fantasia 2000 google drive fantasia 2000 mp4 download Fantasia & Fantasia 2000 4-Disc Special Edition 2 Movie Collection Savant Blu-ray Review. At the beginning of his feature film career, Walt Disney seemingly put his reputation on the line with every new project. He melded classical music with animation in 1940's Fantasia , one of those one-of-a-kind wonder movies that seeks greatness in a fresh direction. Sixty years later, the corporation that Disney left behind attempted a continuation of the same idea, in Fantasia 2000 . Disney Blu-ray brings both pictures out in a Blu- ray 4-Disc Special Editon , polished and shiny. The original Fantasia attracted a bushel of mixed press over the years. A few critics saw it as a cultural affront: how dare this cartoon-maker set himself up to interpret classical music for the masses? Music-conscious critics cocked eyebrows at 'adjustments' made to pieces by Tchaikovsky and Beethoven, to adapt them to the needs of animators telling a story. The National Board of Review was tolerant but still leveled words like "trivial", "lapses of taste" and "artistic calamity". Disney's pairing of Moussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain" with Schubert's "Ave Maria" was considered by some to be an artistic travesty. After the musicologists were finished, film critics continued to demonstrate their refinement by taking aim at the movie. Much later, Pauline Kael decided that, "the total effect is grotesquely kitschy". What were they all so fired up about? My generation caught up with Fantasia when exhibitors seized upon it to attract the spaced-out kids who got zonked watching 2001: A Space Odyssey . Disney even generated a seemingly pro-drug ad campaign to go with the release. So much for Mickey Mouse and "just say no". Previously considered an underperformer (even when released in adapted widescreen), Fantasia did not come unto its own until after the death of its maker. There's no denying that Fantasia is an incredible technical and artistic experiment. Anyone "into" visual delights for their own sake or a follower of artistic styles is bound to be captivated. It also contains some of the best animation the Disney artists ever did. Following on Snow White and Pinocchio , it expanded the range of animation beyond all known frontiers. Fantasia is said to have introduced experimental stereophonic sound to theaters, a three-channel system known as "Fantasound". A contemporary reviewer noted the directional sound "swinging the voices of the choir to different parts of the house". What probably hurt Fantasia in its initial runs was the absence of a storyline and characters; the film is organized as a concert, with interstitial segments set on stage, with the orchestra. The movie originally carried no credits at all, just a copyright slate at the end. Deems Taylor, our host for the concert, separates the music into three levels according to whether or not specific visuals were a part of the original musical concept. With old- fashioned Kansas pragmatism, Disney proceeds to make "The Rite of Spring" into a pageant of evolution (creationists need not read further) and "The Pastoral Symphony" into a bacchanal for creatures from Greek mythology. Everybody seems to have liked "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", with its excellent use of Mickey Mouse; no doubt that was Disney making sure he didn't disappoint viewers expecting standard cartoon fun. Some of the most influential critics of the day saw their role as guardians of public taste, and accused Disney of pre-digesting culture for his audience. Disney has always been first and foremost a great communicator. When the message was whimsy or irony or educational points, his animated films were always effective. Fantasia demystifies the orchestra for the millions who had never seen the inside of a concert hall. The musicians play jazz between classical numbers; a bit of comedy even comes in when a complicated instrument almost falls over. Disney's comedy sometimes seems to be lampooning the music. "Dance of the Hours" is turned into a full-on spoof of ballet with Hippos and Elephants as ballerinas. The direction and animation is so good that I'd imagine ballet dancers love it, at least those with a sense of humor. The animation for Bach's "Tocata and Fugue in D Minor" is meant to be totally abstract, but the designs purposely mimic the musical instruments involved. After all the carping, Fantasia remains a great picture for its seemingly limitless creativity and variety. Each segment introduces new techniques and startling new visual ideas, such as the natural fairyland developed in "The Nutcracker Suite". The animated dinosaurs are presented with such dynamism that the young Ray Harryhausen was prompted to abandon his own "dawn of life" project. The animation and visual effects stretch the medium to new limits. Even now, we watch this and think, "good grief, how did these people do that back