Animation Celebration Double Feature - Fantasia & Fantasia 2000

We end 2018 with possibly the most unique movies you'll find at this blog. The original Fantasia was Walt Disney's most ambitious film, a blend of classical music and images that was unheard of in 1940. The movie has always been popular with critics, but didn't do well with audiences at the time; like Alice In Wonderland, it wasn't until the 60's and 70's that teens and college students made it a cult hit. Even with the boost from critics and animation nuts, it took 60 years for Disney to finally bring another round of music and images to the big screen. Are they worthy of the acclaim? Let's head to the concert hall to find out...

Fantasia
Disney, 1940
Hosted by Deems Taylor
Directed by Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske, and others
Music by Johann Sebastian Bach and others

The Story: There really isn't one. Instead, we get a series of shorts scored to pieces of classical music, many of which we'd today refer to as "music videos." Composer and music critic Deems Taylor introduces each segment.

Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor: One of Bach's most famous pieces opens the film, first with the live-action orchestra, then with a series of abstract images.

The Nutcracker Suite: Some of the most popular pieces from the Tchaikovsky ballet get a nature theme here, with fish, flowers, leaves, fairies, and mushrooms dancing, whirling, and leaping in time to the changing seasons.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Mickey Mouse's most beloved short has him as the title character, who uses his boss Yensid's hat to cast a spell on a broom that will make it carry water for him...only to nearly drown when the spell works too well and too many brooms overflow the room with gallons of water!

The Rite of Spring: Another ballet adaptation, this one to the once-shocking primitive music by Igor Stravinsky. The short depicts the beginning of Earth, from the first organisms to the end of the dinosaurs.

The Pastoral Symphony: Pegasus, unicorns, and male and female centaurs frolic at a festival for the Greek god of wine Bacchus, but Zeus and Hephaestus bring on a storm to spoil the party, set to the music of Beethoven.

Dance of the Hours: The third ballet adaptation is actually a spoof, turning Ponchielli's popular piece into a comedy where some of the most unlikely animals to ever sport toe shoes somehow manage to bring the house down...literally.

Night On Bald Mountain/Ave Maria: Mussorgsky's intense music kicks of the finale, showcasing Disney's most purely evil villain, the devil Chernabog and his minions. They're finally chased off by dawn, and a performance of Franz Schubert's religious choral number.

Animation: If you're a big fan of old-style hand-drawn animation, you'll likely find at least one thing to love here. From the frothy pastels of "The Pastoral Symphony" to the colorfully cartoony "Dance of the Hours" to Chernabog's entrance in "Bald Mountain," Disney threw everything he had into this one, and then some. Even the Mickey Mouse "Sorcerer's Apprentice" is far above the norm for one of Mickey's shorts, with wonderful details on the brooms and Mickey's dream sequence towards the end.

Favorite Number: Most people would cite "Rite of Spring" or "Bald Mountain," or even the charming "Sorcerer's Apprentice," but my two favorites are "The Nutcracker Suite" and "Dance of the Hours." Not only am I a big fan of the original Nutcracker ballet, but I love the soothing nature-themed animation Disney did here. The hopping Chinese mushrooms in particular are just too cute! "Dance of the Hours" is one of the funniest shorts Disney ever did. You won't see ostriches, elephants, hippos, and alligators perform ballet anywhere else, and it's hysterical.

Trivia: Disney wanted those lovely classical pieces to sound as pretty on the big screen as they do live, so he and his sound people collaborated with RCA to create the first full, multiple-audio-channels stereo system, which he called Fantasound.

The prints of Fantasia that are currently available on home media are of the original two-hour "roadshow" version. Or most of it, anyway. A few brief bits of an especially offensive black caricature in "The Pastoral Symphony" were snipped out after the late 60's and have never been restored. Disney also dubbed Deems Taylor's voice with Corey Burton when they couldn't find the original audio for his segments in 2000.

What I Don't Like: Deems Taylor's intros can be witty, but they also tend to explain the entire segment...and ruin the surprise for many of them. I think they should have just stuck to him saying what was coming next and then letting Leopold Stokowski and his orchestra and the animation do the talking.

