Disney's Fantasia / Fantasia 2000 [Blu-ray] [1941]

Blu-ray Specifications -Case Type: Two standard U.K plastic blu-ray cases (14mm spines) in one card slip caseDisc: both 50GB, MPEG-4 AVC Encode. Regions A,B and C (The 'Fantasia' case incorrectly states Region B only).Video: Both films presented in 1080p/24fps. 'Fantasia' is in its original theatrical 1.33:1 aspect ratio in a 16:9 frame (black bars appear on the sides of the screen) and 'Fantasia 2000' in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio (with the exception of 'The Sorcerers Apprentice' segment which was taken from the first film). Colour.Audio:'Fantasia' - English DTS-HD 7.1. Spanish and Dutch DTS 5.1. Portuguese, Polish and Hebrew Dolby Digital 5.1.'Fantasia 2000' - English DTS-HD 7.1. Spanish and Dutch DTS 5.1. Portuguese, Polish, Belgian and Hebrew Dolby Digital 5.1.Subtitles: Both films contains subtitles for the following languages -English (standard and for Hard of Hearing), Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish and Hebrew.Supplements:'Fantasia' -Three Audio commentaries.Disney Family Museum Featurette (4mins).The Schultheis Notebook: A Disney Treasure featurette (13mins).Interactive Art Gallery.'Fantasia 2000' -Two Audio Commentaries.Musicana Featurette (9mins).Dali & Disney: A Date With Destino documentary (82mins).'Destino' 2003 short film (7mins).Disney Virtual Vault (Blu-ray live required) - contains the material found on the previous U.S Region 1 dvd release (documentaries and featurettes etc..).Censorship? - Yes. 'Fantasia' was slightly censored in the 1960's to remove a character known as 'Sunflower' during the 'Pastoral Symphony' segment. The shots can be found here - [...]The character was considered a racial stereotype and in case the film caused offence the Disney studio decided to remove any sight of poor little 'Sunflower'. Shots have either been digitally altered or zoomed in. Sadly we may never see an uncensored version. Deems Taylor's original dialogue has been replaced and dubbed over (not really noticable though) as most of the original dialogue was in poor condition and Disney decided to simply replace all the dialogue.'Fantasia' was also cut numerous times to shorten the running time upon its re-releases over the years. This blu-ray presents the full length feature complete with intermission.'Fantasia 2000' has no censorship.The BBFC passed both films without cuts as Universal and suitable for all.This is one Disney film that you will either love or hate. No dialogue during the animation segments just simply classical music. Some will find it a chore to sit through and find it boring, others (including myself) will enjoy the music and beautiful animation. The film was ahead of its time and for a 1940 film it doesn't feel dated at all. The sequel is adequate and enjoyable (some may actaully prefer it to the original) and contains some exceptional animation. both films are recommended if you're an animation film fan.The transfers are excellent and i've yet to encounter a Disney blu-ray with a mediocre transfer. Very sharp with deep colours and blacks. Obviously 'Fantasia 2000' looks the better one as its a more recent film but the original does look very good indeed.Audiowise both films have a cinema quality to them and sound superb. I cannot find any flaws what so ever - very impressive.The supplements are pretty good with loads of commentaries, a few featurettes, a documentary, a short film (all in HD). If your player is connected to the internet then you can access the Disney Virtual Vault on the 'Fantasia 2000' disc. Plenty of goodies can be found (it takes a while to load up though) and includes a brilliant making documentary.One cult classic animated masterpiece and its sequel thrown in as a bonus. A fine package and one that i can easily recommend. If you wish to have both blu-rays and Dvds then i suggest you purchase the U.S release (Regions A,B and C) as it contains both formats in the package. This U.K release contains only Blu-rays.

