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Movie Reviews: Fantasia 2000 170

Posted by emmett from the sorcerer's-apprentice dept.
A sequel to the original, Fantasia 2000, is a series of animated shorts based on eight works of classical music, including one segment from the original Fantasia: The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Review by Joshua Marinacci.

In 1940, Walt Disney released a new type of movie: a series of short films tied to classical pieces of music. At the time, it was revolutionary and breathtaking. The combination of color, sound and animation thrilled some audiences but took many years to become a commercial success. Now in the year 2000, Disney and has released a sequel of sorts which once again breaks the boundaries of technology and visual art.

Fantasia was originally supposed to be a dynamic work of art; one that would change over time, removing some parts and leaving some sections in as the film progressed throughout the years. Untouched since the its release, Fantasia has finally made it back the really-big screen in IMAX format.

spoiler warning:

At this point I should give a spoiler warning. Now these aren't spoilers per se. The movie is essentially plotless so there really isn't a plot to give away, but many of you may want to simply go see the movie and have it be a complete surprise.

The film consists of eight segments: seven original and one, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," from the original 1940 film. In between each piece there is a brief monologue by modern actors, including Penn and Teller, Steve Martin, James Earl Jones, and Itzhak Perlman. They also kept the original sequence where Mickey shakes hands with Leopold Stokowski. This is the order of the segments as I remember them. (Disney's site isn't much help):

Ludwig Van Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony in C minor, Opus 67". This was probably my favorite piece because it was so abstract that the visuals really blended with the music to create a purely emotional connection with the viewer. There is no logic or story, just rich music.

Ottorino Respighi's "The Pines of Rome". It's got ice and whales and it's breathtaking. To say anything more would ruin the surprise.

George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue". This segment follows the intertwined lives of disparate people during the Great Depression in New York City. The black and white line animation is very reminiscent of political cartoons from that era.

Dimitri Shostakovich's "Piano Concerto No. 2". This segment has the most plot. It's an adaptation of the "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," by Hans Christian Andersen; a delightful story about a one legged toy tin soldier in love with the clock ballerina and his quest to rescue her from an evil Jack-in-the-box.

Camille Saint-Saens' "Carnival of the Animals". This is a nonsensical piece, similar to Dance of the Hours from the original (the one with the gators and hippos). A bunch of pink flamingos play with a yo-yo.

Paul Dukas' "The Sorceror's Apprentice" starring Mickey Mouse. This is the one everyone remembers. While the photographic quality doesn't compare to the modern sections, it remains one of the most innovative pieces of animation in the history of film.

Sir Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance". This is Donald Duck's first feature since the 50s. He and Daisy work for Noah, helping to herd animals into the Ark before the flood comes. Be sure to look for the ill-fated unicorns and dragons goofing off in the background.

Igor Stravinsky's "The Firebird". An tale of death and rebirth featuring a tree sprite as Mother Nature and a "Firebird" as a volcano. This is a nice successor to the "Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria" sequence from the original. It has a fiery intense section in the middle and ends on a calming peaceful note. This chunk is directed by the Brizzi Brothers, who were responsible for a lot of the design of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

What I liked: The music and visuals are amazing to begin with, and seeing it on a four-story screen with 15,000 watts of sound makes it only more so. The choice of pieces helps to round out their survey of western music, and the familiar face of Donald Duck will play well with the children.

What I didn't like: Since the ultimate target of the movie is 35mm and video, it didn't take full advantage of the IMAX format. Only a few of the pieces truly filled the screen with color and motion. (The first and last segments come to mind). Also the actor host parts don't seem to add much. The musical choices are pretty conservative compared to the original. Nothing as daring as the "Rite of Spring" is found here. Plus they are still lacking a piece by Mozart.

Fantasia 2000 is the first IMAX film by a major studio and at 80 minutes doubles the length of the average IMAX film. Because of its long running time and the lack of IMAX capable screens in general, there are only 70 theaters worldwide which can show it. Disney had originally planned to release it on 35 mm in April, but have moved it back to a summer release because the IMAX version has been doing so well.

The original score was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra with Stokowski at the podium. This time, the score is performed by the Chicago Symphony with Metropolitan Opera conductor James Levine. Known for his steadfast interpretations of Wagner's operatic work, Levine brings a special shine to the pieces in Fantasia 2000.

Overall, Fantasia 2000 is an amazing visual work, showing that Disney can still produce an animated film worthy of their legacy. Also, I am glad to see IMAX becoming a more accepted medium. After Everest made $60 million, IMAX started getting mainstream coverage. Then they built 30 more theaters just for Fantasia 2000 and have attracted the attention of several other major studios. Both James Cameron and the Star Trek crew are rumored to be working on IMAX films. Fantasia 2000 is a triumph for both Disney and IMAX. I hope to see more their artistry in the future.

Slashdot Author Emmett Plant contributed to this article.
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Movie Reviews: Fantasia 2000 More

Movie Reviews: Fantasia 2000

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  • I thought that it kept the spirit of the original. Many of the animation sequences were impressive with most staying away from computer animation. I would definitely recommend seeing it if you can. If you like classical music you'll definitely appreciate this movie.

  • Why you won't see this movie everywhere (Score:5)

    by / ( 33804 ) on Sunday February 27, 2000 @08:21PM (#1241588)
    At least in the Boston area, it'll be hard to catch this movie, as it won't be shown at the Boston Museum of Science. Why (one asks naively)? Money of course. Disney has been a real bitch and set unfavorable demands: a large percentage (can't remember the exact number) of the receipts go to Disney, and no other films can be shown during the complete run of Fantasia. Needless to say, many theaters have balked.
  • Things like this make you wonder if there is a section of disney animators that are completly seperate from those "Beauty and the Beast" and "Lion King" types. I remember watching "The Secret of Nymh" as a child and it blew my mind (well... to an 8 year old a strobe light was amazing). Although I read somewhere that the mid-eighties Disney animators had joined other companies.
  • Good movie as well.

    I saw it today with my GF and our kids. Yes, we did see the unicorns and dragons! Since only the adults had seen the original, it was all new for the kids, and of course we had to give a history lesson on MM and Co.

    It's worth it, go see it.

  • It was wonderful (Score:3)

    by toastyman ( 23954 ) <toasty@dragondata.com> on Sunday February 27, 2000 @08:25PM (#1241592) Homepage
    I was honored to be able to see it at the premiere back in early December. My first experience with the original Fantasia was when I was much younger, and didn't really appreciate it.

    Disney's original plan was to have Fantasia constantly running, and constantly changing. Every time you went to a theater to see it, they added a new part, and removed an old one. This didn't happen for several reasons, but they took many of the concepts behind Disney's original goals into this.

    The more I read/hear about Disney, the more I think the man was just born too early. He had dreams of robots, immersive dynamic content, and thoughts of the future.

