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Fantasia
2000
Release
Date December 17th, 1999
SYNOPSIS:
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.
FUN FACTS:
Fantasia 2000 is a 1999 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 38th film in the Disney animated features canon and a sequel to Fantasia (1940). As with its predecessor the film consists of animated segments set to pieces of classical music, with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice being the only segment that is featured in both films. The soundtrack was performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with conductor James Levine. A group of celebrities introduce each segment in live-action scenes including Steve Martin, Bette Midler, Penn & Teller, James Earl Jones, Quincy Jones and Angela Lansbury.
Roy E. Disney first thought of a sequel to Fantasia in
1974, only to pitch the film to Disney chairman Michael Eisner ten years later.
Production began in 1990, and the film is noted for using a combination of computer-generated
imagery on top of hand-drawn animation. Peter Schickele worked with Levine on
the musical arrangement of each musical piece.
Fantasia 2000 premiered at Carnegie Hall on December
17, 1999 as part of a five-city concert tour, with performances in London,
Paris, Tokyo and Pasadena, California. An exclusive release in IMAX theatres
followed from January 1 to April 30, 2000, becoming the first animated
feature-length film issued in the format. Fantasia 2000 was opened wide
in the United States on June 16, 2000 and has earned $90.8 million in gross
revenue worldwide.
Program
The segments in the order of appearance:
- Symphony
No. 5 in C minor-I. Allegro con brio by Ludwig van
Beethoven. Abstract patterns and shapes resembling butterflies and bats
explore a world of light and darkness which are ultimately conquered by
light.
- Pines of
Rome by Ottorino Respighi. A family of humpback whales
are able to fly due to a supernova. The calf is separated from his parents
when he becomes trapped in an iceberg, but finds his way out with his
mother's help. The final section, the Via Appia, gives the impression of
the larger pod of adults in migration.
- Rhapsody
in Blue by George Gershwin. An episode of New York City in
the 1930s in the style of Al Hirschfeld's known cartoons of the time,
depicting a day in the lives of several people within the Depression-era
bustling metropolis. Featured is an animated cameo appearance of Gershwin
himself at the piano.
- Piano
Concerto No. 2 in F Major-I. Allegro by Dmitri
Shostakovich. Based on The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen,
the concerto was written as a gift by Shostakovich to his musically gifted
young son, and the percussive rhythms also suit a story about a soldier.
In contrast to the original story, the ending is a happy one.
- The
Carnival of the Animals, Finale by Camille Saint-Saens. A flock of
flamingos try to force a slapstick member who enjoys playing with a yo-yo
to engage in their "dull" routines. A question in this segment's
host sequence leads into its story, "What would happen if you gave
a yo-yo to a flock of flamingoes?"
- The Sorcerer’s
Apprentice by Paul Dukas. Based on Goethe's 1797 poem Der
Zauberlehrling, the segment is the only one retained from 1940's Fantasia.
Mickey Mouse as the apprentice of sorcerer Yen Sid who attempts some of
his master's magic tricks before knowing how to control them.
- Pomp and
Circumstance – Marches 1, 2, 3 and 4 by Edward Elgar.
Based on the story of Noah’s Ark from the Book of Genesis starring Donald
Duck as first mate to Noah and Daisy Duck as Donald's assistant and love
interest. Donald musters the animals to the Ark and misses, loses and
reunites with Daisy in the process.
- Firebird
Suite – 1919 Version by Igor Stravinsky. The story of the spring sprite
and her companion, the elk, who accidentally awakes the Firebird, a fiery
spirit of destruction in a nearby volcano. The Firebird proceeds in
destroying the forest, and seemingly the sprite. The Sprite survives, and
the Elk encourages her to restore the forest to its former state.
Production
Development
“Fantasia is
timeless. It may run 10, 20, or 30 years. It may run after I’m gone. Fantasia
is an idea in itself. I can never build another Fantasia. I can improve. I can
elaborate. That’s all.”
~ Walt Disney
Walt Disney had planned to have Fantasia on a continual
release with segments being replaced by new ones, so audiences would never see
the same film twice. The film's initial failure in revenue, the loss of the
European market due to the Second World War, and its mixed critical reaction
led to the abandonment of this idea. Following Walt's death in 1966, his nephew
Roy E. Disney thought of an update for Fantasia in 1974 and pitched the idea to
Disney chairman Michael Eisner ten years later. A project for a sequel titled Musicana
came about in the late 1970s that was to explore the world's cultures through
their musical compositions, but the idea was shelved in the early 1980s.
Fantasia 2000 entered production in 1990. In September
1991, conductor James Levine attended a meeting with Roy Disney, Thomas
Schumacher and Peter Gelb, and was asked to conduct several pieces for a
continuation of Fantasia initially named Fantasia Continued. The music
selections were collectively decided by Disney, Levine and production staff.
