The Fantasia Anthology (1940)

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    The Region 1 version of The Fantasia Anthology was released well over two years ago and we poor suffering Region 4 inhabitants have been awaiting the release of the three disc set ever since - for good reason. After all, the film discs for Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 from the Region 1 box set were in every way better than the equivalent individual Region 4 discs previously available, as detailed in the individual reviews below. In view of the length of time it has taken for The Fantasia Anthology to be released in Region 4, consumers had every right to expect that we would finally get something close to the Region 1 release.

    So did we? Unfortunately, the individual film discs included in the box set are the exact same discs that were previously released and reviewed a couple of years ago and have not changed in any fundamental way. In fact, they are so identical that not even the Disney Videos logo intro has been changed to bring it in line with the Walt Disney Home Entertainment logo intro that has been used since the switch to in-house distribution. This is of course enormously disappointing as it means that we still miss out on some of the substantial extras available to Region 1 consumers, as well as the added attraction of dts sound - which frankly I am beginning to believe should be the mandatory soundtrack in the DVD specifications and not Dolby Digital. Yes it is nice that we have the full third disc of extras but that in no way compensates for the stuff missing from the the other two discs. Yes it is nice that we actually might have a cheaper price than Region 1 but in the overall scheme of things, I would rather have the same quality of product as Region 1. To make matters worse, the slip case that the DVDs come in proclaims that "for the first time ever, the original FANTASIA (now restored and remastered) is presented on DVD...". That surely is misleading, as the film has definitely been released on DVD before, even in its restored and remastered state.

    So you can gather that I am not very happy with what has once again been foisted upon Region 4 consumers. We might get the same box set presentation, we might get three discs but what we don't get is all the content that we should be getting. There is no way that Region 4 consumers should be accepting this situation and the distributor is doing themself no favours by releasing what is, in comparison to other Regions, inferior product. They might have wanted to have Region coding but it is clearly proving to be the most pointless control mechanism ever perpetuated in the film industry. So if you have the choice, go Region 1. Even if you think your player is a Region 4 only machine, verify it as many players nowadays seem to be all Region out of the box.

    Sorry for ranting but this sort of treatment of Region 4 consumers really gets my blood boiling. And in this case it is doubly compounded by the fact that we are not talking about some rubbish movie. In this case we are talking about a genuine classic of cinema, with the original pushing boundaries almost like no other film. Reviewed just over three years ago, Fantasia is a wonderful film that can be watched time and time again. Even though restored in time for its fiftieth anniversary in 1990, and which source material is the basis for the transfer used for the DVD, the advances in the art since certainly ensure that Fantasia will need to return for full restoration in the future to bring it somewhere close to the quality that we see in Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs. It is not the prettiest sight ever seen, but Fantasia is still very watchable.

    The updating of the concept with Fantasia 2000 is in many ways as revelatory as the original release was. With the advances in computer animation, even during the making of the film, and the widespread use and acceptance of the digital medium for creative purposes, this was a terrific means of displaying the arts of animation in all their glories. And the film does encompass a wide variety of often disparate techniques, but does so in a way that makes it difficult to know what techniques are used where. What looks to be traditional animation might actually be computer animation and vice versa. Of course, the look of the film was a significant improvement and visually is about as wondrous as we had to that point of time. Of course, since its release there have been further advances in animation that make some of what is included here look a little passé but overall Fantasia 2000 remains a terrific encyclopaedia of animation techniques. A pity that the film length was not more in keeping with the original film though.

    The extras disc is almost a tour de force in minutiae and it is doubtful that anything of any significance or consequence was not brought to the viewer's attention here. Whilst inevitably the whole thing gets a little tedious and has a degree of sameness about the presentation if watched for extended periods, there is certainly no doubt that animation fans will find plenty to keep them interested here over several viewing sessions.

    Whilst I would love to give this my wholehearted recommendation, the Region 1 box set that sits on my desk right next to the Region 4 box set firmly reminds me that I cannot. In every way the Region 1 release is superior to the Region 4 product despite being released over two years previously. A very sad waste of time and opportunity from Buena Vista Home Entertainment I am afraid. Far too little, far too late.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Fantasia (1940)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Featurette-"Clair de Lune" segment
Rating
Year Of Production	1940
Running Time	114:30
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (85:40)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Various
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Leopold Stokowski The Philadelphia Orchestra Deems Taylor
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$39.95	Music	Various