    If he were alive today, he would definately be a geek I would want to meet. :)

    -- Kevin
  • Errr, I could be wrong, but I don't think the Secret of Nimh was a Disney film..

    From Don Bluth, I believe.

  • IMO, you DON'T have to love classical music to enjoy this movie (though it would surely help). The animation itself is very entertaining, with the exception of maybe two of the sequences that lose their appeal several minutes in.

    My favorite was the Raphsody in Blue. It's the story of several people in a large city who are, well, blue. The animation is fantastic and entertaining to watch. Another sequence I liked very much depicted a flamingo playing with a yo-yo, getting himself into trouble with the other flamingos. I was laughing through the whole thing.

    If you get the chance, I'd really have to recommend seeing this film. It's lighthearted, beautiful to look at, and a great way to show everyone how cultured you are! :-)

    It was also interesting to note that James Levine, the conductor for most (all?) of the sequences, was the same James Levine I sang Mahler's 8th for in Philadelphia a few years ago (with the choir I was in at the time). During rehersals he always draped a towel over his shoulder--he was a sweaty one... :-)
  • I just saw Fantasia 2000 last night at a company part at the Tech Museum... Not JUST an IMAX screen either, but an entire dome. It was ALMOST big enough to take up my entire field of vision. [ie. I had to turn my head to follow the action or focus at times].

    Overall I liked it. It was great seeing The Magician's Apprentice in the *big* screen again. The whole Pine's of Rome thing was a little odd though, but but certainly not the strangest thing to come out of the halls of Disney...

    There were quite a few people who left, though I'm not sure why. The seats weren't terribly comfortable, and that huge a screen can screw with your mind, but I don't think it was THAT bad..

    I guess some don't like the new style of the animation, it's got quite a different flavor from the original but I really enjoyed it...

    I'd say it's worth the watching...

    Ender

  • I also enjoyed it a great deal, saw it with a packed theatre on opening night, but I disagree that they stayed away from computer animation. First, almost all of the coloring in Disney films is done on computer, but they also use computers a lot as a tool to help artists create neat stuff. I'm pretty sure that the Beethoven, the Respighi, the Shostakovich, and the Stravinsky use computers heavily. But I guess that's the point, that they be able to use the computers to make stuff that doesn't look like it was stolen from The Mind's Eye.

    Anyway, lots of fun to see, hope everyone can find an IMAX showing it nearby.

    Walt
  • I saw it here in Dallas, at the local Cinemark/IMAX. I really wanted to see it at The Science Place (like a science museum, it also has an IMAX).

    Speaking with a friend who had seen it at both places, he preferred the Cinemark. The Science Place has one of those "omni-dome" screens, which really distorted the picture, as well as clipping the lower left and right corners. When I heard about that, I was frustrated because IMHO, The Science Place's IMAX is neater and has more stuff to do afterwards.

    Anyway, F2K was really good, except for the bits with the human actors (Steve Martin??? give me a break!)

    If you're going to go see it, try to make sure the theatre screen is a plain flat non-cool IMAX screen and you'll be able to see the action a lot better.

    --Robert
    Take a look at http://www.kuro5hin.org [kuro5hin.org] - Moderate the submission queue
  • Fantasia bored the #$%^ out of me, and I don't intend to see fantasia 2000. What I would go see is a version of fantasia featuring an assortment of random 70's tunes. Here's a proposed song and animation list:
    • David Bowie John I'm Only Dancing Goofy makes homosexual overtures to Mickey.
    • Sex Pistols Pretty Vacant Hippos in tutus smash up an EMI office
    • Abba Dancing Queen Chip and Dale cover their ears and vomit
    • Parliament Funkadelic Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication Medley Daisy notices that Donald isn't wearing any pants and they do what comes naturally.
    • The Eagles (any song will do) Huey, Dooey and Louie sit around getting stoned.
    I'd pay to see that. --Shoeboy
  • I just called around to all the IMAX theatres in the Houston area (there's 3). The movie is not scheduled to be shown at any of them.

    The Wortham IMAX theatre is attached to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and I've never known them to show anything that wouldn't be something for any grade school teacher to justify as a field trip.

    Another is in Space Center Houston (NASA's "theme park") and they only show space promo movies. The other is in Galveston at Moody Gardens which really only shows movies about nature and/or the sea.

    It's too bad, I would have liked to have seen Disney's shot at culture enrichment (even if it is expensive) on the *big* screen.
  • The more I read/hear about Disney, the more I think the man was just born too early. He had dreams of robots, immersive dynamic content, and thoughts of the future.

    I don't know about that. Some of his ideas were obviously brilliant, but others were questionable. I mean, Disney City (a city where everything was engineered to be disney-clean and disney-efficient) was a total disaster, and it was a brainchild of Walt himself.

    The whole image of American culture that he helped spawn has had questionable effects as well. Walt is the person most responsible for the corporatization of American culture, and the squeaky-clean moral image based on greed. I'm not saying I have a problem with it -- I'm for free markets yada yada. But don't hold him up as a geek saint, because that he's not.

  • The Mugar theatre at the Museum of Science is an OmniMax theatre, which is different from an IMAX theatre. I don't know if it's even possible to show an IMAX movie on an OmniMax screen...


    Mike Caprio, mikecap@nospamldbw.com

  • Audio tidbit (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    The original Fantasia (1939) was (as far as I can remember) the first movie shown with a 2-channel stereo track.

  • If it only wasn't made by Disney (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I'd probably go see it. Unfortunately, that particular company just about tops my s@#t-list.
    These guys play hardball the way even Microsoft won't dare to. Let me count the ways:
    • they are among the stingiest companies around (just try getting a grant!)
    • their labor practices stink (did you know that the guy scraping the gum off the sidewalks is officially a "performer"? Wonder why...)
    • their involvement with the military (yup - same technology, but it's shoot-to-kill in this simulator)
    • their scorched-earth, Disney-uber-alles business practices (see another post here)
    In short, the reality is a long way off from the oh-so-cute and ever-so-caring image their PR is paid to sell. Don't buy it.

    Jan

  • As I understand it, Disney Animation is usually working on three features at once, in three different locations. There's a group in California, a group in Florida and a group in France. This is largely why they're able to come out with a new feature each summer, as well as the other "video only" and other (ie Goofy Movie) releases. Of course we don't want to forget Pixar which does the computer animation. In the case of Fantasia 2000, the animators were given much more freedom to experiment than usual. It was a fairly small project with Roy Disney at the helm. The decision to use IMAX as the format was almost a last minute decision, but one I'm glad they made. Well that's enough Disney rambling from me.
  • There were quite a few people who left, though I'm not sure why.

