Musicana

Musicana is a never-made Disney animated film conceived and developed by Mel Shaw with the assistance of Wolfgang Reitherman.
==Conception==
Shaw returned to the Disney studios in the 1970s to do artwork for films such as The Rescuers. During that time he also started developing new ideas for features, one of which was a new version of Fantasia - a series of shorts set to music. The shorts would be set in different countries around the world using music from each of these countries. Reitherman and Shaw spent some time developing Shaw's concept into a film.
==Program==
Though the film was never made, all of the segments to be used in the film had been written and storyboarded.
*By the Bayou. Set in the Deep South, a colony of frogs in a bayou would take on the form a jazz band, playing instruments such as the piano, drums and trumpet. Two pieces of music were to be used in this segment, one by Ella Fitzgerald and another by Louis Armstrong, both of whom would have appeared as frog caracatures of themselves. At the end of the sequence a riverboat would go by and wash all the frogs around.
*South American/Yma Sumac Sequence. A sequence set in South America, using a lot of Aztec and Incan mythology. The music would have been a song by Peruvian soprano Yma Sumac.
*The Rain God. Set in Africa, this sequence would have told the story of a monkey who steels a diamond from the rain god. Angered, the god refuses to make it rain again until his diamond is returned. As a result the rivers dry up and the animals have nothing to drink. They then set about catching the monkey and making him return the diamond. The art for this sequence was designed by Ken Anderson
*The Emperor and the Nightingale. Based on the story The Nightingale by Hans Christian Andersen, this sequence was to feature Mickey Mouse as a servant of the Emperor of China, similar to his role as Yen Sid's apprentice in The Sorcerer's Apprentice from Fantasia. As in the source story, the Emperor hears of a Nightingale with a beautiful voice and asks to hear its song. Mickey would then befriend the Nightingale and convince him to sing for the Emperor. The Emperor would then keep the Nightingale in his palace and make him sing upon request, only for him to be forgotten when the Emperor is presented with a bejewelled, mechanical Nightingale which also sings. The Nightingale goes into self-imposed exile after this, and Mickey continues to befriend him. One of the artists who worked on this sequence was John Lasseter.
*Finlandia. Set in Scandinavia, an ice god and a sun goddess do battle, using the forces of nature at their disposal to do so. The conflict would lead to the creation of the great lakes of the sub-continent. This segement would be set to Finlandia by John Sibelius
*Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. An animated version of the story from the One Thousand and One Nights. The music intended to be used was Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov. The characters in this sequence would be anthropomorphic birds instead of humans; Ali Baba was drawn as a grey dove, while the leader of the thieves was drawn as a hawk.
==Fate and Legacy==
Following completion of the body of artwork, Shawn and Reitherman presented the project to the heads of the studio. Despite enthusiasm from fellow animators and directors, the executives were very apprehensive about the project, concerned with commercial viability of the film (Its predecessor, Fantasia, had been a box-office flop). They eventually passed on the project. Following this, Reitherman left the studio, but Shaw remained and continued to do artwork for other features, including Beauty and the Beast. All of the artwork for Musicana was archived. Artwork produced for The Emperor's Nightingale segment was released in the form of a storybook in 1992 as part of a "Disney Archives" series of storybooks based on unproduced Disney animation projects.
Some see Musicana as eventually having led to Fantasia 2000, which began production almost a decade after the conception of Musicana.
A short feature about the project, which uses artwork made during the development process, appears on the 2010 DVD and Blu-Ray of Fantasia 2000.
==Gallery==
Ali Baba (1).jpg|Concept sketch of the Hawk leader in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
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Ali Baba (6).jpg|The Hawk Leader, feathers alight is chased out of town in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
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Rain God (1).jpg|A sketch of a Mother Elephant washing her Baby for The Rain God sequence
Rain God (2).jpg|The Monkey steals the diamond in The Rain God Sequence
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Rain God (4).jpg|The Monkey being forced to return the Diamond in the Rain God sequence
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Rain God (4).png|The Rain God sequence's Lion King with his Rhino attendant
Rain God (5).png|The Mother Elephant and her baby attempt to withstand a storm created by the angered Rain God
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Peru (2).jpg|A Serpent for the Peruvian sequence
Peru (1).jpg|An elaborate Girl Bird makes her way through the jungle in the Peruvian sequence
Peru (3).jpg|The Girl Bird narrowly escapes a leapord in the Peruvian sequence
Bayou (1).jpg|A sketch for the untitled bayou sequence
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Bayou (3).jpg|Frog caricatures of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong for the Bayou sequence
Bayou (10).jpg|The riverboat from the bayou sequence
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Icelandia (1).jpg|A ferocious wave made by the Ice God in Finlandia
Icelandia (2).jpg|The Northern Lights created by the Sun Goddess in Finlandia
Icelandia (3).jpg|The Sun Goddess in Finlandia
Icelandia (4).jpg|The Ice God in Finlandia
Icelandia (5).jpg|Ice floes for Finlandia
Icelandia (6).jpg|The ice floes plunge into the water in Finlandia
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Nightingale (13).jpg|Death visits the Emperor in The Emperor's Nightingale sequence
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Category:Unused concepts
Category:Mickey Mouse
Category:Films
Category:Anthology films
Category:Fantasia
Category:Cancelled projects