Disney have out-done themselves with this restoration of Fantasia. It would appear that all the original live-action footage and narration have been restored and (other than the removal of the "racist" character from the Pastoral Symphony) Fantasia has finally been returned to how it played back in 1940.The animation has been cleaned up to a sparkling shine and the 4:3 aspect ratio has been retained (so no awful 16:9 stretching or cropping!). Disney even thought to include a feature that replaces the "pillarbox" black strips with custom borders that reflect each scene of the film, which actually manages to enhance the viewing experience.The restoration is so good, in fact, that I think Fantasia 2000's visuals actually pale in comparison, though are by no means poor.As for bonus features, there's a lot on offer if you're a fan of behind-the-scenes documentaries and Disney history (which I personally love) but not so much for those who want deleted segments or anything from the abandoned Fantasia 2006 project (which doesn't seem to even get mentioned). The best bonus is definitely the Salvador Dali collaboration film Destino and its accompanying feature-length documentary "Disney and Dali: A Date with Destino". The short film itself is a moving work of art that I could watch again and again and never tire of; the documentary is a very interesting insight into the lives of Walt Disney and Salvador Dali and how they came to work together. There's also a brief look at "Musicana", an abandoned spiritual successor to Fantasia that was dreamt-up but then abandoned in the 1970s.(It should be noted that all of the above features appear on the Fantasia 2000 disc so may not be available in the stand-alone Fantasia release - just a word of caution.)All-in-all, a fantastic restoration of a timeless masterpiece and a must-have for any animation fan.

I ordered this because I enjoyed the original Fantasia on video so much. Its an excellent way of introducing classical music to children. Fantasia has been restored to its original colours, which came as a bit of a shock because I find the colours somewhat garish especially in the Nutcracker Suite. I preferred the more muted & faded colours of the video. However it has lost none of its charm and Dance of the Hours still seems to captivate children as does Mickey Mouse in the Sorceror's Apprentice. In the Bonus Features there is some fascinating archive on how the Special Effects were achieved (as there was no computer animation in those days) and details of the Walt Disney Museum in San Francisco. Its in 4:3 format and the sound is still 2 channel stereo. For purists this might be great but for BluRay a re-recording would have made it sound much better.Fantasia 2000 is a great new addition to the Fantasia 'family' which was intended to be extended on a regular basis. The quality of picture in Widescreen and 7.1 Dolby sound on BluRay is outstanding. It has the traditional Disney characters - this time featuring Donald Duck in the story of Noah's Arc - but also has some great modern cartoon drawings to the music of Rhapsody in Blue and a very touching story of a Toy Soldier to Shostakovic's Piano Concerto No 2 There is also a repeat of MM in the Sorcerer's Apprentice. The Bonus material has unseen footage of a project between Dali and Disney. Some of the introductions are abysmal but will highlight who were the some of the actors of the day, in future years! Use the top-menu button after the first use to skip the annoying previews of other Disney films.For BluRay this is outstanding value. Highly Recommended.

Fuelled with the noble ambition of bringing classical music to a wider audience, especially children, Fantasia succeeds and fails in equal amounts. Some of it works, some it bores. It could have made a perfect 85 minute movie if the crap was cut out.The first segment is enough to put you off completely. We have to suffer blips and bloops twinkling across the screen as acid-trip visuals match the music that is being played (Toccata and Fugue in D Minor). Kind of like turning on the spirograph-like visuals on Windows Media Player. This is a bad way to introduce the film and it's techniques. I can only imagine the audience of the time watching it and thinking 'What the hell is this?' The good segments in the movie are the story of the Dinosaurs to the music of The Rite of Spring, the over publicized Sorcerer's Apprentice, The Nutcracker Suite and A Night on Bald Mountain. All effect a wonderful atmosphere that is so lacking in modern animation.Segments featuring dancing Alligators romancing fat hippos (The Pastoral Symphony) or the 'meet the soundtrack' interstitial are yawnfests with pretty much nothing happening at all, I'm sorry to say. The animation is always top-notch however and very vivid as Disney cartoons of this vintage usually are. But ultimately, Fantasia is a mixed bag that not a lot of people will like or appreciate. Still worth checking out though.As for Fantasia 2000, top quality animation and a sense of humor could have made this sequel/add-on a formidable animated movie in its own right. The running time of 74 minutes kills this potential though, especially when you consider that 6 of those are end credits and another 10 are recycled from The Sorcerers Apprentice, meaning there's not even an hour's worth of new footage. A bit of a rip-off.But my favorite segments are the one with Donald Duck (Pomp and Circumstance) and the one with the volcano (Firebird Suite). The music matches the story perfectly and it has some truly beautiful animation. Far superior to the ugly CGI crap we get these days. The TV show-style introductions were more watchable than the dubbed Deems Taylor segments in the original, but the sequel loses many points for not being ambitious enough.This was the first animated movie to be made for IMAX screens and the digital picture is amazing. See this preferably on an IMAX screen, which I guess will be limited to attractions as Disney Theme Parks.Both movies look lovely on Blu-ray in their respective 1.33:1 and 1.78:1 aspect ratios with DTS HD-MA 7.1 sound. There are quite a lot of extras, but this BD has not been spared Disney's habit of cramming in a thousand upfront promos, meaning you'll spend about 5 minutes trying to get to the top menu.

