The player controls Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice through various side-scrolling levels in an attempt to collect musical notes that went missing whilst he was asleep.

[4] The Sega producer Scott Berfield, along with Stephan L. Butler, monitored Infogrames' development of the game to ensure it remained a faithful adaptation.

Mean Machines said that although appearing impressive at first with "excellent sprites and gorgeous backdrops, the gameplay is badly flawed and there are several highly annoying features that make the action frustrating".

[11] Mega Action gave Fantasia an overall score of 80% and praised the cartoon-like animation and criticized the games difficulty set far too high.

They criticized the game's controls and gameplay calling it repetitive, clunky and unpredictable and said that Fantasia does not measure up to Castle of Illusion.