    First and foremost is the fact that this was, up until recently, an almost completely unique piece of work. This was not an animated feature that told a story, but was rather something very different that was the melding of sight and sound through the avenue of animation. It was an attempt to provide a visual impression of what the music selected was all about. Whilst there are probably others that I do not recall right now, and which will surely be reminded to me many times over after this is published, the only other entry in this genre of animated musical fantasy if you like is Fantasia 2000. Secondly, it was a very early attempt at the combination of live action and animation as well as sight and sound, and it still remains one of the best. Disney have long recognized the uniqueness of the film and this was one of the very first films to be placed on moratorium rotation. This was basically a way for a film only having limited release once in every generation, and has subsequently applied to quite a number of Disney films on video. Indeed, it has now been something in the region of ten years I think since this was last made available on video (I missed out on the last limited issue but my parents VHS tape is looking decidedly ropey now). This is of course a great way of maximizing the sales in every generation. Accordingly, it is with many great thanks that we receive this incarnation of the film on DVD.

   The film was put through something of a restoration process for the last incarnation on video and this is the transfer that we now have on DVD. Of course there is no plot per se to the film, as it is a collection of pieces of classical music, to which have been set eight interpretations done in animation. The pieces of music for the completists are:

• J.S. Bach Toccata And Fugue In D Minor
• Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker Suite
• Dukas The Sorcerer's Apprentice
• Stravinsky The Rite Of Spring
• Beethoven Symphony No.6 "Pastoral"
• Ponchielli Dance Of The Hours
• Mussorgsky Night On Bald Mountain
• Schubert Ave Maria

    The combination of sight and sound was an inspiration from Walt Disney, but the execution was sublime. To use the talents of Leopold Stokowski and The Philadelphia Orchestra, at the time the pre-eminent orchestra and conductor in America (with no disrespect to the New York Symphony and Arturo Toscanini), was an inspired choice and resulted in a soundtrack album that still ranks as one of the very best of all time. The blending of the live action silhouette film of Leopold Stokowski in particular with animated footage was brilliantly executed, even down to the little piece between he and Mickey Mouse. But above all else there is the animation, and this ranks amongst the best that came from the early days of the Disney company.

    The film has almost reached the level of the mystical and even sixty years on is still a great piece of animation that will once again be introduced for the first time to a whole new generation of children. It is of course starting to badly show its age at times, but this is as good as it has looked for a fair old while I would think. Certainly this is significantly better than I have seen it before, even though it is a less than perfect transfer. No collection is complete without some Disney animation, and this is one of the DVDs that should be in the collection, not because it is a great DVD, not because it has great extras, but because this is a classic in the true sense of the word. Disney use it on the front cover of the DVD and on the DVD itself - I have no problem with that at all.

Video

    The main issue here is that the sixty year old transfer is looking decidedly soft at times, which does tend to detract a little from the show. This would not have been too bad if it were consistent, but unfortunately most of the segments also display portions that are very respectable as far as sharpness, detail and clarity go. This really highlights even more the softness of the general transfer. Shadow detail varies from decent to good, with the emphasis in the mid range. The silhouette sequences involving Leopold Stokowski are distinctly to the low end of the scale, but that is as intended. This is not in general a clear transfer at all and at times the grain that riddles the transfer gets pretty woeful. There is some low level noise in the transfer. Despite the obvious flaws in the transfer, I have to say that it was perhaps no worse than I was expecting considering its age, and in certain respects it is a lot better than expected, albeit for rather limited sequences.

    One aspect of this film that was always going to cause a mastering nightmare were the colours. Every VHS tape I have seen of this film has demonstrated significant oversaturation of the colours - especially the blues and reds - and this to some extent is inherent in the source material. Accordingly, as good as the effort made here is, there are still problems at times with oversaturation of the colours. Nothing that gets too bad, but enough to be just a tad noticeable. Similarly there did appear to be some colour bleed in the more intense blues in the orchestra scenes. Just like the general transfer though, there are segments of the film that come up really very well indeed for the age of the transfer, and overall I would have to say that this was a decent transfer with some nice vibrancy to the bright colours on offer, albeit with some inconsistency.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer, nor did there seem to be any significant film-to-video artefacts in the transfer. This was made up for by the film artefacts, as is to be expected in a sixty year old film, even one subject to restoration. The flecks that were there might have been a little frequent but I would not consider any of them to be distracting to the film.

    This is an RSDL formatted DVD, with the layer change coming at 85:40. This is a well placed change, at the end of the music concerned and just before the introduction to the next piece. As a result, it is not too noticeable, and I doubt that any better effort could have been made.

