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Fantasia 2000 is the only legitimate, honorable sequel to a classic Disney movie. While flawed, it provides enough smiles, pleasures, and goodwill to make it worthwhile viewing.
On the positive side, the many sequences of Fantasia 2000 build upon each other, including the entrancing Gershwin sequence "Rhapsody in Blue," the comical use of Donald Duck in "Pomp and Circumstance," the effective adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s "Steadfast Tin Soldier" and the stunning climax based around Stravinsky’s "Firebird." All these sequences are vastly different, yet share one strong similarity – none of them resemble the house style that burdens most Disney features of the past decade. They serve as a showcase for what American animation can be, and they also serve as a refreshing reminder that artistic expression in animation need not be synonymous with pretension.
Perhaps the best example is "Rhapsody in Blue." It is arguably the best-known of the classical pieces used in Fantasia 2000, and has been prominently featured in multiple feature films and television shows. The Disney animators chose to set "Rhapsody in Blue" in New York City, which could be an additional invitation to simply regurgitate other filmmaker’s visions. Instead, we get a bouncy animated version of the late Al Hirschfeld’s graphic style in which the fates of several New Yorkers (a jazz drummer, an out-of-work construction worker, a henpecked husband) are tightly bound together in a comical, yet sentimental storyline. This is not to detract from the other sequences, which include both traditional animation and computer-generated craftsmanship.
The film’s chief flaw is its use of multiple celebrity cameos to introduce each sequence. Steve Martin, James Earl Jones, Bette Midler, and Penn and Teller (among others) all make brief jokey appearances that lend Fantasia 2000 a "made-for-TV-special" vibe wholly out of sync with its origins as an IMAX film. I wish that Angela Lansbury, the last of the celebrities, had been permitted to be the film’s sole hostess. Not only does she have a strong Disney connection, but she also has a respectable array of dramatic, comedic, and musical credits that would have made her a perfect match for any version of Fantasia. The celebrities are poorly integrated, as is
The original Fantasia was not fully appreciated until a generation after the film was released, and its varied sequences have since come to be regarded as untouchable classics by many within animation. I can’t predict how future generations will view Fantasia 2000. I would argue that, in many cases, the creativity in Fantasia 2000 equals that of the original film, or at the very least is a worthwhile attempt to emulate the 1940 classic. On those grounds, the film succeeds in a way few other post-1999 Disney films do.
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