I first saw Fantasia during the late 1960s when I saw it on a local flea-pit, now long closed. Being a lover of classical music, I expected to be really disappointed with expectations of poor performances and sound. However, this was not the case, and to this day I have never lost my admiration of this film and believe it to be one of Disney's finest creations.And now, this Blu-Ray version has come along with high expectations from me, and I was not disappointed. The picture is beautiful to look at, with some scenes, especially in the Beethoven Pastoral scenes, showing fine detail and outstanding colour. This applies right throughout the film, and makes purchasing of Blu-Ray machines all the more worthwhile.As for the audio, I did have a slight problem with this. My hearing has deterioted over the years, since I am now in my 60s. Luckily, I haven't lost the tone altogether, and using a Yamaha Home Cinema 7:1 amplifier I was able to spread the sound much wider around the room. But, I didnt like the DTS Theatre Mode, seemed too bassy and flat for me, so I switched the sound mode to Movie Spectacle 5:1 and found it sounded much better, with more treble. Of course, everyone's hearing is different, so viewers should find the right sound mode for them.The same applies to Fantasia 2000. I already had a copy of this on DVD bought a few years back, so I knew what to expect anyway. I particularly enjoyed the Blu-Ray version however, with much sharper detail and fantastic colour. I also used the same sound mode Movie Spectacle 5:1 and it sounded superb.There are some extras which are worthwhile too, especially the Dali Destino segment which you will find on the Fantasia 2000 disc.This could be one of THE Blu-Ray releases of the year.

The "Original Classic " Version of Fantasia receives a pristine digital re-master, however the 1941 surround sound is another matter, the DTS version played at low level is acceptable, but when I tried listening on my analytical AKG K240 Studio Professional headphones the dynamic compression and frequently coarse sound quality was pretty depressing. I wondered why Disney did not re-record the music, but apparently this was done for a re-issue in 1982 and has since been abandoned, so it probably wasn't popular.Opinions vary but for me the follow up Fantasia 2000 is very much a nostalgic backward look at the 1940's approach of the original but also reminiscent of "Make Mine Music". I am very ambivalent about the wisdom of doing this as there is something missing ... WALT DISNEY..., if he had been in charge it would have been something fresh and relevant to the year 2000, not a rather uninspired nostalgia trip firmly based in the 1930/40s. The good news is the surround sound is superb.However the final segment animated to Stravinsky's "Firebird" does move the 1940 constraints forward and is far more modern and very successful.There are a large number of extras, including a realisation of the Dali/Disney project "Destino", but there is no "making of documentary" although a great deal of this material is covered in the commentaries.Make of Fantasia 2000 what you will, this issue is well worth the price for the restoration of the original animation, my five star rating applies solely to the original Fantasia.

I've never seen Fantasia 2000 before and I'm glad I've seen it the first time on Blu Ray! This is just wonderful. The picture and the sound are both superb. The chapters are perfect so I can watch a few clips at a time with my young sons. They love The Sorcerer's Apprentice and the Pomp and Circumstance piece with Noah's Ark and Donald Duck. My favourite piece is the last segment; Stravinsky's Firebird Suite. The animation is absolutely breathtaking. This is an ideal way of introducing young children to classical music. Disney are leading the way in relaunching old and new classics on Blu Ray....long may this continue!

Wether it has something to do with when the film was made, but I found the quality in terms of the colours and contrast very poor, no matter how much I adjusted my TV's settings.

