Fantasia 2000 Review by Tim Wick
"Fantasia"
is one of my favorite animated features of all time (see my top ten list
). I feel that it stretched to boundaries of what animation could
do. Disney made it possible to "watch" music. At the time it was made,
Disney had intended to continually update the picture, adding new segments
and deleting old ones. It took them 60 years to get around to it.
Honestly, I was worried. The first is such a brilliant and original
(especially for it's time) piece of work and I worried the new version would
not match the appeal of the original. I need not have done so.
Since this is, in effect, eight smaller movies, I will review them
individually.
As in the original "Fantasia", this film started out with an abstract work of
animation. Rather than a story, the animation is a series of visuals that
"dance" to the music. It was probably one of the weaker segments in the
original and is the same here. The animation is very good and there is a
minor "plot" to add interest, but it just didn't resonate the way some of the
other pieces did. To say it is the weakest portion of the film, however,
should in no way indicate that it is a poor segment.
This segment is one I was predisposed to like given my affection for all
things whaleish (I know that is not a word). A slightly surreal piece
involving a whale calf and his parents that boasted some of the best
animation in the film. The story was intriguing and a segment that took
place inside an iceberg was stunning in it's detail and visual impact.
The best piece in the film. I have never seen animation and music so
seamlessly combined. Four of us went to the film and we all agreed within a
minute of the credits that this sequence was the best. It was touching,
funny, lyrical and completely riveting. It's worth seeing the film for this
sequence along.
This is an adaption of a Hans Christian Anderson story that I have never
read. My wife told me the story was fairly accurate as far as she recalled.
I think I found this segment a bit lacking only because the segments that
were it's bookends were so superior in every way. Good animation and
storytelling.
Too short. Answered the musical question "What
happens when you give a flamingo a yo-yo?" Obviously a homage to
"Dance of the Hours"
from the
original film, but superior in every way. Probably the funniest five minutes
of film made in 1999.
The lone hold out from the original Fantasia and one of my long time
favorites. Unfortunately, it shows it's age here. It is a grainy print
(perhaps the best they could do) and serves only to highlight how far
animation has come in sixty years. I love the story and I think that it was
ill placed in sequence. Had it been second, we would not have been so blown
away by the animation that preceded it and likely would have been more
appreciative of it.
A noah's ark tale starring Donald Duck that is side splittingly funny and
makes terrific use of the music (that stuff you hear at graduation is only
Pomp - the movie also uses the Circumstance). I felt it was one of the
weaker segments at first, but it grew on me after I left the theatre.
The best animation in the film. A master work of
art that even takes a moment to acknowledge the original ending from the
original movie, "Night on Bald Mountain"
.
Somehow, I forgot I was watching animation when I saw this. The central
characters were so real, so lyrical, so beautiful that I found myself wishing
this segment was twice as long.
I only have two critiques of the film, both minor. The first are the
celbrity introductions to each piece. I have seen (and heard) critics rant
about it and can honestly say that it isn't that bad. But they are too long
and tend to take your mind off the central point of the picture, which is the
animation.
Second, the film is too short. With the talent put
together to make this film and only two segments (Beethoven's 5th
& Shastakovich) that are slightly
inferior to the rest of the film, it could have easily been at least thirty
minutes longer. The current film runs only ninety minutes and about ten of
that is taken up with introductions.
Seeing it at the IMAX theatre was breathtaking. The images seemed to spring
from the screen. I was glad Disney decided to release it in this format even
if the price ($10) is more than I have paid for a movie in a long time.
With a beautiful film like this, I can only hope
that Disney will not wait sixty years to make the next installment of
"Fantasia".
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