Executive
Producer: Roy E. Disney
Producer:
Donald W. Ernst
Supervising
Director: Hendel
Butoy
Segment Directors:Pixote
Hunt, Hendel
Butoy,
Eric
Goldberg, James Algar, Francis Glebas, Gaetan
& Paul Brizzi
Live Action
Segment Director: Don
Hahn
Original Music:
Bruce Broughton (transitions)
Conductor:
James Levine
Building upon Walt Disney's bold 1940 experiment in sight and sound, Fantasia 2000 offers an exciting showcase for the talents of a new generation of Disney animators and filmmakers as they visually interpret classical compositions by Beethoven, Shostakovich, Respighi, Saint-Saëns, Elgar, Gershwin and Stravinsky. Originally conceived as a “repertoire program” with changing musical selections, the film returns in time for the millennium with seven new selections plus The Sorcerer’s Apprentice from the 1940 classic. World renowned conductor James Levine takes up the baton this time out as he leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Like its pioneering predecessor, this new version of Fantasia embraces all the latest technological tools and innovations to tell its stories and create breathtaking imagery. This production is under the personal supervision of Roy Edward Disney, who serves as chairman of Walt Disney Feature Animation.
Walt Disney’s dream of creating a
“concert film” with a perpetually changing musical repertoire is at last
realized with the debut of the animated extravaganza, Fantasia 2000.
The film introduces seven spectacular new animated sequences set to the
music of the masters and spotlights the return of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,
a milestone piece of animation which was the genesis of the 1940 feature.
Created over a nine-year period and utilizing the talents of a new generation
of top animation talents, Fantasia 2000 takes viewers on a journey
into the imagination using incredible animated imagery, exquisite classical
music and state-of-the-art technology. The project was initiated and spearheaded
by Roy Edward Disney, vice chairman of The Walt Disney Company and head
of animation. He also served as executive producer for the project. Fantasia
2000 arrives in time for the start of a new century and offers a series
of stories and images emphasizing hope, optimism and new beginnings.
The 1940 release of Fantasia
represented perhaps Walt Disney’s boldest experiment and culminated his
desire to blend animation with classical music. What had begun as a vehicle
to bring new popularity to Mickey Mouse’s career (with a short called The
Sorcerer’s Apprentice) blossomed into a full-blown feature that remains
unique in the annals of animation. Walt had great ambitions for Fantasia.
He envisioned making a new version of Fantasia every year. He observed,
Fantasia
is timeless. It may run 10, 20 or 30 years. It may run after I am gone.
Fantasia
is an idea in itself. A series of financial difficulties ultimately
curtailed Disney’s plans for the film and, in time, his interests shifted
to other projects.
Fantasia 2000 continues and
builds upon Walt Disney’s original idea with the creation of a new musical
program interpreted by a group of distinguished Disney artists and storytellers.
Adding to the fun and entertainment, celebrity hosts from the various arts
appear on screen to introduce each of the segments. Included in that prestigious
group are Steve Martin, Itzhak Perlman, Bette Midler, Quincy Jones, James
Earl Jones, Penn & Teller and Angela Lansbury. Maestros Leopold Stokowski
and James Levine also make appearances.
Veteran Disney animator Hendel
Butoy came on board as supervising director for Fantasia 2000
and personally directed two of the film’s new segments as well. Donald
W. Ernst, a veteran editor and co-producer of the 1992 Disney blockbuster,
Aladdin,
took on the assignment of producer. Don
Hahn, one of the Studio’s most successful producers was enlisted to
direct the film’s live-action introductions. Supervising the direction
of the film’s other animated segments are Eric
Goldberg, Pixote Hunt, Francis Glebas and Gaetan
& Paul Brizzi. David Bossert served as artistic coordinator and
visual effects supervisor for the film’s seven new animated pieces.
One of the key elements in making
Fantasia
2000 a reality was the involvement of a major musical talent as an
active collaborator. Renowned maestro Leopold Stokowski had joined forces
with Walt Disney to help create the 1940 classic. For this latest project,
the filmmakers turned to acclaimed conductor James Levine, whose 28-year
association with the Metropolitan Opera has earned him a special place
in the musical world. Among the many highlights of Levine’s career was
a 20-year stint as music director at the Ravinia Festival where he led
the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Based on that long-time connection, that
orchestra was selected to record the new musical selections for Fantasia
2000. Five sessions took place over several years at Chicago’s historic
Medinah Temple, where state-of-the-art digital recordings were made to
capture the acoustics of an authentic concert hall. The first session took
place in 1993. As many as 110 musicians took part in each of those sessions.