    Sometimes when I go, they tell you close your eyes, or leave the theatre if you get motion sickness.
    Cheers,

    Rick Kirkland
  • why the hell did disney not release this on ordinary theatres ? what made them think that a movie like this would do well or even look good being shown on NOTHING but iMacs screens ?

    i havent seen the new iMacs, but i dont think the screens are any bigger than 17 inches.

    who the fu... oh wait. sorry. text to speech didnt catch that :) my bad

  • of course, you all could have seen it in NYC while you were at the linuxworld expo...
  • Im a big animation buff, so im speaking from personal experience.

    I generally dislike disney films, most of them are contrived trite that are so well target marketed that they lose all of their meaning. Exception being the Lion King (aka hamlet)

    Disney's animation has always been the best, but their drive towards childish content has really hurt the animation mindset in America. Because of disney animation has always been "for kids." Now new ground is being broken by the simpsons and southpark, (and duckman.. which was way ahead of its time.) But this.. fantasia 2k.. wow.

    This was, as I said on leaving the theater, an animation orgasm. My senses were assaulted with the greatest animation i've ever seen. Hands down. The firebird raised hairs on the back of my neck and the complex butterfly-like triangles awed me.. how do they animate that much stuff without error? wow.

    This re-opens the justification of animation as a fine art. By timing the animation to a well recognized and highly regarded form of musical art, rather then, say, some stupid MTV music, the animation is clearly held in high regard.

    When do the DVDs come out?

    Now that I think about it, is it just me, or have disney been real asses when it comes to dvds lately? bah.

    Oh yeah, did anyone else catch the mononoke-hime / princess mononoke reference in the last bit? That was so freaking cool!
  • short answer: yes and no.

    a bit longer: each piece of work that Disney releases has its own specialized staff, whose skillsets were evaluated for the task, but for the most part, each movie shares many of the same designers.

    There are a few thinktanks, (Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, CA is one of them) that primarilly attack the movies at the design stage, throwing out wild sequences and ideas. While most of these guys only work on a single project at a time, their collective expertise touches most all of the Disney movies. IMHO, these are the folk who do the magic. The higher you go, the more brute work is done, hacking out frame-by-frame cels.

    As for employee turn-around... I'm sure the peon animators may want to jump around among studios, but the top designers are probably treated pretty well; I'm sure the incentives to stay are high.
  • I tried to watch Fantasia as a young teen or as a child waaaay back, I couldn't appreciate it, so if it's been a decade since you've seen it check F2K out. It's very nice and I don't normally like that kind of music.
  • I'm told (by my paretns) that I watched Fantasia when I was very young in the hope that I grow up to become 'civilized' or something stupid like that. Classical music never really did it for me, and Disney's Colourful Unicorns never really made me respect it more.

    One day I stumbled upon this Italian movie called Allegro Non Troppo" [imdb.com], which is more or less the same idea as Fantasia - an animation artist drawing out interpertations to classical music.

    But such different execution! First of all, no colourful pegasi, no hippo balerinas, no REALLY snotty conductor at the begining. The whole concept is completely different. I wish I could describe the animation they came up to go along with Ravel's Bolero, but it's quite impossible to describe using words. It's amazing.

    Everyone who thinks Fantasia is a good movie should watch this one.

    Everyone who thinks Fantasia is a stupid idea should watch this movie to see how it should be done.

    One word of warning - try and make sure you don't get the #$%^&* dubbed version (it's not out on DVD as far as I can tell).


    --

  • IMAX theatre locations (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    http://www.imax.com/theatres/ [imax.com]
  • I would like to take my mother along to see what I'm sure will be an excellent movie. However, I am concerned about her tendency toward motion sickness. She can go to IMAX movies, but not the ones that have a lot of panning or swooping. (Something about the whole field of vision moving without moving her inner ear) So, whoever has seen the movie: is there a lot of rapid "camera" motion in this?

  • Re:Disney... (Score:3)

    by daschmid ( 113757 ) on Sunday February 27, 2000 @09:27PM (#1241620)
    The Goofy movie, Tigger Movie, etc. are actually produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, the same people responsible for cartoon series and direct-to-video sequels.

    Walt Disney Feature Animation does the big releases. They have offices in California, Florida and Paris, but they don't always work on seperate films at seperate locations; the work is often split.

    Since Pixar is an independant company, Disney pretty much stays out of there way, production-wise. FA doesn't seem all that reluctant to compete, either; Dinosaur is being released this Labor Day, was done by Feature Animation, and has absolutely stunning cgi.

  • Anyone have any idea how they select what pieces to set the film to? Why no Mozart? Why no baroque music? No Brahms, no Bach, no Handel, no Hyden, no Mozart. The truly great ones were left out.
  • Hmmm.. there is actually a growing trend now with StereoScopic IMAX films. (i.e. non-red-blue 3D large format films) I've worked on a couple this past year, and with the IMAX release of parts of Ants (DreamWorks/PDI) it would seem that all Pixar, Disney FA, etc. would all start going Large Format in the not too distant future, too.

    Visit uMoo - http://www.uMoo.com [umoo.com] 'cause it's a great place to visit.
  • WARNING: please don't read further if you object to material about the use of illegal drugs

    I have seen the new Disney in IMAX with the oppurtunity to use hallucinogens (in this case LSD, 5 hits of geltabs). I watched the original one on video while smoking ganja before/after dropping acid, and I got a ride to the theater where it was playing. I must say the new scenes are very visually striking. The Fantasia of the 1940s shows very obvious use of (AFAIK) opium by the animators and producers of the film (maybe why Mickey Mouse is on blotter acid often). It seemed a little bit less drug influenced but I must say some people must have been using various chemicals there with some of the effects. This movie almost seems to tie into the other "really hippy" feature a few days ago.

  • F2K Review (Score:3)

    by RichardtheSmith ( 157470 ) on Sunday February 27, 2000 @09:48PM (#1241627)

    Just a few thoughts...

    F2K was good, could have been a lot better. Mind, you, I've never done the tedious, painstaking work that even mediocre animation demands of you, so I don't have a lot of right to pass judgment, but...

    I really wish the animators had taken more advantage of the possibilities of IMAX. Most of it was conventional animation blown up to IMAX, just like Pokemon was TV animation blown up to normal theatrical standards.

    If you get the chance, see the IMAX "Old Man And The Sea" that got an Oscar nomination recently. It was playing at the Sony IMAX in New York until F2K premiered (Disney is strong-arming all IMAX venues into not showing any other IMAX movies while they show F2K - This is why in Los Angeles they had to build a TENT to show F2K even though the California Science Center 10 miles away has a new state-of-the-art theater with really nice seats - The tent had sucky seats and was too damn cold, and Disney still wants $20 a pop).

    Anyways, back to Old Man And The Sea. This IMAX animated short is a true work of art and puts every short in F2K to shame. If you are a fan of top-drawer animation you MUST see this film. Hopefully it will win the Oscar and then maybe more IMAX venues will be shamed into screening it even though it's never going to be a huge draw.

