Fantasia 2000
Written: Jan 01 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lovely, lovely. Go see it.
Cons: Relies to heavily on already obsolete technology and technological constructs. If you try to watch it anywhere but in an IMAX setting you will experience only part of the experience this film is.
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| james_hess's Full Review: Fantasia/2000 |
The dawn of a new age. So sayeth the pundits and denizens of the news media.
The dawn of a new age? Really? Perhaps it would have more truthful to say: Old is new again.
With a twist or two, appropriate to the time and age.
Just consider, as example, Walt Disney's forever masterpiece: "Fantasia".
Flush with the critical and commercial success of his animated feature film, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", Walt Disney set forth and produced, in 1940, another masterful animated feature film, "Fantasia".
In and of itself "Fantasia" was (and remains) a masterpiece: The perfect coupling of animation and classical music.
But Disney wasn't satisfied with this. He wanted more from his would-be audiences. He, in fact, demanded more: He said the film "Fantasia" could only be shown in theaters that were properly outfitted to accommodate the film.
Understandably, given the still-new feeling towards films and movies, theater owners and operators balked at the demand, and Disney's next certain success crashed and burned financially.
Originally, the story goes, Disney intended to make "Fantasia" an organic work--a film that was constantly changing: Here a new segment, there a new musical score; here the removal of a known character, there the addition of a previous unknown.
The logic to this, it is said, was to keep the movie-goer coming. (Think you have seen this film, "Fantasia"? Think again. It isn't the film you saw before.)
Disney's desire to do this died with him. But now, now on the dawn of a new age, comes Roy Disney, Walt's nephew, with an intent to follow this great man's path in making films alive in ways not even the latest technology can accomplish or hope to achieve: "Fantasia 2000".
"Fantasia 2000" is not "Fantasia". "Fantasia 2000" is not a sequel to "Fantasia". Nor is it an equal to the original.
What it is, "Fantasia 2000", is a continuation. And an admirable one, at that.
Walt Disney's "Fantasia" was shot with the means of the time. Were Disney alive today he no doubt would have done what Roy has done: IMAX.
The original effort was deliberately constructed for a 64-speaker system in mind. This effort is meant for IMAX and IMAX only. (I shudder at the rumors that say it will eventually be processed for 1/2" VHS.) IMAX is far beyond that otherwise simple and crude 64 system. The screen alone is--has to be--at least four stories tall.
To say one will be immersed in "Fantasia 2000" is to make a certain understatement. It is not just a film, this effort. It is, without a doubt or room for discussion, an event. One worthy of the dawning of a new age.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
james_hess
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Member: James Hess
Location: Loveland, CO
Reviews written: 70
Trusted by: 16 members
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