Peter Gelb served as executive music producer. Jay David Saks was the audio
producer.
For the Rhapsody in Blue
segment, acclaimed film composer Bruce Broughton conducted a group of top
Studio musicians at a recording session in Los Angeles. Ralph Grierson
was brought in to provide the complex and highly regarded piano solo. The
score for The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which has been digitally restored
for Fantasia 2000, features the original music conducted by Stokowski.
Levine, who had been influenced
by
Fantasia
as a young boy, was eager to be a part of this latest Disney project. I
could hardly wait to say yes, he recalls. I was so thrilled that
they thought of me and asked me to do it. It’s been great fun to watch
the animation come to life because, of course, I had to understand the
animation concept before we recorded the music. I was happy that they trusted
what I was doing and it was very easy to trust what they were doing. I
could see right away what a large group of incredibly talented people this
work takes.
James had very strong feelings
about the integrity of the music and made that the first of the building
blocks, notes Roy Disney. He was well aware of what our stories
were going to be but he had a tremendous belief that if he did the music
right, we not only could but would be able to animate to it.
The notion of creating new segments
for Fantasia had been in Roy Disney’s mind ever since he was 12
and his father (Walt’s brother and Studio co-founder, Roy O. Disney) had
told him about Walt’s interest in adding a Flight of the Bumble Bee
sequence where the sound would fly around the theater with the title character.
Years later, in the mid-80s, Disney gained the support of Company chairman
Michael Eisner when he told him that Fantasia was his favorite film
and explained Walt’s original concept for the film. The incredibly successful
home video release of Fantasia in 1991 attested to the film’s enduring
popularity and gave him the impetus he needed to pursue his dream.
Selecting the musical program for
Fantasia
2000 required a great deal of thought and consideration. Disney observes,
It
had to be descriptive music. It had to be something that had the sense
of a story progression, somehow or another, and it had to be just appealing
to us as music. We had a lot of fun picking the music. In making their
choices for the musical program, the filmmakers listened to hundreds of
pieces of music, including many that were suggested for the original 1940
production.
Like its pioneering predecessor,
this continuation of Fantasia embraces all the latest technological
tools and innovations to tell its stories and create breathtaking imagery.
Each of the new segments uses a style or combination of approaches that
is right for that particular story. For example, the animated whale characters
in Pines of Rome were created with the help of computer generated
imagery. The ballerina in The Steadfast Tin Soldier (set to the
music of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto #2) required the design of a new
computer program that would allow the hair and costume to move in response
to the animator’s efforts. A special particle system was implemented for
the first time in The Firebird sequence to allow some spectacular
movement and effects. Those sequences are in contrast to the Rhapsody
in Blue number, which is an elemental kind of animation using stylized
drawings on a flat plane; the rich classic 1940s style animation of Donald
Duck in Pomp and Circumstance; and the “painterly” pastel look and
traditional styling of Beethoven’s Fifth.
Fantasia made motion picture
history in 1940 when it became the first film to be recorded and released
in stereophonic sound. The process was called “Fantasound” and the film
traveled from city to city in special roadshow engagements. For the New
York premiere, 36 speakers were installed behind the screen, with 54 others
placed throughout the orchestra and balcony at a cost of $85,000. The release
of Fantasia 2000 is similarly making motion picture history. With
its exclusive debut at IMAX® theaters on January 1, 2000, it has the
distinction of being the first theatrical feature-length film ever released
in this giant-screen, large format process.
Preceding the simultaneous worldwide
release in IMAX, Fantasia 2000 had its world premiere at New York’s
famed Carnegie Hall on December 17, 1999, where the film was shown with
live accompaniment by the 120 piece Philharmonia Orchestra. This was followed
by similar live performances in London, Paris and Tokyo. The film also
provided the centerpiece for the Fantasia 2000 Millennium Eve Gala,
held at the Pasadena Civic Center on December 31st.
According to Roy Disney, One
of the things I’ve always felt Fantasia accomplished was to move
animation into a realm where it was accepted as an art form in a way that
probably never could have happened without it. And I think every animator
that’s ever lived since then has in some way been influenced by it, sometimes
in rebellious ways. It’s a great idea when you think about it. Putting
this really beautiful visual experience along with a really beautiful musical
experience. It goes beyond either thing to become something unique.
