The first problem was that there was too much introduction between the pieces. Angela Lansbury and James Earl Jones were the best, but the one with Steve Martin was unnecessary, as well as Penn and Teller. The film itself was a little short, but I enjoyed it anyway. It is beautifully animated, with good choices of music, but if anything, I wish there was more of it. I love the original, but I thoroughly recommend this as well. The animation was spot on, especially in the Pines of Rome segment. This was my personal favourite, as i thought that baby whale was so sweet. Donald Duck's version of Noah's Ark set to the music of Elgar was hilarious, as was the Carnival of the animals. The most beautifully animated was the Firebird sequence,reminding me of FernGully, telling the story of "Life, death and renewal." I am not a huge fan of Stravinsky, but the Firebird I have always considered his best work. There was also the abstract images in the Beethoven. They were ambiguous but very well done, but I didn't like the chopping of the piece itself. The section they missed out is essential to the movement's development in my opinion. The Pines of Rome sequence was outstanding I thought, I showed it to my year 4 peers 8 years ago, and they all clapped at the end of that segment but were unenthuasiastic about the rest of the film. Then Gershwin treated us with Rhapsody in Blue, telling the story of a typical day in New York. The Shostakovich was very good, but marred by the interesting but overlong introduction. Great animation and music though. The Saint Saens was funny, but the Magic Trick was pointless. Unfortunately Sorceror's Apprentice was one of the highlights in the original, but was for me the weakest segment here. The Elgar was absolutely hilarious, and the Firebird very heartfelt also I had early memories of thinking the Sprite was absolutely gorgeous. The music was very well performed by James Levine and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. All in all, 8/10 Bethany Cox.
218 Reviews
Beautiful Sequel of a Classic Animation
claudio_carvalho30 November 2013
"Fantasia 2000" is a beautiful sequel of the classic animation "Fantasia" (1940). The conductor is James Levine and each segment is introduced by the actor Steve Martin, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, the actress Bette Midler, the entertainer Penn & Teller, the actor James Earl Jones, the conductor Quincy Jones and the actress Angela Lansbury. The audio is in DTS and THX and the program is the following:
(1) Symphony No. 5 in C minor-I. Allegro con brio, by Ludwig van Beethoven.
(2) Pines of Rome, by Ottorino Respighi.
(3) Rhapsody in Blue, by George Gershwin.
(4) Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major-I. Allegro, by Dmitri Shostakovich.
(5) The Carnival of the Animals, Finale, by Camille Saint-Saëns.
(6) The Sorcerer's Apprentice, by Paul Dukas.
(7) Pomp and Circumstance – Marches 1, 2, 3 and 4, by Edward Elgar.
(8) Firebird Suite – 1919 Version, by Igor Stravinsky.
My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Fantasia 2000"
(1) Symphony No. 5 in C minor-I. Allegro con brio, by Ludwig van Beethoven.
(2) Pines of Rome, by Ottorino Respighi.
(3) Rhapsody in Blue, by George Gershwin.
(4) Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major-I. Allegro, by Dmitri Shostakovich.
(5) The Carnival of the Animals, Finale, by Camille Saint-Saëns.
(6) The Sorcerer's Apprentice, by Paul Dukas.
(7) Pomp and Circumstance – Marches 1, 2, 3 and 4, by Edward Elgar.
(8) Firebird Suite – 1919 Version, by Igor Stravinsky.
My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Fantasia 2000"
Pretty good, but I wish it was longer.
CuriosityKilledShawn7 January 2001
Top quality animation and a sense of humour make this sequel/add-on a formidable animated movie in its own right. The running time of 74 minutes is a bit of a let-down. I would have liked to have seen more pieces and more imagination. And be warned, The Sorcerer's Apprentice remains. As this was the original's ONLY real selling point they decided to stick it back in there, so you're really only get just over an hours worth of new footage. Which feels like a bit of a rip-off.
But my favorite segment is the one with Donald Duck, in fact they were all cool, especially the one with the volcano. The music matches the story perfectly and it has some truly beautiful animation. Far superior to those ugly CGI crap we get these days. And the TV show style introductions were more watchable than the dubbed Deems Taylor segments in the original.
This was the first animated movie to be made for IMAX screens and the digital picture is amazing. See this preferably on an IMAX screen or on DVD. Watching it on VHS would only insult the brilliant animation. It's sad that Disney has abandoned traditional hand-drawn animation for theatrical projects. It's what the studio was built on after all. But Disney is shadow of its former self, we all know that.
Just as good as the original Fantasia, but loses points for not being longer and more ambitious.
But my favorite segment is the one with Donald Duck, in fact they were all cool, especially the one with the volcano. The music matches the story perfectly and it has some truly beautiful animation. Far superior to those ugly CGI crap we get these days. And the TV show style introductions were more watchable than the dubbed Deems Taylor segments in the original.
This was the first animated movie to be made for IMAX screens and the digital picture is amazing. See this preferably on an IMAX screen or on DVD. Watching it on VHS would only insult the brilliant animation. It's sad that Disney has abandoned traditional hand-drawn animation for theatrical projects. It's what the studio was built on after all. But Disney is shadow of its former self, we all know that.
Just as good as the original Fantasia, but loses points for not being longer and more ambitious.
And Now for the Bad
JamesHitchcock5 November 2019
Warning: Spoilers
The original 1940 "Fantasia", consisting of eight animated sequences set to classical music, was a great favourite of its creator, Walt Disney, who saw it not as a one-off film but as an ongoing project. Disney's idea was that the film should be on continual release with new animated sequences progressively replacing the original ones, so that the audience would always be seeing a mixture of old and new. In 1940, however, "Fantasia" was not a great favourite with either cinemagoers or with the critics, so the idea was dropped. The possibility of a sequel was originally raised, but never came to anything until the 1990s, when the re-release of the original film in cinemas and on video proved a success.
"Fantasia 2000" is the result. (Despite the title, it actually premiered in December 1999). Like its predecessor, it contains eight segments. Each segment is introduced by a star such as Steve Martin, Bette Midler or Angela Lansbury. The producer, Walt's nephew Roy Edward Disney, originally intended to keep four sequences from the 1940 film, but in the event only one (Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice) survived. I haven't seen the original since my own childhood in the sixties or seventies, and even then I probably saw it on a black-and-white television, so I won't attempt a comparison. I do, however, remember that I enjoyed the Mickey Mouse section immensely.
Fantasia 2000 is like a number of films consisting of episodes which are either unconnected or else connected only by a tenuous thread. Such films- "Woody Allen's "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex..." and Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life" come to mind- tend to divide into three parts, the Good, the Bad and the Indifferent. Here the Good parts include:-
Mickey Mouse, for obvious reasons, and not all of them to do with childhood nostalgia. It is concise, funny and, of course, it tells the story that Paul Dukas's music was expressly written to illustrate. Some of the other sections use music which is not well suited to the style of animation or to the story being told. More of that later
Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. If you're going to produce a cartoon using this music, it just has to be set in Jazz Age New York City. I had never previously heard of the cartoonist Al Hirschfeld, but his work seems wonderfully suited to the mood of the music. The story follows four people- an unemployed man, an African-American construction worker, a young girl and a henpecked husband- and shows how they all realise their dreams. The colour scheme is perhaps inspired by Gershwin's title because it makes great use of blue, together with green and violet, the adjoining colours in the spectrum. Reds, oranges and yellows are used much more sparingly.
Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto. As a child I could never forgive Hans Christian Andersen for killing off his "Steadfast Tin Soldier" and his ballerina sweetheart. The gloomy Dane should have realised that children's fairy tales are the one literary genre which demand happy endings, so I am overjoyed that Disney gave this beautifully realised version the ending it should always have had. I doubt if Shostakovich wrote his concerto for tin soldiers to march to, but his jaunty music fits the story perfectly, and there is a suitably detestable villain in the shape of that evil jack-in-the-box.
Respighi's "The Pines of Rome". Owing to a defective English-Italian dictionary, someone mistranslated "I Pini di Roma" as "Humpback Whales in the Antarctic". I had my doubts about the wisdom of using programme music to support a programme quite different to the one for which it was written, so this one only just scrapes into the "Good" category. I was, however, won over by the quality of the animation, that cute baby whale and the surreal nature of the storyline in which the whales leave the ocean to fly through the air and into outer space. You wouldn't get that in a David Attenborough documentary.
The Indifferent:-
Saint-Saëns' The Carnival of the Animals. If you're into flamingos who play with yo-yos, this is the film for you. If you're not, it probably isn't.
Stravinsky's The Firebird. I understand that Roy Edward fought hard to keep the "Night on Bare Mountain" sequence in "Fantasia 2000". He eventually had to settle for something in keeping with the mood of the original. The section, which acts as the film's finale, is based upon the 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens and tells of how the Sprite, a benevolent female nature spirit and her ally, a stag bearing a certain resemblance to the adult Bambi, fight against the evil Firebird, the destructive spirit of the volcano. Occasionally effective, but overlong and a bit pretentious, and Stravinsky's music, written to tell a quite different story, seems out of place.