This is kind of a mixed bag. I'm not the biggest dinosaur fan and find most of "Rite of Spring," despite the animation, to be dull. Likewise "The Pastoral Symphony" is cute but until Zeus shows up, there's not much going on.

The Big Finale: I'm going to go on to say that, while I like many of the segments, there's just as many that I'm not as fond of. I actually thinks this works better as a series of shorts than a movie, especially if you have younger kids who may get restless at some of the darker segments. Recommended seeing at least once in full for the gorgeous animation and sheer history involved.

Home Media: I'm afraid this is another Disney animated feature that's currently out of print and is commanding insane prices online. Your best bet may be to do what I did and check used venues like eBay or Goodwill.

DVD

Fantasia 2000
Disney, 2000
Hosted by Bette Midler, James Earl Jones, and others
Directed by Don Hahn, Eric Goldberg, and others
Music by Ludwig Van Beethoven and others

The Story: Once again, there's no real plot. Well-known celebrities of the late 90's introduce more segments based after popular pieces of classical music.

Symphony No. 5: Another abstract Beethoven opening, although this time we end with bats being chased out by light.

Pines of Rome: One of the more unusual shorts has a family of humpback whales who somehow have the ability to fly in this literally and figuratively soaring piece by Ottorino Respighi.

Rhapsody In Blue: George Gershwin's famous symphonic jazz concerto underscores a day in the life of several New York residents in the early 1920's, with animation inspired by the artwork of legendary caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.

Piano Concerto #2, Allegro, Opus 102: This retelling of "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" probably comes the closest of any of the segments in either movie to feeling more like a typical Disney film. A toy soldier falls in love with a ballerina doll, but an ugly jack-in-the-box wants the doll for himself.

The Carnival of the Animals: A super-short segment that depicts a goofy flamingo who is gets obsessed with a yo-yo while his friends try to get him to return to their duller routines.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice: The original Mickey Mouse short turned up here as well.

Pomp and Circumstance: No, this one has nothing to do with graduations. Donald Duck may be able to bring all of the animals to Noah's Ark, but he has a harder time finding his wife Daisy.

Firebird Suite - 1919 Version: We actually do get a Firebird here, a mythical creature who seemingly destroys a fairy and her forest home...but she manages to survive and bring rebirth to the land.

The Animation: Once again, there's some gorgeous work here. The use of color in "The Firebird Suite" is particularly outstanding, and "Pines of Rome," with it's majestic whales soaring in the clouds, is awe-inspiring. Even the Donald Duck "Pomp and Circumstance" is beautifully handled, well above any of his original shorts.

Favorite Number: As a huge Donald Duck fan, I thought "Pomp and Circumstance" was rather sweet (when you can get the images of high schoolers marching to get their diplomas out of your head). "Pines of Rome" is probably the most unique short Disney has ever done, and surprisingly touching too, especially in the finale. I also love jazz and of 20th century history and got a big kick out of the largely comic "Rhapsody In Blue."

Trivia: "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" had actually been storyboarded by Disney in the late 1930's, when Walt first considered doing a series of animated shorts based around Hans Christian Anderson stories. (Frozen and The Little Mermaid also saw their initial development around this time.)

Fantasia 2000 was the first animated film to be shown in the IMAX format.

What I Don't Like: The celebrity guests were even less necessary than Deems Taylor. Some, like Jones and Angela Landsbury, did muster the appropriate gravity for the occasion...but what on Earth were Steve Martin in "wild and crazy guy" mode and magicians Penn and Teller doing here? Their comedy clashed with the more solemn or whimsical tone of many of the segments.

"The Steadfast Tin Soldier" was Disney's first venture into full CGI on the big screen, and it hasn't dated well. The doll's stiff movements are appropriate for a toy, but the jack-in-the-box looks more weird than scary. And this is another Hans Christian Anderson story that Disney changed the ending to.

As much as I like the Donald segment, they might have chosen something slightly less well-known than "Circumstances." I'm probably not the only person who kept seeing diplomas during that segment instead of ducks.

The Big Finale: Same deal here. While not considered to be a masterpiece like the first one, there's enough here for families and animation fans to enjoy.

Home Media: Also out of print, also expensive online and hard to find elsewhere. Once again, try checking used venues.

DVD
Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 Special Edition DVD