Review of Fantasia 2000 (2000) by Ryan V — 12 Mar 2012

Sixty years after Walt Disney's animators first set cartoons to classical music, they've conjured up seven new sequences for Fantasia 2000. The short segments range from maddeningly abstract (a swarm of triangular butterflies - or are they bats? - accompanies Beethoven's Fifth) to charmingly traditional (a Shostakovich-scored adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's toy story, ''The Steadfast Tin Soldier''). A Depression-era Manhattan tableau designed in homage to New York Times caricaturist Al Hirschfeld suits Gershwin's ''Rhapsody in Blue'' nicely, but the graduation-day staple ''Pomp and Circumstance'' inexplicably inspires biblical kitsch, a retelling of Noah's ark starring...Donald Duck. More than lives up to its clever positioning as the first movie of the new millennium. It provides some fine artists the chance to stretch and frolic, even as it reminds today's audiences of animation's limitless borders. If Walt Disney lived to see this, he would be very proud. My only complaint is that it was over too soon. It's so rare to be swept away by a presentation of this magnitude. By all means, go. The celebs who introduce the selections are equally random yet uniformly cheerful: Steve Martin, Bette Midler, Quincy Jones, Angela Lansbury, and James Earl Jones.

VERDICT: "High-Quality Stuff" - [Positive Reaction] This is a rating to a movie I view as very entertaining and well made, and definitely worth paying the full price at a theatre to see or own on DVD. It is not perfect, but it is definitely excellent. (Films that are rated 3.5 or 4 stars).