Disney Movie Challenge: Fantasia 2000 (1999)

 Disney Movie Challenge

Fantasia 2000 (1999)

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 59 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Raya and the Last Dragon in 2021.

When Walt Disney made the first Fantasia in 1941 his goal was to make a new one every year with a rotating list of segments.  Unfortunately the technology pushing film lost more money than it made and the idea of a yearly Fantasia was scrapped.  Disney did revisit the idea of putting animation to music with Make Mine Music (1946) and Melody Time (1948) but it wasn't until 1999 that they made a true sequel.  

Fantasia 2000 consisted of 7 new musical segments and 1 segment from the original film.  Similar to the original film the film featured both abstract segments and story segments.  The film starts with a shortened version of the Deems Taylor introduction that the first one started with. We quickly move into the first segment of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.  Each of the next segments are introduced by a celebrity.  After Symphony No. 5, Steve Martin and Itzhak Perlman introduce Pines of Rome, Quincy Jones introduces Rhapsody in Blue, Bette Middler introduces Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro, Opus 102, James Earl Jones introduces The Carnival of the Animals, Penn and Teller introduce the one returning segment The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, James Levine (the conductor) introduces Pomp and Circumstance, and lastly Angela Lansbury introduces the Firebird Suite.  

The biggest ambition of Fantasia was the Fantasound, which was one of the first surround sound systems.  In keeping with Fantasia showing off new technology Fantasia 2000 was made to be shown on IMAX screens.  While IMAX had been around for a while in 1999 it was mostly in museums and showed educational films.  Fantasia 2000 was one of the first big budget feature films to be shown on IMAX screens.  Disney has signed a deal with IMAX that gave IMAX the first run of the film for 4 months as long as IMAX theaters didn’t show any other films.  Since many IMAX theaters were in museums, they felt obligated to show some educational films so there were only a limited number of IMAX theaters that agreed to Disney’s demands.   

As far as the individual segments for the most part they are fine.  I had seen this before and the only one I really remembered and still one of my favorites was Rhapsody in Blue.   I wasn’t really familiar with George Gershwin’s music so this was a nice introduction.  The segment also had a distinctive look which was based on Al Hirschfeld’s caricatures of the time.  It is the most contemporary musical piece and maybe that is why I  connected with it more than the others.  The Carnival of the Animals was a short fun segment about a flamingo with a yo-yo.  While I think it’s the shortest of the segments it really made nice use of musical cues and matching it up with the animation.  Pines of Rome is an odd one about a family of humpback whales that fly.  Piano Concerto No. 2 told the story of “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” through music.  Apparently the ending of the short story by Hans Christian Anderson is a bit of a downer and didn’t fit the music so the animators changed it to fit the music better.  Not much stands out about the rest.  The Sorcerer’s Apprentice was a nice throwback to the original.  They did a good job restoring the segment and fits right in with the more modern animation.  

Overall: As with any anthology movie it’s a mixed bag.  For me the best was Rhapsody in Blue as it was a nice change of pace from the more classical music of the other pieces.  There really isn’t any segment that is bad but none that are really that memorable either.  

Random Facts:

Jeffrey Katzenberg had no interest in producing the film, so the film was made behind his back.  Roy E. Disney was the driving force behind the project and he reported directly to Michael Eisner cutting out Katzenberg. 

This was one of the first DVD’s I ever bought.  My mom was a big fan of Fantasia so got it as a gift for her.  Thought the coolest thing was you can just jump to whatever segment you wanted without having to spend time fast forwarding a tape. 

 

Disney Movie Challenge: Tarzan (1999)

 Disney Movie Challenge

Tarzan (1999)

WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 59 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Raya and the Last Dragon in 2021.

When I think of movies from 1999 I think of The Matrix, Fight Club, and The Sixth Sense.  1999 was one of my favorite years for films (check out my previous post about 1999 FIlms). What I don’t think of when I think of 1999 films is Tarzan.  It’s a movie that never really seemed to make a mark in the zeitgeist and I never felt I needed to see it.  I was also under the impression that while Tarzan is considered part of the Disney Renaissance it was one of the lesser films of the era.  While it doesn’t quite live up to the early Renaissance films it’s not a bad film. 

Tarzan is based on the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel about a man raised by apes. The movie starts with a ship sinking and Tarzan and his mother and father escaping to the jungle.  There they build a giant tree house. At the same time a baby gorilla is killed by a leopard and when Tarzan’s parents are killed by the same leopard the mother of the baby gorilla adopts Tarzan as one of her own.  He grows up learning the ways of the apes and slowly gets accepted as part of the family.  That is except for the leader of the group Kerchak who fears Tarzan will bring disaster to the group.  When new human explorers come to study the apes Kerchak’s worst fears come true.  While Tarzan falls in love with Jane, one of the group Clayton only sees the apes as something for him to capture and bring back to England.  