    There are just two subtitle options on the DVD, English and English for the Hearing Impaired. There is nothing wrong with them at all, although they obviously don't have an awful lot to do.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    What little dialogue is here has come up well in the transfer, although the introductions do seem to show just a slight hint of audio sync problems. However, this is not unexpected in a sixty year old film.

    Need any more be said about the music score? Some great classical music performed by a great orchestra conducted by a great conductor. One of the best film soundtracks of all time.

    Despite this being a remastered Dolby Digital 5.0 soundtrack, there is not much here as evidence. The surround channels barely seem to get any action at all, with the rear channels being especially lacking in detail. The overall sound is just a tad congested at times and whilst it does not suffer from the obvious problems of the Clair de Lune segment in the extras, it is still noticeably poorer than should be expected for a 5.0 remaster. There is obviously no bass channel use here. Not the best restoration I have heard for a sixty year old soundtrack, but I suppose that it could have been a lot worse than this - so be thankful for small mercies, as we can actually hear the music quite well indeed.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Featurette - Clair de Lune segment

    There is censorship information available for this title. Click here to read it (a new window will open). WARNING: Often these entries contain MAJOR plot spoilers.

• Audio Commentary by Roy Disney and others
• Archival Interview material by Walt Disney
• Featurette - The Making Of Fantasia
• THX certification
• Additional DTS soundtrack

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Fantasia 2000 (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Introduction-Roy Disney Featurette-"Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom"
Rating
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 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
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:

• Beethoven Symphony No.5
• Respighi The Pines Of Rome
• Gershwin Rhapsody In Blue
• Shostakovich Piano Concerto No.2
• Saint-Saens Carnival Of The Animals
• Dukas The Sorcerer's Apprentice
• Elgar Pomp And Circumstance Marches Nos 1-4
• Stravinsky The Firebird Suite (1919 version)

    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.

Video

    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.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    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.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Introduction - Roy Disney

Featurette - Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom

• Audio Commentary by Roy Disney and others
• Audio Commentary by the directors and art directors for each segment
• Featurette - The Making Of Fantasia 2000
• Animated short "Melody"
• THX certification
• Commemorative booklet
• Theatrical trailer
• Showcase sampler
• Additional DTS soundtrack

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Fantasia Legacy: Supplemental Features (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	?
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	James Algar Gaëtan Brizzi Paul Brizzi Hendel Butoy
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Leopold Stokowski Ralph Grierson Kathleen Battle Steve Martin Itzhak Perlman Quincy Jones Bette Midler James Earl Jones Penn Jillette Teller James Levine Angela Lansbury Wayne Allwine
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	Box	Music	Armando Domínguez Paul Dukas Edward Elgar

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None
16x9 Enhancement	No
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.33:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This is the third disc in the Fantasia Box Set, not available as a separate DVD I might add, that contains basically an absolute pile of extras. As such there is no plot synopsis and the aim of the exercise is to let all those Fantasia-philes loose on an information overload.

    In that regard, this serves the job admirably and I doubt that there is too much essential that is not included in this little collection.

Video

    All of the video material included on the disc is in a Full Frame format that is not 16x9 enhanced.

    Given that some of the material is over sixty years old, and some of that has been less than optimally stored, you can bet that what we have in the way of video is very variable. Obviously the more recent interview material is of excellent quality, showing good sharpness, excellent detail and no great problems in any real way. The older material is not so good with much of it being on the soft side, although detail is generally still more than adequate. Grain is thankfully not too bad and only really becomes an issue in some of the material hosted by Walt Disney himself. The colour is generally rather underdone (not surprisingly) and rather flat looking on occasions. There is nothing approaching oversaturation or colour bleed, but you could argue that undersaturation is rife.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There is equally nothing significant in the way of film-to-video artefacts in the transfer, although you will find modest aliasing in a few of the individual contributions in the package. The problem is that much of the older source material is rather obviously affected with film artefacts, ranging from modest dirt specks to very obvious film dirt and film damage. Of course, given the historical nature of some of this material, this is easily overlooked in the overall sense, but it is a great shame that this sort of material is not and cannot be subjected to full blown restoration: in many respects, some of this material is as important as the film itself. Surprisingly, some of the more recent Fantasia 2000 story reel stuff is very obviously blighted with film artefacts to an extent that almost equals some of the earlier Fantasia material.

    Staggeringly and very annoyingly there are no subtitles on the DVD.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is just the one soundtrack on the DVD, being an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Given that this definitely has surround encoding for at least some of the segments, I am presuming that the whole soundtrack is surround encoded. The surround encoding is really only evident in some bass enhancement to the music but does seem to spread the soundscape across the front surrounds at times.