And now for the Bad.
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Seldom can such great music have been put to so banal a purpose.
Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance. Elgar's marches- we hear snatches of all four- were written to conjure up some grand, solemn ceremony, so God only knows what they are doing here as the backdrop to the misadventures of Donald and Daisy Duck aboard Noah's Ark. The story itself could have been quite comical, but the music seemed quite out of place. I don't think that Disney were deliberately trying to satirise Elgar- I know some people don't care for his music- but at times it sounded like it.
With so many wildly differing segments, I can't really sum up the film in a single phrase, but as the good elements outnumbered the bad I will award it 7/10.
"Fantasia 2000" is the result. (Despite the title, it actually premiered in December 1999). Like its predecessor, it contains eight segments. Each segment is introduced by a star such as Steve Martin, Bette Midler or Angela Lansbury. The producer, Walt's nephew Roy Edward Disney, originally intended to keep four sequences from the 1940 film, but in the event only one (Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice) survived. I haven't seen the original since my own childhood in the sixties or seventies, and even then I probably saw it on a black-and-white television, so I won't attempt a comparison. I do, however, remember that I enjoyed the Mickey Mouse section immensely.
Fantasia 2000 is like a number of films consisting of episodes which are either unconnected or else connected only by a tenuous thread. Such films- "Woody Allen's "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex..." and Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life" come to mind- tend to divide into three parts, the Good, the Bad and the Indifferent. Here the Good parts include:-
Mickey Mouse, for obvious reasons, and not all of them to do with childhood nostalgia. It is concise, funny and, of course, it tells the story that Paul Dukas's music was expressly written to illustrate. Some of the other sections use music which is not well suited to the style of animation or to the story being told. More of that later
Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. If you're going to produce a cartoon using this music, it just has to be set in Jazz Age New York City. I had never previously heard of the cartoonist Al Hirschfeld, but his work seems wonderfully suited to the mood of the music. The story follows four people- an unemployed man, an African-American construction worker, a young girl and a henpecked husband- and shows how they all realise their dreams. The colour scheme is perhaps inspired by Gershwin's title because it makes great use of blue, together with green and violet, the adjoining colours in the spectrum. Reds, oranges and yellows are used much more sparingly.
Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto. As a child I could never forgive Hans Christian Andersen for killing off his "Steadfast Tin Soldier" and his ballerina sweetheart. The gloomy Dane should have realised that children's fairy tales are the one literary genre which demand happy endings, so I am overjoyed that Disney gave this beautifully realised version the ending it should always have had. I doubt if Shostakovich wrote his concerto for tin soldiers to march to, but his jaunty music fits the story perfectly, and there is a suitably detestable villain in the shape of that evil jack-in-the-box.
Respighi's "The Pines of Rome". Owing to a defective English-Italian dictionary, someone mistranslated "I Pini di Roma" as "Humpback Whales in the Antarctic". I had my doubts about the wisdom of using programme music to support a programme quite different to the one for which it was written, so this one only just scrapes into the "Good" category. I was, however, won over by the quality of the animation, that cute baby whale and the surreal nature of the storyline in which the whales leave the ocean to fly through the air and into outer space. You wouldn't get that in a David Attenborough documentary.
The Indifferent:-
Saint-Saëns' The Carnival of the Animals. If you're into flamingos who play with yo-yos, this is the film for you. If you're not, it probably isn't.
Stravinsky's The Firebird. I understand that Roy Edward fought hard to keep the "Night on Bare Mountain" sequence in "Fantasia 2000". He eventually had to settle for something in keeping with the mood of the original. The section, which acts as the film's finale, is based upon the 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens and tells of how the Sprite, a benevolent female nature spirit and her ally, a stag bearing a certain resemblance to the adult Bambi, fight against the evil Firebird, the destructive spirit of the volcano. Occasionally effective, but overlong and a bit pretentious, and Stravinsky's music, written to tell a quite different story, seems out of place.
And now for the Bad.
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Seldom can such great music have been put to so banal a purpose.
Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance. Elgar's marches- we hear snatches of all four- were written to conjure up some grand, solemn ceremony, so God only knows what they are doing here as the backdrop to the misadventures of Donald and Daisy Duck aboard Noah's Ark. The story itself could have been quite comical, but the music seemed quite out of place. I don't think that Disney were deliberately trying to satirise Elgar- I know some people don't care for his music- but at times it sounded like it.
With so many wildly differing segments, I can't really sum up the film in a single phrase, but as the good elements outnumbered the bad I will award it 7/10.
An Almost Flawless Masterpiece
Robin-581 September 2001
Although I was aware of the original plan to renew the Fantasia concept every so often, and that it was visualised as an ongoing project, I felt that going back after 60 years was too much, and that the original classic should be left alone. However, my initial scepticism was dispelled within seconds of the opening sequence. What we have here is a lush, vibrant fusion of animation and music, each fully complimenting the other to perfection. It's hard to pick a favorite sequence, but if really pressed, for personal taste alone, it would be the awesome sequence with the whales. Mickey's Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence is the only carry over from the original, and a worthy match for it in the 2000 lineup is the Donald "Noah".
The only criticism I have of the film is the bridging sequences, featuring Steve Martin, Penn & Teller, Bette Midler and others. I would have preferred that they stuck to one presenter, preferably James Earl Jones or Angela Landsbury. They seemed to take the material and the project far more seriously than Martin and Penn & Teller who's humor detracted from the dignity of the movie as a whole.
The only criticism I have of the film is the bridging sequences, featuring Steve Martin, Penn & Teller, Bette Midler and others. I would have preferred that they stuck to one presenter, preferably James Earl Jones or Angela Landsbury. They seemed to take the material and the project far more seriously than Martin and Penn & Teller who's humor detracted from the dignity of the movie as a whole.
I Keep Thinking About It...
GEM-2026 December 2000
Obviously, the original "Fantasia" was the state of the art when it was released in 1940. In fact, it remained there for many years. From an animation standpoint, I think Disney finally topped it when they released "Sleeping Beauty" in 1959. Still, as an accomplishment, I believe that "Fantasia" was Walt Disney's finest achievement.
He certainly wanted the idea of "Fantasia" to continue, but as time went on, it seemed that it would never happen. Our tastes in animation became more and more sophisticated along with the greater advancements we have seen in animation in the last decade. When Disney released the original "Fantasia" on video in 1991, many who had seen it criticized the film as being too arty, with long segments that would not appeal to children.
Perhaps many people thought that the word "Disney" always should be associated with kids. That is unfair, for Walt would have wanted all ages of people to enjoy his films.
When Roy Disney announced a few years ago that Disney was making a new "Fantasia", I was surprised and excited. In the time that movies like "The Lion King", "Aladdin", "Toy Story", and "A Bug's Life" were taking in huge sums of cash, it seemed that Disney was willing to take the risk again and make the film anyway.
What a treat it is! Most of the segments of the film stayed in my memory for days, as did the music. There is true genius in "Fantasia 2000" in the connections of imagery to music. For example, the combination of Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue" the Al Hirschfeld-style caricatures was so perfect that the music seemed written for that type of visual presentation.
"Fantasia 2000" left me breathless and practically speechless. I even enjoyed the celebrity introductions throughout the picture.
Using my preferred four-star rating system, I would give "Fantasia 2000" this:
****-
The minus is there for the only criticism I have of it: Too short! The original "Fantasia" was a two-hour event, while "Fantasia 2000" was only 74 minutes. That is the same length as most other Disney animated features. Was 74 minutes determined by: a. Expense of the budget, or b. The expected length of children's attention spans?
From the depth of my heart, I recommend "Fantasia 2000". It left me wanting more. George
He certainly wanted the idea of "Fantasia" to continue, but as time went on, it seemed that it would never happen. Our tastes in animation became more and more sophisticated along with the greater advancements we have seen in animation in the last decade. When Disney released the original "Fantasia" on video in 1991, many who had seen it criticized the film as being too arty, with long segments that would not appeal to children.
Perhaps many people thought that the word "Disney" always should be associated with kids. That is unfair, for Walt would have wanted all ages of people to enjoy his films.
When Roy Disney announced a few years ago that Disney was making a new "Fantasia", I was surprised and excited. In the time that movies like "The Lion King", "Aladdin", "Toy Story", and "A Bug's Life" were taking in huge sums of cash, it seemed that Disney was willing to take the risk again and make the film anyway.
What a treat it is! Most of the segments of the film stayed in my memory for days, as did the music. There is true genius in "Fantasia 2000" in the connections of imagery to music. For example, the combination of Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue" the Al Hirschfeld-style caricatures was so perfect that the music seemed written for that type of visual presentation.
"Fantasia 2000" left me breathless and practically speechless. I even enjoyed the celebrity introductions throughout the picture.
