Year:
1999
Studio:
Walt Disney Pictures
Movie:
3/5
DVD:
4/5
Movie
The original Fantasia, released in 1940, was a high concept movie. A
symphony concert with these fanciful visuals. The animation tries to
reflect what people might think about when listening to the music. Walt
Disney intended for Fantasia to change every year as new material
slowly replaces older material. But (a) Fantasia bombed at the
box office and (b) it would have taken a lot more resources than Disney
had to accomplish his goals without sacrificing other movies.
Fantasia 2000 started in 1991 with Roy Disney, nephew of Walt and up
until a month or so ago one of the major forces at Disney. Roy drove
Fantasia 2000 and over the course of almost a decade the various parts
were created and brought together. The result is a movie much like the
original -- high concept, beautiful and breathtaking at times, and
ultimately not a box office failure.
There are eight pieces to Fantasia 2000. Most if not all of the various
compositions are shortened versions (because classical compositions can
be quite long). The only repeat section is that classic "The Sorcerer's
Apprentice", cleaned up for this release.
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My favorite
pieces were "Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro, Opus 102" which
accompies Hans Christian Anderson's "The Steadfast Tin Soldier". It's a
nice little love story with a Disney happy ending (which to my mind is
preferable to the original ending). My other favorite is "Pines of
Rome" which has some beautiful animation of flying whales. It looks
majestic.
Ultimately though, for someone used to mainstream movies, Fantasia 2000
was quite boring and I had a hard time staying interested. The
commentary helps because after listening to them I could at least tell
what was going on in the pieces and that kept me interesting as I
watched them again.
DVD
The extra features are quite good. "The Making of Fantasia 2000" is a
48-minute documentary. There are two interesting commentary tracks. The
first with Roy Disney, conductor James Levin, and producer And Don
Ernst. The second commentary track has the music and art directors for
each piece commenting. There are also two 10-minute educational music
cartoons made in the 1950's: "Adventures in Music: Melody" and "Toot,
Whistle, Plunk and Boom".
Recommendations
For those who like the original, this movie is just as good. Also for
people who like classical music this should be interesting. For other
people I recommend listening to the commentaries to get a better
appreciation for the art and music. This is not the typical Disney film.
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