    Now back to F2K. When you take out the live-action interludes and Sorcerer's Apprentice, it's a damn short movie. I doubt the new animated material was more than 40 minutes. And, speaking of Sorcerer's Apprentice, it's a digital transfer/remastering job by Cinesite. IMHO they did a poor job. If you pay close attention you will see digital artifacts in several places.

    Now for the stuff I liked. Rhapsody in Blue was quite good. Pines of Rome was good except for the disparity between the CGI whales and hand-drawn backgrounds, and the fact that it was inspired by those stupid "Wyland" posters they used to sell at the mall back in 1992. My favorite was the last one - The Firebird Suite. It was my favorite because I absolutely love Princess Mononoke and this bit was, well, not quite a rip-off but damn close.

    It's pretty obvious that whoever thought this up saw Mononoke Hime in Japan in 1997 and was inspired to do this one. It's about a Goddess/Nymph/Female version of the Forest God with Ashitaka's trusty elk as a sidekick. I was tempted to yell out "Yakkuru" every time the elk was on screen, but I knew it would get me thrown out so I didn't.

    Bottom line - F2K was pretty good, given that any animation collection, be it Spike & Mike or whatever, is basically a hit-and-miss kind of thing. It didn't have the feeling of being tied together into a creative whole the way the original Fantasia did. In the end, it begs the question of whether ANYTHING that is put out by modern-day Hollywood deserves to be called art in any real sense of the word. IMHO the original Fantasia did, and this one doesn't even come close.

    But please see it for yourself so you can have the chance to disagree with me. Just don't see it in LA because that damn tent is too damn cold. And don't see it in a curved IMAX/Omnimax like the San Jose Tech Museum because curved IMAX is an abomination. Also don't forget to catch "Old Man And The Sea" if it ever gets a wide release. Thanks.

  • Re:Why you won't see this movie everywhere (Score:3)

    by Frac ( 27516 ) on Sunday February 27, 2000 @09:52PM (#1241628)
    From the Musuem of Science website [mos.org]:

    Fantasia 2000: The Museum of Science is currently not showing the "IMAX" movie "Fantasia 2000." According to Cherie Rivers, manager of Omni programs at the Museum of Science "The nonnegotiable requirement to show Fantasia 2000 exclusively for four months with no other film programs allowed was unacceptable to the Museum of Science since it would deny the Museum the opportunity to present our mission related film programs."

  • Re:It was wonderful (Score:3)

    by daschmid ( 113757 ) on Sunday February 27, 2000 @10:04PM (#1241629)
    I don't know about that. Some of his ideas were obviously brilliant, but others were questionable. I mean, Disney City (a city where everything was engineered to be disney-clean and disney-efficient) was a total disaster, and it was a brainchild of Walt himself.

    If you're referring to EPCOT, the city that Walt was working on at the time of his death, it was never built. If you're referring to "Celebration", the planned community that Disney actually did build near Orlando a few years ago, that's... well... that's another matter entirely.

    EPCOT, if constructed with Walt at the helm would have been incredible. Perhaps a bit too corporate for my tastes, but incredible. Designs were based on years of research into urban planning and years of experience running Disneyland (considered by many to be at the pinnacle of urban planning) It would have been a real, working city unlike any in the the world.

    Walt Disney World was supposed to be this city. The theme parks and resorts were just a "weenie" to get the project going and get some capital going for the real work. If you look at some of the infrastructure systems at WDW, you begin to get a flavor of what it would have been like

    When Walt died, Roy Disney sat through a meeting with the planning team at WED, Walt's personal company (now Walt Disney Imagineering,) basically told them "Walt is dead" and turned EPCOT into a theme park.

    More recently, somebody in the real-estate development arm of Disney heard about EPCOT, and decided that what Walt really wanted was some kind of profit oriented gated community. So they proceeded to build the completely uninspired, completely banal Celebration.

    Celebration is what you get when corporate america COMPLETELY MISSES THE POINT.

    Walt really did want to change the world for the better, he had the skills to do so, and he almost succeeded. I think that's worthy of at a least minor canonization...

  • There are a few thinktanks, (Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, CA is one of them) that primarilly attack the movies at the design stage, throwing out wild sequences and ideas.
    Imagineering actually has nothing to do with films; they do theme park and location based stuff exclusively.
  • I find it mildly amusing that Fantasia was originally blasted by the critics, and wasn't even considered a children's movie. Fantasia didn't gain critical acclaim until the 60's, partially because of the widescale use of psychedelic drugs at the time (notice the styling on this poster [filmsite.org]). Now the Fantasia series is for kids... go figure.
  • Yep. This has been mentioned on slashdot before, but it took me a while to find the link [waltopia.com] again.

    All I can say is, I'll never look at Disney in the same way. It's an empire rotting to the core, but built on the ideas of a real visionary.

    It's like if no one listened to Hari Seldon's plans, but used them to start something like the Tessier-Ashpool empire instead.

    (if you don't catch the references... well, read more Science Fiction, especially Asimov and Gibson! :)
    ---
    pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate [152.7.41.11].

  • So much for boycotting the MPAA members (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Didn't it occurr to you that Disney is a MPAA member [mpaa.org]?

    Or is this another show of editorial independance; hype disney stuff so they get even more $$$ to kick fellow hackers asses in court ?

    Ever heard of loyalty ?

    Boiling the DeCSS frog. [slashdot.org]

  • I saw this at the IMAX in London a couple of weeks ago. It's not normally the kind of thing I'd enjoy at all, but it really was very good and I'd recommend it to anyone. The combination of music and visuals is outstanding and congratulations to all involved.
  • ... or, Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Computer Science, I Learned From Mickey:
    • Watch out for endless loops
    • Fork bombs are a nightmare.
    • Set reasonable bounds, even if you don't expect them to be met. (The water spilling over the top of the cauldron is analogous to a buffer-overrun error)
    • If your screw things up, the local guru will straighten things out. But he'll be awfully surly about it.
    • If you are the local guru, don't people more priveleges than they need to do their job.

    ... also, while Mickey really messed things up, note that he at least knew to read the manual before getting started.
  • My parents showed this one to me as a kid, and I got a real kick out of it. It introduced me to pieces like "Bolero," and it's both impressive and enjoyable. I actually have only seen the dubbed version (which had the great line, "Frisney did this?"). There's a nice bit of attitude in the framing sequences, though I'm sure it'd be better subtitled (most foreign movies are - somehow getting different actors to speak over the lines in a new language never captures the same feeling as the original delivery), but I'd argue that it's less of a problem with this film, since the framing sequence isn't what's important - it's the music, which is its own language.

    Bottom line: I second this recommendation!
  • I just called around to all the IMAX theatres in the Houston area (there's 3). The movie is not scheduled to be shown at any of them.

    Have you tried the Edwards Marq*e Stadium 23? According to Disney's site, and Citysearch [citysearch.com], it's playing there. Might not be IMAX though (I'm in Austin, and dunno anything about the theater).

