Stats:

Movie:
Fantasia 2000

Stars:
Disney Animation
Classical Music

Date: 2000

Bottom Line:
Good animation, weak story lines. Ok film.

Fantasia 2000

Disney has released "Fantasia 2000" as the intended sequel to the 1940 original. For those of you who aren't aware, Walt Disney always intended that "Fantasia" was actually the first in a music video series that would repackage parts of the original and successors as new releases were created. "Fantasia" didn't do that well in it's initial release (who knew that children hate classical music?), and didn't pick up momentum until rereleases sometime into the 1960s. It seemed that watching it while stoned elevated it as an artform.

Personally, I like the original "Fantasia." I appreciated it without being stoned. I was expecting that seeing new version, on an Imax screen would be pretty neat. The music is good. The animation as to be expected is fantastic. The storylines are weak. Nothing is done that lets the Imax experience add to the film other than a 2 minute segway involving Mickey Mouse. So, the good news is that when this becomes available on home video, viewers won't be penalized by not having their own home Imax screen.

The sequence involving the whales is very nice, but the end of the storyline is truly a let down. The audience is shown the whales leaving the sea and swimming through the air, swimming higher and higher towards the sun. The payoff is they break the surface of what actually turns out to be water and go frolic through the top of the water, on a moonlit night.

One of the sections I was most eager to see was the Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue," as drawn by Al Hirshfeld. Unfortunately, more people are now familiar with this music as the accompaniment to United Airlines ads. This is probably where the inspiration came to include this in "Fantasia 2000" came from. As the opening strains began, the outline of New York city was drawn (and filled in) to the rhythms of the music. That was pretty nice. The story line follows 4 New Yorkers through a typical day: a construction worker who longs to be a jazz drummer; a depressed, unemployed man; a little girl shuttled to never-ending classes; and a harried man following his wife and her dog around the city. Some of the parts are cute, but I was so disappointed by this storyline's interpretation of the music. There was so much more that could have been done. The animation for most of it wasn't even that spectacular. As always in a Disney film, all four of the characters we follow live happily ever after and all of their problems are solved. The skating section, which provided the motivational information for each character was very good, but on the whole, I was disappointed.

"Fantasia's" The Sorcerer's Apprentice is included in "Fantasia 2000". The Imax experience did NOT add to this. In comparison with the other sequences, the animation looked blocky and while the brooms looked good, the cells with Mickey showed each animation frame. Back in 1940, the animators didn't draw this to be shown on a 3-story high screen with the audience up close and personal to it.

Did you know that Donald and Daisy Duck were on Noah's Ark? Well, neither did I before seeing them in Fantasia 2000. They have a touching love story (Wait. Did I just describe Donald & Daisy Duck as having "a touching love story'? Something must be wrong here). Ok sequence, but disturbing pander by Disney to the Religious Right so they will stop picketing them and end their boycott of Disney parks and products.

"Fantasia 2000" then follows the Noah's Ark story with the pagan idea of Mother Nature as an earth spirit reclaiming the forest after the destruction of a nasty volcano (looks suspiciously similar to the Mt. St. Helen's crater).

Alright, so what did I think of the movie overall? It's ok. I'm glad I saw it. The Imax theater doesn't add anything to the film. I probably will buy a copy when it comes out of video. I didn't hate it, I didn't love it, I was just disappointed by it because the story lines were so weak. The buildups on each story led to poor payoff endings. Would be better to see in a theater, but go when it's cheap and hopefully not during a children's matinee when there will be a number of screaming children, because this generation of children doesn't like classical music any better than the children who saw the original Fantasia did back in 1940.