Fantasia is magical. It's the very first movie I can remember seeing as a child and I never tire of watching it. It unequivocally gets 5 stars. I haven't watched the 2000 version yet so can't comment on it.An oddity: The Fantasia 1940 disk is labelled region B but appears to be region ABC, effectively region free. I originally trusted the labeling on the disk and that my region free player allowed me to play it. I've now tested the disk in a region A player (standard for the USA) and it plays with no trouble.

Edición inglesa en Bluray. Oportunidad especial de adquirir en un sólo estuche las dos FANTASÍAS (1940 Y 2000).Imagen y sonido restaurados (posibilidades sonoras de 5.1 y 7.1, la más reciente). Castellano doblado y también con subtítulos (pinchen y zoom en la parte trasera de caja).La magia, la viveza, la sencillez y espontaneidad de la primera Fantasía (1940), donde no se debe olvidar la aportación excepcional de uno de los directores de Orquesta más importantes del S XX (Leopold Stokowsky), que con la ya entonces fabulosa Orquesta de Filadelfia, pocas veces como aquí ha interpretado con ese magnetismo y sonido único (en cuanto a la calidad artística), que tenía según los críticos antiguos, la oportuna selección de piezas clásicas que parecen nacidas para los dibujos que ilustran.Acompaña la Fantasía 2000, que como su año indica, ya es realizada con medios técnicos más idóneos, igualmente muy buena, aunque seguramente sin aquel estigma o aroma especial de la entonces juvenil y pionera de 1940. Las ilustraciones y montaje de las imágenes gozan de similar nivel a pesar de que muchos aficionados veamos el primer Disney como más fresco e innovador. El acompañamiento musical es también de categoría, donde una nueva selección de piezas clásicas es interpretada por los también famosos James Levine y la Orquesta Filarmónica de Nueva York, que, aunque sobresalientes, en mi modesta opinión no alcanzan el estratosférico nivel de los primeros (Stokowsky imprimía un sello único a lo que dirigía). Sí se mejora el sonido, lógicamente.PD.- La Fantasía de 1940 es interesante incluso para aquellos aficionados que solo les interese escuchar dirigir a Stokowsky en buenas condiciones sonoras. No se conservan en CD muchos documentos de esa época con esa calidad. Más recienes sí pero no todas sus grabaciones alcanzan este nivel con Filadelfia.

We were worried that although the package said international it wouldn't play on our Sony DVD player in Canada but it was perfect. We simply selected the language and hit play. Absolutely beautiful compared to the Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 we originally had on video. Still a classic with incredible animation and for the most part, excellent arrangements of many of the classical pieces. As classical musicians, it can be irritating to hear pieces chopped up, but it was the norm in the first half of the 20th century for conductors to "arrange" their own versions of well known pieces. Firebird on 2000 is my favorite, but I don't love Stokowski's version of Stravinky's "Rite." I'm just being picky :) Still moved by both of these Fantasia's after many years. Well worth the purchase!

ces 2 blu ray sont vraiment magnifiques, ils regroupent de petits dessins animés tournaient sur des airs de grandes musiques classique composés par les plus grands tel que Techkovski par exemple.l'image et le son sont vraiment parfait, de pures merveilles

Comentario sobre "el pack" de las dos películas (FANTASIA y FANTASIA 2000 ) proveniente del Reino Unido...absolutamente recomendable, imprescindible más bien. Es igual los adjetivos que le queramos poner...¡ES FANTÁSTICO! Sorprende más el trabajo de "remasterización" de la primera, obviamente porque han pasado 75 años desde su realización, se dice pronto. Sonido e imagen inmejorables...de "FANTASÍA"...nunca un título fue más apropiado. Muchos extras. Presentación sencilla con las cajas por separado de las dos películas.No os cansaré con más información, todo está más que comentado, así que yo no puedo aportar nada que no se haya dicho ya, solo decir que no veo nada negativo en esta edición sobre estas dos "obras maestras" del "séptimo arte".Veamos si MICKEY "achica" o no todo el agua...bueno, si es que no, salimos volando como las ballenas.Os deseo muchas y buenas notas... y fotogramas