    Whilst there is certainly evidence of background hiss in some of the source material, there is nothing that much wrong with the soundtrack. In general the narration and dialogue comes up well enough and can be easily understood. There is nothing obvious in the way of audio sync issues.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

   The whole raison d'être of this disc, so thankfully we get plenty of stuff. I should point out that, at least with my equipment, there is an extremely annoying glitch with respect to the About The Music segments listed below. The instructions are that you use the left and right arrow keys to move between frames and the enter button to move back to the previous menu. On my equipment, the left and right arrow keys simply do not work and the only way to move between frames is to use the enter button. Unfortunately, the enter button when you get to the last page of the notes simply stops the DVD and only by hitting the enter key again will I be taken back to the main menu. Try doing this upwards of a dozen times and you can bet it starts to get more than just annoying...

   Unfortunately, the same glitch affects the Re-Release Schedule and the Biographies.

Menu

   After a very decent main menu introduction, the menus themselves are excellent in quality, although the main menu is a little obtuse thing that is graphic based rather than text based. The main menu has two selections - Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 - and thereafter you just keep delving into the package for hours and hours. There is an Easter Egg in the main menu - just push the up arrow on your remote and you too can indulge in the DVD Credits.

Fantasia

   The first part of the extras looks at each segment of the film along with the interstitials, in the order they appear on the disc, not in the order they appear in the film. Given the similarity of the content of each segment, an overall look at each segment is provided:

Dance Of The Hours

• Introduction (0:57) featuring interview material with Animation Historian John Culhane that briefly discusses the use of actual dancers in the making of the segment
• Excerpt From "Tricks Of Our Trade": Live Action Model Reference (6:33) introduced by Walt Disney himself. This is mildly interesting stuff, with Helene Stanley demonstrating ballet dancing to the animators including Ollie Johnson, Frank Thomas, Mark Davis and Milt Neil. It however lifts to being quite funny when the men start discussing the aspects of what they are drawing, much to the annoyance of Helene Stanley - at least until she sees what they have animated.
• Visual Development section which features a typical gallery we have seen before on Disney DVDs running to 3 pages and 23 images showing the visual development of the segment.
• Character Design galleries with the spotlight on the Ostriches (2 pages, 16 images), Hippos (4 pages, 35 images), Elephants (1 page, 8 images) and Alligators (2 pages, 16 images).
• Unused Rough Animation (1:00) featuring some very rough animation of the alligator stalking the hippo, which is then compared to the final sequence. There is not a whole heap of difference between the two in the final analysis.
• About The Music which runs to 4 pages of notes about the music after the title page.

The Nutcracker Suite

• Introduction (1:08) featuring interview material with Disney Doyen Frank Thomas that briefly discusses the development of the segment.
• Excerpt From "The Story Of The Animated Drawing": Layering And Painting (3:29) introduced by Walt Disney. This is very interesting stuff, most especially with respect of the way they developed the paints and styling to retain the ethereal feel to the animation that they had in the rough development paintings.
• Visual Development runs to 9 pages and 76 images that clearly show the intent and development of that intent into one of the most ethereal animations of the film.
• Character Design galleries follow with space devoted to the Fairies (1 page, 6 images), the Mushrooms (1 page, 5 images), the Goldfish (2 pages, 15 images) and the Flowers (4 pages, 32 images).
• About The Music runs to 5 pages of notes after the title page.

Toccata And Fugue In D Minor

• Introduction (1:11) featuring interview material with John Culhane that briefly details the abstract nature of the piece, which then segues straight into
• Alternate Concept (3:29) which uses some of the original concept drawings that Walt Disney did not pursue, over which is played the famous music.
• Visual Development totals 17 pages and 149 images.
• About The Music runs to 5 pages of notes after the title page.

The Rite Of Spring

• Introduction (0:47) features interview material with John Culhane discussing the use of effects in the segment.
• Excerpt From "Tricks Of Our Trade": Effects Demonstration (7:34) introduced by Walt Disney. This is again interesting stuff, as it demonstrates not only how some of the effects were done but the important contribution they make to the overall film.
• Visual Development runs to 8 pages and 69 images.
• Character Design basically covers the development of the Dinosaurs, running to 3 pages and 24 images.
• About The Music runs to 5 pages of notes after the title page.

Ave Maria

• Introduction (no time information encoded) features interview material with John Culhane, Animation Historian John Canemaker and Frank Thomas that briefly discusses the visual details and aims of the segment, without the religious connotation that the music implies.
• Visual Development then emphasises the point in its 5 pages and 44 images.
• About The Music runs to 2 pages of notes after the title page.

