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“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 is all.” – Walt Disney
Fantasia was intended as something of a repertory picture, a film that would be revived randomly with new segments phasing out older ones, and expanding beyond classical music into bits of jazz, world music, anything instrumental in nature. The goal was create an experience in which the film was never the same twice. But Fantasia’s commercial failure and tepid critical response shelved these plans indefinitely. Yet the dream for a Fantasia franchise never died, and the spark was reignited during the Renaissance years.
The 1991 theatrical reissue was a major hit, and the home video sales were gigantic enough to merit a look into a sequel. So Fantasia 2000 was born. Made piecemeal in-between projects during the Renaissance, it kicked off the new year, and a new era in Disney’s oeuvre. The film isn’t bad, but it is generally disappointing in comparison. The original Fantasia was slightly pretentious, and it carried a general air of creative invention. One watches the film and can feel the animators practically squealing with glee at the new effects, concepts, and modes they’re allowed to get away with. Creativity bursts through every frame.
Fantasia 2000 is not as daring or ambitious. It appeals too broadly, with too many needless celebrity cameos to introduce the segments and a general sense of being just good enough. Only two segments announce themselves as worthy heirs to the original, several of them are very good, and the other two are “Pomp and Circumstance” and “The Carnival of the Animals.” If I never have to sit through “Pomp and Circumstance,” here given the imagery of Donald Duck playing Noah’s Ark for some odd reason, I will die a happy man. Many of the musical choices here are safer, and the images play closer to the intended interpretations of the work rather than the playful hard left turns the original made with compositions attached to narratives.
“Rhapsody in Blue” is a safe, obvious choice for a musical number in this, but it works beautifully. Marrying the music to Al Hirschfield inspired Manhattanites, primarily in various cool colors, is a smart choice. This combination is pleasing, even clever in how it details various lives intersecting and interacting across the city, and Hirschfield’s style adapts itself incredibly well to animation. It’s one of the two great segments.
The other is the grand finale, “Firebird Suite” which has a wood sprite awakening, playfully interacting with an elk, then combating a demonic firebird, which scorches the earth and appears to kill the sprite. Of course, nature is eternal, and the eventual rebirth is a thing of beauty. The firebird is a wondrous vision of hell fire and malevolence unleashing upon the earth. It’s epic, grand, mythic in proportions and scope, beautifully animated, and a solid use of the score. It’s the best part of Fantasia 2000, and they were wise to save it for the very end.
“Pines of Rome” about flying humpback whales, “Symphony No. 5” which opens the film with flying abstracts of darkness and light, and “Piano Concerto No. 2” doing a riff on The Steadfast Tin Soldier are all solid if unremarkable. “Piano Concerto No. 2” comes closest to greatness, but misses it by sacrificing the melancholy and heartbreak of Hans Christian Andersen’s story in favor of a happy ending, which is something of a running commentary on their Andersen adaptations that aren’t The Little Matchgirl.
Yet the biggest problem I had with Fantasia 2000 was the heavy reliance on the celebrities to add commentary between segments. The original had radio host Deems Taylor provide sharp, witty commentary, but he never approached the eye rolling that Penn & Teller do here. It feels like Disney thought the audience would need a lowbrow laugh to deal with the slightly pretentious enterprise. I don’t disagree with the choice to have a host, and several choices in this film would have made fine ones – James Earl Jones, Angela Lansbury, Quincy Jones, Itzhak Perlman, all solid choices. Only Steve Martin and Bette Midler feel a little belabored, with Midler cracking jokes about failed segments, and Martin tasked with doing his usual routine (which I normally love), but this isn’t the right context for it.
Fantasia 2000 is solidly entertaining, but a weak sequel to the original. The difference is like watching a great orchestra versus watching a pops concert. They’re both perfectly fine at what they do, but one of them is more consistent and stronger. Fantasia 2000 has some moments of true beauty, some pedestrian choices, and is generally a solid entry. In the context of the Post-Renaissance though, it’s a minor classic.
