FANTASIA 2000

Too many directors to mention. Starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Steve Martin, Bette Midler and others

FORTY YEARS ago, when Fantasia was first released, Walt Disney’s intention was that the spectacle would be continually updated with the endless addition of new segments. It was

an ingenious but unfeasibly

expensive idea, and one that didn’t last too long.

To commemorate the film’s sixtieth year of existence – and by way of a millenium celebration – Walt’s nephew Roy has conjured up a reworked version, released on IMAX format for maximum visual effect. The result is a pretty spectacular feast for the eyes, if not a whole lot else.

Although the IMAX widescreen is overwhelming in the scale of its sheer vastness, I still couldn’t quite shake the feeling throughout that there was something missing.

This is not to say that Fantasia 2000 made for an unpleasant or uninteresting 75 minutes – just an underwhelming one. One scene in particular, a superbly choreographed dance sequence involving a gang of flying whales, made for eyebrow-raising stuff, and the all-new digitalised update of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice segment was also more than worth watching.

Soundtracked by great popular composers as diverse as Beethoven and George Gershwin, the entire affair is as engaging a way of spending a spare hour as you could reasonably expect, and it runs uninterrupted from now until the end of April – so by all means, see it. Just don’t expect too much.