Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3513 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-11-14
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 74 minutes

Customer Reviews

A great follow-up to the 1940 classic
This movie is a worthy successor to the original Fantasia movie. The artwork in all the pieces was superb (although, you could tell the art from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is old). This movie, as with the original, gave me a greater appreciation of classical music, while entertaining me with impressive visual imagery.

The pieces are as follows:

Beethoven, Symphony #5. A classical piece of music (who can't identify it upon hearing it?) portrayed as a good vs. evil contest.
Respighi, Pines of Rome. Flying whales!! A great piece of music which builds to a fantastic finish. Has some cute moments with a baby whale.

Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue. Easily the best (and longest) piece in the movie. Done in the drawing style of Al Hirschfeld, a magical tale is told of four people in Depression-era New York. A heartwarming, moving piece.

Shostakovich, Piano Concerto # 2 Allegro Opus 102. A charming piece of music, used to tell the story of the Steadfast Tin Solder. Some of the scenes in this piece may be scary for little kids.

Saint-Saens, Carnival of the Animals, Finale. A (very) short, but very funny piece which answers the age old question: "What happens when you give a flamingo a yo-yo?" I was laughing out loud at this one.

Dukas, The Sorcerer's Apprentice. This is the same piece as from the original 1940 movie. Still worth watching after all these years.

Elgar, Pomp and Circumstance. Donald and Daisy Duck star in this reinactment of the story of Noah's Ark. Fun to watch and enjoyable.

Stravinsky, Firebird Suite. A wonderful story about life, death and rebirth. The piece builds to a wonderful ending, both in the story and in the music. Some of the younger children may be scared by some of the scenes in this piece as well.

Overall, this movie is a wonderful addition to any home video library.

Majestic
I was fortunate enough to see this at an IMAX theater. It was an amazing experience, to be surrounded by such wondrous music and imagery. The animation is of the highest quality, seamlessly blending modern and older styles. It will be interesting to see how the film plays out on a more intimate screen.

Although some of the pieces stand out more than others, they all had charm. " The Pines of Rome" is the most popular segment, featuring lush computer animation of blue whales soaring through the arctic ice until they take off into the sky. Disney really did a job on this one, with just enough of a story to balance out the imagery. Clearly borrowing from the art of Charles Vess, "Firebird Suite" is a pretty fairy piece with a bit of fire and danger. "Rhapsody in Blue" is as close to perfect as you need to get, blending a great Gershwin tune with Al Hersfield's familiar style. And of course, one can never get enough yo-yoing flamingos.

My personal favorite is "Pomp and Circumstance," as it made me hear a piece of music, and not just the background track to graduation ceremonies. It really took me by surprise, and this is always a good thing. I also really enjoyed the participation of Donald Duck, who is usually my least favorite Disney character. It is a very heart warming segment.

Disney Classic - Part II
The original "Fantasia" was extremely experimental animation that attempted to broaden the appeal of animation at a time when animation primarily appealed to children. Walt Disney intended that the original "Fantasia," according to Roy Disney's commentary on the DVD, be a continuously changing work of art that would be different, and yet familiar, every time you watched it. "Fantasia 2000" is an attempt to be true to that vision.

There are eight vignettes captured in the 74 minutes of this all-too-short DVD, with introductions for each of the vignettes by a host of familiar names such as Steve Martin, James Earl Jones, Penn and Teller, and Angela Lansbury, among others. I think that some of the vignettes work as well or better than those in the original, and others are okay but barely match the original.

The two vignettes that I enjoyed the best are "Pines of Rome" and "Firebird Suit - 1919 Version." In the former we see a fantastic vision of whales that is wonderfully surrealistic and beautiful. The only flaw in the wonderful vision is that the vision ended all too soon. There is a lot in the vision that the animators could have been explored in much more depth. The "Firebird Suite - 1919 Version" includes a phenomenally-animated nymph. This nymph combined a flavor of Japanese Manga with traditional Disney animation to create a character style that is wondrous and beautiful. I longed for this segment to last longer.

Disney animators once again created a new classic short in "Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro, Opus 102," which provides the music for "The Steadfast Tin Soldier." The story-telling is quite taut and well organized. However, just as with the "Pines of Rome" story, Disney animators could have expanded this vignette significantly.

The remaining vignettes vary in quality and length. There is a cute new Donald Duck story with Noah's Ark as the backdrop, set to the music of "Pomp and Circumstance." There is a clever story set in New York City set to Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." There is pure silliness involving a group of flamingos and a yo-yo in "Carnival of the Animals, Finale." The one vignette remaining from the original is "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" starring Mickey Mouse, a classic for all times and ages.

In addition to the film there are two musically-based animated shorts, "Melody" and "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom." Both are clever and have made appearances on one of the original "Worlds of Disney" weekly shows and on The Disney Channel. There are also extensive commentaries and making of features that are okay if you are into the reasoning behind making of the movie and the process by which the music and concept for each of the features was selected, but much of it was pretty dry.

On the down side, this DVD does feel like it should have been part of the original "Fantasia" to create a single work of adequate length and scope. I suspect that one day Disney will re-release both works on a single DVD, and I'll likely have to have that one too to keep my collection complete. On the up side, all of the animation is equal to or better than traditional Disney animation, and two particular works I thought were extremely good. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra provided the excellent music throughout, and makes this DVD and the original an easy way to introduce anyone to classic works of music. While the DVD is too short, the quality is excellent and well worth having in any collection of Disney animation, especially if you liked the original "Fantasia."