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Fantasia 2000

Fantasia 2000 is an animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. A sequel to 1940's Fantasia, the film is the thirty-eighth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon. It premiered in the United States on December 17, 1999, was released to IMAX theaters on January 1 2000, and was later released to standard theaters nationwide on June 16, 2000. As with its predecessor, the film visualizes classical music compositions with various forms of animation and live-action introductions.

Most music is performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with James Levine conducting all numbers except The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which is performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra. Levine also arranged most scores, except two pieces arranged by Peter Schickele, as noted below.

Program

The composers and their works, in the order in which they appear:

Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor-I. Allegro con brio – abstract patterns resembling butterflies and bats explore a world of light and darkness which are conquered by light at last.
Ottorino Respighi's Pines of Rome – this segment features a family of frolicking humpback whales that are able to fly due to a supernova. At one point, the whale calf is separated from his parents when he's trapped in an iceberg, later finding his way out. The final section, the Via Appia gives the impression of the larger pod of adults in migration.
George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue – an episode of 1930s-era New York City, depicting the day in the lives of several people within the Depression-era bustling metropolis, as scenes drawn in the style of Al Hirschfeld's famous cartoons of the era, including an animated cameo of Gershwin the composer himself at the piano. The little girl in the hotel is based on the Eloise character created by Kay Thompson and the red-haired man is based on John Culhane, the author for the "making of" books for both Fantasia and Fantasia 2000.
Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major-I. Allegro – based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Steadfast Tin Soldier. The setting is appropriate - the concerto was written as a gift by Shostakovich to his musically gifted young son, and the percussive rhythms also suit a story about a soldier. However, the ending is a happy one in contrast with that of the original story.
Camille Saint-Saëns's The Carnival of the Animals, Finale – A flock of flamingos try to force a slapstick member who enjoys playing with a yo-yo to engage in their "dull" routines, designed to delight children with the on-screen hysterics; music arranged by Peter Schickele. A number of real yo-yo tricks, including "Walk the Dog", "Rock the Cradle", and "UFO", are featured.
Paul Dukas's The Sorcerer's Apprentice – a segment from the original Fantasia featuring Mickey Mouse. However, the music was re-recorded by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by James Levine. As in the original, Mickey brings a broom to life with the magical hat left by his master to carry water to a cauldron, but is in danger when he can't stop the broom.
Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance - Marches 1, 2, 3 and 4 – based on the story of Noah's Ark, with Donald Duck as first mate to Noah. Donald musters the animals to the Ark, and misses, loses, and is reunited with Daisy Duck in the process; music arranged by Peter Schickele, including a wordless soprano solo by Kathleen Battle as part of the No. 1 March ('Land of Hope and Glory').
Igor Stravinsky's Firebird Suite - 1919 Version – the story of a spring Sprite and her companion Elk. After a long winter she restores the life to the forest but accidentally awakes the fiery spirit of destruction (the namesake Firebird of the piece) in a nearby volcano. 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 after some encouraging from the Elk. The story is considered an exercise in the theme of life-death-rebirth deities.

History

Origins

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, combined with the loss of the European market due to World War II, 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.

Composer André Previn reports in his book No Minor Chords that he was approached by Disney to work on as a sequel to Fantasia. He declined the project when he learned that the soundtrack was, at that point, conceived of as an orchestration of Beatles songs. Previn declined.

Development for Fantasia 2000 began in 1990, and production began the following year. The music selections were made as a collective decision by Roy E. Disney, James Levine, and members of the production staff. Most were decisions driven by the musical preferences of the team; Roy personally chose the Pines of Rome. Other pieces were discovered long after the story ideas were set, such as the Steadfast Tin Soldier, where the visuals were based on artwork done for the original Fantasia, but the Shostakovitch piece was presented to the team by an animator relatively late into the production schedule.

Rhapsody in Blue was a work already in progress by director Eric Goldberg (lead animator for the Genie in Aladdin, also inspired by Al Hirschfeld's art), when Disney approached him to complete the piece for the movie. This decision was ideal given the head start on the work and so that the film could include a work from an American composer. Taking on Rhapsody in Blue also allowed Disney to keep the animators assigned to their feature Kingdom of the Sun (later released as The Emperor's New Groove) busy while Kingdom went through an extensive rewrite. Some press articles written after the completion of Groove reversed the roles, saying that Goldberg first approached Disney for Rhapsody for Fantasia 2000 and was initially rejected, and later the producers came back to him as a result of the need find something to do with the animation staff while the Kingdom rewrite was going on.

