Disney's Fantasia movies!

I've just spent a VERY merry afternoon watching both 'Fantasia' and 'Fantasia 2000', both of which I think are utterly fantastic. My favourite piece from the original movie has always been 'Night on Bald Mountain' (although I still TOTALLY zone out when the 'Ave Maria' comes in XD), but I think... I think I love the 'Carnival of the Animals: Finale' piece from 'Fantasia 2000' just that bit more. It's not that I don't love creepy music and scary ghouls, but I just can't get enough of that flamingo with the yo-yo.

Although it turns out, among my peer group, I'm apparently the only one who's ever seen 'Fantasia 2000'. o_O Please tell me someone else here has seen it!

What are your favourite bits of the movies? Ahhh, they're just both so good! But if I have to sit through 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' once more today, I'm going to get cross. XD

---

The Hirshfield-style Rhapsody in Blue is the only sequence I like in Fantasia 2000.

I love them both too! I also love the Little Match Girl segment that was unfortunately cut from the 2000 film (probably because it's so depressing---they actually kept the Hans Christian Andersen story as written). It's a short extra on the Little Mermaid DVD and was nominated for an Oscar.

I think the 2000 film was under-appreciated, but I also think they blew it with those semi-cheesy celebrity introductions. They make me wince every time I see them, and almost ruin the film entirely with such a pedestrian setup. What were they thinking? It looks like a Disney Channel cable special rather than an "event" film. NO class there at all. But the animated segments themselves are pretty great.

---

I much prefer the original to that unfortunate 2000 thing, which really left me very cold indeed, especially that Firebird thing. There's just nothing, and I mean NOTHING in that FANTASIA 2000 to compare with anything at all in the original.

---

The original exists on a plane by itself, for me.

I enjoyed the 2000 followup, but didn't respond viscerally to it.

Except for the whales taking to the skies, which literally gave me chills - especially in an IMAX format. And I really did appreaciate the artistry in much of what was presented - it just seemed to have the remoteness of people seeing what they could produce through technology.

I never felt that in the original. I felt like I was watching artists reinterpreting another medium.

i'm ashamed to say i only saw the original as a child. i was probably 10 years old and i remember being tortured by how boring i thought it was. i'm sure that had to do with the fact that i was just a little kid and i'm sure i would appreciate them now. i'll have to rent them.

The Little Match Girl is one of the best things Disney's done in years. It's very hard for me to watch it, though.

It's as horrifying and sad as it is beautiful.

---

I do too. I don't think Fantasia 2000 is nearly as bad as some. But I do have to fast-forward past those horrible intros.


EDIT: And I don't understand the "contest." Why do people have to declare a winner between the 1940 and the 2000 releases and then walk away?

"1940 wins, and everything else sucks!"

The 1940 release is superior, sure, but the 2000 movie was very good (generally). Lots of imagination. I prefer it to most of the "objects with big eyes" animated movies being released today. Cars, Toasters, Trains, etc.

---

Updated On: 10/6/08 at 11:07 AM

I loved Fantasia 2000. I think the only sequence I didn't enjoy as much as the others was the Little Tin Soldier, whereas in the original Fantasia, I didn't care for Toccata and Fugue, the dinosaurs or the Greek mythical creatures.

I do wish they would release another using some of the abandoned projects such as The Planets, Petrouchka, Ride of the Valyries, Danse Macabre, The Love for Three Oranges, Roman Carnival Overture and La Mer.

---

Likewise that ghastly final shot of the sunrise in Ave Maria, a real letdown after what has come before.

I'm so glad I wasn't the only one who thought so. I always found that finale to be such a bore and underwhelming. And Dance of the Hours is one of Disney's finest creations, in my opinion. I always felt Fantasia was half of a great film.

---