Fantasia

Inaugural Review

DVD Release of Fantasia/Fantasia 2000

Part One: Fantasia

Thank you and welcome to Mad-Eye’s View. I am Mad-Eye Louie and today we are looking at the DVD/Blu-Ray Review of Fantasia and Fantasia 2000. Personally, I picked up this disc set because it got two movies of my wish list in one shot. I had not seen either of these movies prior to picking up this set and actually had some buyer’s remorse before sticking it into my PS3 and playing it. Why buy it? After watching a few reviews and retrospectives on Fantasia and it’s sequel, I was intrigued at having two different packs of musical short movies.

First, some housekeeping. This review will go over a few main points. The first main point is the movie itself and my take on the film, the reaction to the film, and some behind the scenes if necessary. Secondly, I will cover the DVD and/or Blu-ray menu and review the ease of use, features given, and presentation. Thirdly, I will cover the cover. Yes, taking the cover of a DVD and/or Blu-Ray and giving my critique on it, including other various cover art featured on international versions and alternate covers, if there are any to be found. Finally, I will aggregate my score and present my recommendations to you, my dear reader, whereupon no doubt you will dissect and disseminate the information presented and make your own judgment. The over-arching goal of these reviews is not to persuade you to make a purchase or to present myself as some sort of authority. I am but a humble fan making articles to inform and entertain.

The Film Itself

Fantasia is an oddity in feature length film and animation. I guess the best way to describe it is animation in concert. There are seven animated shorts that are set to match with the accompanying music selections (eight if you count the intermission piece). There is quite a bit of history associated with this bit of Disney magic. Walt Disney reportedly wanted to continue this yearly or so, adding one or two pieces two it as a sort of legacy project. This is as in-depth as I’m willing to go without spoiling the extra features, which I will get to later on.

My personal viewpoint comes from my experience with it at home and at the daycare I work at. At home, I love watching the Special Features on this disc, especially the Blu-Ray features. I love the film and the atmospheric awesomeness that rises beyond the animation and the music to become an experience. Since people view animated films as kids stuff (there will probably be a rant about that somewhere in the future), I guess I should mention the beginning scenes with the abstract orchestra and their effect on the kids at my daycare. The opening scene almost invariably led to a “call out the color on the screen” game with the younger (3-5 year old) kids. Older kids reactions varied from interested to “head-stuck-in-their-Nintendo.” Oh, and the occasional “what’s going on?” question from one kid or another. Some kids and art, pffft.

Aside from that, I would often get requests for the dinosaur scene from “The Rite of Spring.” This actually happened more often than “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” I think this could be attributed to this group of kids actually getting to be treated like adults and seeing dinosaurs fighting and dying. Rather than traumatizing them, this death scene seemed to strike a chord of curiosity and interest because it was so different from what movies for kids are usually like.

“Night on Bald Mountain” is hard to explain to kids without getting religious. I deliberately kept it vague so that I wouldn’t get parent complaints about questionable subject matter. The term monster was used, in case you were wondering. Which actually brings up the point that the narrator is usually ignored to the point of boredom by the kids. Take what you will from that, but only occasionally (like with the dinosaurs) did anything Deems Taylor said. For my part, I like Taylor’s narration as an adult and he definitely shows his knowledge and love of the music.

This sections are just the ones that stand out to me. If you have a favorite, please let me know in the comments and I’ll either address them there or release an update to this post.

The Menu and Features

The DVD version menu is similar to the menu from Fantasia 2000, with just the scenes played in the background different (naturally). The Blu-Ray menu is similar, but a touch more interactive, with the lower border shifting to lift up the selection while playing a tone that increases in pitch as you go from left to right. The screens depicting scenes from the movie rotate and disappear off-screen to the left. These screens vary in size and give a fair assortment of scenes. The music for the menu is fairly unobtrusive and to my knowledge does not stop. If there is a loop, I didn’t see it, and if you the menu on that long you’re probably asleep.

Now for the special features. Only the audio commentary and the Disney Family Museum bit are available on the DVD. The other features listed are on Blu-Ray.

The Disney Family Museum featurette is a mini documentary on the opening of said museum. If you are a Disney fan, definitely give it a look on DVD or Blu-Ray. It’s not very long and it does come off as a bit of a showcase ad for the Museum.

The audio commentary is fairly standard. One track is Disney Historian Brian Sibley who seems to know what he’s talking about. The next is hosted by John Canemaker and gives interviews and story note recreations from Disney himself. The third commentary features Roy Disney, a conductor, a historian, and a film restorer and is my favorite of the bunch. Give it a listen if you’ve watched the film a few too many times and need to do something to keep it from getting stale.

The Schultisse Notebook feature is worth a look for just the historical value in animation alone. This feature gives a look into the making of Fantasia and the Special Effects at early Disney Animation Studio from the perspective of one of the staff. Animation history experts give us a look into the man and the solutions to the special effects questions of his day. The notebook is extensive in its depth and scope, giving minute details of the inner workings of the film. A voice-over in Shultisse’s own words makes it all the more personal. Some of the solutions from the pre-digital age of animation are just stunning in ingenuity. If you ever wondered how they made this movie magic, watch this feature.

The interactive art gallery is fairly impressive. I usually skip art galleries in these collections and only went through this one to give a complete review of the product. What strikes me most is the ability to rate and favorite the photos and stills in the gallery. The music can be turned on and off (a definite plus). There are different galleries for each of the parts of Fantasia. Give it a look over even if you don’t usually take a look at these things.

The last “feature” is a tedious ad for Disney File Digital Copy. If you don’t understand the idea of having a digital copy of your movie, then either ask your grandchildren or watch this feature. It wouldn’t bother me that much if it weren’t in many of the Disney collections I buy. Harmless in its own right, but do they really have to use my favorite films to push a simple idea?

The Cover, Case and Discs

The cover for the 2-movie collection features characters from Fantasia (although I guess you could cheat and say Sorcerer’s Apprentice Mickey is in both films and is therefore a tie). I didn’t realize how many characters there were until I took off the embossed over case because I still have the stickers in it. I like keeping the nice over-case because it’s shiny. Yeah, I know, not very intelligent, but it is what it is. The four discs inside are color coded, in that the only discs with color are the Blu-Ray. I wasn’t paying attention and put in the Blu-Ray once when I wanted the DVD, so I had to make that mental adjustment. The steely gray DVD’s are not fun to look at and really show the preference to Blu-Ray. I still have the three ads inside (as well as the security device sticker) but I really don’t feel like giving Disney more ad-space.

Overall, this 2-movie collection is really worth the money. I didn’t think I’d enjoy the features half as much as I did. Fantasia is as good as I heard it would be and it truly has something for everybody IF they give it a chance.

Thanks for reading. See you next time.

Sincerely,

----Mad-Eye Louie.