One of the things that happened at Disney prior to production started was the departure of Jeffrey Katzenberg. Katzenberg played an important role in ushering in the Renaissance but he ruffled a lot of feathers while he was at Disney. Michael Eisner had promised Katzenberg a promotion but when the opportunity came he was passed over. Katzenberg then left Disney and started his own Studio with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen called Dreamworks SKG. Tarzan was one of the first films that Katzenberg had no hand in developing. In its desire to do something different and move away from the Katzenberg era, Disney ditched the Broadway Musical format that defined most of the Renaissance era. Still wanting to capture the magic of The Lion King they hired Phil Collins to write and perform songs during the film. The biggest difference was instead of having the characters sing the songs they just played the Phil Collins version over the action.  This worked to various degrees.  At times it accentuated the scenes other times it just felt like it overpowered the scene and felt like a music video.

Tarzan also marked the first film to use a new program developed by Disney called Deep Canvas.  Deep Canvas used 3D backgrounds that the 2D characters can move through.  This created an added depth to the scenes.  It also made the scenes where Tarzan are swinging through the jungle or sliding down trees look fantastic. While it’s reported that only about 10 minutes of the film were shot using Deep Canvas the whole film has eye popping animation.  

The story itself is pretty generic.  At the time it was the 48th time Tarzan was turned into a motion picture (although the first time as an animated film) so most people know the story.  The love story between Tarzan and Jane just never really felt real.  A lot of the characters were just kind of annoying, especially his friends, a gorilla named Terk (Rosie O'Donnell) and an elephant named Tantor (Wayne Knight).   The two standouts were Glenn Close as Tarzan's adoptive mother Kala and Lance Henriksen as leader of the gorillas Kerchak.  Close and Henriksen brought the emotional depth needed to care about the characters.  

Overall: Doesn’t really hold up as one of the best Disney Films.  The animation looks amazing but most of the characters are annoying, While the songs were memorable at times the movie felt more like a compilation of Phil Collins videos than a coherent movie.  And for some reason it really bothered me that there was a blatant disregard for physics in the movie. I get it's an animated movie and it shouldn't have mattered but it bothered me more than usual in this one.

Random Facts

My kid confused The Jungle Book with Tarzan. Told him one is about a kid raised by wolves in the jungle and one is about a kid raised by apes in the jungle.

Jeffrey Katzenberg originally pitched the idea of a Tarzan movie to be made at the TV animation department.  But director Kevin who previously directed A Goofy Movie at the Disney Television Studios decided it would be too complicated to make on the smaller budget.  After Katzenberg left, Eisner himself pitched the idea to Lima and said it could be made at the motion picture studios.  

Brendan Fraser auditioned twice for the role of Tarzan, but ended up doing George of the Jungle instead which was pretty much the same character. 

Tony Goldwyn who voiced Tarzan couldn’t do the “Tarzan Yell”.  The yell heard in the film was done by Brian Blessed who played the villain William Clayton.  

The idea for Tarzan to slide down the trees was inspired by Tony Hawk.  

Terk was originally going to be a boy, but they loved Rosie O'Donnell so much they changed the character to a girl.  

Woody Allen was originally going to play Tantor but Katzenberg convinced him to do Antz at Dreamworks and he left the project.  

90 Greatest Movies of the 90's

As everyone knows by now I love lists, so when Paste Magazine made a list of the best movies from the 90’s that really got my attention. 

Number 1 was an easy pick and not a big surprise.  There are lots of surprises though.  The biggest surprise for me was that I have only seen about 2/3 of the movies on the list.  Feel like I am slacking.

The list does confirm what I have always said and that was 1999 was a great year for movies with 19 movies from ‘99 on the list, and 1994 was another great year for movies with 14 movies on the list.

I have listed all the movies but if you want the reason certain movies were selected you can go to the website   http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2012/07/the-90-best-movies-of-the-1990s.html

Without further ado here is the list with Best Picture winners highlighted in red.

More thoughts at the bottom.