The Sorcerers Apprentice

   The most famous segment of the film gets a little bit more than the rest of the segments.

• Introduction (0:58) featuring interview material with John Culhane and John Canemaker that discusses the aptness of the music and visuals to the personality of Mickey Mouse. Pity they don't discuss quite how an animated mouse can have a personality...
• Deleted Animation (1:06) that looks at the original intention with the destruction of the broom compared to the final scene as animated. Walt Disney himself apparently decided it was not appropriate to have everyone see Mickey hack a broom to pieces, so it was done through shadow animation instead.
• Story Reel (4:27) where the original development paintings are used as a "proof" of the visuals and music. At times, some of the final animation is included to fill what are presumably a few gaps in the paintings.
• Visual Development runs to 8 pages and 72 images.
• Character Design galleries are up next with 1 page and 5 images devoted to Mickey Mouse and 2 pages and 13 images devoted to Yen Sid (the wizard).
• About The Music finishes the segment with 2 pages of notes following the title page.

The Pastoral Symphony

• Introduction (no time information encoded) features interview material with John Culhane discussing Walt Disney's idea for the piece and the eventual change in the music to go with it.
• Visual Development takes a look at the development of the piece in its 5 pages and 44 images.
• Character Design galleries take a look at the Satyrs and Unicorns (2 pages, 13 images), Pegasus (3 pages, 20 images), Cupids (2 pages, 12 images), Centaurettes (4 pages, 31 images), Centaurs (3 pages, 23 images) and Gods (4 pages, 31 images).
• About The Music finishes up with 2 pages of notes after the title page.

Night On Bald Mountain

• Introduction (no time information encoded) features interview material with John Canemaker and John Culhane discussing the design of the segment.
• Excerpt From "The Plausible Impossible": Marrying Music and Visuals (3:50) introduced by Walt Disney manages to be a most interesting destruction of the concept of programme music: music that tells a story or paints a picture. It demonstrates how the main theme of this piece of music could equally have served in other segments - with ease. Equally, it demonstrates how effective programme music can be too.
• Visual Development then provides development paintings and the like in its 8 pages and 67 images.
• Character Design takes a look at Chernabog (2 pages, 12 images) and Ghosts (2 pages, 10 images).
• About The Music ends the segment with 4 pages of notes after the title page.

The Interstitials

• Introduction (no time information encoded) features interview material with Roy Edward Disney, Scott MacQueen and Leonard Maltin discussing the reason for the interstitials as well as providing some background information on Deems Taylor who did the narration.
• Visual Development takes a look at the development of the interstitials in 3 pages and 25 images.
• Production Photos takes us behind the scenes in its 7 pages and 48 images.

The second part of the extras looks on a more generic level:

The Fantasia That Never Was

   It is well known that the original concept for Fantasia was an evolving film that would either be continuously on theatrical release or on regular re-release with an ever-changing make up.

   This is discussed in the opening Introduction (3:17) which features interview material with John Canemaker and John Culhane as well as bits and pieces from some of the intended segments. Following this is a section on perhaps the best known of the pieces intended for the film: Clair De Lune (7:37). This was animated and scored but cut from the original release owing to length, and eventually resurfaced in a revised form in Make Mine Music as the Blue Bayou segment. We get to see the entire sequence as it was also intended to be seen - as a separate animated short. This is followed by Visual Development stuff running to 1 page and 8 images. We then have four other sequences considered for inclusion in the original film or for subsequent insertion:

• The Ride Of The Valkyries - featuring a Story Reel (2:57) made up of some of the development paintings for the sequence with the music playing over it. This would have been an interesting sequence on the evidence here. The extent of the development of the piece can be seen from Visual Development which runs to 16 pages and 134 images.
• The Swan of Tuonela - with a Story Reel (9:03) clearly indicating the nature of what was intended for this gorgeous piece of music (okay I am a Jean Sibelius fan). The fact that this never made it into the film at any time is clearly a loss to the film aficionado. Visual Development runs to 9 pages and 77 images for the piece.
• Invitation To The Dance - the Story Reel (5:51) would suggest that this was not as developed an idea as the previous efforts and this would be confirmed by Visual Development running to "only" 8 pages and 63 images.
• Adventures In A Perambulator - from what the Story Reel (2:23) suggests this was not an idea likely to go too far but then again I might be wrong - the Visual Development section runs to 12 pages and 108 images.

   Finishing off this segment is a look at Other Concepts (1940), where far less developed ideas like Mosquito (2 pages, 12 images), Flight Of The Bumble Bee (2 pages, 15 images) and Baby Ballet (3 pages, 27 images) are featured.

