Fantasia

How frightening for the entire world that suddenly the United States is in the middle of a hot war. Whatever your politics, you should be very worried right now.

Rather than dwell on that today, I am going to talk about something more positive. I was having a conversation today with a colleague who has been working in the field of computer graphics for as long as I have — which is a very long time.

As we compared notes about our respective origin stories, we realized that we were both similarly inspired by the very first time we saw Disney’s Fantasia. For me, it was the first time I saw something on the big screen that showed me that anything is possible.

For both of us, seeing that film, back when we were teenagers, helped start us on the path to working in computer graphics and animation. And I can attest that the sheer visual inventiveness and sense of possibility contained in Fantasia literally changed my life.

Which is very impressive, given that Fantasia came out 85 years ago. I wonder how many people who have worked in the field of computer graphics were inspired to enter the field by seeing that movie.