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‘Fantasia 2000’ at El Capitan beginning Feb. 17

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The 10th anniversary of “Fantasia 2000” will be marked by a limited engagement of the film at El Capitan Theatre, Feb. 17-27. Accompanying each screening: The animated short ‘Destino,’ the storied collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali that was begun in 1945 but wasn’t fully realized until 2004.

Here’s the Disney description of ‘Fantasia 2000’:

“Fantasia 2000” enabled Roy Disney to further Walt Disney’s dream of “Fantasia” as a continuing project of The Walt Disney Company and to showcase a new generation of Disney animators. As in the original ‘Fantasia,’ some of the most famous works of classical music have been interpreted by the Disney artists – including Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” Edward Elgar’s “Pomp and Circumstance,” and Igor Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite.” These new sequences are joined by Paul Dukas’ “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” from the original 1940 film. Opening night, February 17, will include a special filmmaker’s panel at 7:00 pm; the participants are to be announced.

Most of the music in ‘Fantasia 2000’ (which was actually released in late 1999) is performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with James Levine conducting. The film got favorable reviews (it stands at 82% on the review-aggregating site Rotten Tomatoes), such as the one by Richard Corliss who wrote in Time magazine:

Back in that once upon a time, Walt Disney made miracles. In 1928 he presented a primitive Mickey Mouse in ‘Steamboat Willie.’ By 1940 he’d brought sophisticated color and sound to cartoons, extended them to feature length and, with Fantasia, boldly merged classical music and abstract images. Those were revolutionary days for animation; more was conceived in those 12 years than in the 60 that followed. ‘Fantasia 2000’ may look a bit timid by comparison, but it provides some fine artists the chance to stretch and frolic, even as it reminds today’s audiences of animation’s limitless borders. When freed from cartoon bondage, the form can soar like a whale in the sky.

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-- Geoff Boucher

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