Fantasia 2000 was the beginning of Disney’s Post-Renaissance Era. Many of the films produced during this time caused Disney to lose their momentum of creating hit after hit, almost like a second Dark Age. But I have a hard time categorizing Fantasia 2000 in either era because it is just such a unique film. This film was a passion project of Roy E. Disney’s. He wanted to continue what his uncle had started in the hopes that Fantasia would be a forever changing work of art. Though the film itself took ten years in actual production, it really was 60 years in the making.
Premiered on: December 17, 1999 at Carnegie Hall in New York City
Directed by:
Don Hahn (Live Action Sequences)
Pixote Hunt (“Symphony No. 5”)
Hendel Butoy (“Pines of Rome” and “Piano Concerto No. 2”)
Eric Goldberg (“Rhapsody in Blue” and “The Carnival of the Animals”)
James Algar (“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”)
Francis Glebas (“Pomp and Circumstance”)
Gaëtan Brizzi (“The Firebird Suite”)
Paul Brizzi (“The Firebird Suite”)
Produced by:
Roy E. Disney
Donald W. Ernst
Sequels: none
Narrators:
Steve Martin
Itzhak Perlman
Quincy Jones
Bette Midler
James Earl Jones
Penn and Teller
James Levine
Angela Lansbury
Conducted by: James Levine with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Academy Awards: none
The Story:
Fantasia 2000 begins with the opening narration from Fantasia of Deems Taylor talking about the different types of musical programs. Scenes from Fantasia fly by as if through space and they turn into a large screen behind the orchestra warming up. The narration explains that the first program has a definite story from the start. The second has no specific plot but goes on to paint a definite picture and the process of animation is shown. The third program is absolute music that “exists for its own sake” and close ups of instruments are shown.
Conductor James Levine takes his stand and the title card is shown.
“Symphony No. 5” by Ludwig van Beethoven
Abstract colours splash through a sky and a bright beam of light comes down on a mountain of paper butterflies. The paper butterflies are all different colours. They start flittering around and a large butterfly shows a smaller one how to fly. They dip into the water below and splash each other. Soon they join the other paper butterflies. A darkness comes and suddenly there are explosions of dark paper butterflies. The dark butterflies chase the colourful ones. The large and smaller butterflies try very hard to escape and the large one’s wings are ripped by the dark butterflies. The rest of the colourful butterflies form walls to protect the smaller one. The light keeps the darkness away as the colourful butterflies fly up through the clouds.
Steve Martin is on stage. He jokes that the musicians are playing for the first time thanks to his two week home study course. He then welcomes everyone and says that it has been more than 60 years since Fantasia, which was meant to be a work in progress. Every time people went to see it, there would be a mix of old and new pieces, but that project fell by the wayside until now. He then introduces violinist Itzhak Perlman. Steve Martin sarcastically says “big deal, I also play the violin.” He is handed one as the camera pans away and he plays the violin quite badly. He asks for the camera to be back on him and then drops the “stick thingy.”
Itzhak Perlman introduces “Pines of Rome” and says that one might think of tree-lined streets and romantic ruins but the Disney animators thought of something different when they heard the piece. He introduces the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and James Levine.
“Pines of Rome” by Ottorino Respighi
The sun shines brightly down onto the Arctic Ocean. There are birds flying around tall icebergs and the Northern Lights appear. A family of whales jump out of the water and splash back down. The parents are teaching their calf how to jump and he plays with his parents. Then the whales slowly rise out of the water and soar through the air. The calf tries to keep up but struggles at first. Soon he catches up and flies with the birds. He sprays water at them out his blowhole and scares the birds. The birds then gang up on him and chase the calf. The calf flies back to his parents and they protect him from the birds. The baby flies into a wall of ice and the ice comes crashing down onto him. The parents are very sad and comfort each other but then they see that the baby is alive, though trapped inside an ice cavern.
The baby sees some light and follows it. He finds his mother on the other side of a wall of ice and he follows her to an opening in the ceiling of the ice. He is lift up by a spiral of air and floats through the opening. They family has a happy reunion and they dive back into the water. The family joins other whales and they all rise out of the water and soar. They fly over land and leap through the clouds. The calf grabs his parents’ fins and they lead the way. There is a lightning storm and they break through a surface again and are in space.
The scene focuses on the piano player in the orchestra. Quincy Jones explains that the next segment will take the audience to the streets of New York City with a piece inspired by two of his favourite artists, Al Hirschfeld and George Gershwin. The music starts with a single note on a clarinet and the animation starts with a single line on a piece of paper.
“Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin
A line draws the New York City skyline and the buildings are coloured in with soft pastel. The scene zooms into an apartment that is covered in jazz posters. A man is sleeping in his bed and holding a pair of drumsticks. He wakes up and looks at the clock to realize that he is late. He races to get ready. Down on the street, a milkman delivers some bottles of milk and a cat spills one of them. The cat happily drinks up the milk as the jazz man races by and knocks the cat into the bottle. He races by his neighbour, who is about to eat a donut, and the donut ends up around his neck. He eats it and then jumps onto a newspaper delivery truck as a newspaper flies off. It reads “Jobs Scarce.”
A tired looking man is in a nearby café, drinking a cup of coffee. Out the window behind him are crowds of people racing back and forth to the subway on the way to their jobs. He asks for more coffee and then gets up to leave. He discovers that he has no money to pay for the coffee but then a man beside him puts on his coat and a coin falls out of the pocket. The jobless man tries to tell the other man about the lost coin but decides not to and uses the coin to pay for the coffee. He walks outside and the jazz man rides by on the newspaper truck and gets off at a construction site where he works.
Across the street is a fancy building. The doorman keeps getting trampled by busy people. Out come a family and the father is in a hurry to get going. The mother is saying goodbye to their daughter and an impatient nanny is waiting nearby. The parents go one way and the child and nanny go the other way. Next out the door is a snooty lady with her dog and husband in tow. The husband plays a round of hopscotch that is on the ground and the wife glares at him for having some fun.
Down in the subway, the parents are riding to work. They get off at Grand Central Station and take elevators up to the offices. Back at the construction site, the jazz man is having lunch. He uses a big smashing hammer to crush some walnut shells before eating them. The jobless guy sees an apple on the ground that has fallen off a fruit stand. He doesn’t know whether to put it back or eat it because he is so hungry. He tries to put it back on the stand but then a policeman comes and yells at him for stealing. The jobless man runs away and the policeman eats the apple instead of putting it back.
The nanny is dragging the girl to ballet classes (where she is terrible at ballet), then to singing lessons (where she is a terrible singer), then to swimming lessons (where she is scared of the water), then to a painting class (where she splashes the teacher with paint), then to gymnastic lessons (where she is terrible at it), then to tennis lessons (where she is scared of the ball), and then finally to piano lessons (where she falls off the chair). Upstairs is a man playing the piano beautifully.
An organ grinder monkey is eating peanuts and the snooty wife and her husband walk by. The husband starts to play with the monkey but the wife grabs him and they continue walking. They arrive at Pampered Pooch. The husband goofs around by balancing a dog bone on his nose while the wife pampers the dog. She then tosses her husband dozens of boxes and bags of stuff to carry for the dog. The husband looks sadly out the window. The jobless man looks sadly from the top of a building. The jazz man looks sadly down from the top of the building he is working on. The girl looks sadly out of a window from her violin lessons.
Down below is a skating rink and the girl imagines skating there with her parents. The jobless man imagines skating off to a job and punching in. He carves a dollar sign in the ice. The jazz man imagines skating in the spotlight while playing the drums. The husband imagines skating away and then flying free as a bird. But then he is given the bill and very annoyed at the amount.
The jazz man then starts playing a beat on the building frame with his tools. He then holds up a tool in one hand and his drum sticks in the other to decide which is more important to him. He sighs at the hard decision but then throws the tool down. It lands right into the jobless man’s hands. The construction foreman the grabs him and clocks him in for the nightshift. The jobless man is very excited to have a job. The jazz man tries to grab a taxi away from the construction site but can’t catch one.
The girl is watching from above and the nanny is forcing a coat on her. It is a struggle and the girl’s ball is knocked out the window and down into the street. The girl runs down the stairs to get it. A scooter bumps into the jazz man and he grabs it. The ball bounces off of him and hits the windows of the father and mother’s offices. This gets their attention just in time to see their daughter run into the street to get the ball. They reach her just in time and lift her up in the street. The nanny faints.
The jobless man is loving his job. The husband is carrying all of the dog purchases home and walks by the construction site. A crane accidently lifts his wife up and away and the husband looks around for her. He can’t find her but sees a sign for “Talent Night at Harlem Jazz.” The jazz man arrives there as well and he performs. The husband is having a great time there. The jobless man has a job and the girl is with her parents. The segment ends on a lit up New York City.
Bette Midler says that over the years, Disney artists have thought up dozens of ideas for new Fantasia segments but most of them haven’t made it. Many of the different concepts are shown such as a bug ballet and a baby ballet. They were finally successful with Hans Christian Andersen’s The Steadfast Tin Soldier.
