The most notable differences between Fantasia 2000 and the original are just how short the final film is (only a few minutes longer than this album, allowing for the awkward cut sequences) and how much editing has occurred within many of the musical items. Beethoven's incalculably famous Fifth Symphony is cut down to not only just the first movement, but the first movement without repeats or the entire mid section. Given the tedium of the animation, this is just as well, but for anyone with more than a passing passion for Beethoven, it is something of a travesty. The original featured the entire of his Sixth Symphony, albeit with a better (if rather naff) story to tell.
Pines of Rome is not a piece I am familiar with, it has a definite filmic gloss to it that is quite appealing, but is frankly a minor entry in the classical repertoire. However, it is followed by one of the best sequences - a brilliantly idiosyncratic depiction of New York (where else?) set to Gershwin's stupendous Rhapsody in Blue, with piano solos by Ralph Grierson. After Woody Allen's Manhattan, Rhapsody in Blue is perhaps the music for the city and so the pairing here works perfectly. It is one of the shorter of the original versions, but at least was arranged by Gershwin himself.
The first of the two works by Russian masters comes in the shape of Shostakovich's witty Allegro from Piano Concerto No. 2 which itself is based on The Steadfast Tin Soldier. This of course means the animation can follow the story and thus is another of the visual highlights. It would be the biggest understatement to describe Carnival of the Animals as an extract, given that it's just the two minute finale. It's fun, but I'm rather surprised that the animators couldn't have been inspired to produce a little vignette for each of the animals in the full work. The best known sequence from the original is reprised in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, which appears to be a new recording and not the Stokowski original. Given the quality of the original tapes this was probably a wise move. The only instance where the music had to be recorded to the film and not the other way round.
If Elgar were alive, I suspect he'd be rolling in his grave if he heard the unbearably dire Pomp and Circumstance medley assembled here. Now I can accept attempting to make the marches play together without a break, but the liberties taken with the orchestration and the extra vocal and instrumental decoration are just awful. The Donald Duck answer to The Sorcerer's Apprentice - Donald on the Ark - is pretty abysmal too. The finale is another heavily edited classic from the second Russian entry, Stravinksy. The "1919 Version" comment in the credits suggests that it's an original suite (in other words, like Rhapsody in Blue, edited by the composer himself), but at nine minutes from the 45 minute suite usually performed, it is rather on the skimpy side. However, it features the best sequences and the spine tingling finale and it inspired me to get a more accomplished and longer performance that has become one of my favourite classical works.
The performances are all very good as would be expected, although conductor James Levine isn't quite the world famous baton waver that Leopold Stokowski was. It almost goes the other way from Stokowski's often incredibly idiosyncratic interpretations to Levine's solid, but not exactly inspired presentations. I certainly don't think any would feature as much above average interpretations. As a classical sampler it's passable, although given the number of bargain priced re-mastered re-releases of classic performances, possibly redundant. However, if the casual listener discovers something new in the classical repertoire, as I did with The Firebird, the that's good news. However, for everyone else it's solid performances of average to dire extracts of some relatively unknown (Pines of Rome) to incredibly famous (Beethoven's Fifth) classical pieces.
Rating ~ Total Time ~ 59:23
The original Fantasia was always meant to be an ongoing effort with one or more sequences replaced and a then re-release every few years. After the original failure, this never actually happened and so it was over fifty years after the original when Disney finally got around to making a sequel. Most people seem to view the original as a wonderful introduction to classical music or high kitsch. I'm not quite sure, but I certainly don't think this follow up is nearly as successful and is considerably less tasteful than the originals. The opening two numbers - featuring abstract shapes set to Beethoven and flying whales set to Respighi - are perhaps the worst: the first is frankly boring and the second is just horribly cute and not helped by Respighi's music which while pleasant enough is by far the weakest on purely musical terms compared to the giants of classical music elsewhere.
