# Fantasia/2000 (1999)

### reviewed by
Brian Matherly

    Fantasia 2000 (1999)
    Rating: 5.0 stars out of 5.0 stars

Hosted by: Penn Jillette, James Earl Jones, Quincy Jones, Angela Lansbury, James Levine, Steve Martin, Bette Midler, Itzhak Perlman, Leopold Stokowski, Deems Taylor, Teller Written by: Hans Christian Andersen, Don Hahn, Irene Mecchi, David Reynolds Directed by: James Algar, Gaetan Brizzi, Paul Brizzi, Hendel Butoy, Francis Glebas, Eric Goldberg, Don Hahn, Pixote Hunt Running Time: 75 minutes

When I initially set out to review this film, my tag line was going to be "You too can believe whales can fly". Then it was going to be "You too can believe pastel triangles can fly". THEN, it was going to be "You too can believe wood sprites can fly". Finally, I just gave up trying to come up with a tag line and decided to say... there's a lot of flying going on in this film!

As our first host Steve Martin tells us, the original concept behind Fantasia was to bring it out every year with some old segments retained and some new segments added in. Well apparently that plan fell by the wayside for a while, because approximately sixty years have passed since the original classic was released. Part of this might have something to do with the cold reception the film got when it was first released in 1940 (grossing somewhere close to $110,000 in its original month of release). Subsequent re-releases of the film have elevated the popularity of the film to the classic status it has finally achieved (and rightfully deserved).

To celebrate the release of an updated version of Fantasia, Disney and IMAX teamed up to present the animated film in a fashion no one had seen before: six stories high. In an exclusive four month engagement (from January 1st to April 30th, 2000), Fantasia 2000 can be seen at many IMAX theaters across the US. After the engagement is over, the film will be shown at regular theaters. Is the format effective for the film? With a few exceptions, yes.

The first segment we are presented with is set to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. It's hard to describe exactly what this segment is about, but it involves a bunch of brightly colored butterfly looking triangles flitting about happily. Everything seems to be going great for these little things until the ground erupts with swarms of evil, black bat-like triangles that attack and engulf their lighter counterparts. Eventually, shafts of light from above help drive away the evil bat-like things and peace returns to the butterfly things. Though this segment isn't very story driven, some of the images are very visually strong, especially the scene in which the dark cloud of bat things (who are all outlined in blood red colors) begin to overtake the skies.

The next segment is set to Ottorino Respighi's "The Pines of Rome". In this segment, some humpback whales swim happily through the ocean and eventually emerge from the water and fly around the massive icebergs that pepper the oceanscape. A whale calf gets into a scuffle with some nearby birds during the flight and ends up getting trapped in a giant iceberg he smashes into while trying to avoid the birds attack. He is finally saved (by another liberating shaft of light) and he and his brethren take to the skies and fly into the upper atmosphere where they frolic in the "oceans" of clouds. Again, visuals are the key with this segment, especially where the whales are involved. Reportedly the whales, as viewed on an Imax screen in certain sequences, are shown as actual size. The CGI whales look incredibly life-like, except for some googly cartoon eyes drawn onto the images. One especially striking image involves the giant shadow of one of the whales being cast through the wall of an iceberg as the whale calf tries to find a way out to its parent. Absolutely beautiful stuff.

The third segment (and the least of the eight segments) is set to George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue". This segment is designed as a tribute to acclaimed caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, and intertwines four different stories about sad souls living in depression era New York. There's a construction worker who dreams of being a jazz drummer, an out-of-work sad sack that dreams of having a job, a young girl that dreams of spending time with her parents instead of being hustled off by a schoolmarm, and a nebbish who dreams of being free from his overbearing wife. I won't go into how everything works out, but in fine Disney tradition there is a happy ending. Unfortunately, the story drags quite a bit and the seems out of place within the hyper reality of the rest of the segments.