Most were decisions driven by the musical preferences of the team, to which
Disney chose Pines of Rome. Other pieces were discovered long after the story
ideas were set, such as The Steadfast Tin Soldier, where the visuals were based
on artwork done for Fantasia. The Shostakovich piece, however, was presented to
the team by an animator late into its production schedule. Composer andre
Previn reports in his book No Minor Chords that he was approached by
Disney to work on a sequel, but declined after he learned that the soundtrack
was, at that point, conceived of as an orchestration of songs by The Beatles.
The film was originally scheduled for a mid-1990s release
with a change of name to Fantasia 1999 before being changed accordingly
when the release date moved into 2000. Three segments from Fantasia were
intended to remain in Fantasia 2000, but only The Sorcerer's
Apprentice made it into the final release. The late addition of Rhapsody
in Blue replaced Dance of the Hours a year before its release and Nutcracker
Suite was also included until a few months before its theatrical run. After
much of the publicity material had already been produced, plus a number of test
screenings, it was removed to shorten the running time.
Design and animation
Director Pixote Hunt decided on the concept to
"Symphony No. 5" with a conflict between the "good"
multi-colored shapes and the "evil" dark shapes and how it resolves
itself. Staff members visited a zoo, a butterfly farm and watched slow motion
footage of bats to observe animal behaviors and incorporate them into the
shapes. Pastels were used on top of computer animation, with each hand-drawn
piece being scanned into a computer system and digitally manipulated.
Rhaposdy in Blue was a work already in
progress by director Eric Goldberg (lead animator for the Genie in Aladdin,
also inspired by Al Hirschfield's art), when Disney approached him to complete
the piece for the film. This decision was ideal given the head start on the
work and so that the film could include a work from an American composer. The
little girl in the hotel in the segment is based on the Eloise character
created by Kay Thompson and the red-haired man is based on John Culhane, the
author for the "making of" books for both Fantasia and Fantasia
2000. Taking on Rhapsody in Blue also allowed Disney to keep the
animators assigned to their feature Kingdom of the Sun (later released
as The Emperor’s New Groove) busy while Kingdom went through an
extensive rewrite. Some press articles written after the completion of Groove
reversed the roles, saying that Goldberg first approached Disney for Rhapsody
for Fantasia 2000 and was initially rejected, and later the producers
came back to him as a result of the need to find something to do with the
animation staff while the Kingdom rewrite was going on.
The idea of The Carnival of the Animals came from Joe
Grant, who liked the ostriches in the Dance of the Hours segment from Fantasia.
He pitched the idea to have ostriches with a yo-yo set to the music, only to
have the animals changed to flamingos. Goldberg got his research from his past
co-directing partner Mike Gabriel, who would play with a yo-yo as he took a
break from work on Pocahontas. A number of real tricks are demonstrated,
including the "Walk the Dog", "Rock the Cradle" and the
"UFO".
The story of The Firebird is considered an
exercise in the theme of life-death-rebirth deities, as well as a stylized
interpretation of the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens and the subsequent return
of wildlife to the devastated region. Disney wished for a segment that was
"emotionally equivalent" to the Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria
scene in the original Fantasia. The horns on the elk in The Firebird
were CGI-rendered on top of hand-drawn animation.
One significant difference in the musical styles between
the films is that in Fantasia 2000 the piano features prominently in
more than half of the selections, while the original Fantasia did not feature
one.
Fantasia 2000 features many technical innovations that
would later be utilized in the Disney studio's other animation works, particularly
in the use of computers. Both Pines of Rome and The Steadfast Tin
Soldier were primarily CGI pieces, completed before Pixar's landmark film Toy
Story was released.
Disney felt the need to include live-action interstitial
scenes, as seen in the first Fantasia, to have the audience cleanse
their "emotional palate", as well as providing some information about
a segment coming up. The scenes were directed by Disney animation producer Don
Hahn. Instead of using a single narrator like Fantasia did, people from
different areas of the art world introduce each segment in Fantasia 2000.
Actor Steve Martin briefly discusses the history of Fantasia as a continuing
concept and is immediately followed by violinist Itzhak Perlman (though Steve
wanted the camera back on him for his own violin performance, breaking the
fourth wall even after the film had ended), who introduces Pines of Rome. Quincy
Jones leads into the Gershwin number, and Bette Midler gives a history on the
cancelled Fantasia segment projects (including Destino) during introduction to
the Shostakovich concerto, both featuring on screen the piano players for the
respective pieces. James Earl Jones introduces The Carnival of the Animals, Finale
with director Eric Goldberg, and, appropriately enough, magicians Penn &
Teller make an appearance before The Sorcerer's Apprentice. When this
piece concludes with Mickey Mouse's conversation with conductor Leopold
Stokowski from the original Fantasia (with Mickey's lines from the original
redubbed by his then voice actor, Wayne Allwine), Mickey then moves on to chat
with Levine before the latter introduces Pomp and Circumstance – Marches 1, 2,
3, and 4. The final sequence of The Firebird is introduced by Angela
Lansbury.