then?" Technologically speaking, the late 1930s were different times. The artists went home to houses that might have a modern refrigerator, and might not. The final pairing of "Night on Bald Mountain" and "Ave Maria" is a dazzling study in visual contrasts. The Moussorgsky piece reminds us of F. W. Murnau's Faust and Alexander Alexeïeff's pin-screen rendition, but adds plenty of visual effects of its own. It's also strong stuff, content-wise. Knowledgeable adults will have no difficulty connecting the dots as the devil-figure Chernobog creates female wraiths in his obscenely gesturing hands, and watches them mutate into groveling barnyard animals. The then grinds them into misshapen little nasties that one might find under a stone. Overpowered by a "heavenly" dawn, Chernobog makes fists at the sky, and then reaches up in a momentary appeal, before retreating into the peak of Bald Mountain. Disney's segue to "Ave Maria" apparently offended a lot of music purists. I have no problem with the sequence musically (out of ignorance, perhaps) or conceptually, as the final representation of Goodness and Light aligns with my generic unschooled feelings about divine matters. I also have to think that Disney may have planned this hopeful finish in response to the world situation at the time, with Europe and Asia plunging into what might be an apocalyptic war. "Ave Maria" is two slow camera movements, across and then through a forest of trees that stand tall and straight, like moral pickets. They at times form church-like arches. But the final penetration of the forest into an open area of stylized, flattened fauna, and then to the sky, naturally suggests a movement away from the material and to the ethereal: heaven, eternity. The Fantasia Blu-ray is a pretty amazing restoration. In HD the colors and contrasts are more striking than ever before. I have to say that I think the cleanup process is getting better at removing obvious schmutz from the image without losing the sense of original hues or artist's "brushstrokes". People who love the movie will be pleased. The version presented here retains the good original Philadelphia Orchestra recording conducted by Stokowski -- an earlier filmic release had replaced all the music! It has been restored to the full-length road show print, but it has also been slightly revised. The new footage adds to the interstitial Deems Taylor sections, mostly with dialogue that, I have to say, hasn't been missed all that much. The "revision" aspect comes in when they couldn't find all of the original Deems Taylor audio. So they went and redubbed the entire part with a new voice, that of actor Corey Burton. It all sounds fine and synch is good, but the voice can't replicate Taylor's original just-folks tone. I rather wish they had left Deems Taylor intact, and let Burton's replacement for the new sections be a mismatch. I liked the extras that I saw. The disc carries commentaries but the fun new goodie is called "The Schultheis Notebook", a scrapbook documenting the special effects techniques used on the film, many of which later became obscure. Also included are a fancy interactive Art Gallery and a promo for the new Disney Museum at The Presidio in San Francisco. Gee, we can park next to George Lucas, maybe. The feature can be played in the "DisneyView" mode, which adds semi-neutral "illumination" to the widescreen wings beyond Fantasia's 1:37 screen shape. This brings us to Fantasia 2000 , about which everybody has a strong opinion. For me it seems slightly intimidated by the notion of having to follow such a fantastic original. The idea of course is to revisit the same concept while taking advantage of the new technologies now available. The new animators show undeniable talent and create a lot of pretty pictures, yet few of the concepts really push out on their own into something new. Everything about the original was a gamble, a risk and a creative adventure, whereas most of the new show seems safe and familiar. Also, there's no getting around the fact that in the digital age animated filmmaking just isn't as exotic as it once was. Everything in a 1940 animated cartoon had to be tested out in a painstaking literal process and every frame painted by hand. Modern tools allow design, flow and editing to be handled by managers who, if they so wish, can direct by email memos. Fantasia 2000 isn't all computer animation and I was particularly taken by certain designs and techniques. The "Mother Earth" figure in "The Firebird" is consistently dazzling to the eye; I think that segment was chosen to go last because she's so impressive. But too many of the episodes seem like conceptual re-runs, as if the producers no longer believed in something new. "Rhapsody in Blue" has some dynamic line-drawing figures, but they don't really remind me of Al Hirschfeld's more abstracted caricatures. I see borrowings right out of Gene Kelly ballets in the old MGM musicals Words and Music ("Slaughter on 10th Avenue') and