Fantasia 2000

Rating:
Summary: Great Way to Introduce Classical Music to Kids
Review: What I enjoyed about Fantasia 2000:

1: With the great advances in recording technology the sound is much better than the original Fantasia. This DVD sounds great on a home theater system.
2: The "Firebird Suite -1919 Version" is my favorite episode in the entire Fantasia series. The animation is gorgeous, especially the nymph and the feel of the scene fits Stravinsky's music wonderfully. Purchasing a home theater system pays off with Stravinsky's music especially the ending which is one of the most powerful and sublime pieces of music ever written. I wish the movie could of been longer to extend this scene.
3: Nice to see Donald Duck get some screen time.

What I Disliked about Fantasia 2000:

1: This DVD only runs for 70 minutes encompassing 8 musical pieces. Fantasia 2000 was produced to run on an IMAX screen and this limited the allowable length of the movie. The original Fantasia clocks in around 2 hours encompassing 7 pieces. The length of the original allowed more of the music to be played. But for Fantasia 2000 the producers were forced to chop off much more of the original music to fit the time constraint. You have the feeling you are watching a MTV music video limiting the themes and scenes that could be developed and shown. Some of the scenes you feel like you are eating an appetizer instead of a main course, especially the first scene using Beethoven's Fifth and Saint-Saen's Carnival of the Animals.
2: I understand the original idea behind Fantasia was to run it as a series keeping some of the old and incorporating new scenes but I thought it was a waste to re-run the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Maybe it looked good on an IMAX but it would of been better to add more time to the other episodes. Also, the music is the same recording as the original so it felt discontinuous to go from a modern recording to the more muffled recording kept for the Sorcerer's Apprentice.

Fantasia 2000 is very enjoyable but not as good as the original. Both these movies are a wonderful way to introduce children to the world of classical music.

Rating:
Summary: It Was Alright.
Review: I have mixed feelings about this movie in general. I LOVED the original Fantsia to death so I was excited when this one came out. However, it didn't get me as excited as the first one did. I watched the first movie in my art class back in sixth grade and fell in love with it. This movie however is just too different. I mean the same concept is there. Using images to highlight wonderful music. But I, like many other reviewers out there would have been much happier if most of the movie was animated by hand. Most of this film was done with computer graphics. Now this may have looked amazing on the IMAX screen but it wasn't as great on my 15 inch screen. Also, not everyone needs to have complicated enhanced computer and digital stuff to enjoy a movie. To be perfectly honest this movie really didn't need it. It was almost as if they did it so that we would be distracted from the fact that it wasn't as good as the original. Also many of the storylines weren't that great. I liked the fact that they added a piece from the old Fantasia on it. My advice is to stick to the original or don't expect too much from this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Disney still remains an animation powerhouse
Review: Like Apollo 13, one can say the original Fantasia was a successful failure. Re-release after re-release, it became a classic with great music and artistic animation but dumbfounded people, calling it pretentious and "un Disney-like". It hurt Disney, the company and Walt, as it was his labor of love and in spent lots of money to finance the Fantasound, a precursor to what we now call "Surround sound". And with World War II just right outside, people didn't exactly want to see an animation movie. Walt's dream for the film was for it to be a continuing work in process: re-released every 2-4 years with new showcases and returning favorites but died before doing this. His nephew Ron Disney decided to make true on his dream and so on January 1st, 2000, Fantasia 2000 was released in IMAX theatres. Here is a showcase-by-showcase rundown.

