Fantasia 2000 (1999) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Animation |
Introduction-Roy Disney Featurette-"Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom" |
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Rating |
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Year Of Production | 1999 | ||
Running Time | 71:30 | ||
RSDL / Flipper | No/No | Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Language Select Then Menu | ||
Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Various |
Studio
Distributor |
![]() Warner Home Video |
Starring |
James Levine Chicago Symphony Orchestra Itzhak Perlman Steve Martin Quincy Jones Bette Midler James Earl Jones Penn and Teller Angela Lansbury |
Case | Amaray-Transparent | ||
RPI | $36.95 | Music | Various |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Norwegian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Danish Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Greek Dolby Digital 2.0 ![]() |
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Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
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Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles |
English Hebrew English for the Hearing Impaired |
Smoking | No |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
The film once again has no plot per se, and the collection of music that the animation is interpreting is:
The execution of sight and sound here is not as sublime as in the original film, for the simple reason that modern orchestras and conductors are just not in the same class as those of the 1940s and 1950s. Still, amongst American orchestras, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra still ranks as one of the very best. However, my opinions of James Levine, its conductor, are not printable in public. Suffice it to say that amongst the recent classical recordings to emerge from a certain record label of international renown, his are some of the worst interpretations of the respective pieces of music that I have ever heard.
The executed animation in the film however certainly draws no complaints here at all. Indeed, some of this is utterly superb and two pieces in particular are quite amazing. Ottorino Respighi's famed The Pines Of Rome is accompanied by animation of whales and this is not only utterly different in interpretation for the music but brilliant animation in its own right. This could well be destined to be the standout segment from the film. The other segment is for Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird Suite, the animation being an interpretation of the renewal of life. Wonderful animation indeed.
Whilst I find it utterly presumptuous of Disney to emblazon the front cover with the word Classic, the film certainly has the potential to become one. A superb blending of sight and sound, although I would have thought that they could have come up with a bit more than just over an hour's entertainment after sixty years. After all, the original film managed not much short of two hours. Still, perhaps they are holding back stuff for say Fantasia 2010? I would not bet against it happening.
The opening few minutes of the film tell you everything about what this transfer is going to deliver. Beautifully sharp and detailed images, with plenty of clarity abound. This really is a visual delight to see, despite the rather disparate animation styles on offer here. Wonderfully clear throughout, there is no hint of grain or low level noise at all in the transfer. The only lapse in the whole thing is obviously the sixty year old The Sorcerer's Apprentice segment, but even this is hardly disgraced at all, and as I suggested earlier seems to look a lot better than in the original film.
Matching the beautiful transfer are some gorgeous colours that really have a whole life to them that demonstrates Disney animation at its best. However, even the live action introduction segments are superbly coloured and have a stunning purity of tone. The whole transfer is blessed with a wide ranging vibrancy to it that is unlikely to disappoint anyone. Apart from the slight problems with the inherent oversaturation in The Sorcerer's Apprentice segment of the film, there is no problem at at all with oversaturation nor colour bleed as far as I could see.
There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There was just the odd problem with film-to-video artefacts in the transfer, mostly some minor aliasing - most notably during the Rhapsody In Blue segment, whose animation style tends to highlight such problems. There are no problems in the transfer with film artefacts.
This is a single layer, single sided DVD so there is no layer change to be troubled with.
There are only three subtitle options on the DVD with two of them being English and English for the Hearing Impaired. They are very good, although obviously they don't have a lot of dialogue to deal with.
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What little dialogue there is in the film has come up very well in the transfer, and presents no problems. There are no problems with audio sync in the transfer.
Once again nothing needs to be said about the music score, which is comprised of some great classical music performed by a good orchestra. Potentially another classic film soundtrack from the Disney studios.
There is nothing at all wrong with the soundtrack here at all. It is nice and open, has plenty of activity in the front surround channels and enough in the rear surround channels to keep them honest. It is not especially great out of the bass channel, but when called upon it was not found wanting. I really cannot recall anything at all wrong with the soundtrack, and I certainly made no notes about it, so nothing more need be said.
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NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
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Review Equipment | |
DVD | Pioneer DV-515, using S-Video output |
Display | Sony Trinitron Wega (80cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Yamaha RXV-795 |
Speakers | Energy Speakers: centre EXLC; left and right C-2; rears EXLR; and subwoofer ES-12XL |