“Piano Concerto No. 2, Allegro, Opus 102” by Dmitri Shostakovich
It is raining outside of a boy’s bedroom. The boy is setting out a box of tin soldiers. It is the nighttime and at the stroke of midnight, a toy ballerina comes to life. A jack-in-the-box comes to life as well and gives the ballerina an evil grin. He grabs her hand and tries to give her a kiss but she dances away. The toy soldiers hop out of their box one by one. The last one has trouble getting up because he only has one leg. They all march near the jack-in-the-box, who hides in his box. The last solider accidently bumps into the others and knocks them over. They get up and march away from him. He looks so sad but then looks over at the ballerina. From the way she is standing, it looks like she has only one leg as well and he is so happy to find someone like him. The soldier goes over and offers her a flower. The jack-in-the-box glares at him from his box. The ballerina slowly puts her leg down and the soldier is very sad that she isn’t like him. But she smiles and still accepts his flower and dances for him. The jack-in-the-box slowly moves towards them. The ballerina and soldier tease each other back and forth but then the jack-in-the-box pops out at them and grabs the soldier!
The ballerina throws a marble at the jack-in-the-box and he lets go of the soldier. The jack-in-the-box then traps the ballerina under a glass as the soldier tries to get away. He climbs up on a pile of blocks and fights the jack-in-the-box. A block falls into the fireplace below. The soldier is knocked up against a window and it opens; the jack-in-the-box throws blocks at him to try and knock him out but the soldier throws them back. The jack-in-the-box’s wig falls off and the ballerina laughs at him. The jack-in-the-box then throws a wooden boat and that does push the soldier out the window. He falls down into the storm drain and rides on the boat. He passes cockroaches in the sewer and he thinks he sees the shadow of the ballerina but it turns out to be a stick. There are rats nearby that try to snatch him. The soldier goes flying off the boat and down a pipe into the sea. He sinks to the bottom but then is eaten by a fish.
The jack-in-the-box straightens his wig back on and lets the ballerina out of the glass. He gives her a whole bush of flowers but she pushes him away.
Fishermen catch some fish in the sea and box them up. One is transported in a cart and the fish is sold to a lady, who cuts open the fish and the toy soldier falls out of the fish. The boy picks it up and hugs the toy. He puts it back in the box with the others. At nighttime, the toys come alive again. The jack-in-the-box makes the ballerina dance with him and the soldier marches over. He saves the ballerina and fights with the jack-in-the-box. The soldier leads him to the edge of the table and the jack-in-the-box falls into the fire below. The soldier goes to the ballerina.
Back at the orchestra, a hippo from “Dance of the Hours” is on a drawing board in the concert hall. James Earl Jones says that drawing boards are the birthplaces of many beloved characters. The animators chose “The Carnival of the Animals” to answer the age old question “What is man’s relationship to nature?” Eric Goldberg is sitting at the drawing board and then taps him on the shoulder to give him a piece of paper. James Earl Jones reads the new question “What would happen if you gave a yo-yo to a flock of flamingos?”
“The Carnival of the Animals (Le Carnival des Animaux), Finale” by Camille Saint-Saëns
A flock of flamingos are waking up in the morning as the sun is shining down on them. They start dancing and running around in unison. The last flamingo wakes up and has a yo-yo. He starts to play with it. The other flamingos come over and glare at him. He almost hits the other flamingos with his swinging yo-yo tricks. The flamingos boot him into line to continue their dance. The flamingo joins reluctantly but still plays with the yo-yo. The others notice and they get all tangled up in the string. He escapes with the yo-yo and the others are looking for him. They sneak up and grab the flamingo, peck him down into the water, and throw the yo-yo up into a tree. But then the flamingo appears again with many yo-yos and is very happy.
Penn and Teller are on stage to talk about magic. Penn says to imagine shelling out $50 for a magician for your daughter’s birthday party and he pulls a rabbit out of a flea market hat. You wonder how he did that and then dismiss it as a trick. Penn says that you would be right because it is a stage magic and is all a hoax. Penn then talks about real magic and a guy that is the real deal. This guy is featured in the next segment which is from the original Fantasia. He then says that this guy is a little guy who never speaks and messes everything up. Teller feels that description fits too close to home and cuts off Penn’s hair and turns it into a rabbit.