Special Effects On Fantasia (4:17)

   Obviously the effects work was tremendously important to the film itself, but just how do you do these things? Well, this all-too-brief segment looks at some of the effects and how they were created. There is interview material from John Canemaker and another Animation Historian, Howard Lowery. The latter's claim to fame in particular was the discovery of a priceless behind-the-scenes record maintained on the job by Herman Schultheis, who worked in the Special Effects department at the studios. Not discovered until after the death of his widow in 1990, what his "scrapbooks" contained was a staggering amount of material on how the effects were created, amongst other stuff including actual frames of film from the shooting. Make this ten times as long and it would still probably not be enough to really do justice to the topic. Very interesting stuff.

Publicity

   Of which the Disney studios have always been the masters. We start with the 1940 Trailer (2:09) which it has to be said is in very rough condition indeed. Nonetheless, this is almost priceless stuff to see how the film was originally promoted. Next up is The Roadshow Programme, presented by a still shot of every page from the programme. This was originally handed out at the theatre as if the viewer was about to watch a concert, which in some ways was exactly what the viewer was about to do - so it was quite an innovative thing. Next up is the fiftieth anniversary 1990 Trailer (1:25) which highlights the differences in promotion over the fifty years since the original release. Obviously this is of much better quality. Following that is the Re-Release Schedule which attempts to set out the various incarnations of the film over the years, so it does in some brief way detail the censorship that has been inflicted upon the original film. We finish off with Posters, which is precisely that - 3 pages totalling 22 images of various promotional posters for the film over the years.

Biographies

   So we finish off the whole section on Fantasia with some bios. Those for Walt Disney, Leopold Stokowski (Conductor) and Deems Taylor (Narrator) have a title page with a photo, followed by 18 pages, 3 pages and 2 pages of notes respectively. Those for Ben Sharpsteen (Production Supervisor), Joe Grant (Story Co-Director and arguably one of the most important men in the Disney history) and Dick Huemer (Story Co-Director) have just 4 pages, 8 pages and 3 pages of notes respectively.

Fantasia 2000

   The format for the "sequel" is pretty much the same as for the original film and so the first part of the extras looks at each segment of the film along with the interstitials, in the order they appear on the disc, not in the order they appear in the film. Given the similarity of the content of each segment, an overall look at each segment is provided:

Pines Of Rome

• Creating "Pines Of Rome" (4:30) features interview material from Roy Edward Disney (Executive Producer), Darrin Butts (Animator), Dean Gordon (Art Director), David A. Bossert (Artistic Coordinator Visual Effects), Craig Thayer (Artistic Supervisor Computer Generated Imagery) and Hendel Butoy (Supervising Animation Director) offering their insights into the gestation of the segment, arguably the best visual segment in the film (and definitely one of the two best). Also included are some concept drawings, rough animation and a story reel.
• Visual Development provides us with 6 pages and 52 images on the segment.
• Character Design looks at the whales in 2 pages and 15 images.
• Abandoned Concepts takes a look at two such ideas, which partially duplicates stuff in the first item on the segment: Penguin Subplot (3:23) and Original Ending (1:05), mostly through development paintings with the music playing over them.
• Storyboard-To-Film Comparison (3:20) does the usual comparison with respect of the baby whale trapped in the ice cave sequence, which basically came out exactly as storyboarded.
• About The Music does the obligatory notes on 2 pages after a title page (and of course has the obligatory glitch).

The Interstitials

• Creating The Interstitials (5:05) features interview material from Donald W. Ernst (Producer), Don Hahn (Director), Pixote Hunt (Designer) and Richard Hollander (Visual Effects Supervisor) talking about the intent of the interstitials and how they were developed and produced. Also includes some concept drawings, rough animation and behind the scenes images.
• Early Concept Story Reel (2:00) showing one of the early concepts for the interstitials.
• Proof Of Concept Test (Interstitials) (2:54) which was obviously to prove that the great idea could actually be brought to a satisfactory visual state for the film.
• Design splits into two parts - Visual Development with its 2 pages and 12 images and Color Keys with its 1 page and 7 images.
• Mickey Meets The Maestro (3:04) where Donald W. Ernst tells us about the development and execution of the piece with specific emphasis on the various stages involved in creating the action where Mickey adjusts James Levine's tie and coat.