Singin' in the Rain ("Broadway Melody"). The often-inspired "Pomp and Circumstance" casts Donald and Daisy Duck in a less-than-moving love story; that segment seems patterned not only on the original's "Rite of Spring" (another animal procession) but also the Ravel "Bolero" spoof in Bruno Bozetto's Allegro non troppo . "Pines of Rome" unfortunately comes across like a digital animation experiment from the 1980s, with flying cetaceans straight from one of those ubiquitous Robert Wyland whale murals. More telling is the frequent recycling of older animation ideas. We became aware that Disney occasionally did this in the 1960s, as when Dumbo's "Pink Elephants on Parade" animation was re-drawn and adapted for a segment of Winnie the Pooh. Not a big crime. But even in the middle of the impressive "Firebird" sequence, we see what looks like re-animated smoke patterns taken from "Night on Bald Mountain", specifically the shot where pre-psychedelic female bodies appeared in the smoke. Is this an hommage? The final blow is when Fantasia 2000 simply replays "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" from the original, on the pretext that Walt Disney originally planned for the movie to come out every year with episodes added and episodes deleted. Fantasia 2000 is only 75 minutes long, so this looks more like a committee's last-minute effort to give audiences a dose of Mickey Mouse (slip 'em a Mickey?) to boost attendance. Just the same, I enjoyed Fantasia 2000 , even with its glib celebrity hosts. They seem another effort to add value beyond the animated sections themselves, and will only serve to date the movie as the years roll on. The images and audio are often very beautiful. It's not the fault of the new artists that we're still more likely to be impressed by analog artisans that had to concoct their art out of ink, paint and paper. The Fantasia 2000 Blu-ray is of a film only ten years old, and hasn't yet been revised or altered; it looks and sounds terrific. The main extra here is Disney's 2003 short subject Destino , an animated film created from an unfinished project by Disney and the surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, back in 1946. Just out of the war, Disney was itching to do more "art" animation; Dalí was in Hollywood on a self-promotion kick, famously providing designs for a dream sequence in Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound . As explained in the accompanying long-form docu Dalí and Disney: A Date with Destino , the project had difficulty adapting the surrealist's designs to film. With melting clocks and ants crawling out of a hand, the show might be called "Dalí's Greatest Hits". A story animator talks about finding ways to transition between artworks. Some of these are intriguing and others just seem to be holding the visuals together in an arbitrary fashion. Armando Domínguez' song "Destino", performed by Dora Luz is quite beautiful. Commentaries and another extra outline Walt Disney's concept for an evolving concert film. It looks as if the plan was to spin off individual episodes as short subjects. Disney did release a number of animated films that were similar compilations of extended short subjects, like Make Mine Music . The "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Peter and the Wolf" cartoons are apparently related to the general plan for an ever-evolving Fantasia. Like everything else Disney did, none of these pieces went to waste: all were recycled to provide content for his TV show, even sections of the original Fantasia . Disney's Blu-ray 4-Disc Special Edition Combo Pack of Fantasia & Fantasia 2000 comes in a single keep case in a card sleeve. Both films are encoded on Blu-ray and DVD discs, which make for four discs in all. I don't believe I saw Fantasia on a big screen until a Cinerama Dome outing in 1971 or so, when the auditorium was filled with a sweet-smelling haze. And then I realized that I had already watched 90% of it on TV in one form or another as I was growing up. Some sections cause my mind to wander but it's truly a technical and artistic miracle. I have to consider Fantasia 2000 and Destino as multi-million dollar "extras". I'll want to see the 1999 feature again, I'm sure, and I don't doubt that my opinion of the Dalí short subject will change with more viewings. This is a worthy disc set, and the original wonder movie makes for a great holiday film. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Fantasia & Fantasia 2000 Blu-ray and DVD Set rates: Movie: Excellent / Good Video: Excellent Sound: Excellent Supplements: Commentaries, docus and featurettes, art galleries, Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: November 28, 2010. DVD Savant Text © Copyright 2010 Glenn Erickson. See more exclusive reviews on the Savant Main Page . Reviews on the Savant main site have additional credits information and are often updated and annotated with reader input and graphics. Also, don't forget the 2010 Savant Wish List . T'was Ever Thus. Return to Top of Page. Fantasia 2000 google drive fantasia 2000 mp4 download. 