Using my preferred four-star rating system, I would give "Fantasia 2000" this:
****-
The minus is there for the only criticism I have of it: Too short! The original "Fantasia" was a two-hour event, while "Fantasia 2000" was only 74 minutes. That is the same length as most other Disney animated features. Was 74 minutes determined by: a. Expense of the budget, or b. The expected length of children's attention spans?
From the depth of my heart, I recommend "Fantasia 2000". It left me wanting more. George
I love the Gershwin section
SnoopyStyle1 June 2015
It's a reworking and remaking of the classic Disney Fantasia. The first superior aspect of this one compared to the original is the shorter length. Not all of it works but it works well enough to be compelling throughout. I love the George Gershwin section. It is obviously NYC but I also love the 1930s era. I love the animation style. I couldn't stop smiling and it has some great laughs. There is the redo of Mickey Mouse in The Sorcerer's Apprentice. It looks a little brighter without taking away the animation style. Donald Duck in Noah's Ark is funny. Overall, there are some slower sections but I just love the Gershwin section so much.
pure beauty
zetes27 December 2000
Fantasia 2000 has really been screwed over since it was released in January of the year 2000. I was lucky enough to see it on the IMAX screen. I liked it quite a bit then, but never thought about it much. but for some reason, when it was announced that it would be released on DVD, my interest sparked again, and I got it. now, watching it for the second time, i realize just how amazing it was. it is by far one of the most interesting disney projects ever, probably the best and most unique since the original Fantasia. i will go over and rate and criticize each segment now:
1. "Symphony #5" - the battle between good and evil with colorful abstract triangles, unmistakably based on butterflies, being attacked by black triangles in an ethereal setting. this segment did not impress me at all when i originally saw the film, but seeing it again, i am able to appreciate the pastel artistry (the DVD provides a lot of insight on to how difficult it was to create this segment). the segment as a whole may be one of the weakest, but it is very beautiful. possibly the greatness and familiarity of the music diminishes the segment's overall power. it is possibly the single most famous piece of music ever written. 8/10
2. "Pines of Rome" - a family of whales fly around in the air. i actually disliked this segment when i first saw the film last january. personally, computer animation used in an animated film always made me cringe. watching it again, i now love the way the cgi whales move and look against the cell animated backgrounds. now i feel that this is maybe the best segment of the film. the music is the best of all. i had never heard it before. the story is also probably the best of them all. it turns out to be one of the most beautiful and miraculous pieces of animation ever created. 10/10
3. "Rhapsody in Blue" - several stories of unhappy people are told and intersect in New York City. First off, this is a great piece of music and one of the most unique pieces of animation i have seen. Disney here forgot its attempts at realism and just went for charicatures. it is incredible to see animators create a microcosm of a Robert Altman film as a silent film. This was one of my favorites the first time i saw the film, and it remains so now. 10/10
4. "Piano Concerto #2, Allegro, Opus 102" (The Steadfast Tin Soldier) - again, when i first saw the film, I was annoyed at their use of computer animation. now, i see how wonderful this segment really is and how the computer animation works within the beautiful cell animation. the characters in this segment are beautifully made. the tin soldier himself isn't all that impressive, but the ballerina and the jack-in-the-box are amazing creations, among the most effective characters disney has ever created. I love the music in this one, too. i had never heard it before. the only thing i can fault this film for is that the animators changed the ending from a sad or bittersweet ending to a happy one. they claim that the music made them change it, because the music was more upbeat when it ended. this is true, but i also think that they would never have been allowed to end it sadly even if the music had ended so. Disney does not want to depress anyone, and they would slap a happy ending on it no matter what. but, with the music as an excuse, i can accept the ending of the film. 10/10
5. "Carnival of the Animals, Finale" - my least favorite segment, when i first saw it and now. it is only about 3 minutes long, and i'm glad for that. i do like it a bit more now, the art, watercolor, anyway. the story is very formulaic, and it follows the annoying tradition of silly disney animal characters like Timon and Pumbaa and Sebastion the crab and so many others. The segment is merely okay, and its shortness provides those children who are bored (the movie wasn't made for them in the first place) to be entertained a little more. 7/10
6. "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" - Who can argue? it is a classic. maybe it shows a little laziness in the filmmakers, to just slap this onto a 65 minute film to pad it to 70 minutes, but who cares. it is wonderful. If you get the DVD, make sure to listen to Mickey Mouse's commetary about this segment. it is awesome. 10/10
7. "Pomp and Circumstance" - this may be the most famous of the pieces of music, only competing with Symphony #5, because of its association with graduation. It works surprisingly well with the story of Donald as Noah's assistant who can never find his wife Daisy on the arc and thinks she was left out. Even though they don't acknowledge it anywhere on the DVD, this is obviously based on Buster Keaton's The Naviagator, a silent comedy. This segment ends up being very funny, almost as good as The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and even touching. It is very worthy, even though i know most people blew it off. 10/10
8. "Firebird Suite - 1919" - probably the best of the bunch, and the best film to end on. the order of the segments is actually quite well planned out, spacing them out interspersing beauty and whimsy quite well so as to never cross over emotions between two segments. each starts afresh. The Firebird Suite is the story of death and rebirth in nature, with a sprite helping nature to bloom after the winter. she awakes the firebird, a volcano, which destroys all that she has created. at the end, after being destroyed, a majestic elk revives the sprite and she revives nature. the only fault i could think of, and it does harm the film for a few people, is the tremendous similarities between it and Mononoke Hime, Princess Mononoke, which disney distributed last year. I have heard this segment called a rip-off of that film, but, with the tremendously long amount of time it takes to produce an animated piece, i will guarantee that The Firebird Suite was in developement over a year before Mononoke was released. Death and rebirth is such a common theme, it is universal. It is done as well here as it is in Mononoke Hime. 10/10
The interstitials - this is surely the worst part of the film, and it completely diminishes the film's value. We do not need famous people telling us that it is okay to listen to classical music. This is an insult to our intelligence. buy the DVD, and fast-forward over these chapters. 5/10.
Overall, 9/10, one of the best films of 2000, one of the most miraculous animated films ever made. It was not well received by critics or audiences, and i think this was a huge mistake. remember, the first fantasia bombed, too. maybe someday in the future, when the minds of Americans become more intelligent and complex again, Fantasia 2000 will get its due.
1. "Symphony #5" - the battle between good and evil with colorful abstract triangles, unmistakably based on butterflies, being attacked by black triangles in an ethereal setting. this segment did not impress me at all when i originally saw the film, but seeing it again, i am able to appreciate the pastel artistry (the DVD provides a lot of insight on to how difficult it was to create this segment). the segment as a whole may be one of the weakest, but it is very beautiful. possibly the greatness and familiarity of the music diminishes the segment's overall power. it is possibly the single most famous piece of music ever written. 8/10
2. "Pines of Rome" - a family of whales fly around in the air. i actually disliked this segment when i first saw the film last january. personally, computer animation used in an animated film always made me cringe. watching it again, i now love the way the cgi whales move and look against the cell animated backgrounds. now i feel that this is maybe the best segment of the film. the music is the best of all. i had never heard it before. the story is also probably the best of them all. it turns out to be one of the most beautiful and miraculous pieces of animation ever created. 10/10
3. "Rhapsody in Blue" - several stories of unhappy people are told and intersect in New York City. First off, this is a great piece of music and one of the most unique pieces of animation i have seen. Disney here forgot its attempts at realism and just went for charicatures. it is incredible to see animators create a microcosm of a Robert Altman film as a silent film. This was one of my favorites the first time i saw the film, and it remains so now. 10/10
4. "Piano Concerto #2, Allegro, Opus 102" (The Steadfast Tin Soldier) - again, when i first saw the film, I was annoyed at their use of computer animation. now, i see how wonderful this segment really is and how the computer animation works within the beautiful cell animation. the characters in this segment are beautifully made. the tin soldier himself isn't all that impressive, but the ballerina and the jack-in-the-box are amazing creations, among the most effective characters disney has ever created. I love the music in this one, too. i had never heard it before. the only thing i can fault this film for is that the animators changed the ending from a sad or bittersweet ending to a happy one. they claim that the music made them change it, because the music was more upbeat when it ended. this is true, but i also think that they would never have been allowed to end it sadly even if the music had ended so. Disney does not want to depress anyone, and they would slap a happy ending on it no matter what. but, with the music as an excuse, i can accept the ending of the film. 10/10
5. "Carnival of the Animals, Finale" - my least favorite segment, when i first saw it and now. it is only about 3 minutes long, and i'm glad for that. i do like it a bit more now, the art, watercolor, anyway. the story is very formulaic, and it follows the annoying tradition of silly disney animal characters like Timon and Pumbaa and Sebastion the crab and so many others. The segment is merely okay, and its shortness provides those children who are bored (the movie wasn't made for them in the first place) to be entertained a little more. 7/10
6. "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" - Who can argue? it is a classic. maybe it shows a little laziness in the filmmakers, to just slap this onto a 65 minute film to pad it to 70 minutes, but who cares. it is wonderful. If you get the DVD, make sure to listen to Mickey Mouse's commetary about this segment. it is awesome. 10/10
7. "Pomp and Circumstance" - this may be the most famous of the pieces of music, only competing with Symphony #5, because of its association with graduation. It works surprisingly well with the story of Donald as Noah's assistant who can never find his wife Daisy on the arc and thinks she was left out. Even though they don't acknowledge it anywhere on the DVD, this is obviously based on Buster Keaton's The Naviagator, a silent comedy. This segment ends up being very funny, almost as good as The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and even touching. It is very worthy, even though i know most people blew it off. 10/10
8. "Firebird Suite - 1919" - probably the best of the bunch, and the best film to end on. the order of the segments is actually quite well planned out, spacing them out interspersing beauty and whimsy quite well so as to never cross over emotions between two segments. each starts afresh. The Firebird Suite is the story of death and rebirth in nature, with a sprite helping nature to bloom after the winter. she awakes the firebird, a volcano, which destroys all that she has created. at the end, after being destroyed, a majestic elk revives the sprite and she revives nature. the only fault i could think of, and it does harm the film for a few people, is the tremendous similarities between it and Mononoke Hime, Princess Mononoke, which disney distributed last year. I have heard this segment called a rip-off of that film, but, with the tremendously long amount of time it takes to produce an animated piece, i will guarantee that The Firebird Suite was in developement over a year before Mononoke was released. Death and rebirth is such a common theme, it is universal. It is done as well here as it is in Mononoke Hime. 10/10
The interstitials - this is surely the worst part of the film, and it completely diminishes the film's value. We do not need famous people telling us that it is okay to listen to classical music. This is an insult to our intelligence. buy the DVD, and fast-forward over these chapters. 5/10.
