Having studied piano, theory, and composition at the Paris Conservatory, Dukas was a decided perfectionist who allowed only a few of his many creations to be published while the rest were physically destroyed. He was twice a winner of the coveted Prix de Rome: in 1886 for a fugue, and in 1888 for his cantata Velleda, but neither of these works has been quoted in film soundtracks. In fact, only one work has appeared in excerpt for that purpose, the well-known symphonic scherzo L'apprenti sorcier (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) which has been used in four films to date. In Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940), Leopold Stokowski conducts a splendid interpretation of the work. The animators envisioned Mickey Mouse as the young and inexperienced apprentice who attempts a bit of his master's magic by enchanting a broom to lighten his work load. The broom grows arms and begins hauling buckets filled with water into the magician's domicile. However, Mickey doesn't have a clue how to undo the spell in order to make the broom stop as the place becomes inundated. His efforts only increase the number of brooms doing the hauling and the number of buckets being carried. The music builds as the water rushes to the crazed insistence of the lively theme. Finally, to some wonderful punctuated chords and cymbal crashes, the master magician comes home, senses the disaster, waves his arms, and disperses the water like Moses parting the waters. The shy, ashamed Mickey slowly picks up the buckets to get back to his work, and to a final musical stab, he swats Mickey's bottom with the broom, and he rushes outdoors. This delightful episode was repeated in Disney's Fantasia/2000 (1999) with slightly enhanced stereo sound.
An earlier, more abstract interpretation of this music appeared in Oskar Fischinger's animated short Studie Nr. 8 (Study No. 8, 1931) which uses the recording of the piece with the legendary Arturo Toscanini conducting the New York Philharmonic. It is almost impossible to describe the sheer beauty and artistry of the pure visuals.
Russ Meyer's bizarre high-camp sex comedy Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) (aka Hollywood Vixens) also weaves The Sorcerer's Apprentice among scenes of rock & roll, drugs, and sleaze. One can hardly imagine what the fastidious composer, himself a critic for the Revue Hebdomadaire and Gazette des Beaux-Arts and a valued professor of orchestration at the Paris Conservatoire, would have thought of this use of his music.