Soundtrack
Most of the film's soundtrack was digitally recorded at
the Medinah Temple concert hall in Chicago, with performances with the
Philharmonia Orchestra being recoded at Air Studios in London.
Release and reception
World tour and theatrical run
“It’s such a feast for the eyes and ears, we figured what better way for it to be seen first than IMAX, which can so completely engulf each of the viewers?
~ Richard Cook, chairman of the Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Group.
Disney officially announced Fantasia 2000 at a
conference in New York City on February 9, 1999, where The Carnival of the
Animals was also screened. The film premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York
City for three nights as part of a five-city concert tour on December 17. Each
segment was shown on a screen above the stage, minus the live-action
introductions, while the soundtrack was performed live by the 120-piece Philharmonia
Orchestra conducted by Levine, who used a score and video auto-cue to time the
music to the animation. Performances followed at the Royal albert Hall in London
on December 21; the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris on December 22; the Orchard
Hall in Tokyo on December 27; and the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena,
Florida on December 31, where Derrick Inouye conducted.
Fantasia 2000 was first screened in 75 IMAX cinemas
worldwide from January 1 to April 30, 2000, becoming the first animated
feature-length film to be exhibited in the format. A temporary venue was
constructed for its run in Los Angeles at a near cost of $4 million, as Disney
was unable to reach an agreement with the operators of the single IMAX cinema
in the city. In its opening weekend, the film grossed $2,239,941 in 54 cinemas
in the United States and Canada for an average of $41,481 per theater. It set
new records as the highest gross for any IMAX engagement and surpassed the
highest weekly total for any previous IMAX film. Its three-day worldwide gross
reached $3,874,000, and records were set at 18 international venues that showed
the film. Fantasia 2000 grossed a worldwide total of over $21 million in
30 days, and $64.5 million at the end of its four-month IMAX engagement.
Following its release in 1,313 regular theatres in the US on June 16, 2000, the
film grossed $2.8 million in its opening weekend that ranked eleventh at the box
office. Fantasia 2000 has grossed a total of over $90.8 million
worldwide.
Critical reception
Fantasia 2000 holds a "fresh" rating on Rotten
Tomatoes, a website that aggregates film reviews. Its overall consensus —
"Though Fantasia may be flawed in parts, overall it provides an
entertaining experience for adults and children alike". 83% of critics
gave the film a positive review based on a sample of 81 reviews, with an
average score of 7.1 out of 10. Among the website's "top critics", it
has an 83% positive rating from six reviews. Roger Ebert of the Chicago
Sun-Times describes some of the animation as "powerful" though others
"a little pedestrian", but noted the film was "splendid
entertainment" and rated it three stars out of four.
Home media
In November 2000, the film was released on VHS and DVD. A
three-disc DVD set named The Fantasia Anthology issued in the same month
presented Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 with Dolby Digital 5.1
surround sound. A variety of bonus features were included in the bonus disc, The
Fantasia Legacy. Roy Disney precedes the 2000 VHS and DVD releases with an
introduction made for key studio releases from the past. On November 30, the
film's soundtrack was released on CD, with Levine conducting the Philharmonia
Orchestra for Rhapsody in Blue and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for
the remaining tracks.
Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 were reissued in November 2010
as a two-disc DVD set and a four-disc DVD and Blu-ray combo that boasts 1080p
high-definition video and 7.1 surround sound DTS-HD Master Audio. Fantasia
2000 was withdrawn from release and returned to the "Disney Vault"
moratorium on April 30, 2011. The 2010 edition is dedicated to Roy Disney, who
died a year prior to its release. The Blu-ray also contains Destino as a
bonus feature
Credits
Note: All segments performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with conductor James Levine, except where noted.
|
Segment
|
Personnel
|
|
Live-action
scenes
|
|
|
Symphony No.
5 in C minor, I. Allegro con brio
|
|
|
Pines of Rome
|
|
|
Rhapsody in
Blue
|
|
|
Piano
Concerto No. 2 in F Major, Allegro, Op. 102’'
|
|
|
The Carnival
of the Animals (La Carnival des Animaux), Finale
|
|
|
The Sorcerer’s
Apprentice
|
|
|
Pomp and
Circumstance – Marches 1, 2, 3, and 4
|
|
|
Firebird
Suite – 1919 Version
|
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