as well. This is the main role of forest fires in nature - to clear out dead or dying vegetation and make room for new growth.
  • The "head" piece of rock within the crater that the Firebird is inside of when the sprite first wakes it up looks something like a volcanic spine or lava dome— features which indicate magma is pushing up towards the surface and an eruption may come soon. Lo and behold, the Firebird is indeed inside of the feature, and as soon as the spring sprite touches the rock, an eruption does occur.