Fantasia 2000

Another old review from the dawn of time, brought up to date! “Saw ‘Fantasia 2000’ at the iMax – it was excellent! absolutely brilliant. No John Cleese, which was a bugger, but the feature itself was outstanding.
“Beethoven’s 5th, Stravinsky’s ‘The Firebird’ (my fave!), The Sourceror’s apprentice, dancing Flamingoes, Noah’s ark with a cool Donald Duck sequence, amazing whales and toys, and clever Rhapsody in Blue animation! Excellent.
“One to commit to memory. Unforgettable. Loved it!”
– February 14, 2000.

That was what I wrote almost eleven years ago, spelling mistakes and all. This was the second time I had been to the IMAX, this time as a school trip with the music class – the John Cleese reference is because the first time, there had been an entertaining introductory film explicating the screen technology before the feature begun.

Fantasia 2000 essentially continues from 1940’s Fantasia, but bigger, smoother, slicker but rather less charming and ingenious – and with notably fewer racial caricatures that need to be censored in later releases. Again, musical segments by great composers like Elgar and Beethoven and Shostakovich are set to advanced animation, with some celebrities of dubious lasting power introducing them. There isn’t much to say about stories or characters, but as with music videos, there are some snatches of characterisation and interaction that can be quite touching. But primarily Fantasia 2000 overwhelms the senses with incredible sights. Not all of it is superb, but there are some moments where an image and a swell of the music – when ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ kicks in, for example – really are quite affecting, with an immediacy that really does come from the simplicity of matching images to words.

Fantasia films can’t really compare with narrative features, but they certainly have a lot of charm and visual clout.