  • This the first IMAX production from a major production house.. Disney.. did not evoke the same feelings I had during the show as that I had just before the start of the show.. the IMAX theatre and the ambnience..implied that the show would be one of the most stunning visual displays of the creativity of the human mind..but that was not to be .. It was to be honest quite normal...

    Having said that.. I must add that the show in the new London theatre near Waterloo station..was one of the most entertaining visual treats..and a "must-see" if you are a disney fan..

    A little more of Donald would have added to the spice of the film + some of the musicals were contrived..

    A day in New York was absolutely fantastic !!

  • Fantasia in the Netherlands (Score:3)

    by Basje ( 26968 ) <bas@bloemsaat.org> on Sunday February 27, 2000 @11:18PM (#1241639) Homepage
    Here in the Netherlands, it runs in Rotterdam, in the Imax theatre. As far a I know, it runs for another month or so.

    From a friend who went to see it last month I understood it's quite impressive. And he usually doesn't like classical music.


    ----------------------------------------------
  • info is here [www.imax.nl]

    ----------------------------------------------
  • I've seen this movie twice now. Seattle has a brand new IMAX theatre downtown.

    I found the sequence done to Pines of Rome with the whales far and away the most spectactular, although the firebird suite ranked right up there.

    The most disappointing thing was the quality of the Sorcerer's Apprentice which is one of my favorite animated sequences of all time. It was simply the 35mm version blown up to 70mm and it was very grainy. Despite the fact that it would in a sense ruin the originality of the piece Disney should have extensively used computers to clean up the piece. Or it should have been redrawn to fit the format.

    A cool IMAX film. However it'll never beat "The Dream is Alive" for coolness, or Everest for raw beauty.

    Well worth the $$$.
  • The Rhapsody section was cool, but I liked "The Firebird" best. You could feel all the nymph's emotions. Incredibly powerful imagery. After that, I liked the "Carnival of the Animals" bit. Rebellious, individualistic flamingo wins out in the end :)
  • No, there isn't. You can tell that they intend this to be released on vid at somepoint. Considering how little they used the sheer size of the screen, they should've just released it to standard theaters. (Well, maybe just to one's with kick ass sound systems, nothing's worse than Stravinsky in mono)
  • Yeah, the IMAX theaters in Edmonton (we have two now) have canned statements to that effect before the (fairly impressive) light & sound stuff before the movie. Noone seemed bothered when I saw it though.

    Hmmm. Wonder if my mom's going to get around to taking my sister to see it while its still out...
  • Yeah... I was talking about the Celebration city -- I was (am) under the impression that it was at least similar to Walt's dream city. Perhaps you're right and his ideas were butchered -- but everything about Disney (past and future) seems so consistant with the "moral american corporation" idea behind Celebration that I still have a suspicion that Walt was somewhat responsible for what Disney has become. I mean, we have to hold Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner responsible for their creations, why not Walt?

  • I may be stating the obvious here, but IIRC, wasn't Don Bluth originally a Disney animator? I seem to recall he lead the team on Pete's Dragon (Admittedly not one of the better films), and worked as a fairly high-ranking animator on a few other projects.

    I know he left to form his own company in the '80s (Maybe because quite a few animators aren't happy about Disney's practices). I think his first standalone theatre feature was An American Tail.

    Can anyone shed any more light on this?

  • OK...but US-centric. (Score:3)

    by Gideon ( 10205 ) on Monday February 28, 2000 @12:38AM (#1241649) Homepage
    Saw it on Saturday night; it was highly polished and very skilfully done, even if the Disney style isn't my favourite.

    The thing that really jumped out at me (and others with me) was that it was aimed squarely at the US market and was at its best when referring to the US; the best piece, IMO, was Rhapsody in Blue.

    In contrast, the portrayal of the Firebird was wrong - the Firebird is *never* a bad guy (or girl) in the original stories; powerful, mischievous and capricious, but not evil or vindictive.

    And no-one in Europe would think of Pomp & Circumstance #1 as 'a piece played at graduations'.

    It's known to most of the world as 'Land of Hope and Glory'; one of the unofficial English national anthems; and is sung every year as the finale to Last Night of the Proms [bbc.co.uk].

    (Elgar hated the nationalistic overtones that became attached to it in his lifetime.)

    It might seem just a small thing, but it's just about one of the most English pieces of music around; an analogue would be describing Yankee Doodle as an 18th-century folk-song; while correct, it misses all of the cultural overtones that it has.

    Therein lies a lot of the minor niggles I had with F2K; it was essentially American, not universal.

    Gideon Hallett.

  • I did really enjoy the Movie, but the quality of the IMAX picture, really showed up the source was digital, from the opening sequence, whenever the motion is slow ,you can clearly make out jagginess in straight lines. I'm not sure if digital images have been transfered to IMAX before, but the lesson here is they definitely need to be higher resolution.

    On a style side, I would have also liked to have seen, a section of animation in the PIXAR style, the sequences though good, were all in the same style of the original Fantasia.

  • Maybe CS should be taught at universities through the use of cartoons? It might actually increase interest, and certainly couldn't be worse than some lecturers :)

  • I saw it on the first of january, but the overall impression was not as breathtaking as you would expect by judging from the trailer.
    Especially the lack of details didn't worked well with IMAX, but also the fact that most scenes were drawn too little "wide angly" (you saw everything from upfront although stuff on the side should have been more drawn from the side). This lack of "wide angles" would be ok for video, but in an IMAX it looked really weird.
    And by the way, the last segment was too short - I was dreaming away when suddenly - poof - the movie was over...
    But overall - go see it, but dont expect the best movie ever!
  • fine.. i changed it...


  • If you are willing to drive 200 miles to Seattle to see it then I think Disney is completely and 100% correct to demand what they have been. Disney isn't FORCING anyone to do anything and it is obvious they have a hot property. When people drive several hours just to see it, there isn't going to be whole lot of pressure on Disney to change.
  • Therein lies a lot of the minor niggles I had with F2K; it was essentially American, not universal.

    You must remove yourself from the piece of music. For instance, Pomp and Circumstance may be used in the US as a graduation march, however the music can be used for it regardless of whether it is known for that purpose or not.

    The Nutcracker isn't about dancing mushrooms, but that fit in there pretty well, anyway.

    Anyway, the difference may be the main difference between Classical and Romantic theory... the Classical musicians believed that music has an innate beauty, whereas the Romantics believed that music was an extension of the emotions of the composer.

  • Calm down. Not everyone is out to get you.
  • Fantasia does seem biased towards the Romantics (and proto-Romantics like Beethoven), which I agree is too bad -- I don't mind that style, but I know many people who can't stand it. Including baroque composers like Bach or true classical composers like Mozart would be a good idea.

    I think part of the problem that causes people to think that they don't like "classical" music is that they don't realize that it is really many different music styles, some of which they may like and some of which they may not.