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Disney animators and filmmakers have again expanded the boundaries of imagination with Fantasia 2000 . Fulfilling Walt Disney's original vision of uniquely fusing sight and sound in a full-length motion picture, this film begins where its predecessor, Fantasia left off, with seven completely new segments and the return of the popular "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." In this fun-filled movie, breathtaking images are coupled with classical music favorites. From Beethoven to Gershwin - from flamingos bobbing yo- yos to a city in bluesy motion - vivid animation brings the music of the masters to colorful life. Sixty years after the original masterpiece, Roy E. Disney has orchestrated a brilliant collaboration of more than 1,200 artists and technicians - including the animators of The Lion King, Beauty And The Beast and Aladdin - to present Fantasia 2000 , a film filled with "dazzling moments" ( The New York Times ) and arguably the greatest Disney film ever" (KNX-CBS Radio), that is sure to captivate viewers of all ages! Details. Length 1 hrs. 14 mins. Rating G Released: Nov 14 2000 Added Aug 28 2000 Production Year 2000 Empire SKU 18681 UPC Code 717951008374 Studio Disney / Buena Vista Packaging Keep Number of Discs 1 Disc SS-DL. Features. Audio Commentary by Executive Producer Roy E. Disney, Conductor James Levine and Producer Don Ernst Audio Commentary by Segment Directors and Art Directors Animated Short "Melody" Academy Award-Winning Animated Short, "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom" Showcase Program Featuring Exciting Clips From Fantasia 2000! Special Fantasia 2000 Commemorative Booklet THX-Certified, Including THX Optimode. Why So Blu? One of Walt Disney’s biggest gambles has to be the much beloved Fantasia . At the time, Disney wanted to bring Mickey Mouse back in a big way as a comeback vehicle where the animation would be combined with classical music selections to tell a collection of different stories. Disney spared no expense to achieve the desired focus on quality and detail and even Mickey Mouse was redesigned to have a more modern and realistic look. Famed conductor Leopold Stokowski volunteered his services for free after sparking to the concept during a chance meeting with Disney. Although Fantasia didn’t do as well financially as had been hoped, it eventually became very successful and is considered to be one of Walt Disney’s greatest successes. Fantasia. Fantasia was the first movie to be shown in multi-channel sound thanks to a new process Disney came up with called Fantasound, and the original release was 2 hours and 20 minutes long. Five additional re-releases followed the original release in 1940, including a second release in 1940, plus 1946, 1956, 1963, 1969, 1977, 1982, 1985, and 1990, although in a much edited versions. Every release had different cuts and most of the original footage wasn’t seen until the DVD release in 2000, and since they didn’t have a digital score they brought in Irwin Kostel to re-record it. Eventually, the original Stokowski conducted score was restored for this Blu-ray in addition to the bridge introduction scenes presented by Deems Taylor which had been removed long ago. With this Blu-ray, Fantasia has finally been restored back to the original Roadshow version that Walt Disney released. Although each clip has an introduction, I am going to focus solely on the actual animated segments. Here is the order that they appear in: Johann Sebastian Bach ‘s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor – This sets the tone for the rest of the program and also let audiences know that this wasn’t going to be the usual Disney fare. Abstract light patterns and symbolic and suggestive images dance across the screen in a celebration of music. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ‘s Nutcracker Suite – A look at the cycle of changing seasons through the work of faeries. Different sets of faeries either bring about Spring, Winter, Autumn, etc. through dance and magic. An idea that would carry over years later in the solo Tinkerbell series. Paul Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – The most well known and beloved segment of this movie that stars Mickey Mouse as an assistant to a powerful Sorcerer. When his master grows tired and goes to bed, leaving his wizard hat behind, Mickey quickly takes the hat to use the magic to help him do his chores which if course starts great and then backfires horribly. This is my favorite one in this version too. Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring – A darker look at the evolution of the Earth and the creatures that reside on it. A fairly bleak and somewhat violent look at the fate of the dinosaurs and I regretted accidentally showing it to my 2 1/2 year old son as I had forgotten about it. Not for very young children. Ludwig van Beethoven’s The Pastoral Symphony – A fairly bizarre look into Greek mythology that didn’t make any sense and is definitely the weakest part of this movie. There’s no clear narrative and it looks like they just took a bunch of random ideas out of a hat and put this together. Amilcare Ponchielli’s Dance of the Hours – My son enjoyed this one a lot more with it’s dancing ostriches, hippos, elephants, and alligators. This is ha highly polished segment and we enjoyed the high flying well choreographed dances. Intricate in design and original in execution. Modest Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain – The darkest segment that starts a two part look into the cycle of life and death with this one focusing on the death aspect. Chernobog the demon starts off by raising the dead to attack a town during the night. The animation is stellar and fairly nightmarish in design so don’t let young children watch this one. The demon does all the damage he can and even enjoys torturing his own minions so this is really not Snow White . I liked seeing Disney venture off into a darker direction since they never went back to that well until a long time later with The Black Cauldron , and after that one failed, they’ve never tried again. Franz Schubert’s Ave Maria – A very weak way to end the movie, as it’s far to ambiguous and long and it really serves no purpose. It’s supposed to be a look at the renewal of life but an extremely long shot of what appears to be monks walking along a path while holding lanterns or something just didn’t cut it for me. All it did was make me think of the Elves leaving Middle-Earth in the Lord of the Rings movies. While this movies has an excess of creativity and imagination, the languid pace and a couple of weak segment really undermined my appreciation of this movie as a whole. It’s even worse when the last segment (which should send you home buzzing), is anti-climatic and pointless. That’s not to say that this movie doesn’t have plenty of positive things going for it as it does as there’s creative lighting for the live-action shots, some amazing animation, and some great musical choices too. The fact that Disney created a new process for the multi-channel audio and then made sure that it was installed in the theaters before they could show his movie, increases my already considerable admiration for him. It’s really a shame that he was never able to do another Fantasia in his lifetime but some consider Make Mine Music to be an unofficial sequel since some of the discarded numbers from Fantasia made their way into that movie. Video. Considering that this movie is 70 years old and looks like it was made last year should give you a clue on what a masterful job Disney did restoring this classic. This 1080p transfer with its 1.33:1 aspect ratio looks incredible. I think Disney right now is now the studio putting out the most consistently excellent transfers around. Even their direct to video Blu-rays look great and this one is no different but it’s just even more impressive considering the movie’s age. Colors are vivid and plentiful and with this movie especially, they colors go across the spectrum and this remastered print shows them all brilliantly. Black levels are deep and plentiful as well especially during certain sequences like with the demon Chernobog. Detail is very impressive and there’s only a few minor issues but nothing huge that stands out. This is another home run for the restoration team at Disney! Audio. The film boasts an amazing DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround track that’s even more impressive due to the film’s age much like the visual quality. The Disney wizards have whipped up an all inclusive surround mix that swirls all around you. Each instruments comes through cleanly without distortion or overlapping and every channel is put to good use. It’s such a good mix that you feel as if you are surrounded by all of the musicians and that the music is washing over you. The sub-woofer kicks in often as well and several times it will make you sit up and take notice. The in-between segments with the host’s dialogue is crystal clear. This is a very, very impressive track. Special Features. This Blu-ray is chuck full of extras that were all done well and are very interesting. I also liked that they took the time to offer a variety of different areas to focus on that add up to the viewer gaining a larger overview and appreciation on the making of the film. All of the extras are in HD. Fantasia DVD Bonus Features: New Audio Commentary with Disney historian Brian Sibley – At first I didn’t realize that he was the author of a book that I own called The Lord of the Rings: The Making of the Movie Trilogy , but now that I know that, I’m not surprised at the amount of knowledge he can present. This commentary is non-stop and full of interesting information and it’s one of the best I’ve