It’s no fantasy; Fantasia 2000 is excellent! Perhaps not quite as good as the original Fantasia, but a worthy successor to it nonetheless. More then sixty years ago Fantasia was an experiment by Walt Disney to combine classical music with state of the art animation to form something unique. With the help of the talented men and women working at Disney’s studio along with the magnificent Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he succeeded wonderfully. However, Disney’s intent at the time was not to stop there, but to re-release Fantasia to audiences on a regular basis with new pieces while keeping past pieces that had been popular or worked especially well. That aspect of the dream was not recognized until now. Fantasia 2000 contains new pieces, but keeps the centerpiece of the original Fantasia, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice starring Mickey Mouse in one of his most successful roles. In each of Fantasia 2000’s pieces a new bit of magic is presented ranging from flying whales, yo-yo playing flamingos, unhappy denizens of New York City, the power of nature, stalwart toy soldiers and Donald Duck as an animal tender on Noah’s Ark.
Fantasia 2000’s only flaw is that, unlike its predecessor, each piece is introduced by an actor and/or a musician acting as host. All of the performers acting as host are extremely talented individuals, but I found their introductions to be intrusive, especially those introductions by Steve Martin and Penn & Teller who basically performed their acts as part of their introductions. I have to admit though that I did get a laugh out of James Earl Jones’ introduction of his piece. Still, Fantasia 2000 would have been more entertaining, not less, had each piece been allowed to stand on its own merits, as was the case with Fantasia, instead of leading the audience in via a host. I should mention that if you are a Steve Martin fan you should keep your seat at the end of the film until all the credits have rolled past since, for good or ill, Mr. Martin is given the last word in the film.
As good as it is though I doubt that Fantasia 2000 will ever achieve the sort of fame that Fantasia managed. When Fantasia first came out sixty years ago Disney was pretty much it in terms of cutting edge animation. Now with others great animators, such as Don Bluth and DreamWorks, breaking new ground every day audiences are not exactly jaded, but have come to expect great work in animation. Still, Fantasia 2000 is very worth seeing and, speaking of as a fan of both classical music and animation, I strongly recommend it.
Average Grade: A