Pomp And Circumstance Marches 1, 2, 3 and 4

• Creating "Pomp And Circumstance Marches 1, 2, 3 and 4" (4:34) features interview material from Donald W. Ernst, Roy Edward Disney, Francis Glebas (Director), Peter Schickele (Arranger), Daniel Cooper (Art Director) and David A. Bossert talking about the development of the piece and specifically the use of Donald Duck. Also includes abandoned concept drawings (see below) and other stuff.
• Abandoned Concepts takes a look at two such ideas: Icarus Duck (4:43) with Donald Duck doing his Icarus thing and Noah's Dove (5:40), which is a humorous take on the original biblical story. These are presented in story reel style with the intended music playing over them - not necessarily the Pomp And Circumstance Marches.
• Visual Development adds 4 pages and 34 images about the segment.
• Character Designs adds 5 pages and 44 images about the segment.
• About The Music adds 4 pages of notes about the music after the title page.

Rhapsody In Blue

• Creating "Rhapsody In Blue" (6:28) features interview material from Donald W. Ernst, Eric Goldberg (Director), Susan McKinsey Goldberg (Art Director) and Al Hirschfeld (Artist) on one of the more striking segments of the film, thanks to its simplistic animation style based upon the work of Al Hirschfeld. This is especially interesting for those who like to know what little personal additions have been made to the film, like the names of contributors stuck in background signs and so on.
• Inspiration From Hirschfeld presents 17 pages of images, which might sound a lot but is not as there are few images per page: Duke (5 images), Joe (3 images), Rachel (2 images), John (4 images), Margaret (2 images), Nanny (2 images), Waitress (2 images), George (2 images), Thug Riveter (3 images), Al and Dolly (2 images), Brooks Atkinson (2 images), Hotel Crowd (2 images), Subway Crowd (2 images), Jazz Combo (2 images), Dance Hall Girls (2 images), City Skyline (2 images) and City Night (2 images).
• Design looks at Art Direction (1 page, 6 images) and Color Keys (3 pages, 33 images).
• Character Design looks at Main Characters (1 page, 5 images) and Cast of New Yorkers (4 pages, 36 images).
• The Stages Of Animation (4:20) has Eric Goldberg leading us through the various stages involved in getting to the final product: Story Reel, Rough Animation, Clean Up and Effects Animation, Digitally Painted Backgrounds and Final Color.
• Storyboard-To-Film Comparison (2:54) offers the usual comparison that is becoming a tad passé nowadays, especially with Disney stuff as there is rarely any great difference between the original storyboards and the final animation.
• About The Music adds 4 pages of notes about arguably the most American classical music ever composed, after the title page of course.

Piano Concerto #2

• Creating "Piano Concerto #2" (4:41) features interview material from Steve Goldberg (Artistic Supervisor Computer Generated Imagery), Roy Edward Disney, Hendel Butoy and Eamonn Butler (Animator) on how the piece was created - not in what would seem to be traditional animation but actually in computer animation. A pity they did not talk about why it is named Piano Concerto #2 rather than the more correct Piano Concerto No.2, but then again maybe that shows my anal retentiveness too much.
• 1938 Storyboards by Bianca Majolie presents 3 pages and 30 images of the original storyboards, since this was a concept initially abandoned for Fantasia as no one seemed to be able to make it work.
• Design looks at two components: Visual Development (4 pages, 31 images) and Color Keys (4 pages, 31 images).
• Character Design looks at the three main elements of the segment: Tin Soldier (2 pages, 14 images), Ballerina (3 pages, 20 images) and Jack-In-The-Box (3 pages, 21 images).
• Abandoned Concepts looks at two concepts, both also mentioned in the first part of this segment (with some of the stuff seen here): Alternate Rat Sequence (1:41) and Original Ending (0:25). The rat sequence is extremely dark and almost unwatchable in terms of actually seeing anything.
• Production Progression Demonstration takes a look at a short part of the segment and uses the angle function of your DVD player to enable you to switch between the four elements: Story Reel, Rough Animation, Clean-Up and Effects Animation and Final Color.
• About The Music finishes off with 3 pages of notes about the music after the obligatory title page.

