Fantasia is an experiment in translating classical music onto the screen through abstract and cartoon animation. When first shown in 1940, Walt Disney's most imaginative work was frustrated at the box office. Since Hollywood has never since dared a similar experiment, the film remains an original and fresh experience for the moviegoer.

For the musical gourmet, the film may at times be irritating. When Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony is translated into a delightful mythological Bacchanalia, the music is lost. And when the Nutcracker Suite lends background music for a series of abstract and animated dances, the naturally light music is often rearranged into a rather insipid effervescence.

But most of the time, Disney does achieve a satisfying balance, particularly in the orchestration and visual description of a Bach fuge. The musicians themselves are first seen playing amid fantastic shadows and color. Then parts of the musical instruments, dissembled as in a Picasso abstraction, vibrate to the melodies. And finally, as the music builds up, the instruments become flashing linear descriptions of the themes.

More realistic animation is successfully combined with the sound tract when Stravinsky's Rite of Spring sets the tempo for the creation of Earth, and the growth of life upon it, including a battle between two prehistoric monsters. In contrast, Disney parodies Ponchielli's "Dance of the Hours" in a fine comic ballet of elephants, hippotamuses, alligators and ostriches.

Unfortunately some technical imperfections date the pre-war film and mar its polish. The color reproduction is inferior, and the animation cannot always respond to the musical rhythms. But these irritations are swept aside by the sheer excitement of Fantasia's experimental efforts. And, perhaps most interesting, Disney's successes and failures throughout the film raise a host of questions concerning the relationship between musical and visual art.