I liked this movie a lot, but not as much as the original. It was the first IMAX movie I've seen.

After the movie, I asked my boyfriend why he doesn't float in the air like Donald after getting kissed. He then tried, but landed kind of hard! :)

Argh! I was supposed to have the first one here since I suggested this board!!!

I have two nits for Disney's Fantasia 2000. I didn't really like the original Fantasia that much, but I loved this one, especially in IMAX.

First, in the whale scene where the baby whale is being 'transported" up the lighted tube, it looks like he is in water, as air bubbles flicker from his flukes. Yet as he floats out of the iceberg, it appears as if he is floating on air. It doesn't look like there was any outlet for the water anywhere, nor a division between water and air. (I'm truly a nitpicker to make note of something like that during such a beautiful sequence!)

The other is in the Rhapsody in Blue scene, where the down and out guy is sitting at the diner. On the sign on the wall behind him, it says "Two eggs any style -- 25 cents" ( I just found out there's no "cents" symbol on my keyboard, when did they get rid of that??) Yet when he goes outside, a sign in the front says "Two eggs -- 10 cents". I guess you have to pay an extra 15 cents to get them "any style"!

At least they didn't go ahead with the original sequel idea, as recounted by Andre Previn in his autobiographical work "No Minor Chords". Apparently, the head of Disney at the time (1989) had a fetish for the Beatles. His vision went something like this:
"I listened to all your suggestions, Andre, and frankly, I gotta tell you, there's not one single solitary piece of classical music that knocks my socks off. At first that realisation stopped me. But then I thought, what does "classical" mean anyway? Doesn't it mean something that'll never die?
Well, there's only one type of music... the only music since 1900 that will live forever- the Beatles! What we want you (Andre Previn) to do is make 2 hours worth of symphonic arrangements of the Beatles' Songs."
To which Previn made the mental response- what do the Beatles have to do with Fantasia?

I'm glad this former head of Disney evidently had no say in Fantasia 2000. The only music since 1900 that will live forever is the Beatles? What about Stravinsky, Shoshtakovich, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Mahler... I could go on. Of course, Paul McCartney's symphony might be interesting.

I loved the last one. It was like an anime styled short, yet was even better. Excellent, excellent. The rest was so-so, imo

I liked the Flamingo with a yo-yo

Dinosaur page please, Mr. Moderator? :)

Huh? No postings from people who hated it? I took my kids to see it and I wasted my money. The best segment was "The Socerer's Apprentice" and that came from the origional. Flying Whales? BFD! The Donald Duck bit was neither acurate scientifically or religiously (well, my religion anyway). The best thing I can say for it was it did not have too many notes. (Nickel to the first person who tells where that was from.) More seriously, it compares favorably with the origional Fantasia. Unfortunately that is a low hurdle. (Bach's "Conta and Fuge" and all it inspires is motion and shadow?)

The original Fantasia is remarkable for its ambition: it attempted to present a visual counterpart to classical works. Bach's "Toccata & Fugue in D Minor" successfully develops abstract images from the music (the animation is even more amazing when you remember it was all done by hand). Tchaikovky's "Nutcracker Suite is daring enough to use new images to illustrate a familiar piece. The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and "Dance of the Hours" are entertaining and compelling at the same time. And "Night on Bald Mountain" is as close to the perfect as you can get. Even the less successful sequences have merit. The dinosaurs in "Rites of Spring" are terrifying and facinating (even if the imagery is a little dated). The mythological figures in "Pastoral Symphony" are well animated, although their depiction is cloying to an extreme. And I understand that the animators wanted to end on a tranquil note after "Night on Bald Mountain". But the "Ave Maria" sequence really just makes you want the movie to be over.
Fantasia 2000 was designed to carry on the visual tradition of the original Fantasia, while at the same time highlighting modern animation technology and techniques. I haven't seen it on the regular movie screen or on video, but the original IMAX release took full advantage of that format. However, for the most part, I felt that the celebrity introductions detracted from the tone of the movie (although Steve Martin was funny, and the scene with Donald Duck in the shower was great).
In addition, Fantasia 2000 is neither as ambitious nor as consistently successful as its namesake. The decision to abridge the music, while probably for the best, left some of the sequences feeling truncated. (Carnival of the Animals suffered the most from this.) While I appreciated the attempt to recreate an abstract work, Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5" was neither abstract enough nor visually involving. "Pines of Rome" (the flying whales) ably demonstrated what computer assisted animation is capable of, but the dinosaurs in "Rites of Spring" were more interesting..
I didn't have any objections to "Pomp & Circumstance" (Donald Duck as Noah), but it didn't impress me too much either. I really liked "Rhapsody in Blue", but the style of animation didn't seem to work as well on the IMAX screen. Of the new sequences, "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" and "Firebird" really shine. As long as Disney can produce and release animation like this, they will be able to keep ahead to their competition.
BTW: In the movie "Amadeus", Emperor Joseph II's complaint about Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro" was that it had "too many notes" So where's my nickel William?

Most of the time the flying whales look great, but there's one shot of the mother(?) outside the iceberg looking in at the calf where they seem to have left out the skin texture. It looks awful. I liked most of this movie. The flamingo bit is hilarious.