    Imagine if jazz, blues, rock, gospel, and rap were considered one music style. People might never listen to the Beatles or Louis Armstrong if they had a negative reaction to rap music.
  • Disney Enterprises are a member of MPAA, the Motion Picture Association of America. These are the evil force in the DVD wars.

    Whenever you purchase anything from an MPAA member, you vote for DVD regulation.

  • Who is Hyden? Do you mean Haydn? He doesn't strike me as one of the great composers. Sure he was prolific, but also very formulaic, and I don't consider him "great" but that's just me.

    But Beethoven is one of the true great composers. He basically defined a new era, and used form as powerfully as melody, whereas classical and baroque pretty much followed standard pre-defined forms.
    The problem with baroque music as it applies to something like Fantasia is that it's not good for musically illustrating a story. It all falls under the "3rd category" in fantasia, music for its own sake, but still it's difficult to make up a story to go along with baroque/classical. The music they picked was mostly from the 20th century (except for Beethoven) and those were illustrated by short stories. Beethoven was illustrated by more abstract visuals-- but that would've gotten old without more variety.
    The other reason that later music was used, Beethoven being the earliest piece, was that they wanted music that would use an entire orchestra. If they had done any baroque, would the IMAX experience have been the same if a harpsichord and a string quartet were used? Even Mozart's orchestras weren't that big. No lower brass, and no percussion aside from timpani. Wagner would've worked out well, but then you'd have to devote half the movie to Wagner (did he write anything short?)
    As it stands, the whole soundtrack is amazing. It's the Chicago Symphony, with probably the best brass section of any symphony in the world, so naturally it's very cool that most of the music shows 'em off!
    I only have two complaints: in the Beethoven, they skipped some repeats (5th symphony, 1st movement) in the interest of time, and the Soundtrack CD has the CSO playing Sorcerer's Apprentice whereas the IMAX movie used a remastered recording from the original Fantasia. Both are very good, but naturally the quality of the CSO recording sounds better, I just wish they'd been consistent between the film and the soundtrack.
  • In San Antonio, no way they'd move some Legend of the Alamo shows to make room for 'F2K'. Just checked the schedule. Not that seeing a cartoon is THAT cultured, but, showing the same Alamo show 10 times a day for 3 years betrays a complete lack thereof.

    Oh velll,

    kabloie
  • That's the same story for the Great Lakes Science
    Center in Cleveland. They were asked to show it
    and turned down the opportunity to do so because
    of the exclusivity of the contract. So, if I want
    to see it in IMAX, I have to go down to Columbus.

    As to the OmniMAX versus IMAX, I believe the only
    differences are the screen and the lens on the
    projector. (Okay, the projector on an OmniMAX
    moves up and down as well)
  • Your wish is granted ... http://www.edwardscinemas.com/imax/ my wife and I saw Fantasia 2000 here when it first came out. Eleven bucks but a great theater/sound system/etc.
  • Actually I believe the original was somewhere
    around eight channels if shown in a theater that
    was set up for it. Listen to the dance of the
    sugar plum fairies on at least a surround system
    and you'll hear the music swirl all around you.
    It was that way originally. Disney went all out
    for that movie in an attempt to basically show
    off what they could do.
  • Yes, the simpsons are the best of the three.. by leaps and bounds. What I am trying to put forth here is that regardless of the quality of duckman or southpark, they still opened doors in how animation is veiwed by americans.
  • Just to pick a nit:

    "The Secret of NIMH" was Don Bluth's work, not Disney's. It remains perhaps his most best work, with the possible exception of "An American Tail". The rest of the lot ("Penguin and the Pebble", "All Dogs Go to Heaven", etc.) aren't even up to the level of Disney's direct-to-TV/video productions, both animation-wise and story-wise.

    - Richie

  • Excelent insight ! A whole milennium of music tends to be lumped together as "classical", so that the word has beccome meaningless.
  • And when is the last time we saw a Hollywood film featuring a Palestinian hero?
    "The Prince of Egypt"

    --Hikari
  • Is it playing in theatres around town? Post it here and spread the word!

    On a side note, the Public Library in Ottawa, Canada has a LD copy of Fantasia; Free for residents, $35/y for membership. They also rent out LD players.... And macrovision didn't exist in the LD era (nudge nudge).
    ---

  • Yes, Bluth was a Disney animator originally, but he left Disney while they were working on The Fox and the Hound due to artistic constraints. You can find a lot of information about Bluth here [clara.net] and here [geocities.com].
  • For their lobby in extending copyrights. Copyrights were supposed to encourage artists to make profit from their art. I think Disney has already done enough profit with Mickey & friends.
    C'mon, Mickey is with us for as long as I can remember. It is obviously public domain.

    My 2 cents..
  • Yes, Disney moved from putting drawings on cels (Little Mermaid was the last done on celuloids), to scanning drawings into the computer. Ink and paint is now done digitally, instead of with real paint. The digital copy is outputed to film: the only thing I'm not sure of if they edit digitally or do the traditional cut and splice film editing....digitally would make the most sense, but it's Disney, so how they do things doesn't always make sense.

    Somewhere online I've seen the numbers for the resolution needed for Pixar's films, so I wonder if someone can track down the Imax numbers to compare.

  • Drove past a large tentlike structure a bit north of LAX, in Los Angeles, with Fantasia 2000 banners on it.

    Apparently, from what my LA friend explained, Disney couldn't get the show time on the local IMAX screens, so they built their own theater for the duration of the show. The land is planned for an unrelated building project next year, but in the meantime, they're making the most of it.

  • "Success" is relative... (Score:3)

    by Speare ( 84249 ) on Monday February 28, 2000 @05:03AM (#1241686) Homepage Journal

    The original Fantasia didn't do very well in the box office initially. The concept was quite foreign, and the artwork (especially Rite of Spring) was controversial. Releasing now, in an IMAX distribution, it's doing well... for an IMAX distribution. It's peanuts compared to the 35mm Dolby or THX screens market.

    I watched this on the Paramount Famous Players IMAX screen, in one of the Toronto area "Playdium" theaters. The theater was far from packed, but I enjoyed the show.

    I give it a 7, on a [1-10] scale. If I purchased a copy, I'd skip DVD (never accept lossy compression on something as poor as NTSC) and go for laserdisc or whatever HDTV is available then.

    The graininess of the 1940s Sorcerer's Apprentice piece on the IMAX screen was quite apparent. I'm quite surprised they didn't work harder on it to clean it up for large screens. Much of the coloration is fairly simple; some pixel filters already do such cleanup quite nicely, without disturbing the line art outlines.