1.      Pulp Fiction (1994)

2.      Schindler’s List (1993)

3.      Magnolia (1999)

4.      Three Colors Trilogy (1993,94,94)

5.      The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

6.      Fargo (1996)

7.      Goodfellas (1990)

8.      Hoop Dreams (1994)

9.      Rushmore (1998)

10.  The Apostle  (1997)

11.  Fight Club (1999)

12.  The Big Lebowski (1998)

13.  Dead Man Walking (1995)

14.  The Usual Suspects (1995)

15.  Toy Story 2 (1999)

16.  Sling Blade (1996)

17.  Being John Malkovich (1999)

18.  Crumb (1994)

19.  Jackie Brown (1997)

20.  Boogie Nights (1997)

21.  Bottle Rocket (1996)

22.  Chungking Express (1994)

23.  Unforgiven (1992)

24.  Reservoir Dogs (1992)

25.  Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control (1997)

26.  Before Sunrise (1995)

27.  Saving Private Ryan (1998)

28.  The Thin Red Line (1998)

29.  The Sweet Hereafter (1997)

30.  Toy Story (1995)

31.  The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

32.  Trainspotting (1996)

33.  Malcolm X  (1992)

34.  Out of Sight (1998)

35.  Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

36.  The Double Life of Veronique (1991)

37.  Boyz N Da Hood (1991)

38.  Office Space (1999)

39.  The Matrix (1999)

40.  Short Cuts (1993)

41.  L.A. Confidential (1997)

42.  Bringing Out the Dead (1999)

43.  The Player  (1992)

44.  Se7en (1997)

45.  The Ice Storm (1997)

46.  Three Kings (1999)

47.  Heat (1995)

48.  Metropolitan (1990)

49.  Miller’s Crossing (1990)

50.  Casino (1995)

51.  The Lion King (1994)

52.  The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

53.  The Remains of the Day (1993)

54.  Exotica (1994)

55.  Groundhog Day (1995)

56.  Heavenly Creatures (1994)

57.  Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

58.  JFK (1991)

59.  Good Will Hunting (1997)

60.  The Professional (1994)

61.  Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

62.  Beauty and the Beast (1991)

63.  Election (1999)

64.  Clueless (1995)

65.  The Iron Giant (1999)

66.  After Life (1998)

67.  American History X (1998)

68.  Princess Mononoke (1997)

69.  The Game (1997)

70.  The Sixth Sense (1999)

71.  Sweet and Lowdown (1999)

72.  A Taste of Cherry (1997)

73.  Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

74.  As Good as it Gets (1997)

75.  Thelma and Louise (1991)

76.  Apollo 13 (1995)

77.  The Wrong Trousers (1993)

78.  Boys Don’t Cry (1999)

79.  The Battle Over Citizen Kane (1996)

80.  Bound (1996)

81.  Braveheart (1995)

82.  Quiz Show (1994)

83.  Burnt By the Sun (1994)

84.  A Bronx Tale (1993)

85.  Waking Ned Devine (1998)

86.  The Truman Show (1998)

87.  Barton Fink (1991)

88.  Forrest Gump (1994)

89.  American Beauty (1999)

90.  True Romance (1993)

A few thoughts on the list. 

First thing that stands out is Eyes Wide Shut and Bringing out the Dead.  Two movies that do not deserve to be on the list.  Eyes Wide Shut was an awful movie and Bringing Out the Dead was so-so at best.

Saving Private Ryan should be higher on the list then 27. 

There is no way Jackie Brown should be higher than Reservoir Dogs and probably shouldn’t even be on the list

1997 is well represented on the list also with 13 movies. Interestingly enough the Best Picture Winner of that year and the highest grossing movie of the decade Titanic is not on the list.

Speaking of Best Picture winners 6 out of the 10 winners of the decade made the list. (Dances With Wolves-1990, The English Patient-1996, Titanic-1997, and Shakespeare in Love-1998 did not make it)

The Coen Brothers are the most represented directors with 4 movies on the list (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, Miller’s Crossing, and Barton Fink) Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, and David Fincher each have 3 movies on the list. 

There are three documentaries on the list (Hoop Dreams, Fast Cheap and Out of Control, and The Battle Over Citizen Kane).

There is one short The Wrong Trousers

There are 7 animated films (Toy Story 2, Toy Story, Beauty and the Beast, The Iron Giant, Princess Mononoke, and The Wrong Trousers).

Oddly Austin Powers 2 made the list but not the first one.

They admit in the article that there was probably more foreign movies that should have made the list. The one that stands out to me is Life is Beautiful (1997)

Missing from the list in my opinion

10 Things I Hate about You (1999)

A Few Good Men (1992)

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

Pleasantville (1998)

There’s Something about Mary (the funniest movie of the decade)

And what about big budget Michael Bay action movies

Armageddon (1998)

The Rock  (1996)

Let me know what your thoughts are on this.