Fantasia 2000
| Fantasia 2000 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | James Algar, Gaëtan Brizzi |
| Written by | Oliver Thomas, Joe Ranft |
| Produced by | Roy Edward Disney, Donald W. Ernst |
| Starring | Leopold Stokowski, Steve Martin, Wayne Allwine |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures |
Running time | 75 min |
| Budget | $80,000,000 (estimated) |
Fantasia 2000 is an animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, which premiered on December 17, 1999, and was released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution; first to IMAX theaters on December 31 1999, and later to regular theatres in June 2000. The film uses a similar format to Walt Disney's 1940 film Fantasia, visualizing classical music compositions with various forms of animation. The music is performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by James Levine.
The composers and their works, in the order they are used in the film, are:
- Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No. 5
- Ottorino Respighi - Pines of Rome (frolicking humpback whales)
- George Gershwin - Rhapsody in Blue (an episode of New York City 1930s-era scenes drawn in the style of Al Hirschfeld)
- Dmitri Shostakovich - Piano Concerto No. 2: Allegro (a portrayal of the Hans Christian Andersen tale The Steadfast Tin Soldier)
- Camille Saint-Saëns - The Carnival of the Animals: Finale (a flock of flamingos, one with a yo-yo)
- Paul Dukas - The Sorcerer's Apprentice
- Edward Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance Marches (The story of Noah's Ark, with Donald Duck as a first mate to Noah)
- Igor Stravinsky - The Firebird. The story of a spring sprite and her companion Elk. After a long winter she attempts to restore life to a forest but accidentally awakes the Firebird spirit of a nearby volcano. Angered the Firebird proceeds in destroying the forest and seemingly the sprite. She is restored to life however after the destruction and the forest life is reborn with her. The story is considered an exercise at the theme of Life-death-rebirth deities.
The plan for the original Fantasia movie was for it to be a kind of permanently running show, periodically adding new episodes while others would be rotated out. However, the film's failure to achieve success at the box office meant that the plan went unused. Accordingly, Fantasia 2000 implemented this idea by retaining the sequence with Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice, arguably the most popular segment from the original film.
Instead of using a single narrator as in Fantasia, the individual pieces are introduced by a series of celebrities. After the film opens with Beethoven's Fifth, Steve Martin and Itzhak Perlman introduce Pines of Rome. Quincy Jones leads into the Gershwin number, and Bette Midler gives an introduction to the Shostakovich concerto. James Earl Jones introduces Carnival of the Animals, and appropriately enough, Penn and Teller make an appearance before The Sorcerer's Apprentice. When this piece concludes with Mickey Mouse's conversation with conductor Leopold Stokowski of the original Fantasia, Mickey then moves on to chat with Levine before the latter introduces Pomp and Circumstance. The final sequence of The Firebird is introduced by Angela Lansbury.