If you were to ask me my favorite Disney movie, i would probably give you my safe answer which is Hercules. It wouldn't be a lie, but my favorite Disney movie is easily FANTASIA.
Fantasia 2000 is a 1999 American animated experimental concert 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 sequel to 1940's 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 each segment in live-action scenes directed by Don Hahn.
In 1936, Walt Disney felt that the Disney studio's star character Mickey Mouse needed a boost in popularity. He decided to feature the mouse in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, a deluxe cartoon short based on the 1797 poem written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and set to the 1897 orchestral piece by Paul Dukas inspired by the original tale. The concept of matching animation to classical music was used as early as 1928 in Disney's cartoon series, the Silly Symphonies, but he wanted to go beyond the usual slapstick, and produce shorts where, quote,
"sheer fantasy unfolds ... action controlled by a musical pattern has great charm in the realm of unreality."
A lot of kids went into the movie thinking it was a standard Disney affair, and walked out with a much better understanding of how to appreciate classical music better as a whole. it was also a damn good opportunity to let the animators at Disney be abstractly creative without being tied to a specific character or story, and needless to say it blew my mind the first time i watched it. i had first thrown it on for background noise, and found myself getting sucked into the performance of it pretty damn fast. its a moving painting, a goddamn museum piece, its...
perfect.
You may think Disney would have a hard time recreating that magic of the first movie, but capturing magic is kind of Disney's whole thing. so naturally this movie slaps.
This movie is everything i love about the first one done bigger and better. Instead of only Classical music this movie dives into Jazz, the advancement in technology lets them use several forms of animation often at the same time, Its not white washed in any way, and as a whole its a lot more fun than the first movie. The celebrity cameos help a lot with this movies more light an fun tone, and full credit to Steve Martin for nailing the introduction to this movie.
I enjoy every segment of this movie, but the best one of the bunch is easily Rhapsody in Blue. Rhapsody in Blue is the first Fantasia segment with music from the American composer George Gershwin, and It originated in 1992 when director and animator Eric Goldberg approached Al Hirschfeld about the idea of an animated short set to Gershwin's composition in the style of Hirschfeld's illustrations. the music is as always lovely, but the animation style is absolutely amazing. Set in New York City in the 1930s, the story follows four individuals who wish for a better life. Duke is a construction worker who dreams of becoming a jazz drummer; Joe is a down-on-his-luck unemployed man who wishes he could get a job; Rachel is a little girl who wants to spend time with her busy parents instead of being shuttled around by her governess; and John is a harried rich husband who longs for a simpler, more fun life. The segment ends with all four getting their wish, though their stories interact with each other's without any of them knowing.
even though its impossible not to play favorites, i still think both movies are entirely, fully, 100%...
Perfect
100/10
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