Overall, 9/10, one of the best films of 2000, one of the most miraculous animated films ever made. It was not well received by critics or audiences, and i think this was a huge mistake. remember, the first fantasia bombed, too. maybe someday in the future, when the minds of Americans become more intelligent and complex again, Fantasia 2000 will get its due.
Enjoyable, But Ultimately Inferior
CalvinValjean21 September 2008
Warning: Spoilers
I consider the original Fantasia to be probably the best animated film ever, so obviously my expectations for this were extremely high. The main issue I've always had with Fantasia 2000 is that the quality of the different segments are uneven. In the original Fantasia, I would say that all the segments were of the same artistic quality. Sure, I prefer some over others (I like Pastoral Symphony over Dance of the Hours, for instance) but still, the whole thing felt cohesive, as a whole work of art. Fantasia 2000 feels more like a grab-bag collection, and the segments just aren't all of the same quality. When I tell people about it, I feel I have to review each segment individually, which was never the case for the original. These're my reviews:
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony - good, though I think they tried too hard to imitate Toccata and Fogue.
Pines of Rome - hands down, the best segment! I've watched it and rewatched it over and over.
Rhapsody in Blue - definitely a very original idea to combine Gershwin with Al Hirschfield and New York. On repeat viewings though, I feel it doesn't hold up as well. The characters just aren't very engaging, and the little girl felt like a rip off of Little Lulu.
The Steadfast Tin Soldier - around here was when I began to notice what I said about lack of quality. This segment was neither great nor terrible, but just "okay," and it seemed too rushed.
Carnival of the Animals - this hardly even counted as a segment. It was just a throwaway joke.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice - I know that keeping this segment was meant as a nod to Walt's original plan of rereleasing Fantasia with some new stuff while keeping old ones, but ultimately, it was pointless. Why waste 7 minutes of film with footage we've already seen? Why didn't they rerecord the music or something, just to make it feel fresh? And couldn't they have given such a classic piece of animation a better introduction than what Penn and Teller say? (Don't get me wrong, I like Penn and Teller, but their introduction is just a comedy routine).
Pomp and Circumstance - another segment that's just "okay." I'm not even religious, but does anyone find it a bit awkward to have Donald Duck in a Biblical story?
Firebird Suite - wonderful! Reminds me a bit of FernGully, a non-Disney cartoon. I do feel that it could've been developed to be a little longer as it ends too quickly, but still, taking it for what it is, it's a nice work of art.
My remaining gripe was that I hated the celebrity cameos introducing each piece. This made the movie feel like a TV special. I realize that they probably didn't want to redo what they did with Deems Taylor (having an unknown guy with a face kept in shadow is probably not very marketable), but then they might as well have not had any hosts. Roger Ebert said he didn't think the hosts were necessary anyway.
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony - good, though I think they tried too hard to imitate Toccata and Fogue.
Pines of Rome - hands down, the best segment! I've watched it and rewatched it over and over.
Rhapsody in Blue - definitely a very original idea to combine Gershwin with Al Hirschfield and New York. On repeat viewings though, I feel it doesn't hold up as well. The characters just aren't very engaging, and the little girl felt like a rip off of Little Lulu.
The Steadfast Tin Soldier - around here was when I began to notice what I said about lack of quality. This segment was neither great nor terrible, but just "okay," and it seemed too rushed.
Carnival of the Animals - this hardly even counted as a segment. It was just a throwaway joke.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice - I know that keeping this segment was meant as a nod to Walt's original plan of rereleasing Fantasia with some new stuff while keeping old ones, but ultimately, it was pointless. Why waste 7 minutes of film with footage we've already seen? Why didn't they rerecord the music or something, just to make it feel fresh? And couldn't they have given such a classic piece of animation a better introduction than what Penn and Teller say? (Don't get me wrong, I like Penn and Teller, but their introduction is just a comedy routine).
Pomp and Circumstance - another segment that's just "okay." I'm not even religious, but does anyone find it a bit awkward to have Donald Duck in a Biblical story?
Firebird Suite - wonderful! Reminds me a bit of FernGully, a non-Disney cartoon. I do feel that it could've been developed to be a little longer as it ends too quickly, but still, taking it for what it is, it's a nice work of art.
My remaining gripe was that I hated the celebrity cameos introducing each piece. This made the movie feel like a TV special. I realize that they probably didn't want to redo what they did with Deems Taylor (having an unknown guy with a face kept in shadow is probably not very marketable), but then they might as well have not had any hosts. Roger Ebert said he didn't think the hosts were necessary anyway.
Walt would'a been Proud!
pied25 November 2000
Fantasia 2000 is a treat! The animation and music are splendid--whales in the first segment--cartoons set to Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin in the second(the best)--a Noah's Arc montage with Donald and Daisy Duck --and my second favorite--Stravinsky's Rite of Spring with a wood nymph battling the death force of a volcano.
Definitely 4 stars out of Four..... Highly recommended!
Definitely 4 stars out of Four..... Highly recommended!
Good!
Gunnar_Runar_Ingibjargarson24 June 2008
More ambitious in scope than any of its other animated films (before or to come), Disney's 1940 Fantasia was a dizzying, magical, and highly enjoyable marriage of classical music and animated images. Fantasia 2000 features some breathtaking animation and storytelling, and in a few spots soars to wonderful high points, but it still more often than not has the feel of walking in its predecessor's footsteps as opposed to creating its own path. A family of whales swimming and soaring to Respighi's The Pines of Rome is magical to watch, but ends all too soon; a forest sprite's dance of life, death, and rebirth to Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring too clearly echoes the original Fantasia's Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria sequence. But when it's on target, Fantasia 2000 is glorious enough to make you giddy. Hans Christian Andersen's "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" is a perfect narrative set to Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2, and Donald Duck's guest appearance as the assistant to Noah (of ark fame) set to Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance marches is a welcome companion piece (though not an equal) to The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the one original Fantasia piece included here. The high point of Fantasia 2000, though, is a fantastic day-in-the-life sequence of 1930s New York City set to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and animated in the style of cartoonist Al Hirschfeld; it's a perfect melding of music, story, and animation. Let's hope future Fantasias (reportedly in the works) take a cue from the best of this compilation. The music is provided by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Levine, interspersed with negligible intros by Steve Martin, Bette Midler, Itzhak Perlman, James Earl Jones, and others.
Gorgeous!
frigmeat20 January 2001
I can't stop watching it!!! Four of the seven new segments in this film are alone well worth the admission. Roy Disney Jr. sets the stage for a remarkable departure from the usual animated dreck that Disney has been bogged down by for the last half-decade (Toy Story aside). Disney have hereby restored my faith in them as leading the pack in animated cinema. I want more!!
"Pines of Rome", a marvelous piece set to the "story" of whales leaving the water and eventually the planet, is worth viewing several times for it's symbolism and exquisite look. "Rhapsody in Blue", by Gershwin, is given perfect treatment by a day in the life of New York City. The pace is quick and manages to give each character studied enough depth to make a very satisfying and touching ending. "Pomp and Circumstance", the graduation standard, is humorous and sweet. Creating a love story involving Donald and Daisy Duck into the story of Noah's Ark worked surprisingly well. "Firebird Suite"- WOW. This is the most incredible segment of the film. It's a PERFECT marriage of music and animation and MUST be played loud. Very emotional and powerful indeed.
I had to post another comment because I can't stress enough that it's a worthy successor to the original Fantasia, and Walt would be proud.
