Disney at Longwood Gardens

Here's a screenshot from the Ave Maria episode of Disney's Fantasia:

Look at those trees, and their reflection in the water. Now look at at the trees, and their reflections, in this photo I just took at Longwood Gardens, once a DuPont estate, which are located near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:

The general resemblance is remarkable, no? 

Well, interesting, but not remarkable. The general resemblance between certain forests of tall trees and the vaulted ceilings of gothic cathedral's was obvious to the men who designed those cathedrals. THAT's why they designed them that way, to embody that similarity. When Pierre DuPont's gardeners created the gardens in the first quarter of the 20th century they certainly would have had those cathedrals in mind. And Disney's artists, particularly concept artist, Kay Nielson, certainly had the same thing in mind when they designed the Ave Maria episode in the late 1930s.