Symphony No.5

• Creating "Symphony No.5" (4:31) features interview material from Donald W. Ernst, Pixote Hunt (Director and Art Director) and Kelvin Yasuda (Story Development) on how to create visual imagery to suit arguably the best known piece of classical music in the world, including the slow development of the ideas that eventually were used after many other ideas were abandoned.
• Early Concepts does exactly that: present three early concepts for the piece, the reasons for why they were not proceeded with being a tad obvious in my view. They are imaginatively named Early Concept #1 May, 1993 (3:04), Early Concept #2 September, 1993 (3:10) and Early Concept #3 (1:10). The first two are presented by story reel after some brief introductory notes whilst the third is introduced by Eric Goldberg, who came up with the idea, and is presented as a sequence of coloured paintings illustrating the concept with voiceover. Sandwiched between #2 and #3 is a CGI Test Of Early Concept #2 (1:12), presented as a test reel after some brief introductory notes, demonstrating whether or not the concept was feasible.
• Visual Development does the usual on 4 pages and 35 images.
• Proof Of Concept Story Reel - June 1998 (2:51) shows how the segment had progressed in five years and how it was starting to look.
• About The Music gives us the obligatory 3 pages of notes after a title page.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

   Which is identical to that included in the Fantasia section...

Firebird Suite (1919 Version)

• Creating "Firebird Suite - 1919 Version" (6:05) has more interview contributions than you could possibly poke a Firebird at. Gaeten Brizzi (Director Design And Story), John Pomeroy (Lead Character Animator Firebird), Paul Brizzi (Director Design And Story), Carl Jones (Art Director), David A. Bossert, Anthony DeRosa (Lead Character Animator Sprite), Ron Husband (Supervising Animator Elk), David Zaboski (Animator), John Canemaker and Donald W. Ernst all offer their pontifications on the creation of what is my favourite segment of the film - and mainly done in traditional animation staggeringly.
• Design looks at Visual Development (2 pages, 18 images) and Color Keys (6 pages, 53 images).
• Character Designs looks at the Elk (2 pages, 11 images), Sprite (4 pages, 35 images) and Firebird (2 pages, 16 images).
• Story Reel (2:43) presents the initial thoughts on the segment.
• Effects Animation: Firebird Eruption (3:11) has David A. Bossert leading us through the execution of the crucial (and superb) animation of the Firebird.
• Original Ending (1:32) fairly obviously looks at the original ending for the segment.
• Production Progression Demonstration takes a look at a short part of the segment and uses the angle function of your DVD player to enable you to switch between the four elements: Story Reel, Rough Animation, Clean-Up and Effects Animation and Final Color.
• About The Music gives us 4 pages of notes after a title page.

Carnival Of The Animals

• Creating "Carnival Of The Animals Finale" (3:23) has Eric Goldberg, Susan McKinsey Goldberg and David A. Bossert talking about the gestation of this most humorous of segments in the film, including some of the final segment as well as concept drawings for reference.
• Early Story Reel - September 1994 (1:58) presents some of the initial thoughts on the segment, well and truly highlighting the humour that was always considered part of the segment.
• Design takes at look at Joe Grant Designs (1 page, 9 images), Visual Development (3 pages, 21 images) and Color Keys (2 pages, 14 images and very colourful too).
• Original Ending (0:28) presents the original concept for the ending, which in a way is as funny as the ending the segment eventually ended up with.
• About The Music does its stuff on 4 pages of notes after a title page.

The rest of the extras look at more general aspects of the film:

Orchestra Demonstration

   Taking a section of Symphony No.5, this demonstration allows you to hear the individual contributions of the percussion, strings, woodwind and brass to the whole piece, or any combination of those sections of the orchestra. Unfortunately, this sounds like synthesised music rather than actual orchestral music and sounds rather ordinary. Still, the concept was good.

Biographies

   Presenting biographies for Roy Edward Disney (Executive Producer, 4 pages), Donald W. Ernst (Producer, 3 pages), James Levine (Conductor, 3 pages), Don Hahn (Director, 5 pages), Hendel Butoy (Supervising Animation Director, 2 pages), Pixote Hunt (Art Director, 2 pages), Eric Goldberg (Director, 5 pages), Francis Glebas (Director, 3 pages) and Gaetan and Paul Brizzi (Director Design and Story, 2 pages). All have a single photo page to introduce their biography.

Trailers And TV Spots

   Comprising Trailer #1 (2:11), Trailer #2: The IMAX Experience (1:24), TV Spot #1 (0:31), TV Spot #2 (0:31), TV Spot #3 (0:31) and TV Spot #4 (0:31), all are pretty much variations on a theme - with the exception of Trailer #2 which pushes the technical aspects of the film rather than just the film itself.

    Given the rather extensive nature of the collection here, I cannot swear to this being the complete truth but as far as I can ascertain this is for all intents and purposes the same package as is available in the Region 1 set. Indeed, the menu spelling of colour throughout is consistently the American "color" just to emphasise the point.

    Fantasia Legacy is one of the most extensive extras packages I have seen, and whilst not everything here is terrific the whole is certainly very comprehensive and informative.

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