In its heart of hearts, Fantasia
is a very personal kind of movie,
he adds. It’s a movie that is intended to touch each viewer in a very
personal way. It’s a bunch of stories that are grouped together in a way
that leads you from one place to another by way of the little side trips.
And some of them are funny and some are emotional, some are dramatic but
they all have emotional content that adds up to more than the sum of their
parts. You can do things in a short piece that you probably wouldn’t do
in a feature-length film. And you can experiment with the medium in a way
that you can’t in a feature. It’s good for the art and the artist.
In many ways, it started as a
gift to the artist. It was a gift to the people who had the urge to create
something like this. And what we did was to dole it out to a lot of very,
very talented people who were very much in love with every frame of what
they did. These are all very personal pieces. Each one by itself has something
interesting and informative to offer.
Thomas Schumacher, president of
Walt Disney Feature Animation, notes, Roy is the Godfather of animation;
the patron saint. He is the one who fought to make sure animation stayed
alive at Disney. He fought for all of the technical advances that animation
has made over the past 15 years. Roy was really a driving force behind
that and has been a constant source of ideas for what we should do and
where we should be pushing the art form. Fantasia 2000 is very
personal to him. It is a project that touches him very deeply and he has
put his soul into making it. It involves stories that touch him and artists
that he strongly believes in. When you see this movie, you are seeing something
that grew out of his passion. Without Roy Disney, there would be no Fantasia
2000. This is his baby.
When you buy a ticket to Fantasia
2000, you’re buying a ticket for a journey into the whole range of
animation – character animation, experimental animation, fantasy animation,
realistic animation. It’s a spiritual journey that captures the personal
vision of some amazingly talented animators. It’s also an opportunity to
be reminded that animation is pure artistry. Audiences can come in and
see the art of animation explored in a wide range. It’s truly extraordinary.
Peter Schneider, president of The
Walt Disney Studios, adds, Fantasia revolutionized what classical
music was to people. It certainly captured their hearts and attention and
demystified what classical music was. As we enter the 21st Century, I think
Fantasia
2000 will once again bring classical music to audiences that are not
used to listening to it.
When Roy Disney decided to carry
on Walt’s legacy, I think it really brought the whole Studio full circle,
says Schneider. It was an opportunity for him to bring together everything
he had dealt with throughout his career – the nature films, the animation,
the legacy of telling stories in a new way by combining artistry and new
technology. Roy has been the champion of this film from day one and he’s
been the champion of animation for the last 15 years. Our goal at Disney
has been to make the audience laugh and cry and feel something about the
images they see. And I believe Fantasia 2000 will move you because
of the images on the screen. The synthesis of music and image and color
will bring together an emotion inside your heart and your soul and your
mind. If we can make you feel all those things, then we’ve been successful.
Peter Gelb, the film’s executive
music producer and president of Sony Classical, observes, The 1940 Fantasia
was a film that I grew up with and it’s the single most significant piece
of electronically recorded classical music in history, in terms of countless
millions of people whose lives have been impacted by it. The chance of
working on a continuation is something that I don’t think anybody in the
classical music world would ever want to pass up. This film will reach
a huge new audience for classical music and that’s what makes it so important.
That’s an invaluable gift that Disney gives to audiences because it enables
them to be exposed to classical music, perhaps for the first time, in a
way that will draw them into this world and get them excited about it.
A piece like the ‘Firebird Suite’ can be intimidating to a new audience
but by taking the essence and distilling it down to its main themes, it
becomes an introductory course in classical music to a general audience.
I imagine many will become interested and open to it through this exposure.
Maestro James Levine sums it up
in this way: Walt Disney is quoted as saying, ‘Fantasia is timeless;
it is an idea in itself. I can never build another. I can improve. I can
elaborate, but that’s all’. I truly believe we’ve achieved Walt’s vision
by elaborating and expanding upon his original masterpiece. Fantasia
2000 is a tribute not only to the music it presents but to the brilliance
of Disney’s staff of artists and animators. It takes Walt Disney’s masterpiece
to the next level of excellence.
He adds, Seeing the finished
animation turned me into a kid again. It was utterly irresistible and I
was hypnotized and enthralled immediately just like I had been when I’d
seen the original. The whole experience has been incredibly joyous from
beginning to end because of the tremendous number of talented people involved
in making it – the animators and all the musicians who played and sang.