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony: I have a hunch there isn't a single person(besides people born hearing impaired) that hasn't heard the infamous 4 note intro. And it's all set to black and purple Dorito chips? Okay I'll buy it. 9/10

Peghnini's Pines of Rome: Somehow a piece about the Roman army turned into flying whales in the Arctic circle. But man does it look gorgeous. Definately a highlight. 10/10

Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue: Meh, this is ok. It's unique for Disney granted but I didn't care for it much. 7/10

Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 Allergo Opus 102: Boy that's a long title. It's set to the story of the Steadfast Tin Soldier and it's quite good. In the original version, it's a sad ending but Disney went and "disneyfied" it for a more happy ending. Bah. 8/10

Saint-Saen's Carnival of the Animals, Finale: What happens when you give a yo-yo to a flamingo? A cute funny little scene in the same vein as Dance of the Hours. 8/10

Dukas's The Sorceror's Apprentice: The only original from the first one and still recognizable. The best version is on the original dvd as they changed the format from full to widescreen. Still good. 8/10

Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance Marches 1-4: If you've ever graduated or at least been to a ceremony, you heard this song. It features Donald and Daisy in a Noah's Ark type story. I liked it, not technically brilliant but still cute. 8/10

Stravinksy's Firebird Suite(1919 version): This must've been a jawdropper on the IMAX screen and it's still a marvel on dvd. A theme of life/death/rebirth set in the forest. If you want to show off your dvd/sound system, cue this in. 10/10

While it probably wouldn't be considered a classic right away, even the original didn't get that overnight, it's still great to see Disney churn out something other than tepid direct-to-video sequels. Watch the original too, as it started it all.

Rating:
Summary: Fantasia 2
Review: Not as good as its essential award-winning predecessor, Fantasia 2000 is too computer animated for my liking: Sometimes the most beautiful animation isn't the most realistic-looking. Loved the idea for the humpback whale scene but disliked it for its overusage of computer animation. Still good, but no cigar to the original.

Rating:
Summary: classical music for those with add
Review: I was not a big fan of the first Fantasia, but this is so much worse. The entire essence of the music is lost. I felt like I was at a Hollywood awards show (and I've been to them so I do know what I am talking about). A short piece is played, on comes the emcee to entertain the crowd.

If this is what it takes to get people to listen to classical music, they should just stick with their pop-music sound bytes.

Rating:
Summary: A great followup to a Disney classic.
Review: Alive with music and brilliant animation the new Fantasia2000 film is not an instant Disney classic but it is a definate must see. It is not as good as the original but it is just as vibrant and colorful. This film has something that the original did not have, celebrities. Steve Martin, Better Midler, and Angela Lansbury introduce some of the musical pieces. The animation is really beautiful to watch. I highly reccomend this film.

Rating:
Summary: Stravinsky's Firebird suite played like Wagner's Parsifal?
Review: Okay! Most of this film is outstanding. I liked the Pines of Rome sequence, the Steadfast Tin Soldier, and the Pomp and Circumstance as well as the others except for the Firebird. There are some things for me to complain about during that sequence. First of all, in my own opinion, Disney has been more incorrigible than he was with any other film of his. That Firebird moviette sounds like what Richard Wagner did when writing his Parsifal: Terrifying music where it does not belong, and contrasting it after so lovely a melody. All of the faster music, if very little, is terrifying for no good reason and places a terrifying character in a place where it does not belong. I think that Disney has hurt my feelings here. This part is more for fans of Wagner's Parsifal, which, also, has a hurtful mood.As I said, there's terrifying music even in the festive sections there too. Toward the end, instead of normal rejoicing, instead, I hear a small reprise of that terrifying Firebird Dance which goes right into a really strange kind of rejoicing, the kind when the music is so slow that it sounds more like romance. This is not a fight for triumph, this is just rejoicing in the mode of Wagner. Now I know why Wagner hated jews. He probably wanted to make rejoicing slower than what it normally is: bustle and jollity, but instead I get rejoicing in love song mode. On any of the other pieces on this video, Disney and Levine made more sense, but not here. Disney took Stravinsky like someone who hated jews and took bustle, jollity, and festivities in a slow tempo. That's not the Stravinsky I know. I hate to be rude, but next time James Levine conducts Stravinsky's Firebird suite, he should make the final section of the Finale sound faster than it was here. The tempo here should've sounded more like Claudio Abbado, Paavo Jarvi, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, or even Stravinsky himself. They all respect Stravinsky more than do Walt Disney and James Levine. A fast tempo is exactly what Stravinsky's Firebird Suite needs for the last section of the finale.