Directed by: Don Hahn/Pixote Hunt/Hendel Butoy/Eric Goldberg/James Algar/Francis Glebas/Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi
Written by: Kirk Hanson/Don Hahn/Irene Mecchi/David Reynolds/Kevin Yasuda/James Fujii/Eric Goldberg/James Capobianco/Ron Meurin/Perce Pearce/Carl Fallberg/Robert Gibbs/Terry Naughton/Todd Kurosawa/Pat Ventura/Don Dougherty/Stevie Wermers/Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi
Based partly on stories by: Hans Christian Andersen/Whoever wrote The Bible
I watched this while I was on an extended hiatus from the site, so this will be a pretty short review.
The orginal Fantasia is a stone-cold masterpiece. Two hours of beautiful classical music videos. There’s just nothing wrong with that movie (outside of a couple of outdated ideas about race).
This is not as good, but it’s still quite good. Walt’s original idea was that Fantasia would be ever-changing, just like his later parks. But the original bombed so badly that he decided to let it go. In 1998 or so, the company picked up his idea and went with it. They kept a couple of sequences and added others. Some of them are amazing (that final sequence), but some are kinda boring. And the introductions are really hit or miss. Instead of one host, there are many. And none of them are as engaging as Deems Taylor. Steve Martin is one of my favorite humans, but he’s misused in this. So are Penn & Teller.
But definitely see it. It’s still beautiful and worth the time.