"Pines of Rome", a marvelous piece set to the "story" of whales leaving the water and eventually the planet, is worth viewing several times for it's symbolism and exquisite look. "Rhapsody in Blue", by Gershwin, is given perfect treatment by a day in the life of New York City. The pace is quick and manages to give each character studied enough depth to make a very satisfying and touching ending. "Pomp and Circumstance", the graduation standard, is humorous and sweet. Creating a love story involving Donald and Daisy Duck into the story of Noah's Ark worked surprisingly well. "Firebird Suite"- WOW. This is the most incredible segment of the film. It's a PERFECT marriage of music and animation and MUST be played loud. Very emotional and powerful indeed.
I had to post another comment because I can't stress enough that it's a worthy successor to the original Fantasia, and Walt would be proud.
Celebrities...ugh...
bookworm1-262-64316831 July 2020
CGI Paled To Disney's Old-School Animation
strong-122-47888526 December 2014
Released 60 years after the original Fantasia, I found that this ambitious and well-produced sequel from Disney Studios fell quite short of my preconceived expectations.
When I speak of Fantasia 2000 not living up to my satisfaction, it all comes down to comparing it, as I have, to the 1940 original.
What I found was that the original's animated segments were undoubtedly more entertaining and their stories much more well thought out, than were those of the animated segments in Fantasia 2000.
When it came to being more vibrantly colourful, and having a greater richness in style, it was the distinctiveness of the hand-drawn animation of the 1940 film that easily won out over the CGI animation effects of Fantasia 2000. As a true work of art, the former's animation techniques were (and always will be) unsurpassed.
I view the original Fantasia as a literal masterpiece of classic animation. While, on the other hand, Fantasia 2000 may indeed have had its share of spectacular moments, but, it could never be considered anything even coming close to being in the league of a masterpiece.
For the most part Fantasia 2000 did succeed well-enough as being fairly entertaining animation.
Out of the 7 new animated segments in this picture there was really only one that impressed me at all. It was the segment presented along with Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite" as its musical accompaniment.
When I speak of Fantasia 2000 not living up to my satisfaction, it all comes down to comparing it, as I have, to the 1940 original.
What I found was that the original's animated segments were undoubtedly more entertaining and their stories much more well thought out, than were those of the animated segments in Fantasia 2000.
When it came to being more vibrantly colourful, and having a greater richness in style, it was the distinctiveness of the hand-drawn animation of the 1940 film that easily won out over the CGI animation effects of Fantasia 2000. As a true work of art, the former's animation techniques were (and always will be) unsurpassed.
I view the original Fantasia as a literal masterpiece of classic animation. While, on the other hand, Fantasia 2000 may indeed have had its share of spectacular moments, but, it could never be considered anything even coming close to being in the league of a masterpiece.
For the most part Fantasia 2000 did succeed well-enough as being fairly entertaining animation.
Out of the 7 new animated segments in this picture there was really only one that impressed me at all. It was the segment presented along with Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite" as its musical accompaniment.
A couple of brilliant pieces make this mixed bag worthwhile
cherold14 January 2011
I almost stopped watching Fantasia 2000. Starting with a bland take on Beethoven and followed by a mildly cute but rather dull thing about flying whales, I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep going. Fortunately I did, because the next piece, Rhapsody in Blue, combines the visual look of All Hirschfeld drawings with the animation style of Warner Bros. Loony Toons shorts in service of a truly magnificent animated short (according to wikipedia the director, Eric Goldberg, had started this separate from Fantasia 2000 but it wound up in the movie).
After that it was mixed. A thing about a love among toys was cute even though it didn't really connect with the music and would have been better with hand, instead of computer, animation. Another very short piece by Goldberg about a Flamingo with a yo-yo is wildly funny (and in animation style most typical of Disney films of that period). The Sorcerer's Apprentice is re-used in this sequel, and while it wasn't one of my favorites from the first movie it certainly is beautifully done. A Noah's Ark segment, on the other hand, has very little to recommend it.
The final piece, by Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi, is as wonderful as the Gerswhin number, a poetic, touching piece about destruction and renewal.
In between musical numbers there are little celebrity intros that are distinctly unimpressive, with the exception of a mildly entertaining bit by Penn and Teller.
It is unfortunate that there is so much filler in this movie, because the best pieces are as good as anything from the original Fantasia, but the overall quality of the movie is, alas, week. But the best pieces are so good that I'd recommend sitting through the whole thing, or, if you watch it on DVD, skipping to the good parts.
After that it was mixed. A thing about a love among toys was cute even though it didn't really connect with the music and would have been better with hand, instead of computer, animation. Another very short piece by Goldberg about a Flamingo with a yo-yo is wildly funny (and in animation style most typical of Disney films of that period). The Sorcerer's Apprentice is re-used in this sequel, and while it wasn't one of my favorites from the first movie it certainly is beautifully done. A Noah's Ark segment, on the other hand, has very little to recommend it.
The final piece, by Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi, is as wonderful as the Gerswhin number, a poetic, touching piece about destruction and renewal.
In between musical numbers there are little celebrity intros that are distinctly unimpressive, with the exception of a mildly entertaining bit by Penn and Teller.
It is unfortunate that there is so much filler in this movie, because the best pieces are as good as anything from the original Fantasia, but the overall quality of the movie is, alas, week. But the best pieces are so good that I'd recommend sitting through the whole thing, or, if you watch it on DVD, skipping to the good parts.
Music expertly portrayed in film
rymozart4 January 2000
Fantasia 2000 presents us with a visual voyage into music that, in my opinion, excels that of the original Fantasia. Not only is the animation itself extremely fluid, colorful, and highly diverse from segment to segment, but the representation of the music is, in itself, sheer genius. As I have come to expect from Disney, at least some research has been done into the texture of the music as well as thematical studies and tonal structure. This much, I believe, is made in evidence of both blatant and subtle use of contrast on screen to highlight the contrast of the music.
In all, this film is of extremely high value and is of an excellent nature. I highly recommend seeing it on the IMAX screen for full effect of sound and light and to be ready for a sonic experience that will have you whistling tunes all week long.
In all, this film is of extremely high value and is of an excellent nature. I highly recommend seeing it on the IMAX screen for full effect of sound and light and to be ready for a sonic experience that will have you whistling tunes all week long.
Amazing - a must-see for anyone who likes music!
glibchick9 October 2002
I have always been partial to Disney, no matter what rotten stories I've come across in various magazines and books. The genius of the man has left its mark on the world of animation. Fantasia, in particular, has fascinated me for years. The idea of interpreting music through animation - it is so beautiful.
I haven't been lucky enough to watch the original Fantasia...though I certainly intend to someday. But, I did watch Fantasia 2000. It's so wonderful - every single second of it! So many themes and story plots woven between the works of renowned composers! And, the drawing styles vary too - from the classic Disney sketches in The Firebird and The Sorcerer's Apprentice, to the scatty scribbles in Rhapsody in Blue, and the abstract butterfly shapes in Beethoven's Symphony No.5 in C Minor. The pictures capture the dynamism and feel of the music...it's such a beautiful translation of the piece.
I would highly recommend this film to anyone who is wondering whether to watch it. Put your prejudices and so on aside. Just sit back, and open your mind to the visual interpretations of these lovely compositions. It's hard to choose a favourite, but I really like Rhapsody in Blue. In fact, I can't think of the music, without seeing the images in my minds' eye.
Don't miss this, if you can help it.
I haven't been lucky enough to watch the original Fantasia...though I certainly intend to someday. But, I did watch Fantasia 2000. It's so wonderful - every single second of it! So many themes and story plots woven between the works of renowned composers! And, the drawing styles vary too - from the classic Disney sketches in The Firebird and The Sorcerer's Apprentice, to the scatty scribbles in Rhapsody in Blue, and the abstract butterfly shapes in Beethoven's Symphony No.5 in C Minor. The pictures capture the dynamism and feel of the music...it's such a beautiful translation of the piece.
I would highly recommend this film to anyone who is wondering whether to watch it. Put your prejudices and so on aside. Just sit back, and open your mind to the visual interpretations of these lovely compositions. It's hard to choose a favourite, but I really like Rhapsody in Blue. In fact, I can't think of the music, without seeing the images in my minds' eye.
Don't miss this, if you can help it.
The Renaissance of "Fantasia" for the 21st century and 3rd Millennium
Atreyu_II1 November 2008
The 38th animated Disney "classic" is a movie which can be three different things, depending on the way you see it: a sequel to the original one, a "remake" of the original one or even a brand new movie inspired on the original's idea. Personally, I'm not sure which one of these categories I would evaluate this movie.
This is the first Disney animated movie I write a review in more than one year. Actually, I was longing to see this movie for a while, since I appreciate its predecessor so much. As such, I was curious and interested to know what would "Fantasia 2000" be like. Now that I finally had an opportunity to watch this motion picture, I can express my feelings about it.
