Well, just rented the Blu-ray from my library and am really glad I didn't pay for this. Disney dropped the ball on what should've been a seminal release for a seminal film that seems to have been cut back at the last minute for unknown reasons. Really disappointed.
Presentation of Fantasia
Pros. The restoration of
Fantasia looks fantastic. It's never looked better. As for the edits of Sunflower, they're are A LOT less noticeable this time around and while I absolutely detest whitewashing history (a disgusting notion), at least these edits aren't completely distracting (well, the magic carpet that unrolls itself is and I thought there was something wrong with the disc I rented when the green centaurette repeated herself to makeup time for the Sunflower cut but at least there is no mega zooms). The audio was alright, probably the best it will ever sound (well, the best I've ever heard it) but it didn't match the quality of the restored visuals. I would've loved for them to have taken Stokowski's arrangements and re-recorded them for a higher quality second audio option (while still including the original of course).
Cons. The extended narration, the one they dubbed over Deems Taylor's voice for, is really annoying (yes, this is my first time hearing them as I never had the DVD). Before The Rite of Spring, I thought he was never gonna shut up, as he just went on and on explaining EVERYTHING that we were about to see. Add to that Corey Burton's re-dub being terrible to begin with. All the personality that Deems had in his delivery is lost with this dub-over. This was most apparent during the sequence where he introduces us to the soundtrack. I feel like I might as well listen to any other language on the disc, as a dub is a dub, it will never be the original. The next time I rent this, I'll probably just skip the interstitials (like I do for
Fantasia 2000) which is a shame, as they're as much a part of the film as the animated sequences.
I should also mention that Corey Burton does the same voice for Yensid in
Kingdom Hearts and Walt in the supplements on this disc, as he does for Deems. This is sure to cause some confusion among children that pay attention as to why Walt, Deems and Yensid all have the same voice.
Presentation of Fantasia 2000
Pretty freaking flawless.
Supplements for Fantasia
Disney View – Nice art work but never use it.
Disney Family Museum - How is this a bonus feature. It's a 5 minute advertisement for the Disney Family Museum, it has nothing to do with
Fantasia and belongs in the previews section with the rest of the ads.
The Shultheis Notebook: A Disney Treasure – Nice but I can't help but feel cheated with this one. When early reports from press gatherings were announcing that this would be an interactive version of the Shultheis Notebook (
CLICK HERE), you can't help but be disappointed when you find out it's only a 14 minute advertisement for the actual interactive Shultheis Notebook at the Disney Family Museum. Also, if you look quickly you can spot Sunflower among the maquettes in front of Shultheis.
Interactive Art Gallery and Screensavers – The layout is really well done, even if they take a little time to load. I just felt they lacked in quantity for certain segments. The Rite of Spring, while the longest
Fantasia sequence, only has about 13 images for it (although, the turnaround for the 3-fingered T-Rex is awesome). I don't have Fantasia Legacy but I'm sure I'm missing some stuff.
Audio Commentaries - Nice but never listen to them. Much prefer documentaries.
Overall it's disappointing that the bulk of the supplements for
Fantasia are merely plugs for Disney Family Museum.
Supplements for Fantasia 2000
Musicana – Really interesting and it actually is related to
Fantasia, go figure. Lots of great art and information, would've loved for it to happen.
Dali & Disney: A Date With Destino – This feature length documentary was just alright but it took a while for them to actually start to talk about
Destino. It also doesn't make any mention of Fantasia 2006, which makes it's inclusion here all the more curious (especially since it's the most extensive supplement on the disc).
Destino – It's a nice short. Visually stunning. For those complaining about it being a film transfer, I think they did that on purpose, so it wouldn't look too glossy next to it's weathered soundtrack.
Disney’s Virtual Vault - HORRIBLE. It took ten minutes for this thing to load, and then about 2 minutes for the Roy Disney intro to load. Part way through, it froze and I had to reload it. I never got past the intro as I just don't have enough time in my life to screw around with this crap. What's worse is all these videos are played in little boxes, suggesting they're less then the standard-def you had on the Fantasia Legacy DVDs. It's really a shame as I never owned the DVD and really wanted to see these features but just as I said back when they announced they were putting the supplements online (when I brushed aside the notion that they would be stupid enough to stream them vs downloading them, due to all the faults I'm currently experiencing), having them in virtual space is a BAD idea. Without being able to view these (anyone without BDLive or anyone picking up the DVD collection), the supplements on these discs are collectively horrible. I really hope this Disney’s Virtual Vault is just an experiment that never makes it past this movie collection but the animated introduction they made looks a little too high quality for me to believe that.
Audio Commentaries - Once again, nice, but I prefer documentaries (which are absent from this disc).
The Presentation of the Package
Pros. The menus are nice, I really liked them (way better then the annoying
Beauty and the Beast menu).
Cons. For those wishing these films were separate and treated like separate movies, too bad. They put all the art galleries for both films on
Fantasia's disc and all the classic extras for both films on
Fantasia 2000's disc. You can't have one without the other, so I'm not sure how some European countries are releasing these separately. Criss-cross.
Why I hate this set
No Deems Taylor audio.
No separate releases with separated extras.
No restored HD transfer of "Clair de Lune."
No Fantasia World (
One by One, The Little Match Girl, Lorenzo).
Disney’s Virtual Vault (should've been put on disc).
and to a lesser extent
No Sunflower (not even as a separate supplement).
I can't say as to the quality of the extras, as I can't really access them all without frustration, but I can say I'm really glad I didn't buy it. I suspect a more extensive set was being made (or still is?) but dropped at the last minute.
Sorry about the triple posts above. Something went haywire with IE earlier and wouldn't load the message board properly.