“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” by Paul Dukas
The sorcerer is practicing magic while his apprentice is bringing down buckets of water to fill a cauldron. The sorcerer gets tired and leaves, after putting his hat down on the table. The apprentice puts on the magical hat and brings the broom to life. He also gave the broom arms to carry the buckets and skipped off to show the broom where to get the water. The apprentice then relaxes in a chair while the broom continues to bring buckets of water, and eventually he falls asleep. The apprentice dreams that he is up high on a cliff and is controlling all that is around him. He can make the stars twinkle, water turn into giant waves, clouds to blow in every direction, and all of this causes a big storm.
The apprentice suddenly wakes up to a flooded room! The broom will not stop filling up the cauldron so the apprentice chops the broom up into tiny pieces. However, each piece then grows into a separate broom, complete with arms and two buckets for water. The dozens of brooms then continue their task of bringing water and the apprentice tries desperately to bail out the water. He ends up getting swept away in a whirlpool and is floating helplessly on the sorcerer’s spell book.
The sorcerer then appears and commands all the water to disappear. The apprentice sheepishly gives up the magical hat and continues his task.
After the music ends, Mickey Mouse runs up to Leopold Stokowski and congratulates him. In return, Mr. Stokowski congratulates the famous mouse. Mickey then runs over to James Levine and says that everyone is in place for the next segment. Except that they can’t find Donald Duck so James Levine should stay there and stall for time and Mickey will be right back.
James Levine shakes his head as he hears Mickey yelling for Donald. He then says that when people hear “Pomp and Circumstance,” they might think of a graduation ceremony. He continues to say that it was actual composed for much more solemn events. Mickey is still in the background yelling for Donald. James Levine continues to say that the song inspired Disney artists to visit the story of Noah’s Ark but with a twist. Mickey the walks in on Daisy in her changing room and she screams. Up above the conductor in a shadow, Mickey finds Donald in the shower and tells the duck to hurry up because he is on in 30 seconds. Donald is not impressed! Mickey then tells the conductor that Donald is on his way so they can get on with the introduction. James Levine sighs and introduces “Pomp and Circumstance” starring Donald Duck.
“Pomp and Circumstance – Marches 1, 2, 3 and 4” by Edward Elgar
A trumpet sounds and animals all around look up and start to wander towards the sound in pairs. They walk up to the ark. Noah is blowing the trumpet from the top of the ark and then he looks down at all of the animals. He shrugs and takes a closer look at his scroll which shows that a flood will happen and all of the animals need to be on the ark. Noah then leaves the ark and walks up to a tropical hut. Donald Duck is lying naked in his hammock, sipping a drink. He is so surprised when Noah finds him that he falls out of the hammock. Daisy comes out of the hut and gives him a tunic. Noah then shows Donald the scroll which shows that it is about to rain. Donald points at the bright sun and blue sky and laughs and laughs. Suddenly it starts to pour rain. Daisy waves goodbye under her umbrella and Donald angrily grabs the scroll and stomps over to the ark. He trips over a pair of turtles and falls into a puddle. Daisy gives Donald a cloth to dry up and she drops her locket in the process. Donald gives it back to her and she kisses him.
Donald continues on his way and tries to get the animals onto the ark. He points at the picture on the scroll of the animals walking onto the ark and all of the animals shake their heads no. Donald gets angry and points again at the ark. The animals again shake their heads. Suddenly lightning strikes and the animals run towards the ark. They then line up in pairs up the ramp and Donald directs them. He takes a double look at the ducks that walk by. There is a group of creatures such as unicorns and dragons that laugh at everyone else and they stay behind. Donald gets the hippos moving by poking them with a porcupine but then a rhino butts Donald in return. Daisy saves the mice from getting trampled by an elephant.
Inside the ark, Donald is checking off the animal pairs on a scroll as they come inside. He gets to the picture of himself and Daisy and checks himself off but can’t find Daisy. He goes outside to try and find her and he runs right past the elephants and doesn’t see Daisy on the other side of them. He reaches their hut, right as a wave comes crashing down and destroys it. Daisy is on the ark and sees Donald running towards the hut but she doesn’t see him make it back to the ark. They are then on separate floors, each thinking the other perished in the wave. The storm fully hits and the ark rocks back and forth.
