In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

The original "Fantasia" was groundbreaking for its time and it aged very well; it really challenged our imagination. So, an update/sequel was really necessary? Let's see. The first segment contains some of the most repulsive patterns and textures I've ever seen; it almost gave me a headache... blah! The second segment is even worse; the idea might have been good but dear God, those wales look awful! I don't really complain about the CGI, but here, it simply doesn't work combined with traditional animation. Fortunately, here comes the best segment (third); it looks really cool and has some dynamic animation combined with great ideas; it puts a smile on your face; too bad it wasn't released separately. The fourth segment is pretty meh; I don't know, the animation is not very appealing; it really lacks something; too synthetic and lifeless. Pass. Then, a breath of fresh air; good ol' slapstick humor; short and sweet. The sixth segment is the definition of redundancy; what were they thinking?! The final 2 segments are just OK but I've seen similar ideas done much better; so, still meh. Also, Steve Martin... really??!... REALLY?? So, "Fantasia 2000" is worth watching just for the 3rd and 5th segment.

From Uncle Walt's own admittance, "Fantasia" was the kind of one-hit wonder that could only be elaborated, improved but never duplicated, I don't even think it could be improved. It wasn't a kind of something, but one of a kind. There can't be another "Fantasia" as much as there can't be another Mona Lisa or Eiffel Tower. I guess that Walt Disney meant the "concept" of "Fantasia" rather than the finished result. After all, there couldn't make a second "Bambi" but they could make "The Lion King".So the concept can be duplicated indeed and for as long as animation is here to entertain children and adult, the temptation to combine music and drawings in a harmony of sounds, shapes and colors would be too great not to yield to it. I myself do a lot of editing and I can relate to the satisfaction in combining movements with music, I can relate to the struggle to find the right musical piece to match visual footage or the opposite. "Fantasia" plays in another league of course, but this is the common denominator between the professional wizards and the computer's sorcerer's apprentices, we use music as an imagination tool and animation as a choreography. Any work combining both is a potential "Fantasia" segment. Inimitable maybe, but inevitable indeed.But ever since its iconic predecessor, the sequel of "Fantasia" had been delayed for years and years. It was a dream from Walt Disney to make it a series, a franchise but the relative failure at the box-office put an end to this dreams. There would be no "Fantasia" sequel but the Disney Studios still provided between 1941 and 1950, two animated musical based on the same structure: "Melody Time" and "Make my Music". These films were made on the cusp of the first Golden Age and the Renaissance with "Cinderella" and were not lacking charm of their own. "Blame it on the Samba", "The Flight of the Bumblebee", "Casey at the Bat" and "Peter and the Wolf" were among the few shorts that emerged above the overall forgettable quality of these movies, at a time where Disney was looking for a second breath of creativity. It is said that it was the success of home video release of "Fantasia" in the early 90's that convinced Roy E. Disney to make the sequel, it was the project of the decade, taking years and years within the 90's to collect and reassemble all the vignettes, initially, three clips from "Fantasia" were supposed to be kept but at the end, only "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" made it."Fantasia 2000" tries to capture the same magic of the Creation of the World sequence with a ballet of flying whales, the abstract opening with Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is a reminiscent of Toccata E Fogue in D Minor from Johann Sebastian Bach and you can tell the Pink Flamingoes is a cute nod to the ballet of hippos and alligators, and it's the part I enjoyed the most, short, funny and whimsical.And the film doesn't always keep itself under the first one's shadow, it features an interesting sketchy version of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" paying a tribute to veteran caricaturist Harry Hirschfield and a second short involving a beloved Disney figure, a reconstitution of the Noah Ark episode with Donald Duck. But as visually energetic and beautiful as these shorts look, there's something that seems to fall flat ever since it starts, whether it's the knowledge that most of it is computer imagery or because it just takes itself too seriously for its own good. I mean, flying whales or animals entering the ark, wasn't that a bit too pompous? The 'Donald' part was like a rehash on the Lion King's opening and didn't have much to offer. The "Blame it on the Samba" segment in "Melody Music" was a better use of the iconic duck, instead of Edgar's "Pump and Circumstances".And it is indeed "pompous in the circumstances", while not a disappointment, the film leaves a lot to be desired and doesn't 't succeed in capturing the magic of the first. It is also spoiled by the introductions from various celebrities (Steve Martin, Quincy Jones, Elizabeth Landsbury, Bette Midler) giving it the odd flavor of a TV ceremony rather or one of these "Once Upon a Time" documentaries rather than a legitimate theatrical feature film. The film even misses the opportunity of a great finale and ends in a very anticlimactic and rushed fashion with ending credits popping up right after the end of the last clip. If you're going to play it like a show, the least you can do is to say us goodbye and wishing we've enjoyed it. It must have looked great in these IMAX theaters but the format was kind of cheap given the spectacular entertainment it was supposed to be.It is very ironic that the sequel of "Fantasia", as intended so, was released, in 1999 at the end of Disney Renaissance with "Tarzan" and before the sorry trend of sequels to previous classics. I still don't know if we should consider "Fantasia 2000" as the worst movie of the Disney Renaissance or the best sequel made in that trend, but it wouldn't make the Top 10, not even Top 20 of the best Disney experiences on screen, it certainly looks great and some parts are magnificent-looking, but overall, the quality is very uneven.

Fantasia 2000 (1999): Dir: James Algar, Gaetan Brizzi, Paul Brizzi, Hendel Butoy, Francis Glebas, Eric Goldberg, Don Hahn, Pixote Hunt / Featuring: Steve Martin, Angela Lansbury, James Earl Jones, Bette Midler, Quincy Jones: Marking the 60th anniversary of one of the greatest achievements in animation and music. It also celebrates the beginning of a new century through one of Disney's greatest classics. It is beautifully animated yet it lacks the magic that made the original so unique. The filmmakers apparently attempted to recapture that when they included The Sorcerer's Apprentice as part of this update, but it hardly matters. One big throwback is its ridiculous celebrity introductions by Steve Martin, James Earl Jones, Bette Midler, and Angela Launsbury. Even Quincy Jones lends his talent to this and cannot rise above looking foolish. These are all gifted performers, but here they are required to overact and look foolish in front of the camera. It is detailed with themes of death, reproduction, achievement, goals, individuality, and a Noah's ark sequence featuring Donald and Daisy Duck. The Sorcerer's Apprentice represents the timelessness of the original, but what will make this sequel timeless? This is not the art that Fantasia ultimately became but it is well directed with beautifully animated musical segments celebrating past and future. Score: 6 / 10

It's a reworking and remaking of the classic Disney Fantasia. The first superior aspect of this one compared to the original is the shorter length. Not all of it works but it works well enough to be compelling throughout. I love the George Gershwin section. It is obviously NYC but I also love the 1930s era. I love the animation style. I couldn't stop smiling and it has some great laughs. There is the redo of Mickey Mouse in The Sorcerer's Apprentice. It looks a little brighter without taking away the animation style. Donald Duck in Noah's Ark is funny. Overall, there are some slower sections but I just love the Gershwin section so much.