Director: Hendel Butoy
Art Directors: Dean Gordon, William Perkins
Featured Music: Ottorino Respighi
Animators:Linda Bel, Darrin Butts, Darko Cesar, Sasha Dorogov, Sergei Kouchnerov, Andrea Losch, Teresa Martin, Branko Mihanovic, William Recinos, William Wright

Description:

Stunning three-dimensional computer animation is used to bring life to a pod of whales that miraculously take flight when a supernova explodes above their iceberg-laden habitat. Director Hendel Butoy drew inspiration from Resphigi's dramatic composition and noted, It felt like the music just took off. It just soared. Our first objective was to find an idea that had to do with flight. One of our artists came up with an illustration of cloud-like images in the sky like the ones a child might imagine seeing. One drawing in particular of a whale just stood out and sparked the entire story. The music itself is lively and fun in the beginning, slower and more melancholy in the middle, and has a triumphant march at the end. The challenge was to structure a story or a concept with whales with that piece of music in mind.

Production Notes:

As visualized by the Fantasia 2000 creative team, Pines of Rome has nothing to do with either Rome or Pines. Instead, stunning three-dimensional computer animation is used to bring life to a herd of whales that miraculously take flight when a supernova explodes above their iceberg-laden habitat.
Sequence director Hendel Butoy remembers his impressions of Pines of Rome in this way:
It starts off with a burst like an explosion and I had this image of immediately taking off.

I pictured something having to do with flight. As we began to look for a story to go with that concept of flying, one of our artists came up with a sketch based on the shapes that children see in the clouds. One of the shapes she drew was a cloud whale and when I saw that image it struck me as something I hadn’t seen before. It was worth exploring as an idea to go along with flight and this music.

From there, the ideas starting flowing freely. The sequence would involve a herd of humpback whales that magically and majestically take flight. An exploding aurora or supernova triggers the extraordinary event. Within this context, a young whale is separated from its family and a series of events add to the drama.
When you think about it, whales really do have a lighter than air quality to them, says Butoy. They’re like big blimps suspended in the sea and moving effortlessly around in the water. The idea of putting them in an environment that you’ve never seen them in before was appealing. The music has a structure to it. It’s very lively and fun in the beginning and then it slows down a bit and gets more melancholy towards the middle. The ending has a triumphant march. The challenge for us was to figure out how to structure a story with these whales set to that piece of music.
If somebody else heard Pines of Rome, they might have done something entirely different, he adds. But I had the privilege of being the one asked ‘What comes to your mind when you listen to this piece of music?’ We were able to just imagine it and have our artistic vision become a reality on screen. That’s what makes it so exciting.
Whale experts were brought in to lecture the production team and discuss their locomotion and anatomy. Animation for the whales was done using the latest computer tools while the impressive underwater effects were done largely by hand. Susan Thayer and M. J. Turner were the CGI leads responsible for overseeing the whale characters.
David Bossert, visual effects supervisor for the film, explains, The challenge was trying to blend traditional animation effects with computer generated whales that were realistic looking.We really had to bring the two together in order to make it believable for the audience. We resurrected some old techniques that were used on the 1940 Fantasia and were able to recreate them using new tools on the computer.
Art director Dean Gordon observes, We went for a very bright saturated palette. We didn’t want the piece to be photorealistic. Even in a dark underwater setting, we had the liberty to light it any way we wanted to. We took our artistic cues from the music. In this case, it starts off very bright and sparkling so we do the same thing with our palette. But then there are some real mood changes within the piece. So we took the saturated color and dropped it to dark and neutral. The light and the saturation build back up as the music does. It’s like visual poetry. There’s a thread that runs through it and leaves the audience to interpret things on their own.

One of the first records I bought when I got my first hi-fi set back in the ‘50s was Pines of Rome, recalls Disney. And I’ve been listening to it on and off ever since. This was a piece that was on our list from the very beginning for Fantasia 2000.

According to James Levine, The Pines of Rome was exciting to me because it was a really original idea. Clearly, the music was composed by a man who had a very strong specific idea. And here, this very same music suggested something completely different to the director and the animators. That to me, is the essence of Fantasia. Music can and does have different meanings to individual listeners.

Musical Background:

Composed in 1924, Pines of Rome is a tone poem that was inspired by memories and nostalgic thoughts of Roman landscapes. It is part of his acclaimed Roman Trilogy which also includes The Fountains of Rome and Roman Festivals. Born in Bologna, Italy, Respighi began studying the violin when he was only eight. By the time he was twenty, he was also a brilliant viola player and an accomplished pianist. By 1900, he had composed his first major work. That same year, he went to Russia to perform in St. Petersburg. This was followed by a five-month study session with Russia’s famed composer, Rimski Korsakov, who took great interest in the young man’s work.
Respighi based his music on church modes and plainchant. He is best known for his orchestral arrangements. His music has been described as romantic-impressionist because the melodies are extended and fully developed and the orchestral sound has the richness of an impressionist landscape. Some music experts have suggested that Respighi’s music stimulates the imagination and makes the listener open to new experiences. Flying whales would certainly fit that description.