Where do I begin? First of all, it didn't totally disappoint me, but it also didn't totally satisfy me. It repeats the same basic and unique formula of the first movie: to combine various animated shorts as different as water and wine in every way between themselves with the use of classical music. Like the original, this one also has live-action introductions and is conducted by an Orchestra (in this case, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra).
It's funny that this movie is called "Fantasia 2000", when it was actually released at the end of 1999, which means it came out 59 years after the original and not 60. Maybe they did it this way so that it was completely finished and ready to be launched by the new year time.
"Fantasia 2000", despite being a loaf of fresh air in the world of animation cinema for the late 1990's, is nowhere near as good as the original "Fantasia". In fact, while the original is easy to rate, I can't say the same about this one. "Fantasia 2000" is surely way more complex to rate. One of the biggest issues of "Fantasia 2000" is the variable quality and artwork of its different pieces. In the original film all the pieces provide the same feeling of quality, even though I like some better than others. But this movie is different. I will try to explain why by talking a bit about all of its segments.
1. Symphony No. 5 in C minor-I. Allegro con brio
Through one of the most recognizable and beautiful music compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven, this sequence is artistic and one of the best in "Fantasia 2000". It is a bit like the first segment from the original movie, done with the use of imagination above all the things, with the final result being something visually appealing and artistic.
2. Pines of Rome
This is the best one of "Fantasia 2000". Through Ottorino Respighi's music, it features humpback whales that are capable of flying because of a supernova. Artwork is pretty good for CGI standards, the designs and backgrounds have a magic feeling too.
3. Rhapsody in Blue
This one uses George Gershwin's music as background. However, this short is the mirror of weird modern cartoons - in other words, dreadful, awful, ugly, terrible. The artwork, designs, backgrounds, colors and everything else are absolute trash. What were they thinking when they decided to do something like this? I hated this. And, to make things worst, this is way too long for what it has to offer: nothing. I can't believe how many people select this as their favorite.
4. The Steadfast Tin Soldier
While not the best in "Fantasia 2000", at least this one is much better than the 3rd segment. Using Dmitri Shostakovich's music, it tells us the story of a toy soldier and his battle for love, for which he has to confront a rival. The artwork is okay but somewhat different from the traditional Disney's standards. This is a reasonable segment, if not terrific.
5. The Carnival of the Animals
With the music of Camille Saint-Saëns, they made basically a story with flamingos and a yo-yo. It's nothing special and I think the flamingos could have been better drawn. Not that they're that badly drawn, but Disney can do better than this. This is extremely short (only about 1 minute). When it ended, I was like «That's it?».
6. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
«Fantasia wouldn't be complete without "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"», I heard this. That's why they decided to include this one here, which is a segment from the original "Fantasia", perhaps its most famous. You can read my opinion about it on my review about the original movie.
7. Pomp and Circumstance - Marches 1, 2, 3 and 4
This one has music of Edward Elgar mostly. Despite being a story based on Noah's Ark, the truth is that you can find here many similarities with Disney's "The Lion King" and "The Rescuers Down Under" because of the visuals, artwork and wild animals. The journey, however, is sentimental and focus on Donald Duck and Daisy. It's a reasonable short, one of the best in "Fantasia 2000".
8. Firebird Suite - 1919 Version
This final sequence is introduced by Angela Lansbury. The music is by Igor Stravinsky. It's a story with some elements in common with "Bambi". It is basically about a Sprite, a deer and the fury of a volcano. It's an okay but not great ending for "Fantasia 2000".
This is the first Disney animated movie I write a review in more than one year. Actually, I was longing to see this movie for a while, since I appreciate its predecessor so much. As such, I was curious and interested to know what would "Fantasia 2000" be like. Now that I finally had an opportunity to watch this motion picture, I can express my feelings about it.
Where do I begin? First of all, it didn't totally disappoint me, but it also didn't totally satisfy me. It repeats the same basic and unique formula of the first movie: to combine various animated shorts as different as water and wine in every way between themselves with the use of classical music. Like the original, this one also has live-action introductions and is conducted by an Orchestra (in this case, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra).
It's funny that this movie is called "Fantasia 2000", when it was actually released at the end of 1999, which means it came out 59 years after the original and not 60. Maybe they did it this way so that it was completely finished and ready to be launched by the new year time.
"Fantasia 2000", despite being a loaf of fresh air in the world of animation cinema for the late 1990's, is nowhere near as good as the original "Fantasia". In fact, while the original is easy to rate, I can't say the same about this one. "Fantasia 2000" is surely way more complex to rate. One of the biggest issues of "Fantasia 2000" is the variable quality and artwork of its different pieces. In the original film all the pieces provide the same feeling of quality, even though I like some better than others. But this movie is different. I will try to explain why by talking a bit about all of its segments.
1. Symphony No. 5 in C minor-I. Allegro con brio
Through one of the most recognizable and beautiful music compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven, this sequence is artistic and one of the best in "Fantasia 2000". It is a bit like the first segment from the original movie, done with the use of imagination above all the things, with the final result being something visually appealing and artistic.
2. Pines of Rome
This is the best one of "Fantasia 2000". Through Ottorino Respighi's music, it features humpback whales that are capable of flying because of a supernova. Artwork is pretty good for CGI standards, the designs and backgrounds have a magic feeling too.
3. Rhapsody in Blue
This one uses George Gershwin's music as background. However, this short is the mirror of weird modern cartoons - in other words, dreadful, awful, ugly, terrible. The artwork, designs, backgrounds, colors and everything else are absolute trash. What were they thinking when they decided to do something like this? I hated this. And, to make things worst, this is way too long for what it has to offer: nothing. I can't believe how many people select this as their favorite.
4. The Steadfast Tin Soldier
While not the best in "Fantasia 2000", at least this one is much better than the 3rd segment. Using Dmitri Shostakovich's music, it tells us the story of a toy soldier and his battle for love, for which he has to confront a rival. The artwork is okay but somewhat different from the traditional Disney's standards. This is a reasonable segment, if not terrific.
5. The Carnival of the Animals
With the music of Camille Saint-Saëns, they made basically a story with flamingos and a yo-yo. It's nothing special and I think the flamingos could have been better drawn. Not that they're that badly drawn, but Disney can do better than this. This is extremely short (only about 1 minute). When it ended, I was like «That's it?».
6. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
«Fantasia wouldn't be complete without "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"», I heard this. That's why they decided to include this one here, which is a segment from the original "Fantasia", perhaps its most famous. You can read my opinion about it on my review about the original movie.
7. Pomp and Circumstance - Marches 1, 2, 3 and 4
This one has music of Edward Elgar mostly. Despite being a story based on Noah's Ark, the truth is that you can find here many similarities with Disney's "The Lion King" and "The Rescuers Down Under" because of the visuals, artwork and wild animals. The journey, however, is sentimental and focus on Donald Duck and Daisy. It's a reasonable short, one of the best in "Fantasia 2000".
8. Firebird Suite - 1919 Version
This final sequence is introduced by Angela Lansbury. The music is by Igor Stravinsky. It's a story with some elements in common with "Bambi". It is basically about a Sprite, a deer and the fury of a volcano. It's an okay but not great ending for "Fantasia 2000".
Not as strong but a worthy update
Smells_Like_Cheese30 July 2011
Warning: Spoilers
Back in 2000 when the sequel to Fantasia was released, I have to admit that I didn't see the film just because I thought why would they try to upstage the ultimate Disney classic? Fantasia was what truly introduced me to classical music, I think for any child it's the same way. What beauty, what magic it brought and made you close your eyes afterwards whenever you listened to classical music. But it seems like my generation always feels the need to up the bar a bit and try to compete with the original. I bought Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 on the double disc when Disney re-released it. Fantasia brought back so many wonderful memories I had a child and still brings the same charm that I felt as if I watched it for the first time. I was scared that Fantasia 2000 was going to destroy it, but to my surprise, with its small flaws, this was actually a great update.
60 years after the original Fantasia, Fantasia 2000 was meant to revitalize Walt Disney's goal of a constantly evolving film, with new segments. They decide to keep The Sorcerer's Apprentice, with seven new shorts. Angular, abstracted butterfly-like shapes fly through the air in Beethoven's Symphony; computer-animated whales take flight in Respighi's Pines of Rome; Al Hirschfeld's caricatures of New York life come alive in George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue; Hans Christian Andersen's The Steadfast Tin Soldier is retold with computer animation against Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Concerto, Allegro, Opus 102; frantic flamingos try to stop their yo-young comrade in Camille Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals, Finale; Donald and Daisy Duck play Noah and his wife trying to manage the ark to Sir Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance; and the cycle of life, death, and rebirth are celebrated in Stravinsky's Firebird Suite.