Segment four is set to Dmitri Shostakovich's "Piano Concerto No. 2" and is an animated version of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Steadfast Tin Soldier". A one legged toy tin soldier falls in love with a wind-up clock ballerina (whom he assumes is also one legged because he can't see her other leg extended out behind her), much to the dismay of an evil jack-in-the-box jester. The jester knocks the soldier out of a window and continues pursuing the ballerina. Little does the jester know, the soldier has been deposited in the sewer and has journeyed through the pipelines only to be swallowed by a fish that has been captured and sold to the owner of the set of tin soldiers that the one legged one comes from. The soldier eventually saves the day and gets the girl. Although the ending has been altered from the Andersen story, "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" is decently told with in the framework of a seven minute short. Some children may find the jester to be a little frightening, but otherwise the segment is well made.

Segment five is the funniest of the bunch. Set to Camille Saint-Saens "The Carnival of the Animals", this segment features a flamingo torturing his fellow flamingos with a yo-yo while they are trying to perform a choreographed dance number. While it is the shortest clip of the group and a throwback to the alligators and hippos dancing in the first Fantasia, it is still well accomplished and a welcome bit of comedy.

Segment six is the only segment to be repeated from the original 1940 Fantasia, and it's the one that people remember most, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". The story is the most recognizable, so the draw here is seeing it on the enormous IMAX screen in remastered stereo. Unfortunately, the segment wasn't made to be presented on large format film (considering it was shot full frame) and exhibits large amounts of grain. There were at least two occasions where images were very hard to make out due to the excessive grain. Similar problems crop up on modern day releases when projected on screens too large for the image to be shown accurately (but no one seems to notice for some strange reason), an anomaly common to many 18-plus screen theaters.

Segment seven is set to Sir Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1" and is the only other Fantasia segment to feature a stock Disney character. Donald Duck "stars" as an assistant to Noah, whose task is loading all of the animals onto the Ark. During the loading, Donald and his wife lose sight of each other and both believe that the other one didn't make it on the boat. They are constantly missing each other due to comic misadventures mainly involving Donald being crushed by animals in various manners. Despite the slapstick style of comedy in this piece, it displays more emotion in its final scene than many of the tear-jerkers foisted on audiences these days. Powerful stuff.

Segment eight brings a whole new meaning to the cliché "saving the best for last". Set to Igor Stravinsky's "The Firebird", an elk awakens a forest sprite that proceeds to change the wintery landscape into a beautiful springtime landscape. Trees bloom and flowers blossom and everything seems to be going well until the sprite becomes inquisitive about a large mountain housing a strange formation. When the sprite examines the formation, it awakens and becomes the titular firebird. In a stunning spectacle, the firebird rears back and unleashes and fire storm that destroys everything in its path, including everything that the sprite has worked to create. Some amazing animation is present here, and well worth the ten dollars a ticket alone (although brush strokes are evident in one scene due to the enlargement of the film).

The host segments are largely (no pun intended) throwaways, although Steve Martin's clip is pretty funny. Be sure to stay through the credits for a little more humor from Martin. Penn and Teller are usually funny, but here their gags seem routine and therefore uninteresting. The best segment comes from, of all people, Bette Midler, who gets to tell us about some of the abandoned segments that never made it off of the drawing board. Pieces like Flight of the Bumblebee, a take on the Four Horsemen set to Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries", and a strange segment prepared in the '40s by Salvador Dali that never was shown are all previewed here and teased that they may appear in future installments.

For fans of visual stimulation or classical music, Fantasia 2000 is a perfect way to spend the afternoon. The film is also decent family entertainment and contains little to no objectionable material. As I mentioned earlier in the review, if ten dollars seems like too much for you to spend on this film, fear not because after its run in IMAX theaters it is going to be brought out in regular theaters. I must stress that the best way to see this film is on an IMAX screen though. Then you too can believe that whales/triangle things/sprites can fly. [G]

Reviewed by Brian Matherly - bmath2000@hotmail.com The Jacksonville Film Journal - www.jaxfilmjournal.com

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