Well here's a brief report on FANTASIA 2000, but before I allow you to get up in a rage, I feel the need to defend the house of mouse. No, not because I'm on their payroll. (I'm not) but because while up here in the Canadian Rockies, a Disney type from Calgary, apparently they are shooting a 'Honey I Shrunk...' tv series there, showed me a tape with some of Fantasia 2000 on it. (I just love my spies) He tells me that everyone at Disney gets these things. (I find that hard to believe) Anyway, Yes 'NIGHT ON BALD MOUNTAIN ' is gone, but you know what? There's a piece in this thing about a mountain spirit that fights the pheonix birthed from the belly of a mighty erupting volcano. Well it is gorgeous, moves perfectly with the music and is the 'ta-daaa' of Fantasia 2000. As for the Donald Duck piece, it made me cry. It's very powerful. I was shocked cause this is the sequence that I couldn't believe would be worth a crap, it is.
Well I heard from a buddy of mine who works at Disney exactly what the public can expect when "Fantasia 2000" opens as a highly touted newer, better version of the classic.
Disney have said a lot about how this was Walt's dream to have the thing as an ever evolving form that gets better and better. So what have they done to improve it? They've added a sappy whale story and a Donald Duck. How did they find room for these new marvels? That's right, they've cut one of the greatest achievements in animation history, the work of one of Disney's finest ever artists, and the crowning moment of the "Fantasia" experience, Vladimir Tytla's Chernobog from "Night On Bald Mountain" is no more! "Night On Bald Mountain" gone!!!!? My jaw hit the floor when I heard this.
Of course, it's an outdated throwback from the days when Disney was a company led by a strong creative genius who wasn't afraid to take chances and push the envelope. Well they screwed up Walt's dream good 'n' proper. I weep. Safe safe safe....
If you use this, let me be known as "Dixon Steele".