  • If you just don't like classical music, there are other venues. Heavy Metal used more modern music, along with barely-associated animation sequences strung together to simulate a plot.
  • First, there is a complete listing of theatres at www.fantasia200.com, second I saw in a dome theatre at the Science Museum of Virgina so it is being shown in domes FYI, third over 90 percent of the film was computer animated according to a recent computer graphics magazine interview with the artists. Major exceptions to the CGI were, of course, the sorcerer's apprentice and of note, the eyes of the whales in Pines of Rome. Interesting that they decided to draw single features such as eyes by hand.... Anyway, the agument about no CGI is bogus, the film is almost all CGI based, which actually makes sense if you think about the incredible resolution IMAX demands. If you blew up a hand drawn image to that size, it simply would look drawn no matter how careful you were in post-production. The posters discussing the lack of Mind's Eye graphics are funny in that they were shown the high end of computer graphics and didn't even know it, ROFL.

    It is an incredible film, and the choice in music is unreal. Money and having to travel, for me, was no object in seeing it, since I've always been creatively inspired by the first film, and I think it was probably my introduction to classical music in the 70's. As far as being a good inheritor of the Fantasia name, I definitely believe that Roy Disney is setting off on the right track to fulfill his father's vision. Now if only he can produce another one this lifetime? ....

    -Wanrat
  • My two cents:

    I saw the film in Dallas at the Science Place where I worked at the time. I was lucky, and was probably one of the first 3 people to see the movie on a domed screen - it was a technical screening(i sneaked myself and my sister into a press screening the next day too).

    I loved it. I barely remembered the original Fantasia, though I think F2K is a lot less scary than the original, though my 23 year old sister did jump during the Firebird Suite. I didn't like the first piece (too abstract, and I didn't think it stuck to the music as well as it could have), but the rest are awesome.

    I talked to the head IMAX person at my science museum and learned that IMAX itself was really depending on profits from this movie. It does suck that Disney makes the theatres played it exclusively for 4 months, but they are trying to milk for everything it's worth. And of course they are going for video sales instead of optimizing the movie for IMAX - that wouldn't make the greatest transition to video. I still thought seeing it on one of the huge IMAX screens was worth it. And the sound systems in the IMAX theatres are much better than conventional theatres.

    So, I implore everyone to go see it if it is nearby, because it is definitely worth it. I have seen it twice already, and am going to see it at least one more time on an IMAX screen during spring break.


    /
    - o l l a i r e s -
    /
  • My, and many other people's, favorite part of the original Fantasia was The Sorcerer's Apprentice. One of the greatest things they could have done with this in the second Fantasia would be to bring Mickey to life again, this time in CGI. Walt Disney was a visionary, and Mickey Mouse was one of his greatest contributions to Disney. As an earlier poster said, he seems to have been born at the wrong time, but at least we could have (can?) brought his vision forward. Pixar could have done a great job with this, and really used the power of the Imax screen to its full potential. Of course, all this IMHO, -Sam Black
  • I'm a fan of music in general; my wife got me much more interested in classical music. We have international origins; I'm American, she was born and raised in Ecuador, her dad is Czech, and her mother Austrian. Her parents are very interested in classical music. We've seen it twice, now; the local(ish) IMAX theatre charges $11, and it's well worth the money. We've got the original Fantasia on LaserDisk, and we've shown it to the kids (5 and 2). They love just about any kind of music. They also loved Fantasia 2000, although the youngest thought parts of it were too loud. All of us were a little disappointed in the abstract piece, put to Beethoven's Fifth. We were hoping for something more abstract (I'll never forget the lumbering stone from the original Fantasia's Toccata and Fugue). What was actually delivered was a short story involving abstractly-drawn butterflies in an abstract environment. The movie may have been America-centric, but it did appeal to my wife and parents-in-law as well. Of course, they knew most of the music. No one has remarked yet on what I consider a most masterful stroke: when the music was not necessarily recognizable by the typical American audience, the visuals were stunning and/or told a compelling story. For instance, Pines of Rome is music I've never heard (or not enough to recognize, anyway), but it had incredible CGI. Rhapsody in Blue was more recognizable, and carried a more familiar, less breathtaking animation. We've been discussing which piece they'll carry over for the next Fantasia (probably to be presented in four-sense virtual reality :-) but we just can't decide. The only thing we can agree on is that they'll probably drop the abstract portion every time. Wish they'd take up Eine Kleine Nachtmusic. Judebert
  • Whoopsie! That was supposed to have paragraphs in it!

    Now I've learned to use the preview button.
  • In the article:

    > [Firebird] has a fiery intense section in the
    > middle and ends on a calming peaceful note.

    I don't recall the Firebird having an ending either "calming" or "peaceful." Calming and peaceful are better adjectives for the second-to-last part (not the true ending), the Berceuse, than for the true ending ("Finale" in the score). The Finale is rather brass-heavy and loud, and is in 7/4 for much of the time, to boot - I doubt any of these characteristics would make for a calm audience (considering that most pop-trash is in 4/4).

    Did any of you F2k viewers who are also familiar with the Firebird notice if the piece was cut (perhaps at the Berceuse)?

  • errrr... a sig?? I think you smoke them?... ;)
  • > I actually have only seen the dubbed version
    > (which had the great line, "Frisney did
    > this?").

    That's exactly the problem I have with dubbing - in the original Italian it's "Prisney". (;

    I'm glad to hear someone else saw it. I have a PAL copy of it, so I can't even lend it to anyone here in the US ):


    --
  • I saw F2K and loved it...but the stupid introductions should be cut out of each and every reel by hand and burned. For those that haven't seen it yet, before each song, they have some famous celebrity (can a celebrity not be famous? does a tree falling in the forest with no one around make a sound? such are the questions we must ponder to truly understand the universe...) introduce each piece...Bette Midler, Steve Martin, Penn/Teller, etc. Just annoying...
    --
    Deepak Saxena
  • I saw it a few weeks ago, and it was great. It's a brand-new theater, and they haven't been going long enough to get lax about the projection quality.
  • Once again, Disney has taken to re-writing classic stories and fucking them up with a happy ending. In the steadfast tin soldier, both the soldier and the ballerina, die at the end. The soldier is thrown into the fire by the boy in the house, and a gust of wind blows the dancer in with him. All that is left in the morning is a puddle of tin in the shape of a heart, and the dancers jewelery (intermingled with the tin). The goblin in the snuff box (not a jack-in-the-box) wins. I know because I read it last night to my five year old and he wanted to know why it was so different then F2000 (which we saw a couple of days ago in San Jose at the Tec).

    Don't get me started on what Disney did to the Little Mermaid...

    However, other than the Tin Soldier, and the Noah bit, I liked it.
  • "Secret" was done by Don Bluth, who used to be a senior animator at Disney, but left during the darker days in the early 80s with a bunch of other folks.

    IMHO "Secret of Nimh" is one of the best feature animations ever created. If you enjoyed it, "An American Tail", "All Dogs Go To Heaven" and "Anastasia" (Bluth's latest work) may also float your boat. "Land Before Time" is also a fun movie for any child in the dinosaur-obsessed stage of their life.

