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Fantasia 2000

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Fantasia 2000 is a 1999 American animated musical anthology film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Produced by Roy E. Disney and Donald W. Ernst, it is the 38th Disney animated feature film and the sequel to Disney's 1940 animated feature film Fantasia. Like its predecessor, Fantasia 2000 consists of animated segments set to pieces of classical music. Celebrities including Steve Martin, Itzhak Perlman, Quincy Jones, Bette Midler, James Earl Jones, Penn & Teller, James Levine, and Angela Lansbury introduce a segment in live action scenes directed by Don Hahn. Leopold Stokowski returns in Fantasia 2000.

After numerous unsuccessful attempts to develop a Fantasia sequel, Walt Disney Productions revived the idea shortly after Michael Eisner became chief executive officer in 1984. Development paused until the commercial success of the 1991 home video release of Fantasia convinced Eisner that there was enough public interest and funds for a sequel, to which he assigned Disney as executive producer. The music for six of the film's eight segments is performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Levine. The film includes The Sorcerer's Apprentice from the 1940 original. Each new segment was produced by combining traditional animation with computer-generated imagery.

Rating[]

Fantasia 2000 received a G rating by the MPAA. This is the thirty-seventh Disney animated film to be rated as such in the US after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi, Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, Make Mine Music, Fun and Fancy Free, Melody Time, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Robin Hood, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Rescuers, The Fox and the Hound, The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver & Company, The Little Mermaid, The Rescuers Down Under, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan and Tarzan.

Cast[]

Hosts[]

Voice Cast[]

Credits[]

Fantasia 2000 Credits

Gallery[]

United States[]

Trivia[]

