Fantasia 2000

Story

Like its 1940 prequel Fantasia, Fantasia 2000 consists of 8 separate animated segments set to different pieces of classical music. Featured composers include Beethoven, George Gershwin, Paul Dukas, Edward Elgar, and Igor Stravinski.

During the movie, the viewer is taken on a spectacular sensory journey that includes being dazzled by explosions of abstract patterns and shapes; watching whales gracefully conquering the sky; rushing through the streets of 1930s New York City; empathising with a flamingo who does not want to succumb to its flock's rigid expectations; witnessing a fierce battle between a Sprite and a fire demon; watching Donald and Daisy Duck assist Noah bringing animals to safety on his Ark; and cheering for Hans Christian Anderson's Steadfast Tin Soldier in his fight, against an evil Jack-in-the-Box, to win a beautiful ballerina's heart. In honour of the inspiration for the 1940 movie, Fantasia 2000 also features the original ‘The Sorcerer's Apprentice’, with Mickey Mouse tampering with magic too powerful for him to handle.

The animated segments are connected through live-action introductions, featuring stars including Steve Martin, Bette Midler, and Angela Lansbury.

Themes

Disney classic; classical music; fantasy and imagination; good versus evil

Violence

Fantasia 2000 has some violence. For example:

In ‘The Steadfast Tin Soldier’, the evil Jack-in-the-Box tries to kill the one-legged tin soldier by pushing him out of the window, attacking him with a sword, and trying to push him into the fire. Ultimately, he ends up falling into the fire pit and going up in flames himself.
In ‘The Sorcerer's Apprentice’, Mickey tries to stop the come-to-life broom by hacking it to pieces with an axe.
In the ‘Firebird Suite’, a ferocious fire demon goes after the Sprite, and she becomes engulfed in flames.

Sexual references

There are no sexual references in Fantasia 2000.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

There’s no substance use in Fantasia 2000.

Nudity and sexual activity

There’s no nudity and sexual activity in Fantasia 2000.

Product placement

There’s no product placement in Fantasia 2000.

Coarse language

There’s no coarse language in Fantasia 2000.

Ideas to discuss with your children

Fantasia 2000 is an impressive successor of the 1940 Fantasia, dazzling the audience with its richness of fantasy, imagination, thrill, and humour. Shorter in length and aided with modern computer animation, Fantasia 2000 is possibly more fitted to modern viewers' expectations than the original. Like its predecessor, Fantasia 2000 contains some dark, scary, and violent scenes that are likely to scare young or sensitive viewers. Because of this the movie is best suited to families with children over 6 years, and parental guidance is recommended for children from 5-6 years.

The main messages from Fantasia 2000 explore the following ideas:

Light and darkness.
Good versus evil.
Making mistakes and making up.
Life, death, and renewal.
Finding joy and one's place in this world.

Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children are reflecting on one's action, and not giving up.

Fantasia 2000 could also give you the chance to discuss with your children the importance of appreciating and preserving beautiful things from the past, rather than continuously discarding and replacing the old. For example, ‘The Sorcerer's Apprentice’, which was originally created over 80 years ago, long before computer animation was invented, but which still manages to impress decades later.