    Bluth's had quite a few misses, too (anybody remember Rock-A-Doodle, or Thumbelina?), but he's a very talented person.

    darius
  • Yes, don't forget to flip that switch on the back of your VCR. You know the one. The one that says "VHS/IMAX".

  • For those of you in San Jose, I would advise either seeing F2K somewhere other than the Tech, or getting to the theater very early. If you haven't been there, the IMAX theater at the Tech is a Dome; interesting idea, and probably pretty cool if you're lucky enough to get seats in the middle, but at the edges the experience is less than pleasant. The seats don't let you lean far enough back to be comfortable, so you have to crane your neck for 1.5 hours. In addition, the angle made it hard to focus on some parts of the movie. Agree that F2K is worth seeing, but try to see it somewhere else, if you can.

  • Anyone have any idea how they select what pieces to set the film to? Why no Mozart? Why no baroque music? No Brahms, no Bach, no Handel, no Hyden, no Mozart. The truly great ones were left out.

    Last I remember, the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, which is in the first Fantasia and arranged by Stokowski, is by Bach. I would hope that the people who choose the music give Fantasia the opportunity to expose people to some music they wouldn't normally hear, like the Shostakovich in F2K or the Rite of Spring in Fantasia.

    What bothered me about F2K was a lack of a completely abstract anamation sequence, like the Bach in the original. Sure, the Beethoven in F2K was kind of abstract, but it had definite visual representaion (butterflies) combined with a quasi-religious theme.

  • Both the "Pines of Rome" and "Steadfast Tin Soldier" sequences were largely computer animated.

    The work on Respighi's "Pines of Rome" was particularly interesting: the whales in the sequence were computer generated, but their skins were hand painted by artists and then a computer was used to apply the hand-painted texture to the whale wireframes. Also, the whales eyes were rendered using conventional (non-computer) animation techniques.

    The Gershwin "Rhapsopdy in Blue" piece, which takes place in New York City, was animated in the style of famous artist/cartoonist Hershfeld, who is best known for his renderings of stage actors and actresses. (He's also known for hiding the name NINA in numerous places in his drawings.)

    Finally, the Firebird sequence was designed in an Art Deco style.

  • In some interview Roy Disney said they did some
    work on nearly a hundred selection, including
    some modern pop like Beatles songs.
    Some will show up in the next Fantasia sequel.
  • The main difference between the two formats is that Omnimax uses a dome screen, and IMAX uses a flat screen. An IMAX movie projected on an Omnimax screen will look distorted.

    - John

  • Did any of you F2k viewers who are also familiar with the Firebird notice if the piece was cut (perhaps at the Berceuse)?

    Quite a bit of the original suite was cut out, leaving only the "Princess" scene, the Infernal dance, the Berceuse (also cut itself) and the Finale. If you compare the movie to the *entire* Firebird, then more the %75 was cut out. Of course, the same thing happend to the Rite of Spring in the original, and that one even had it's order re-arranged.

    They also left out one of the sections of the Pines of Rome as well.

    I would hope all Fantasia viewers go out and buy recordings of the *complete* works so they can hear everything.

  • The Imax web sites lists 150 Imax works made
    since the 1970s and upcoming ones.
    (Eight per year in 1990s.)
    There are couple computer ones later this year tha
    sound quite interesting.
  • this is what you want [imdb.com]

    Now put my lamp back in the deserted tomb.

    --

  • One Persons Opinion (Score:3)

    by powerlord ( 28156 ) on Monday February 28, 2000 @07:08AM (#1241712) Journal
    I was lucky enough to see F2k back on Jan1.
    We had a few people in town and I'd been following the release semi-closely since I had loved the orriginal, the result was that we had a group of about 10 people ranging in age from 2-60 of both sexes.

    On the whole everyone enjoyed it.
    The one piece that had almost universal apeal was "Rhapsody in Blue", followed closely by "Carnival of Animals" easily the shortest piece shown (unfortunately).

    The total run for the movie is 70 minutes, and I believe this may have been partially responsible for the exclusion of more of the original pieces, as well as the brevity of those included.

    Things to note about the show:
    My niece (who had just turned 2) was often scared by some of the pieces, especially "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" and "The Sorceror's Aprentice" (although she did keep going 'Its Micky!':) and "The Firebird". She sat through it all though (and it was her first movie).

    F2K had much fewer 'abstract' pieces, in fact the only abstract piece I can think of is the opening, which harkens back very much styalistically to the opening of the original Fantasia (on purpose I'm sure).

    The one 'carry over' piece "The Sorcerors Aprentice" was nice to see but stood out glaringly compared to the other pieces. I assume that the grainy-ness and the lack of colour purity was due to the difference in resolution between what it was orriginally designed for and the Imax format, however it truly detracted from the work. I wish Disney had taken the time to either clean it up or had not included it. Of course if they hadn't included it, we would have been complaining about THAT so I guess it was a no win situation for them :)

    As lots of other people have said, the visuals are breathtaking, and the sound is fun. The transitions don't add alot to the whole movie, but I still liked them, espectially the 'bridge' sequence from "Sorceror's Aprentice" to "Pomp and Circumstance" (if you've seen the original Fantasia you'll see what I mean).

    Overall everyone who went to see it loved the movie, and several would even consider going back. It seems to be suited for all ages (my niece walked out and had really enjoyed it dispite the fact that she had wanted to leave in the middle earlier because she was scared), but you may have to reasure youngsters, and there are some parts that just might be too scary for them.

  • Hi,

    I'm the webmaster for Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland, OR. Here's the canned response I send out to anyone inquiring about Fantasia 2000.
    Unfortunately, OMSI will not be showing Fantasia 2000. There are three main reasons for this:


    1. Disney won't allow us to show other movies during the same time frame as Fantasia (not even special requests made by school groups), which means we would've had to break some existing contracts.
    2. Disney won't allow us to charge our regular price for the movie (they wanted us to charge $10 instead of $6.50).
    3. Disney won't allow us to show the movie after this Spring.

    If you would like to see OMSI show Disney movies in the future (if they make anymore Imax movies) then please write them and let them know. In the meantime, you can see Fantasia 2000 at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle.
    What I don't add, but maybe should, is that Disney wanted 50% of the ticket sales. In the end, the movie probably would've brought a lot of money to the museum, but I, for one, am glad we didn't succumb to the lure of money over priciple.

    mark
  • If you are willing to drive 200 miles to Seattle to see it then I think Disney is completely and 100% correct to demand what they have been.

    Just because you can do something and still make money doesn't make it correct. A lot (I don't know about the majority for sure) of IMAX theaters are out of museums and other educational venues. It is exceedingly tacky for Dinsey to expect them to just abandon their mission for four months for a commercial and entertainment venture. I will not be driving anywhere to see this film and will be sending a letter of support to the Mugar for choosing against this kind of deal.

    -Kahuna Burger

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