Fantasia/Fantasia 2000

 

 

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FANTASIA:

This was the first movie to incorporate beautiful classical music into the movie form with pretty colourful pictures. Nowadays, other people have the same idea, like "A View From Space with Heavenly Music" blu ray disc where classical music was played while spectacular scenes were displayed (e.g., playing of Ride Of The Valkyries during a Space Shuttle launch). So Fantasia was way ahead of its time.

The musical segments in Fantasia included: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, The Nutcracker Suite, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, The Rite Of Spring, The Pastoral Symphony, Dance Of The Hours, Night On Bald Mountain, and Ave Maria.

Video: It was 1080p 1.33:1 with all-new digitial restoration. For a seventy-year-old film, the result was simply outstanding. Colours were extraordinarily vivid and punchy. (4.5/5)

Audio: In my over-sized Fantasia laser disc box set, the sound was only Dolby Surround. Now we have DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1. Wow! The sound made you feel that you were in front of an orchestra inside your home theatre. Simply outstanding (5/5)

A few trivia about Fantasia:
In the Sorcerer's Apprentice sequence, as Mickey walked toward a stone wall his shadow grew slowly larger. Instead, it should grow smaller. The dancing ostriches in "Dance of the Hours" were portrayed as females, but it was only the male ostrich that was black and white. The females were grey brown. The animators also secretly modeled elements of the Sorcerer in "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" on their boss, Walt Disney. The raised eyebrow was regarded as a dead giveaway. They called the character Yen Sid, which was "Disney" spelled backwards. The orchestra that appeared in the interstitial segments of the film was not the actual The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, but rather a collection of local Hollywood musicians and Disney studio employees. Lastly, when Fantasia, with a budget of $2.38 million, was first released into the theatre, it was considered a financial flop.

Bad point: It was really unfortunate that the original version of Fantasia was used, which was the "censored" version, which eliminated a lot of the film's un-p.c. elements.

FANTASIA 2000:

The musical segments included Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, The Pines Of Rome, George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue, Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2, Carnival Of Animals, Sorcerer's Apprentice and Pomp and Circumstances.

Video: It was 1080p 1.78:1. If Fantasia was amazing, Fantasia 2000 was simply outstanding. It was completely flawless. Colours and details were top-notched. (5/5)

Audio: Again the DTS-MA Master Audio 7.1 has great fidelity and presence. Simply outstanding (5/5)

Trivia: In "Rhapsody in Blue" in the young man's room. The first shot showed the whole room and pans left showing him in bed with the alarm clock upright. The very next close-up showed the clock to be face down. In "Rhapsody in Blue", a sign inside Monica's cafe read "2 EGGS ANY STYLE 25c". A sign outside the cafe read "2 EGGS 10c".

Did you also know that George Gershwin himself featured in the Rhapsody in Blue segment? He was the slender man seen playing the piano through his apartment window, above Rachel and her piano lessons.

In summary, this Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 blu ray collection is worth its weight in gold. Thank you to Disney to put the two films in one set with very reasonable price. Both audio and video are top notch. The whole family, young and old, will enjoy these two movies, again and again. I feel that they are also a good attractive way to introduce classical music to young children. Just like you can have Lord Of The Rings trilogy marathon, or Toy Story Night (1, 2 and 3 in a row), a Fantasia evening will be simply FANTASTIC. Both discs are highly recommended.

Fantasia is my all-time favourite Disney animated film and also one of my all-time favourite movies in general. I also like Fantasia 2000, even though I don't think it's quite up there with the original. It's still worth multiple viewings.

When I first found out that these two movies were being re-released in December 2010, I was really excited because I had bought the Fantasia Anthology 3-disc DVD set before, which had disc issues with each disc (I tried 5 different DVD players and they all were uncooperative).

After I bought this new 2-disc set, I watched both of the movies and checked out some of the special features. The biggest improvement I noticed was with the dark backgrounds in Fantasia. They're enhanced so that you can see more of the details. Check out the "Tocatta and Fugue in D minor" segment and you'll really notice the improvements.

As for the Fantasia 2000 disc, the video quality is spectacular and the special features are pretty good. It's been a while since I last checked them out, but I usually don't have a problem with special features on a Disney DVD.

If you like Fantasia and/or Fantasia 2000, I highly recommend this DVD set. It'll be some of the best $30 (average price) that you've ever spent.

Fantasia made a strong impression on me when i saw it on TV as a child, half a century ago. Since then, i've come to associate Disney with the watered-down kitsch of "family entertainment" -- and with overpriced releases of old animation classics. This Blu-ray release has changed all that; the price is quite reasonable for the content. I will start with some things that haven't been adequately covered by previous reviewers.

First, the Fantasia 2000 disc includes a short animated feature, Destino, which began as a collaboration of Disney (or rather one of his best animators) with Salvador Dali. After several months of work on the project, which began not long after the release of Fantasia, Walt pulled the plug, and it all went into the archives -- where it was rediscovered a few years ago, and turned into the little masterpiece it should have been all along, complete with the original (restored) soundtrack, a Mexican song. In case you think a Dali/Disney collaboration doesn't sound promising, i would have agreed with you, but this unique little film works beautifully. There's also a long documentary (perhaps too long) about the Dali-Disney relationship and the completion of the film, which is worth watching.

Fantasia 2000 itself, which i hadn't seen before, is truly spectacular, as imaginative as the original, but of course with much better sound and high-def picture.

As for the original Fantasia, it's better than i recall it from childhood: the digital remaster looks wonderful, the sound is about as good as you could expect from a 1940 recording, and best of all, at 125 minutes it's about one third longer than the original theatrical release! Most of the restored footage seems to reflect the more daring flights of the Disney animators, and they certainly weren't cut because they weren't up to the quality of the rest. There's also about 15 seconds from the Beethoven Pastoral Symphony sequence that is not restored here (or as some reviewers would have it, is "censored"), but you can see it on YouTube if you really want to. Here too i think Disney made the right choice -- that 15-second bit really is in excruciatingly bad taste and would be a major distraction from the beauty of the sequence.

Of course, you have to wade through a series of Disney adverts to get to the good stuff, but it's well worth the effort, on both discs. At around $30 for two blu-ray and two DVD discs, this is really a good buy for anyone who appreciates good animation.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Fantasia 2000
My wife is a classic music fan and I bought this DVD for her.
She simply adores it and that special edition contains 4 discs with a lot of special features and extras

Published 6 months ago by Jean-Pierre Boulais

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantasia
Great family entertainment. Matchless Disney images light up your tv screen, while beautiful classical music played by the Philadelphia Harmonic Orchestra, take unexpected turns... Read more

Published 8 months ago by Beethoven

2.0 out of 5 stars What happened?
I remember seeing Fantasia in the theatre when I was a kid. I loved it. I saw that it was out on DVD and thought I'd like to own it. Read more

Published 15 months ago by AnnieG

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful movie show it your kids
It's just magical and so beautiful. Kids get to leaner to listen to music. A great way for them to learn while being entertained

Published 16 months ago by Rachitoune

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic with previously deleted segments added
We all know how incredible this piece of animated history is. Here are a few things I noticed that weren't on the video I previously owned,
- on the dinosaur sequence there... Read more

Published 17 months ago by Dean Wirth

4.0 out of 5 stars Problem with the Fantasia 2000 blu-ray
Hi, someone has problem with the Fantasia 2000 blu-ray. I want to watch it but it can't play on my blu-ray player (which is, by the way, updated to the last version). Read more

Published 17 months ago by Alexandre Rodrigue

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