1940 Walt Disney "Fantasia" Animation Cel

Appraised on: July 19, 2008

Appraised in: Chattanooga, Tennessee

Appraised by: Philip Weiss

Category: Collectibles

Episode Info: Chattanooga, Hour 1 (#1310)

Originally Aired: March 30, 2009

IMAGE: 1 of 3  

Appraisal Video: (35:00)

GUEST: It was a gift from my father, who, in turn, got it as a present when he was a child from his great-aunt Elizabeth. He has three siblings, and they each got one, but my dad got this one, and it's hung on the wall in the house in Nashville for my entire life.

APPRAISER: Terrific. Well, what you're looking at here, it's an animation cel, celluloid. This was done for Walt Disney's production of Fantasia. Fantasia was started in 1937 and took three years to complete and came out in 1940.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: When they did the Fantasia cartoon, it was a lot of different sequences and a lot of different segments, phenomenal music score. Leopold Stokowski was the conductor who did that. This particular piece we're looking at comes from the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" sequence. And this is classic, classic Mickey Mouse. I mean, this is... when people collect Mickey, they want a Mickey Sorcerer's Apprentice. That's all they think about. The important thing when you look at animation art and what you want to look for when it comes to collect animation art is character-- and you have Mickey as the Sorcerer's Apprentice; that's the top. He has his hat on. Pose-- real important. If you notice here, Mickey has both eyes wide open.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: That's a huge factor when it comes to valuing a piece like this. The other great thing about this is you have a broom-- broom with a bucket. The background is done by Courvoisier Studios and that was the studios in California that made backgrounds specifically for these Disney celluloids. You see that little circle there?

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: That shows "WDP", Walt Disney Productions. They put those on all the Courvoisier backgrounds. This is not the original mat that it came in. The original matting would have been a cardboard mat that had very fine pen writing along the bottom here that would have said "Walt Disney Fantasia" on it.

GUEST: Okay.

APPRAISER: The auction value and the market on animation cels are not what it was years ago. However, still very, very salable, still really, really desirable. And on a good day at auction, I would definitely estimate this-- I wouldn't even hesitate to estimate this-- between $9,000 and $12,000.

GUEST: Wow!

APPRAISER: It's a great piece. A really, really super piece and I'm glad you brought it down.

GUEST: Yeah. I really enjoy it. I appreciate it.