Fantasia 2000 1999
I remember going to see a rerelease of Fantasia as an adult, really looking forward to seeing this movie I had been hearing great things about, and then being disappointed and a little bored. But it turns out that the success of the 1990 rerelease inspired Disney to create a sequel, which became Fantasia 2000 in 1999. I never saw that one and it got pretty mediocre reviews. But as I have grown older I have gotten more into Disney movie classics as well as classical music, plus just this week the Disney+ app was released, making (almost?) the entire Disney canon of animated feature films available, so I decided to watch Fantasia 2000. Once again, the audience for this movie is kind of limited. You pretty much have to love animation and/or classical music. They kept the running time fairly short maybe so people wouldn’t get bored, plus the different segments keep things from getting stale. I feel like there must be a way to provide a visual aspect to listening to good music that complements the music instead of pushing it to the background. Laser Floyd was an attempt at this, but it isn’t easy to get the right balance in terms of how abstract or how narrative it should be. Disney tends to go with more of a narrative which probably works better with most people, but there is certainly some stuff here that is simply artistic.
With lowered expectations and expanded horizons, I was happier with this sequel, though I did take a nap partway through. Made in 1999, at the end of the Disney Renaissance (maybe its lack of success causing an end to that era), I felt like maybe it should have had more cutting edge animation, but Disney was barely using computers at that point. Still, some of the animation is very good, while some of it is just okay. The music selection is good, with some things you have heard and some things you haven’t, but all of it perfectly matched with the animation. The animation tells some neat stories and is kind of like watching a collection of Pixar or Disney animated short features, so you expect to put up with some artistic indulgence, knowing not all of it will stick. I feel like it was totally worth watching, but I also wish there was more to it.
Written: 14 Nov 2019
Owned on: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital