LogFAQs > #983566047

Fantasia 2000
Originally released June 16, 2000

A couple months ago, I watched Fantasia and scored it 1/10 because I found it really boring and pretentious. People in this topic hated me for that opinion, but I stand by it. Fantasia is boring and pretentious and I hate it. Every last goddamn second of it.

Fantasia 2000? I went into it with low expectations, because it's essentially a sequel to a movie I really didn't like at all. And... I kind of like it a lot better. Like Fantasia before it, it's broken down into multiple segments of varying length set to classical music, but the animation here is a lot more fun and, well, animated. The original Fantasia had some really animated segments for sure, but overall came across like they were trying too hard to be high-brow animation. In Fantasia 2000 they lean into things like a flamingo dicking around with a yo-yo, or Donald and Daisy Duck on Noah's Ark and each believing the other are dead due to repeatedly bad timing. They're not afraid of slapstick with this one and it made it more entertaining to watch.

But what really improved it for me is that each segment has its own narrative and story it's telling, with a defined beginning, middle, and end point. The majority of the original Fantasia felt like it was just doing nothing, but here every cartoon had a point to it and knew exactly how long it needed to be. The yo-yo flamingo one was very short because it was by far the simplest story; a flamingo had a yo-yo and the other flamingos were annoyed. Other segments, like the people in the Great Depression, were genuinely fun to watch and each character had his or her own identifiable personality and goal. There was actual storytelling here, not just pixies frolicking for twenty goddamn minutes.

Each segment is introduced by a different celebrity host, with varying results. Penn and Teller felt like an odd choice, James Earl Jones clearly had fun with it, and Steve Martin had too much fun with it to the point that you could actually see annoyance on some of the musicians sitting there while he played a violin poorly.

So, yeah, Fantasia 2000 makes up for Fantasia 1940 being a snoozefest. It's still not the most engaging watch, but it's decently entertaining. I don't think it's something I'd choose to watch again of my own free will when I have other movies available (I'm just really not a huge fan of the anthology format), but if somebody puts a gun to my head and forces me to choose between the two Fantasias, I'd pick this one in a heartbeat. At least I'll stay awake.

Final Score: 7/10

Yeah, I know it's a short review, but there's honestly not too much to say. It's still a Fantasia movie.