One significant difference in the musical styles between the films is that in Fantasia 2000 the piano features prominently in more than half of the selections, while the original Fantasia did not have a piano in any segment.

Fantasia 2000 features many technical innovations that would later be utilized in the Disney studio's other animation works, particularly in the use of computers. Both Pines of Rome and The Steadfast Tin Soldier were primarily CGI pieces, completed before Pixar's landmark film Toy Story was released. The horns on the elk in The Firebird were CGI-rendered on top of hand-drawn animation (giving them a higher consistency, when compared to Bambi which was all drawn by hand), a technique that would be used in Treasure Planet for the character Silver.

The producers felt that some break between the musical segments was necessary to "cleanse the palate", so a series of "interstitials" were directed by Disney animation producer Don Hahn. Instead of using a single narrator as in Fantasia, the individual pieces are introduced by people from different areas of the art world. After the film opens with Beethoven's Fifth, Steve Martin discusses the history of Fantasia being a continuing concept and is immediately followed by Itzhak Perlman, who introduces Pines of Rome. Quincy Jones leads into the Gershwin number, and Bette Midler gives an introduction to the Shostakovich concerto, both featuring on screen the piano players for the respective pieces. James Earl Jones introduces Carnival of the Animals with director Eric Goldberg, and, appropriately enough, magicians Penn and Teller make an appearance before The Sorcerer's Apprentice. When this piece concludes with Mickey Mouse's conversation with conductor Leopold Stokowski from 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.

IMAX sound system

When the film was first released to IMAX cinemas in 2000, it featured a multiple-channel sound system that surrounded the audience. This sound system was put to comical effect in the narrative segment preceding Pomp and Circumstance, where Mickey Mouse went searching for Donald Duck. The soundtrack gave the illusion that Mickey Mouse was running about the theater, behind the audience's seating.

Home video

Fantasia 2000 was released on its own on VHS and DVD in 2000, together with the 60th Anniversary Edition of Fantasia. A DVD box set, The Fantasia Anthology, was also released, including the two films and a bonus disc with special features entitled Fantasia Legacy. These are currently unavailable, "locked" in the "Disney Vault".

Credits

Symphony No. 5

Designed and directed by Pixote Hunt
Story by Kevin Yasuda
Introduction by Deems Taylor (archived footage)
Performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Pines of Rome

Directed by Hendel Butoy
Story by James Fujii
Art Direction by William Perkins and Dean Gordon
Introduction by Steve Martin and Itzhak Perlman
Performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Rhapsody in Blue

Written and directed by Eric Goldberg
Art direction by Susan McKinsey Goldberg
Design consultant: Al Hirschfeld
Introduction by Quincy Jones
Performed by Philharmonia Orchestra
Featured pianist: Ralph Grierson

Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro, Opus 102

Directed by Hendel Butoy
Based upon "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" by Hans Christian Andersen
Story development by James Capobianco and Ron Meurin
Art direction by Michael Humphries
Introduction by Bette Midler
Performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Featured pianist: Yefim Bronfman

Carnival of the Animals

Written, directed, and animated by Eric Goldberg
Art direction by Susan McKinsey Goldberg
Introduction by James Earl Jones
Performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Originally from the 1940 Fantasia
Musical score: Paul Dukas — The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Directed by James Algar
Story development by Dick Huemer, Joe Grant, Perce Pearce, James Capobianco, and Carl Fallberg
Art direction: Tom Codrick, Charles Phillipi, and Zack Schwartz
Animation supervisors: Fred Moore and Vladimir Tytla
Animation: Les Clark, Riley Thompson, Marvin Woodward, Preston Blair, Edward Love, Ugo D'Orsi, George Rowley, and Cornett Wood
New introduction by Penn and Teller
Performed by an ensemble of Hollywood studio musicians , conducted by Leopold Stokowski

Pomp and Circumstance - Marches 1, 2, 3 and 4

Directed by Francis Glebas
Art direction by Daniel Cooper
Based upon "Noah's Ark" from the Book of Genesis
Story development by Robert Gibbs, Terry Naughton, Todd Kurosawa, Pat Ventura, Don Dougherty, and Stevie Wermers
Introduction by Leopold Stokowski (archive footage), Mickey Mouse (voice of Wayne Allwine), James Levine, Donald Duck (voice of Tony Anselmo), and Daisy Duck (voice of Russi Taylor)
Performed by Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Supervising animator: Mickey Mouse (from the Introduction) by Andreas Deja