Even though the movie Fantasia is considered by many fans to be a masterpiece of Disney animation, it unfortunately didn't make the money it needed at the time when it was released. Originally, the kind of entertainment Fantasia introduced was supposed to be a common thing Disney would do to put animation to music in many experimental storytelling ways. However, because the original movie bombed financially, this form of entertainment has ever since not been attempted by Disney for many decades. That was until in 1999, Disney released a long overdue followup titled Fantasia 2000.
Like before, there are several stories that are told and each of them are played by matching original and familiar pieces of music. The first story titled “Symphony No.5” is about abstract looking butterflies that try to avoid their dark threatening counterparts. The second story titled “Pine of Rome” is about a baby whale and his first experience swimming in the sky with other whales. The third story titled “Rhapsody in Blue'', takes place in the big apple where we focus on a couple citizens who all have a similar want of being more than what they are allowed to be. The fourth story titled “Piano Concerto No. 2” is about a little tin man soldier with a missing leg who falls in love with a ballerina figure who is soon captured by an evil jack in the box.
The fifth story titled “The Carnival of the Animals", Finale” tells the funny little tale about a flamingo and his love for using a yoyo despite what the other flamingos think of him. The Sixth story is a replay of the Sorcerer's Apprentice in all its painted glory. The Seventh story titled “Pomp and Circumstance” stars Donald Duck as he runs Noah's Ark but thinks he’s left his true love Daisy behind. The Eighth and final story is called “The Firebird”, which tells the story of a sprite who loves giving life to the earth but finds an evil darkness lurking in a volcano which tries to consume her both physically and emotionally.
There are many pros and cons to the stories in this movie when compared to its predecessor. Stories like “Rhapsody in Blue”, Pines of Rome and The Firebird are all masterful pieces of work and help evolve Fantasia into a modern day entertainment world. Other stories however like Pomp and Circumstance and Piano Concerto No. 2 I found rather weak in storytelling and overall wonder. That's not to say their bad shorts by any means necessary. I truly do appreciate the time and effort that went into making these segments especially the ones that are really strong. With the original Fantasia though, there was a consistent build up with their shorts and each one would arguably be considered better than the last.
Still, that information is in no way harsher than what I have to say about the celebrity cameos. I get that Disney wanted some star power kinda like a typical award show would do, but the reason the original Fantasia worked was that it wasn’t about seeing celebrities being all goofy and praising everything to the point that we get it. The original Fantasia treated the audience with respect and was strict on being a place for art house quality like films to be played against music. just seeing these random celebrities acting over the top and goofy just takes out the level of seriousness the original established. Now that’s not to say all celebrities were this way because I will admit that I did enjoy James Earl Jones making an appearance and to be fair, they do give insightful information on the background of the film’s stories and even scraped stories that never made into the final picture when they are not acting silly.
The Animation has surely evolved since the last movie and Fantasia 2000 definitely brings their A game when it comes to the visual style. I especially love the very simple but also unique visual style used in Rhapsody in Blue and how it combines the traditional Disney animation with the style of caricature artist Al Hirschfield. That makes the story as well as the designs a lot more memorable. The combination of CGI and hand drawn animation in the “Pine of Rome” is beautiful even if some of the CGI looks a little off sometimes. Let's also not forget the ah inspiring beauty that is The Firebird, bringing out some of the most magical Hand Drawn animation the company has done in decades. All these pieces of animation are accompanied by their matching music performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and conducted by James Levine.
Fantasia 2000 is a worthy follow up that despite having moments of unnecessary padding with celebrity cameos and some weak stories, still manages to delight the young and old and evolve the techniques of the original Fantasia to a modern day audience. I say it still is worth seeing even though it's not quite as masterful as the original. It makes me hope that in the future, Disney will bring back this form of entertainment more often because Walt Disney was surely onto something that is simple and yet very effective.
(Final Grade B+)