While some of the drawings were a little pedestrian and I felt that some of the stories they decided not to go with were completely awesome and that they should have gone with those, the animators still did a great job. Was I upset with The Sorcerer's Apprentice being left in? Not really; I thought it was fun to see it on the screen again and I think if it's not broken, don't fix it. It must have been fun nostalgia to see it on the big screen and makes me regret not seeing this film in the theater. But still, I'm glad that I gave the movie a fair chance. But I think it could have done without the celebrity cameos. I understand what influence the original film had on Hollywood, but it doesn't mean that we need the celebrities to introduce the segments. I preferred seeing the musicians, it also showed their true love for the film that they are creating.
My favorite segment is a tie between the whales and the cycle of life and death. The whales were so astonishing, the way the animation was created around them, it felt like I was flying with them, it was incredible. I kept a smile on my face the whole time I was watching it. Life and Death again was flowing so eloquently, it was impossible not to feel the tension and relief during this segment. The animators worked very hard and created another masterpiece, while it's not as strong as the original I still highly recommend Fantasia 2000.
8/10
60 years after the original Fantasia, Fantasia 2000 was meant to revitalize Walt Disney's goal of a constantly evolving film, with new segments. They decide to keep The Sorcerer's Apprentice, with seven new shorts. Angular, abstracted butterfly-like shapes fly through the air in Beethoven's Symphony; computer-animated whales take flight in Respighi's Pines of Rome; Al Hirschfeld's caricatures of New York life come alive in George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue; Hans Christian Andersen's The Steadfast Tin Soldier is retold with computer animation against Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Concerto, Allegro, Opus 102; frantic flamingos try to stop their yo-young comrade in Camille Saint-Saëns' Carnival of the Animals, Finale; Donald and Daisy Duck play Noah and his wife trying to manage the ark to Sir Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance; and the cycle of life, death, and rebirth are celebrated in Stravinsky's Firebird Suite.
While some of the drawings were a little pedestrian and I felt that some of the stories they decided not to go with were completely awesome and that they should have gone with those, the animators still did a great job. Was I upset with The Sorcerer's Apprentice being left in? Not really; I thought it was fun to see it on the screen again and I think if it's not broken, don't fix it. It must have been fun nostalgia to see it on the big screen and makes me regret not seeing this film in the theater. But still, I'm glad that I gave the movie a fair chance. But I think it could have done without the celebrity cameos. I understand what influence the original film had on Hollywood, but it doesn't mean that we need the celebrities to introduce the segments. I preferred seeing the musicians, it also showed their true love for the film that they are creating.
My favorite segment is a tie between the whales and the cycle of life and death. The whales were so astonishing, the way the animation was created around them, it felt like I was flying with them, it was incredible. I kept a smile on my face the whole time I was watching it. Life and Death again was flowing so eloquently, it was impossible not to feel the tension and relief during this segment. The animators worked very hard and created another masterpiece, while it's not as strong as the original I still highly recommend Fantasia 2000.
8/10
Lacks Subtlety, but Enjoyable.
cjd-1620 April 2008
While I think that it's really great that Disney decided to resurrect Walt's vision for "Fantasia," I think they could have done a much better job recapturing the magic.
The basic Fantasia concept, setting highly sophisticated animation to classical music in an attempt to make the music come alive, is still obviously intact, but what has been lost to some degree in "Fantasia 2000" is the mid-blowing high-art spectacle of the original Fantasia.
What I mean by this is that the original Fantasia was all about visual art. There were so many scenes that were stunningly beautiful, and were in the film for the sole purpose of being beautiful. You can see this all over, most noticeably in the Nutcracker, the Rite of Spring, and A Night on Bald Mountain / Ave Maria. They were beautiful in their simplicity, and neither animation nor music overpowered the viewer. But this simple beauty has dropped significantly with Fantasia 2000. Every small change in the music has been amped up to the hundredth degree in order to make the animation sync up with the music. On other words, they tried way too hard to make everything 'fit,' at the cost of the simple beauty of the animation / music combo.
That's not to say that this movie still isn't great fun, and has some amazing showcases of animation that will leave you open-mouthed at the rich and colorful visual spectacle. Because it does more often than not, and is still a must-see. But it's just that it pales in comparison to what Walt did on the original Fantasia, because it tried a bit too hard. If they had stuck with finding the essence of the music, then animating the simple beauty to be found in it, I have no doubt that this could have been an absolute masterpiece. But as is, it's just a bit too loud and a bit too cartoon-y rather than a mind-blowing artistic spectacle.
I only wish that this movie could have been made after the Pixar merge, because John Lasseter is a man who truly understands animation as an art, and probably could have made a much more sophisticated follow-up to "Fantasia" than Michael Eisner did.
Anyway, here's what I thought about each segment, since the quality is highly varied.
Beethoven's 5th Symphony - 5/10. This is, quite frankly, my least favorite segment in the whole film. The character is overdone, and the oversimplified animation is completely dwarfed by the music. The visuals are completely forgettable compared to the timeless music.
Pines of Rome - 9/10. There are moments where this piece is a bit too loud and comical, but this is also one of the most beautiful segments in the film. It takes ample time to breathe, and let you take the visual spectacle in. I especially love the sequence where the small whale rises up into the light at the top of the ice block. For just a second there, it rivals Miyazakian beauty.
Rhapsody in Blue - 8/10. I love the design of the animation in this segment, because its shapes and flow mesh with the music almost perfectly, creating a great jazz-era blues-iness for the music to go with. There are some great artistic moments that stuck in my head, but as a whole there's just a bit too much action happening in this segment to fully appreciate the unique and distinctive animation. Quite good, though.
Piano Concerto #2 (Steadfast Tin Soldier) - 6/10. Plain and simple, they were trying way too hard to make this segment fit the music perfectly; at the expense of artistic opportunity and character. This segment was completely forgettable.
Carnival of the Animals - 7/10. While this segment was very silly, so was the music. So the wild action and bright color pallet of the yo-yo-ing flamingos came together to form a quite amusing piece. While not a favorite of mine, it was great fun.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice - 10/10. What can I say? This was, and still is, possibly the greatest six minutes in Disney history. A perfect blend of character, visual art, and subtext.
Pomp and Circumstance - 6/10. What Disney tried to do with Donald here was obviously an attempt to recreate what happened with Mickey in the original "Fantasia". And they failed. The arrangement of the music was fantastic, but all of the animation was too loud, and again completely forgettable. There was basically no simple visual artistry, and no subtext to ponder.
The Firebird Suite - 10/10. Finally, after 65 minutes of animation and music, there is a segment that comes close to recapturing the magic of the original "Fantasia." That's not saying that this is prefect; far from it. There still aren't enough "breathing" moments, where you can just pause and enjoy the beautiful animation, for my tastes. But this is by far the most visually stunning and insightful of the new segments. It's no "Princess Mononoke," but for the new Disney, it's close enough.
The basic Fantasia concept, setting highly sophisticated animation to classical music in an attempt to make the music come alive, is still obviously intact, but what has been lost to some degree in "Fantasia 2000" is the mid-blowing high-art spectacle of the original Fantasia.
What I mean by this is that the original Fantasia was all about visual art. There were so many scenes that were stunningly beautiful, and were in the film for the sole purpose of being beautiful. You can see this all over, most noticeably in the Nutcracker, the Rite of Spring, and A Night on Bald Mountain / Ave Maria. They were beautiful in their simplicity, and neither animation nor music overpowered the viewer. But this simple beauty has dropped significantly with Fantasia 2000. Every small change in the music has been amped up to the hundredth degree in order to make the animation sync up with the music. On other words, they tried way too hard to make everything 'fit,' at the cost of the simple beauty of the animation / music combo.
That's not to say that this movie still isn't great fun, and has some amazing showcases of animation that will leave you open-mouthed at the rich and colorful visual spectacle. Because it does more often than not, and is still a must-see. But it's just that it pales in comparison to what Walt did on the original Fantasia, because it tried a bit too hard. If they had stuck with finding the essence of the music, then animating the simple beauty to be found in it, I have no doubt that this could have been an absolute masterpiece. But as is, it's just a bit too loud and a bit too cartoon-y rather than a mind-blowing artistic spectacle.
I only wish that this movie could have been made after the Pixar merge, because John Lasseter is a man who truly understands animation as an art, and probably could have made a much more sophisticated follow-up to "Fantasia" than Michael Eisner did.
Anyway, here's what I thought about each segment, since the quality is highly varied.
Beethoven's 5th Symphony - 5/10. This is, quite frankly, my least favorite segment in the whole film. The character is overdone, and the oversimplified animation is completely dwarfed by the music. The visuals are completely forgettable compared to the timeless music.
Pines of Rome - 9/10. There are moments where this piece is a bit too loud and comical, but this is also one of the most beautiful segments in the film. It takes ample time to breathe, and let you take the visual spectacle in. I especially love the sequence where the small whale rises up into the light at the top of the ice block. For just a second there, it rivals Miyazakian beauty.
Rhapsody in Blue - 8/10. I love the design of the animation in this segment, because its shapes and flow mesh with the music almost perfectly, creating a great jazz-era blues-iness for the music to go with. There are some great artistic moments that stuck in my head, but as a whole there's just a bit too much action happening in this segment to fully appreciate the unique and distinctive animation. Quite good, though.
