I've never seen Fantasia (1940) but I'm well aware of the controversy surrounding the racist nature that was edited for the Disney+ release. I remember seeing a lot of ads for this when it came out back in 1999 but I never got around to watching until now. Fantasia 2000 is a beautiful musical spectacle filled with great tunes from famous composers and striking imagery.
A lot of famous faces appear as hosts so for that alone is worth a watch. We have Angela Lansbury who voiced Mrs. Potts in Beauty & The Beast. We have Steve Martin (The Pink Panther). We have James Earl Jones (Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi) and so many more.
Fantasia 2000 is like a bunch of short-films thrown into the mix. Mostly told through melodies and those colorful images Disney is known for.
My favorite segment is Firebird Suite-1919, a beautiful short about life, death, and rebirth told through the eyes of a nature spirit. The animation, the colors and the music are all spectacular and beautiful.
My second favorite is one based on a fairy tale named “A Steadfast Tin Soldier” by Hans Christian Andersen. A story about a wooden toy soldier with one leg who falls for a ballerina, all the while a jack-in-the-box villain with envious eyes does everything in its power to keep them apart so he can have the ballerina all to himself. This story is just so well told and resumed. Everything from the music, the images and the heartwarming love story just work. Something like the Thumbelina movie adaptation.
My third one is Pines of Rome and deals with a group of humpback whales flying around the arctic yet again filled with incredible visuals. I think this was around the time Disney was making its transition to computer generated animation that brought the eventual likes of films like Atlantis: The Lost Empire & Treasure Planet. You know? That mix of cgi and classic animation. I often wonder why they stopped making movies like this?
And last but not least, Pomp and Circumstance – Marches 1, 2, 3 and 4. This one tells the story of Noah and his arc with a side of Donald Duck mixed together. It's very cute & funny and in my opinion the most entertaining of the bunch.
The reason I don't mention the other segments is not because I think they are bad in any way. I don't think any of them are bad. I only mentioned the ones that stuck with me one way or another for whatever reason. They all have significant animation and the musical choices always work for them.
If you've not watched the original or this one but you consider yourself a Disney fan, then I recommend Fantasia 2000. Definitively left me curious to watch the original (unedited of course if I can find it somewhere). More than a movie, this is an sensorial experience. Pure eye candy for the heart and the soul.
Here's a trailer:
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