heard. Disney Family Museum – Walt’s daughter Diane Disney-Miller takes viewers on a tour of the new Disney Family Museum located in the Presidio in San Francisco, California. After watching this extra, I really want to see this museum as it looks incredibly innovative and high tech. It also has a ton of cool material that shows the life and career of Walt Disney. Fantasia Blu-ray contains everything on the DVD plus: Disney View – This viewing mode maximizes the Blu-ray viewing experience with a anamorphic aspect ratio. Original artwork created by Harrison Ellenshaw that compliments what’s currently playing. The Schultheis Notebook: A Disney Treasure – A fascinating account of a notebook that Disney employee Herman Schultheis assembled while making the movie. His record keeping was so comprehensive that it’s been called the Rosetta Stone for animation as it details animation techniques that had been lost and couldn’t even be replicated today unless you knew how it was originally done. The notebook is amazing to look at as it covers every aspect of making the movie including what lens was used, how far away it was shot, the materials used, pictures and diagrams of the various methods used, and just about everything you can imagine. It turned out that he worked all day at the studio and devoted all of his free time at home into putting this together. What’s even crazier, is that he asked Disney to buy it from him for $400 but was turned down. The notebook went missing for over 50 years until it was discovered hidden in a wall. Fortunately, Disney was very interested in buying it then and it now resides in the Disney Family Museum. This was probably my favorite extra as it was so unexpected and interesting to see. Plus I love seeing hidden artifacts revealed! Fantasia 2000. The Fantasia concept was revived 60 years later by Roy Disney who knew that Walt Disney had originally planned to make Fantasia an ongoing and evolving project that would introduce new material along with the original selections. This time a group of celebrities presented the clips which I think added some much needed humor to the proceedings. Conductor Andre Previn was approached to participate in this movie but he refused at the time because at that time he believed the score was going to made up entirely by Beatles songs. (That would have been awesome!) Instead, James Levine ended up doing the conducting and the songs were picked by the principle people behind the project with each of them adding their favorites to the pool. Here are the final choices to be found in the film: Ludwig van Beethoven ‘s Symphony No. 5 in C minor-I. Allegro con brio – Much liked the first film did, the first segment is an abstract look into light and darkness exemplified by butterflies and bats. Video. This 1080p transfer with its 1.78:1 aspect ratio looks even better than the original. The rainbow of colors pop with clarity and the black levels are dark and inky. Detail is very impressive which shouldn’t be a surprise since a lot of this was created with computers. Being newer than the original film of course this one looks better but it is still an impressive transfer. Audio. Since my previous coverage of the original fits this disc exactly the same, I will re-purpose it here. The film boasts an amazing DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround track that’s even more impressive due to the film’s age much like the visual quality. The Disney wizards have whipped up an all inclusive surround mix that swirls all around you. Each instruments comes through cleanly without distortion or overlapping and every channel is put to good use. It’s such a good mix that you feel as if you are surrounded by all of the musicians and that the music is washing over you. The sub- woofer kicks in often as well and several times it will make you sit up and take notice. The in-between segments with the host’s dialogue is crystal clear. This is a very, very impressive track. Special Features. This Blu-ray is chuck full of extras that were all done well and very interesting. I also liked that they took the time to offer a variety of different areas to focus on that add up to the viewer gaining a larger overview and appreciation on the making of the film. All of the extras are in HD. Fantasia 2000 DVD Bonus Features: Musicana – Walt’s Inspiration for a Sequel – This featurette delves into the proposed sequel to Fantasia that never made it. Walt wanted to focus on music from around the world but it was never finished. Fantasia 2000 Blu-ray contains e verything on the DVD plus: Dali & Disney: A Date With Destino (running time: 82 minutes) – A look into the relationship between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali, an the unfinished Destino short that was abandoned until it was resurrected by Roy E. Disney. Destino – The long awaited Walt Disney and Salvador Dali short film. Since Dali is involved it’s as weird as you’d expect. Disney’s Virtual Vault — BD-Live Feature – Almost three hours of extra material that appeared on earlier releases is located here. It’s great that you can access this but I wish they could have fit it all on the discs. Audio Commentary from Roy E. Disney, James Levine, and producer Don Ernst – Another informative look into the similarities and differences between both movies and the effort it took to make them. Audio commentary with the directors and art directors for each segment they were involved in – A non-stop look back at the shorts by the people who made them. More individual details can be found here and it’s all interesting. Final Thoughts. I enjoyed Fantasia 2000 more than I did the original as the pace is quicker, there’s more humor in it, and it doesn’t take itself as seriously as the first one did. However, the first one was a first of it’s kind experiment and they were really pushing the format farther than it had ever gone before. As they said, their goal was to “see music and hear images.” With that lofty objective they took a lot of risks and you have to appreciate that kind of ambition. This set is packed with an abundance of extras and the picture and audio quality is worth your money alone. Pre-order your copy of this Disney classic today ! Sean Ferguson. 5 Responses to “Fantasia & Fantasia 2000 (Blu-ray Review)” My copy of this (using the Why So Blu amazon links) has shipped. I can’t wait to get it. Hmm…not sure why, but I was expecting these to be two separate releases. Although I have never see this, nor have any desire to do so, I’m glad you were pleased with the Blu-ray presentations of these! I’m sure you will love it Aaron. I hope when you said you used the wsb amazon links you were talking about the one at the end of the review! If so, then thank you for your support! If not, then Brian can thank you because all of the other links go to him! Oh, I’ve seen them and have been a fan. I just can’t wait to have it on Blu-Ray. I’ll get them at some point. I used to have the dvd versions, but never watched them. I ended up selling them for a lot of money. They’d gone back into the vault, so I made of well. FANTASIA/FANTASIA 2000 Blu-ray Review. FANTASIA / FANTASIA 2000 Blu-ray Review. A review of Disney's 4-disc special edition FANTASIA/FANTASIA 2000 Blu-ray/DVD. Walt Disney’s Fantasia is many things. At first, it was a flop. Now – through Disney’s re-releases (and what appears to be a campaign selling the film to the drug addled in the 60’s) – it’s one of the top 25 highest grossing films of all time (adjusted). It’s a mainstream classic, but in structure it's also an art-house, experimental film. It’s singular - an omnibus, made of short, unconnected films that never build on each other - the majority of films like that have rarely worked. And though it’s been on home video for twenty years now, and it’s been available on DVD, Blu-ray gives us yet another chance to familiarize ourselves with Walt Disney’s passion project and absorb its brilliance and flaws. My review of the Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 double feature Blu-ray follows after the jump. There are no stars in Fantasia . The leading performer is conductor Leopold Stokowski, who conducts the Philadelphia orchestra for the film. It’s seen as a concert movie, with Disney providing the animation for what might be imagined by its audience. Here it starts more experimentally, as notes are given color and shape. This is followed by The Nutcracker Suite, which features racist mushrooms (though a sambo character has been deleted from all DVD and Blu-ray versions). This is a more flowery look, with fish and plants and fairies dancing. It is followed by what is the most revered section of the movie, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which also features Mickey Mouse in the cartoon that he is currently most recognized. Mickey tries to cheat at his work by using magic, but it backfires spectacularly. This is followed by The Rite of Spring, where the cosmos is explored, and the death of the dinosaurs comes to pass. Then comes an intermission, followed by Beethoven’s The Pastoral Symphony with mythical creatures playing and getting ready to date, and possibly breed. It is followed by “Dance of the Hours,” which has dancing ostriches, hippos and crocodiles, and the film ends with Night on Bald Mountain, which may very well be the most disturbing ten minutes of Disney’s entire oeuvre (which is saying something), but closes with Ave Maria. Fantasia is more experience than film. There is no real narrative, and the majority of the pieces included do not have much of a story. Part of the reason why The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is the best remembered of the bunch is that it’s one of the only pieces that tell a proper narrative. To that sense, the film’s initial failure, and it’s relatively cold appeal are understandable. It doesn’t have the hooks of Bambi or Dumbo . And at a two hour plus running