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: Fantasia

DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE

Fantasia

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 58 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Frozen II in 2020.  

After taking 3 years between their first and second animated feature, it only took Disney 9 months to release their third feature. In November of 1940 a roadshow version of Fantasia was released in New York. Again Disney was ambitious and tried something that never had been done before. He wanted to combine animation and music. It was kind of an early form of music video. The origins of the film are fascinating. It started with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice which was supposed to be a more sophisticated Silly Symphony short. Disney created something called Fantasound for the short but as the cost ratcheted up it became clear they could not recoup their money with a short. So, an idea was born to release a feature film with other sequences. When the film came out it consisted of 8 total segments, and was 125 minutes long (still the longest Disney Animated Feature). The music was conducted by world famous conductor Leopold Stokowski,

What is Fantasound? This question took me down a crazy rabbit hole of sophisticated technology. In a nut shell it was the first use of stereo sound in film. It required the creation of special equipment to record and to project with a film. It’s super technical and I don’t fully understand it so won’t go into much detail (this video does a great job at explaining it https://youtu.be/2FRyAXXOsMo). Needless to say it was completely unique and cost a lot of money. With the start of WWII and the cost of setting up Fantasound at each roadshow location it became impossible to make money with the film. Despite the film being loved by critics the movie became a big flop at the time, but over time it has built up a fan base. It’s biggest boom was in the late 60’s when it was marketed for its psychedelic elements.

The movie is a fascinating mix of music and animation. The 8 segments are completely different from each other. There is also a narrator, Deems Taylor, that explains the music and significance of each segment. In the beginning he explains

“First, there's the kind that tells a definite story. Then there's the kind that, while it has no specific plot, does paint a series of more or less definite pictures. And then there's a third kind, music that exists simply for its own sake”. 

Deems Taylor was a well known music critic at the time and brings some insight to the music. Besides the technical achievement and interesting stories behind the music there isn’t much going on. The segments themselves just didn’t grab my attention. I think if I could have experienced the film during the original roadshow release I would have enjoyed it more. While watching the film I kept thinking this would be awesome to watch in a theatre with a live orchestra.

Overall:  It’s a movie that was ahead of its time. As a story guy it just didn’t do it for me. The visuals and and music were cool but outside of The Sorcerers Apprentice there wasn't much to keep my attention. But, I do appreciate the amazing artistry that went into the film.

Random Facts

Longest animated Disney Film

First film to use Stereo sound

First film to not have any credits in initial release.

First appearance by Mickey Mouse in a Feature Film

The sorcerer was modeled after Disney. His name is Yen Sid which is Disney backwards.

Disney got a lot of complaints about the Night on Bald Mountain segment saying it was scaring their kids. When the movie was first released on home video it was released without that segment.

In 1982 the soundtrack was re-recorded digitally and when it was released was the first film ever with a digital stereo sound.

Disney wanted to release a new Fantasia every year. But that goal proved even too lofty for Disney.