Piano Concerto #2 (Steadfast Tin Soldier) - 6/10. Plain and simple, they were trying way too hard to make this segment fit the music perfectly; at the expense of artistic opportunity and character. This segment was completely forgettable.
Carnival of the Animals - 7/10. While this segment was very silly, so was the music. So the wild action and bright color pallet of the yo-yo-ing flamingos came together to form a quite amusing piece. While not a favorite of mine, it was great fun.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice - 10/10. What can I say? This was, and still is, possibly the greatest six minutes in Disney history. A perfect blend of character, visual art, and subtext.
Pomp and Circumstance - 6/10. What Disney tried to do with Donald here was obviously an attempt to recreate what happened with Mickey in the original "Fantasia". And they failed. The arrangement of the music was fantastic, but all of the animation was too loud, and again completely forgettable. There was basically no simple visual artistry, and no subtext to ponder.
The Firebird Suite - 10/10. Finally, after 65 minutes of animation and music, there is a segment that comes close to recapturing the magic of the original "Fantasia." That's not saying that this is prefect; far from it. There still aren't enough "breathing" moments, where you can just pause and enjoy the beautiful animation, for my tastes. But this is by far the most visually stunning and insightful of the new segments. It's no "Princess Mononoke," but for the new Disney, it's close enough.
The Power Of Animation
CAMKG4 January 2000
Probably the best animation film I have ever seen. There are no dialogues and it is not really a feature film. It is an assimilation of 8 short stories. The stories are all beautiful, my favorite ones being the one on New York City, "Rhapsody in Blue", and the one on life, death and renewal, "Firebird Suite". The film is about everything beautiful in life; amazingly entertaining. Each score is given a brilliant visual concept. And the animation speaks so much more than 'real life' films or any dialogues could for that matter. Animation, though usually aimed at kids is probably much more necessary for us adults as we lose that sense of imagination, beauty and observation. Kids are so wonderfully innocent, imaginative and creative; everything that does matter to them has an animated feel to it anyway.
Pedro Castillo
pedrocastillo-0620813 June 2021
Surprising
LeRoyMarko26 August 2002
We had two kids at home and I went to rent to one thinking it was a typical Disney movie. I was wrong, but the kids still liked it.
I was surprise by the musical choice in this one. Great classical pieces. And the animation is very well done. Some segments better than others.
I got to see this one on a regular tv-set, but I guess you should try to see it on an IMAX screen, or at least a cinema screen.
Out of 100, I gave it 81. That's good for *** out of ****.
Seen at home, in Toronto, on June 15th, 2002.
I was surprise by the musical choice in this one. Great classical pieces. And the animation is very well done. Some segments better than others.
I got to see this one on a regular tv-set, but I guess you should try to see it on an IMAX screen, or at least a cinema screen.
Out of 100, I gave it 81. That's good for *** out of ****.
Seen at home, in Toronto, on June 15th, 2002.
Admirers of the original may want to shut their eyes
Spleen7 June 2000
I can scarcely believe that so much work, so much money, so much love and so much good will, resulted in THIS. Even leaving questions of quality aside, the film is so SHORT. The original `Fantasia' was over two hours; the sequel is just 75 minutes, over ten of which have been borrowed from the original in any case. Segments which are too short individually combine to form a concert that's too short overall. The film huffs and puffs as it's strangled by its own brevity. For instance:
* Beethoven's 5th symphony, 1st movement. The original `Fantasia' gave us ALL of the sixth (well, minus some exposition repeats); this time we get just a single narrow slice of the fifth (again, minus exposition repeats - and we need them more this time). There's SOME congruence between the images on screen and the music they illustrate. Or at least, there WOULD be congruence if these images were illustrating the symphony as a whole. The triumphant blaze of colour which the animators fling at us after a couple of minutes is absent in Beethoven's fifth until the start of the fourth movement. We don't even get so far as the second movement.
* Respighi's `The Pines of Rome' has been shorn of its lovely `pines of the catacombs' sequence. This is a minor point, because the segment fails for many other reasons - I'll get to them later.
* `Carnival of the Animals' (by Saint-Saëns) consists of I don't know how many tiny, delicious musical tidbits. The animators have only bothered to use ONE of them. The result is some vibrant, fresh, funny animation that's over in less than two minutes. Why bother?
* The constant tin soldier story has been set to a tiny, one-movement Shostakovich piece that, whatever they tell us, doesn't suit it at all. I can understand why they chose Shostakovich, but this particular piece never settles down to give the images time to breathe. Why not, say, the ninth symphony - complete, of course ...? At least that has one or two slow bits.
Oh dear. But it gets worse. Remember that the original `Fantasia' was a masterpiece. Look at Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker suite. Not only do the images express whatever of value lay in the ballet; they soar with the music in a way that no ballet ever could. But it's not just Tchaikovsky. Every movement is like this. -Well, there is one exception: the second movement of Beethoven's sixth. But apart from that, the images, however surprising they may initially appear, flow DIRECTLY from the music. The animators working on the sequel have tried hard; I'm sure they have; but to no avail. It's as if animators of today can no longer listen to music at all.
For proof, consider `The Pines of Rome'. Were they TRYING for a mismatch? Respighi's tone-poem suite illustrates what it claims to illustrate: the mood of four pine-laden parts of the city of Rome. It's bright, sharp, sunlit, Mediterranean music. If this had been part of the original Fantasia program the animators would have STARTED with Rome, although they may have gone on to something else (a Rome of the past, or of the future, or a fantasy city, or the insects inhabiting the pines of Rome, or something). What do we get instead? Plastic computer-rendered whales, swimming around lugubriously in an Arctic winter. They just don't fit, and there's no way to disguise this. The final movement of the Pines suite is a march. WHALES CAN'T MARCH. There's no way to disguise this, either.
This is just the most extreme instance. The film as a whole is a flop. (Anyone who has read my reviews of other Disney efforts will know how much it hurts me to say this.) It falls even further beneath `Allegro non Troppo' than that film, for completely different reasons, fell beneath `Fantasia'. I must mention one thing, though: the `Rhapsody in Blue' segment, created hastily at the last minute, is superb; not QUITE worthy of `Fantasia', but close.
* Beethoven's 5th symphony, 1st movement. The original `Fantasia' gave us ALL of the sixth (well, minus some exposition repeats); this time we get just a single narrow slice of the fifth (again, minus exposition repeats - and we need them more this time). There's SOME congruence between the images on screen and the music they illustrate. Or at least, there WOULD be congruence if these images were illustrating the symphony as a whole. The triumphant blaze of colour which the animators fling at us after a couple of minutes is absent in Beethoven's fifth until the start of the fourth movement. We don't even get so far as the second movement.
* Respighi's `The Pines of Rome' has been shorn of its lovely `pines of the catacombs' sequence. This is a minor point, because the segment fails for many other reasons - I'll get to them later.
* `Carnival of the Animals' (by Saint-Saëns) consists of I don't know how many tiny, delicious musical tidbits. The animators have only bothered to use ONE of them. The result is some vibrant, fresh, funny animation that's over in less than two minutes. Why bother?
* The constant tin soldier story has been set to a tiny, one-movement Shostakovich piece that, whatever they tell us, doesn't suit it at all. I can understand why they chose Shostakovich, but this particular piece never settles down to give the images time to breathe. Why not, say, the ninth symphony - complete, of course ...? At least that has one or two slow bits.
Oh dear. But it gets worse. Remember that the original `Fantasia' was a masterpiece. Look at Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker suite. Not only do the images express whatever of value lay in the ballet; they soar with the music in a way that no ballet ever could. But it's not just Tchaikovsky. Every movement is like this. -Well, there is one exception: the second movement of Beethoven's sixth. But apart from that, the images, however surprising they may initially appear, flow DIRECTLY from the music. The animators working on the sequel have tried hard; I'm sure they have; but to no avail. It's as if animators of today can no longer listen to music at all.
For proof, consider `The Pines of Rome'. Were they TRYING for a mismatch? Respighi's tone-poem suite illustrates what it claims to illustrate: the mood of four pine-laden parts of the city of Rome. It's bright, sharp, sunlit, Mediterranean music. If this had been part of the original Fantasia program the animators would have STARTED with Rome, although they may have gone on to something else (a Rome of the past, or of the future, or a fantasy city, or the insects inhabiting the pines of Rome, or something). What do we get instead? Plastic computer-rendered whales, swimming around lugubriously in an Arctic winter. They just don't fit, and there's no way to disguise this. The final movement of the Pines suite is a march. WHALES CAN'T MARCH. There's no way to disguise this, either.
This is just the most extreme instance. The film as a whole is a flop. (Anyone who has read my reviews of other Disney efforts will know how much it hurts me to say this.) It falls even further beneath `Allegro non Troppo' than that film, for completely different reasons, fell beneath `Fantasia'. I must mention one thing, though: the `Rhapsody in Blue' segment, created hastily at the last minute, is superb; not QUITE worthy of `Fantasia', but close.
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