The ark then settles and the sea is calm. The animals go outside on the deck to take a look at the flood. Donald tries to send out a dove, who doesn’t want to leave his mate, so Donald tosses it off the ship. The dove’s mate cries and Donald feels bad. He pulls out a picture of him and Daisy. He sees the other animals all in their pairs and goes back inside. Daisy is also sad and looking at the pairs. She takes out her locket and looks inside at a picture of her and Donald. The dove flies back with an olive branch and his mate is very happy. The flood then goes down and the ark falls down on land with a thud. Donald falls out a window and grabs onto a crocodile’s tail. The crocodile grabs a snake and Donald flies down and hits another window. He is flung back up by the crocodile and snake as Daisy opens up that window but she doesn’t see Donald. Donald then goes flying onto the main door and gets tangled up the ropes. Donald gets pulled up as the door opens and he goes flying passed Daisy again.
The animals march out and trample Donald. Daisy walks by but doesn’t see Donald. Donald is then left to sweep up the ark as Noah and his family leave after the animals leave. Donald pulls out his picture again. Daisy is walking away from the ark and reaches up for her locket, but it isn’t there. Donald finds the locket as he is sweeping and both he and Daisy reach for it at the same time. They are very happy and Daisy gives Donald a big kiss. They walk out of the ark holding hands.
Angela Lansbury introduces the last segment. She says that Walt Disney described the art of animation as a voyage of discovery through the realms of colour, sound, and motion. The music from “The Firebird Suite” inspires such a voyage so the conclusion of Fantasia 2000 is a mythical story of life, death, and renewal.
“The Firebird Suite” by Igor Stravinsky
A mountain is shown with a surrounding snow-covered forest. An elk is walking through the snow and he swims through a lake and into a cave. The elk breathes onto some ice and a drop melts off an icicle. The drop becomes the Spring Sprite. She flies over the snowy forest and brings life and growth everywhere she goes. The elk follows. She flies up the mountain side but the green behind her will only go so far. She then creeps up the mountain side and looks inside. The Firebird is inside, sleeping. She goes up to it and touches the Firebird’s face and it wakes up. The volcano then erupts! The Sprite flees and the Firebird blows fire at her. She trips down the mountain and the Firebird sinks back down into the volcano and lets the lava flow out. The lava destroys all of the nature that the Sprite created and the elk watches in worry. The Sprite is then trapped at the top of a tree and the Firebird encloses around her.
The eruption has stopped and there is ash everywhere. The forest is completely destroyed and the elk walks through it. He blows into some ash and the Sprite appears again but she is very sad and feels scared and defeated. She climbs up on the elk and he brings her through the forest. She cries and her tears become life in the ash. The Sprite has hope and she starts to soar even bigger than before. The nature regrows underneath her and it starts to rain. The trees grow bigger and taller than before and she is able to fly right up to the top of the blown volcano this time. The segment ends with the elk looking out over the mountain.
The end credits play to a medley of the songs from the segments. The screen behind the orchestra shows clips from the segments. The orchestra is packing up and then the credits play over still paintings of the segments. The end dedication reads:
“A special thank you to the entire feature animation family for their dedication, support and encouragement in the making of this film.”
The film then ends with Steve Martin still asking for the camera to go back on him.
Trivia:
- Fantasia 2000 was released in Imax Theatres on January 1, 2000. The film was not released in general theatres until June 16, 2000.
- In “Pines of Rome,” the same CGI code was used as in the wildebeest stampede in The Lion King so that the whales wouldn’t bump into each other.
- Though not mentioned in the film, the names of the four main characters in “Rhapsody in Blue” are Duke, Joe, Rachel, and John.
- The working title was Fantasia Continued.
- The man playing the piano in “Rhapsody in Blue” is a caricature of George Gershwin.
- The music was recorded in the Medinah Temple auditorium in Chicago from 1994 – 1996.
- “Rhapsody in Blue” started off as an short film independent from Fantasia 2000, one that Eric Goldberg had wanted to create for 15 years.
- Walt Disney had wanted to make a feature film that was a collaboration of many Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales in the 1930s. The animation design for The Steadfast Tin Soldier came from sketches that were found from this never-seen project.
- For a long portion of the production stage, “The Nutcracker Suite” and “Dance of the Hours” from Fantasia were going to be included in Fantasia 2000 along with “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.”
- Daisy and Donald’s misfortune of missing each other over and over again in “Pomp and Circumstance” was inspired by Sleepless in Seattle.
- “The Firebird Suite” was suggested by Roy E. Disney, who had gone a trip with his wife to Mount St. Helens shorty after its eruption in 1980. He was curious as to how nature would rebuild after such a disaster.
Representation in the Disney Parks:
Please see Fantasia.
Check out the other films of Disney’s Post-Renaissance Era:
I need to watch this again!
I just rewatched this for my blog series “thoughts on Disney movies!” It’s good but not one of my favorites. A very different type of experience.