I will be surprised if the viewer doesn’t feel some of that energy that
the people who made the film tried to give it.
In its earliest form, the project
was called Fantasia Continued and the plan was to keep half of the
content from the 1940 release and have the other half consist of new pieces.
As the development progressed and the ideas started to flow, it became
clear that that formula needed to be adjusted. Suggestions for music came
from everywhere. Animators were invited to present ideas for their personal
favorites at the regularly scheduled “gong show” meetings with Roy Disney,
Thomas Schumacher and other key members of the Feature Animation creative
team.
Once we got the go ahead to explore,
the first thing I did was to go back and reflect on what the original one
was and how it worked, recalls Disney. It wasn’t just a collection
of short subjects but rather it was an entity unto itself. It took you
on a journey with a beginning, a middle and an ending in the emotional
and intellectual sense. I knew I wanted the beginning of Fantasia 2000
to be an abstract piece that would lead you into the bigger notion that
music and picture work together to create a unique experience. The ending
had to replicate that very deep sense of birth and resurrection that ended
the 1940 Fantasia. So we really started looking for those two pieces
of music first. There’s a whole progression that’s got to take you on this
journey in between and we wanted some humor, some emotion and some fantasy.
We began listening to pieces of music that had those elements.
Disney began to put together a team
to help make his dream a reality. He found a willing collaborator in Hendel
Butoy, a 20-year Studio veteran who had just finished directing The
Rescuers Down Under. Butoy had heard rumors that a continuation of
Fantasia
was being considered. He told Thomas Schumacher that he would love to be
involved in such a project. About three months later, in January 1991,
he was startled to get a call from Roy Disney.
I just love the idea of putting
a story to classical music, notes Butoy. When I was animating, I’d
always listen to the music and let it inspire me. Classical music has always
been my favorite. Roy sent me six or seven pieces of music to listen to
and the whole project just grew from there. Pines of Rome stood
out for me from all the rest. It’s the one that just transported
me to a place where I could let my imagination run wild.
With his impressive background in
editing and production, Don Ernst was an obvious choice to produce Fantasia
2000. He joined the feature in February 1993, following a stint as
executive producer of Disney’s live-action remake of The Incredible
Journey.
Ernst recalls, I remember my
grandmother taking me to see Fantasia in Westwood when I was six
years old. I was tremendously impressed at the time and it’s been one of
my favorites ever since. I have always loved classical music and my father
was a music editor who spent his career working at 20th Century Fox and
MGM. After meeting with Roy, I couldn’t wait to get involved with Fantasia
2000. My background as an editor gave me a tremendous advantage in
being able to fit the stories to the music and piecing together parts of
the puzzle.
Working with Roy has been a joy
and a great learning experience, adds Ernst. He’s a very creative
collaborator who is intelligent, very understanding and always listens
to what you have to say.
Disney observes, Animation has
always been about drawing a frame at a time and exposing those frames to
the camera. It’s gotten more sophisticated because we can now let the computer
fiddle with those things. But the beauty of animation for me, and the thing
that makes this all very universal and brings it all together, is that
it’s still the mind and the hand and the paper and the vision. And it’s
art. No matter how you define it and what the technological process is
you’re going through, that’s what separates it from every other medium
I know.
He sums up his role on Fantasia
2000 in this way: Walt used to say that he was the bee that went
around pollinating the various talents at the Studio. I guess that’s the
part I’m playing with this film. I thank Michael Eisner for trusting me.
I really am enormously happy with the film. I think it’s really going to
blow people away.
With eight different segments comprising
the film, Fantasia 2000 required a unifying element that would bring
it all together as one cohesive entertainment extravaganza. Many concepts
were explored during the course of production. Veteran Disney producer
Don
Hahn took on the challenge of conceptualizing and directing this important
element of the film. Pixote Hunt created the look and design of the sets
in his role as art director. Irene
Mecchi, wrote the introductions in collaboration with Hahn and David
Reynolds.
It’s really like being entrusted
with the Studio’s crown jewels, says Hahn. I pinch myself sometimes
when I stop and think about it. It’s really about combining the art of
the animator and the art of the musician. The magnificent music of James
Levine and the Chicago Symphony and the wonderful artistry of the directors,
the animators, the painters and the craftsmen all come together and you’re
just swept away in the color and motion and sound. I think that’s the wonder
of Fantasia.