  • This is the fourth time Mickey Mouse appeared in a sorcerer outfit, since the original Fantasia and the 1986-2001 Walt Disney Home Video and the Walt Disney Classics on-screen logos.
  • This is the second time Roy O. Disney introduced on a VHS opening preview, since 1994 with the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection issue of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
    • Thus, it is also the second Disney VHS opening preview to not include the trailers.
  • Some of the animals in the Pomp and Circumstance suite resemble animals from other past Disney animated films and shorts, such as the owls from The Old Mill, the turtles and vultures from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the chickens from Farmyard Symphony, the ducks from The Ugly Duckling, the seagulls from Pinocchio, the hippos from Dumbo, the rabbits, woodpeckers, deer, moles, songbirds, and skunks from Bambi, the llamas from Saludos Amigos, the armadillos from Pluto and the Armadillo, the toucans from The Three Caballeros, the bison from Melody Time, the mice from Cinderella, the pelicans, hedgehogs and walruses from Alice in Wonderland, the sheep from Lambert the Sheepish Lion, the rhinos from Peter Pan, the beavers from Lady and the Tramp, the ravens from Sleeping Beauty, the cattle and geese from One Hundred and One Dalmatians, the squirrels from The Sword in the Stone, the penguins from Mary Poppins, the snakes, elephants, and monkeys from The Jungle Book, the frogs from The Aristocats, the ostriches from Bedknobs and Broomsticks, the warthogs from Robin Hood, the crocodiles and albatrosses from The Rescuers, the foxes and porcupines from the The Fox and the Hound, the pigs from the The Black Cauldron, the flamingos from The Little Mermaid, the kangaroos, frilled lizards, platypuses, eagles, and koalas from The Rescuers Down Under, the wolves from Beauty and the Beast, the peafowl, camels, horses, tigers, and parrots from Aladdin, the polar bears from The Nightmare Before Christmas, the giraffes, wildebeests, cheetahs, hyenas, egrets, chameleons, lions, antelope, and zebras from The Lion King, the bats from A Goofy Movie, the raccoons, moose, brown bears and otters from Pocahontas, the doves from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the goats from Hercules, the pandas and falcons from Mulan, the beetles and snails from A Bug's Life, and the gorillas and lemurs from Tarzan.
  • The Pomp and Circumstance segment was added at the insistence of Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who had just seen his son graduate and wanted a song "everyone can relate to."
  • Fantasia 2000 is Disney's ninth animated film to become a franchise, after Saludos Amigos, The Rescuers, Aladdin, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, and The Lion King, and Toy Story.
    • This is also the third sequel from Walt Disney Animation Studios, after The Three Caballeros and The Rescuers Down Under, and is then followed by Winnie the Pooh in 2011, Ralph Breaks the Internet in 2018, Frozen II in 2019, Moana 2 in 2024, and eventually, Zootopia 2 in 2025.
    • It is also the fourth theatrical sequel after Toy Story 2, which was Disney's third theatrical sequel.
    • Due to its time gap, Fantasia holds the record for having the longest wait for itself to become a Disney franchise, as it took 59 years for this film to come out after the original film itself.
  • While Mickey was searching for Donald, there was a scream, which Mickey said "Oh, sorry, Daisy." meaning Daisy was in the middle of changing into her Pomp and Circumstance outfit.
  • The film was originally going to include Dance of the Hours and the Nutcracker Suite from the first film. In fact, a glimpse of Nutcracker can be seen in the original trailer. French-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma had even recorded a host segment for the Nutcracker Suite. However Dance of the Hours was dropped and the Nutcracker Suite was replaced by Rhapsody in Blue which led to The Sorcerer's Apprentice to be the only segment from the first film to be in the movie.
  • Although never mentioned, the main characters of the Rhapsody in Blue segment all have names: The construction worker is named Duke. The man who needs a job is, appropriately, named Jobless Joe. The little girl is named Rachel, named and modeled after Eric and Susan Goldberg's youngest daughter. (Rachel's real-life sister Jenny was the model for a character in Rachel's scenes, the girl with blue hair that can perform all the actions that Rachel can not. At the time the segment was being produced, the real Jenny had blue hair.) The portly fellow is named John, sometimes referred to by the animators as "Flying John", and he is named after animation historian John Culhane, who was also the inspiration for the character Mr. Snoops in The Rescuers. (He was originally based on Al Hirschfeld's caricature of writer Alexander Woollcott). Duke and Jobless Joe are not named after particular individuals.
  • Unveiled just after the clock struck midnight on December 31, 1999, making it the first film to be released in the new millennium (pedantry over the date of the beginning of the millennium notwithstanding).
  • The Broadway ending sequence of Rhapsody in Blue contained so many different colors (over 200), that the CAPS system had trouble rendering it, causing delays in the production of Tarzan.
  • When Eric Goldberg first approached cartoonist Al Hirschfeld about adopting his visual style for the Rhapsody in Blue segment, Hirschfeld told him that if he was 50 years younger he would have been on a train the next day to come work on the project. Eric Goldberg showed Rhapsody in Blue to Al Hirschfeld shortly before the artist's 96th birthday. Hirschfeld's wife Louise called it the best birthday present he ever received.
  • Composer Bruce Broughton was initially contracted to pen original music for the interstitial sequences, and also conducted the recording of Rhapsody in Blue that is featured in the final film. Broughton ultimately did not provide any original score for the film, and the recording of Rhapsody in Blue on the film's CD soundtrack is an alternate version conducted by James Levine, who conducted every other recording for the final film.
  • The Pomp and Circumstance segment was originally going to be about every Disney character from the past 60 years witnessing the graduation of every Disney prince and princess. At the end, the princes got diplomas while the princesses got babies. They invited the remaining members of Disney's Nine Old Men to animate their own characters again but left soon after the presentation.
  • Out of all the composers who had their compositions featured from the original Fantasia, Beethoven and Stravinsky were the only two composers to have different compositions to be played in Fantasia 2000.
  • This is the only Disney animated film not to have end credits that scroll up.
  • The success of the original Fantasia (1940) on a limited video release made Disney appreciate that there was enough interest for a continuation project.
  • Then Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg was opposed to the film so development took place without his knowledge or involvement.
  • This would be Wayne Allwine’s last time voicing Mickey Mouse in a theatrically released production until his passing ten years later.
  • The film was shown in Us Again playing on a drive-in theater (to be specific, they showed a shot from the end of Rhapsody in Blue).
  • At the beginning of Piano Concerto No. 2, the sound of rain is heard. This makes it the only Fantasia segment to feature sound effects.
  • Because it premiered directly after Tarzan, this makes 1999 so far the only year in Disney animated history where there is at least an original and a non-original film coming out in the same year.
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