The Long - Awaited Fulfilment of Walt Disney’s Dream
After the revolution that Snow White started, Walt Disney went about creating the most ambitious work of his whole career. 1940’s Fantasia fused animation with classical music to create one of the most daring, unique features cinema has ever known. Sadly, though, the whole experiment was a complete financial disaster. As I’ve previously said, Walt wanted Fantasia to only be shown using Fantasound, which required the installation of $85, 000 speakers to create surround sound, which they could only afford for 13 cinemas across the country. Audiences were gripped by WW2 panic so no one was in their right mind to watch an animated concert. So the film consequentially flopped, costing the studio a fortune and leaving Walt broken. At the time, Walt saw Fantasia as an always evolving project, with plans to re - release the film every few years featuring updated animated segments with those of the first one. When the film flopped, those plans were all shelved. And when Walt passed in 1966, many assumed that a Fantasia follow - up died with him. But thirty four years later, Walt’s nephew Roy finally brought his uncle’s dream back to life.
In the subsequent decades, Fantasia was re - released several times which finally saw it making money, especially after a surprisingly successful late 60s release that the psychadelic adults loved. Then in the 80s, animator and Old Man Wolfgang Reitherman and animator Mel Shaw started preliminary production on a pseudo - sequel called Musicana, which followed the same format as Fantasia, but was planned to feature a more eclectic mix of musical genres. But the project never really flourished and was eventually cancelled. Four years later, Roy floated the idea of a true Fantasia sequel to Eisner, who was curious about the idea, but thought the animation department needed to revitalize itself with more cmmerical projects first. Plus the petty toolkit Katzenberg had no interest in the project at all.
After the 1990 re - release of the original grossed a staggering $25 million in the US and the VHS release in ’91 sold over 9 million units (which meant roughly $9 million in sales), Roy saw his opportunity to pitch the sequel again. Now that he had the number, Eisner finally greenlit the project in 91 and put Roy on the exectutive producer job, since his passion for the sequel was surpassed by no one else at the studio. President Thomas Schumacher started looking for a conductor for the project and settled on Met Opera conductor James Levine, who leapt at the chance. In November ’92, Schumacher, Levine, producer Donald W. Ernst and supervising director Hendel Butoy met in Vienna to discuss the project and a potential playlist. for the film’s eight segments. Since the Petty Toolkit continued to express disdain towards the project, Roy answered directly to Eisner, which was almost unheard of at the time.
With the studio focusing on major future projects like Lion King, Pocahontas and Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Fantasia sequel sat in development for most of the 90s, even after the Petty Toolkit’s departure in ’94 and it wasn’t until mid ’97 that the project finally started up again under the working title Fantasia Continued, with Roy originally planning to include for new pieces mixed amongst three original segments, Sorcerer’s Apprentice, the Nutcracker Suite and the Dance of the Hours.
Eisner was skeptical about the Roy’s plan since so many households now had a permanent copy of the original film on VHS and who would be unlikely to pay for a sequel featuring so many sequences from the original. So, much to his chagrin, Roy dropped the Nutcracker and Dance of the Hours, but kept Sorcerer’s Apprentice as a tribute to his uncle and Mickey Mouse. And the segment soon went through a painstaking digital restoration to match the picture quality of the new pieces surrounding it. To recapture the excitement around the dawn of the new millenium, the film was retitled Fantasia 2000.
THE PLAYLIST
Roy decided to open this film with music that existed simply for it’s own sake, with French artist Pixote Hunt directing a segment of Ludwig van Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, depicting a battle of “good” multi - coloured shapes against “evil” darker tone formations. This one is a bit odd, but it’s Beethoven, who is my favourite composer in history, so it gets a pass.
Next is Ottorino Respighi’s Pines of Rome, with Butoy directing a story of a family of flying humpback whales journeying from their home in the water up to the clouds bfore ascending into outer space.
Third is a segment chosen by animator Eric Goldberg, and the only time in either Fantasia film that an American composer was featured. Rhapsody in Blue by the Gershwin Brothers. Set in Depression - era New York, the segment follows the lives of four people in Manhattan who are dissatisfied with their lives. Goldberg approached American caricaturist Al Hirschfield with the idea to craft a sequence with illustrations in Hirschfield’s style.
Fourth is a retelling of the Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen, set to Dimitri Shostakovich’s 2nd Piano Concerto. Walt had originally planned a package film full of Andersen’s tales with preliminary design work done back in ’38 by artist Bianca Majolie, the first female storyboard artist at the studio. Butoy ended up using her archived work as imspiration for this segment.
Fifth is Camile Saint - Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals, Finale. Originally set to star a clumsy ostrich playing with a yo-yo, but Goldberg didn’t want to rehash segments from the original film, so he went with a flock of flamingoes instead. Apparently this was inspired by Goldberg’s co - director on Pocahontas, Mike Gabriel, playing with a yo - yo during production breaks.
The sixth segment is the Sorcerer’s Apprentice covered in my Fantasia blog.
Seventh is Pomp and Circumstance by Edward Elgar, featuring a retelling of Noah’s Ark from the Biblical Genesis story featuring Donald and Daisy Duck. In the process of boarding the ark, Donald and Daisy are separated and each think the other is drowned, leading to a glorious reunion in the segment’s final moments. The animation was inspired by Circle of Life from the Lion King, and the animators closely studied the authentic animal creations from the 1994 film.
Finally is the Firebird Suite by Igor Stravinsky. Roy wanted a sequence that was as emotionally resonant as the Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria segment that closed ou the original film. After initially considering Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, he decided on the Firebird. Relating the story of an Ancient Greek sprite who accidentally awakens the Firebird spirit who brings fire and death to the land surrounding a volcano. After the Sprite’s rebirth, she restores life to the forest in a spectacular fashion. To further connect the original and the sequel together, intersticial palate - cleansers are used between segments. The bridges elisted a series of actors, comedians and musicans to intrduce each segment and proved brief context and information, including Bette Midler, James Earl Jones, Steve Martin, Angela Lansbury and Itzhak Pearlman in front of a greenscreen.
MY VERDICT
Roy’s effort to honour his uncle’s wish was commendable. Not every segment is cinematic gold, but the Pines of Rome, the Steadfast Tin Soldier, Pomp and Circumstance and the Firebird are all incredible. I only wish, as my mother does, that there was some more 20th century music for the dawn of the new millienium. Perhaps Philip Glass? Or Michael Nyman? Nonetheless, as it is, a financial disaster and “Roy Disney’s folly” it may have been, but it captured the spirit of the original work and presented another spectacular blend of classical music and animation. It followed the formula of it’s predecessor a little too closely, bu therein lies part of its quality.
Is Fantasia 2000 a Disney Classic? Few would name it so, but I would.
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