Fantasia 2000 Review

Fantasia 2000 was a beautiful concept with an unfortunately vain and forgettable execution. I refuse to not acknowledge the artistic brilliance in a few of the animated segments and the choice of classical composition. But unlike it’s predecessor, the experience of watching it left me with a feeling of incompletion. A good portion of the film is filled with unnecessary fluff consisting of celebrity cameos and a literal “cut and paste” job from the previous motion picture. I imagine a room of corporate executives sitting in a sterilized room throwing large sums of money in a brown burlap bag and chucking it at the doorstep of their animation studios with a sign stapled to the side reading “Get to work!” Every time this film comes to mind.

Ok, I understand that this is not how this project was conceived. Walt Disney himself hoped to make the original Fantasia a constantly evolving project, reproducing it with new segments replacing the old ones. But he could never get the funding and

the idea was ultimately abandoned. Roy Disney, Walt’s nephew, reimagined that concept in the 1970’s, and in a nutshell, managed to finally get the project green lit in 1990. Before we begin, I’d like to address the source of the heat I emit in this tyrannical diatribe. You’d probably be right to say that I am judging this film a little too harshly. But that is because I am. Fantasia set the bar of expectation too high for this movie to strive for any less than pure perfection. The only way a sequel could ever stand up to Fantasia is if it were air tight, without giving into the use of any cheap tricks to win the audience over. But of course, they couldn’t leave enough alone.

Phew…Sorry. I needed to vent. Let me clear the air a bit with a compliment or two. Many of these

segments are beautiful. What sticks out for me is the segment of Rhapsody in Blue, the animators taking a great deal of inspiration from Al Hirschfeld and his work. The Firebird Suite is bold and iconic and creates a feeling of humble inadequacy when one is faced with the blunt force of a natural disaster. However the greatest segments are too few and far between for me to consider the film as a whole anywhere close to perfect. Fantasia had absolutely no down time, bringing to us one entertaining segment after another without the loss of momentum (if you could excuse the intermission). Fantasia 2000 manages to awkwardly stumble into place on the wrong foot right from the start. We begin with a fairly good sequence to Symphony No. 5 in C Minor (a Beethoven composition) followed by a long and mediocre one of flying humpback whales brought to “life” through the use of disappointingly dated computer animation. Though the composition of the music (Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi) was nice to listen to, it just couldn’t flavor the blandness of the sequence. A good portion of the sequences felt forgettable. I have little to say about them, because I just don’t care to watch flamingoes fight between themselves over a yo-yo.

Also (this really slowed the pacing for me) the re-use of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice was conspicuous and incredibly out of place. Comic magicians Penn and Teller introduce this sequence with great respect for the source material, and I do thank them for it. But I just can’t imagine who though it was a good idea to literally cut the scene from the original and paste it into the sequel. If I wanted

to watch the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, I would have stayed home, parked my ass on my couch and popped Fantasia into my DVD player. The worst part is the more I try to think about it, the more I get frustrated because I can’t understand who

thought this idea would work. Sure, the original concept was for the sequel to have three sequences from the first Fantasia, but the idea was clearly scrapped. This is a serious critique I have for this film. Let this also be an important lesson to all film makers who hope to make a franchise. In your sequel, unless you wish to make a flash back, it is probably a bad idea to take an entire sequence from your first movie and edit it in as a major part of your film. All this does is make me wish I were either watching the original or wanting to take a bathroom break, as I’ve already seen this sequence a thousand times over. Please show me something I haven’t seen before!

Finally, we come to my favorite topic of discussion as to why I can’t enjoy this movie the way I want to, Let’s talk cameos. Sometimes, it’s a lot of fun to be watching a film, really getting into it, then suddenly seeing a celebrity you may recognize from something else you enjoy. It makes you feel as though the movie is respected by the people you respect yourself, officially legitimizing the piece as credible. But when a film brings in a significant number of familiar faces, the movie no longer feels like its own entity, but a patchwork doll stitched together with occasional intervals of original substance. Sure, there are many exceptions to the rules (usually, the overuse of cameos can work for a parody or a satire, like Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog or The Blues Brothers…I’ve never seen the Oceans films, but I hear they are good too). But who can really focus on what is going on when the content of the film takes a short break to give us all a chance to bask in the glory of such celebrities as James Earl Jones, Steve Martin, Bette Middler and many others? Maybe you, but not me. Sure I like them, but the film should stand alone without the use of these individuals. Get to the cartoons already! By the way, I am not counting the segment with Mickey Mouse, because he is interacting with the conductor, the one celebrity who should remain consistent.

Let me wrap this up; I’m sure I have enough hate mail for this review as it is. This movie was not a bad one. It was a disappointing one. When someone says the word “Fantasia” (outside of the singer from American Idol) what is the first thing that pops in your head? Is it Mickey Mouse fighting a battalion of water bucket wielding broomsticks? Is it Chernabog raising the dead in a sleepy little town? Is it dancing mushrooms or ballet dancing ostriches? I’d imagine it is probably something along those lines. But why is it that nobody remembers Fantasia 2000? Sure, those of us around during its theatrical release remember all the commotion and hype the film had stirred up. We may remember something about Donald Duck and Noah’s Arc or a giant Firebird flying out of a volcano. But overall, the film was forgettable and felt more like a flash in the pan than a legitimate sequel to one of the greatest movies ever made. I can recall walking out of the theatre, thinking to myself that it wasted too much of my time in the beginning and ended way too soon, because the only iconic sequence was saved for the end. The next time anyone asks me to describe this film in a nutshell, I only have one word for them…forgettable.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

2 out of 5 stars.