And to be on the set with Roy
Disney and hear him talk about his uncle and his dad and how much Fantasia
meant to them is truly amazing,
adds Hahn. It was really special to see Roy pick up the baton and run
with it to rekindle that spirit that they must have had back in the forties.
Creating the interstitials was
an opportunity to come up with some solutions for introducing the pieces
that wouldn’t take away from the pieces themselves, he observes. It’s
all about the animation. It’s all about the segments. And you really just
want to create a bridge to support that and frame the sequence for the
audience. We tried to get a band of eclectic performers from the arts and
create an imaginative setting that would support the sequence.
Pixote Hunt recalls, Don Hahn
basically came up with the concept of setting up the orchestra pit in the
middle of nowhere; probably in the middle of your imagination. He had the
idea of these sails coming in and out of the set. I figured if we’re going
to set these sails up in your imagination, they should be translucent and
transparent so we could see the edges. We wanted to give an homage to the
1940 Fantasia so we still have the shadows and the sails behind
us. We still have color in the shadows, but we’ve given it all a year 2000
look.
We tried to make everything on
the set seem alive. The sails have the ability to move – they shrink and
grow, they spin, turn and fly. Even the little lights that you see on the
light stands are alive. They zip in and light up the lights. They have
personalities. This has been one of the most exciting projects I have ever
been on in my life. I would never have dreamed that I would be a part of
Fantasia.
It’s a dream come true for all of us. I have seen Fantasia more
than any other film in my life.
The first movement is Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, featuring abstract 3D computer animation similar to Toccata and Fugue in Fantasia; following The Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi, Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin, The Steadfast Soldier by Dimitri Shostakovich, Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saent-Saens, The Sorcerer's Apprentice (the only remaining segment from Fantasia), Pomp and Circumstance by Edward Elgar, and Firebird Suite by Igor Stravinsky. Originally, A Night on Bald Mountain, The Nutcracker Suite and Dance of the Hours were to be included, but finally, they were cut.
Fantasia 2000 was originally
paced for release in 1997 as Fantasia Continued, but in the beginning
of June Disney threw out the Beethoven's Fifth segment they'd had
in production for six months and went hunting for new ideas to go with
Beethoven's
Fifth. Also, Fantasia Continued production quotas were very
low which was slowing down production.
The Los Angeles Times reported that,
despite the small addition, the new Fantasia was fast becoming a troubled
production. As its title suggests, the film would debut in the year 2000,
a three year delay from its originally planned release. The Times article
stated that Fantasia 2000 could also join Waterworld and
Titanic
as one of the most expensive films ever made, when only three of the six
new segments were completed, and two more years of production to go, the
budget would reach $100 million.
The exclusive four-month run in Imax theaters around the world from January 1-April 30, 2000, was announced by the Walt Disney Company on Tuesday February 9th of 1999 at its annual animation presentation for exhibitors, press and promotional partners in New York. This marked the first theatrical feature-length animated film to be printed in IMAX's 15/70 film format and released to the giant-screen IMAX theater network. IMAX theaters utilize the world's largest film format (10 times larger than a conventional 35mm frame) to project super-sharp images on screens up to eight stories high, ccompanied by state-of-the-art sound systems that make audiences feel as though they are part of the events unfolding on-screen.
Fantasia 2000 got the celebration of the new millennium off to a spectacular start in December with a dazzling world premiere at Carnegie Hall and a two-week world tour featuring live symphony concerts/screenings in London, Paris, Tokyo, and Los Angeles. Commencing on December 17 with the world premiere at Carnegie Hall in New York, renowned maestro James Levine conducted the 120-piece London Philharmonic Orchestra in a live concert that was played in synch with the film's animated imagery. Following two additional performances at Carnegie Hall (December 18 and 19), the ensemble embarked on a one-week world tour that included concerts/screenings in London (December 21 at Royal Albert Hall), Paris (December 22 at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees), and Tokyo (December 27 at the Orchard Hall). The orchestra returned to California for a special New Year's Eve engagement, the Fantasia 2000 Gala at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, where 2,000 special guests greeted the turn of the century with a live performance and a screening of the film. Following the film, guests attended a gala New Year's Eve party.
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Fantasia 2000|Beethoven's
Fifth Symphony |
Pines
of Rome |Rhapsody
in Blue |Steadfast
Tin Soldier
Carnival
of the Animals | Sorcerer's
Apprentice | Pomp and
Circumstance | Firebird
Suite