time, it’s easier to watch in a theater as a whole experience - while at home it’s better if it’s broken up into short films. In fact, if I were introducing a child to the film, I would spread each section out over days of watching, perhaps as a carton before a main feature. As a whole, watching it front to back, it’s not very successful as a movie. But if you love animation and craft, the sound and vision is enthralling. The hand drawn animation is stunning to look at, and the animators only use the familiar Disney character designs with some of the pieces. But in Night at Bald Mountain, the animation and design work is singular, and the gorgeous imagery is as haunting as I remembered it from my childhood. Fantasia is a masterwork in its way, but not as much fun as its contemporaries. The recording of the orchestra is well persevered here in 7.1 DTS- HD Master audio. This is a showcase disc. The film is presented in full frame (1.33:1) with the option of black bars on the side or DisneyView, which adds curtains, and color appropriate imagery on the side. It’s a peculiar retroactive pan and scanning, but it doesn’t change the ratio or anything like that, so it’s inoffensive. The film comes with three commentaries, two from the previous DVD release. The newest track is from Disney historian Brian Sibley, the second a clip track hosted by John Canemaker that collects audio interviews on the film, with the most important comments coming from Walt Disney. The third track comes from Roy E. Disney, conductor James Levine, Canemaker, and film restoration manager Scott MacQueen. The commentaries are the majority of the supplements. There’s a tour of the Disney Family Museum (4 min.), “The Schultheis Notebook: A Disney Treasure” (14 min.) a book that documented the making of the film. Then there’s an interactive art gallery with stills from both Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 . When the first film was released, the idea was that Disney would update it continuously. When the film failed that was scrapped, though reissues turned it into a classic. Fantasia 2000 is an amazing document, as it attempted to update the film by turning it into an Imax spectacle. In that way they were ahead of their time with the Imax stuff. This version is dated in different ways, with the most notable dating being the celebrity guest hosts, which include Quincy Jones, James Earl Jones, Penn and Teller, and Steve Martin. It starts with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in the more experimental mode of the early goings of the first film, and then moves to Pines of Rome, which incorporates computer animation in a very transitional way. This leads into George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, which is done in the Al Hirschfield style. It’s fun, though the music cue is owned by Woody Allen. It’s followed by an even more CGI influenced cartoon about a tin soldier done to Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro, Opus 102. This leads into a piece with a flamingo playing with a yo-yo set to Carnival of the Animals, Finale. This segues into The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the only double dip. Donald Duck gets to appear in homage to Noah’s Ark for Pomp and Circumstance Marches 1, 2, 3 and 4, while the film wraps up with Angela Landsbury introducing Stranvisnky’s firebird Suite – 1919 version in a sequence that seems to be inspired partly by Hayao Miyazaki. Fantasia 2000 remedies a number of the problems with the original. It has more stories that have a structure, and is mercifully short. Like the first film, what’s most engaging about the film is the craft, and perhaps more so now a decade on. Animation was in a transition period, and CGI was becoming more and more prevalent, so even though the film is looking at a digital future (and CGI is used throughout), there are so many great grace notes to the cel animation. Neither of these films works as films, but they do show two different versions of an animation studio with their craftsmen working at the height of their skills. The film comes widescreen (1.78:1) and in 7.1 DTS-HD high resolution. Again, demo disc. Both films come with a DVD copy of the film. Extras here include both commentaries from the DVD release of the film, the first a track with Roy E. Disney, Levine, and producer Don Ernst, the second with the directors and art directors of the shorts. “Musicana” (9 min.) is about the making of the new film, and about some of the abandoned concepts for additional shorts. It’s followed by “Dali & Disney: A Date with Destino” (82 min.) a feature-length documentary about Disney and Salvador Dali’s attempts at collaboration, and the short film they almost made. It’s followed by the modern imagining of that short, “Destino” (6 min.). With a piece like this it is and isn’t what was intended, but is nothing less than fascinating. The disc also contains BD-Live content for the films in its “virtual vault.”