Reviews of Fantasia (Special 60th Anniversary Edition) (1941)

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The quality and presentation of this restored version of FANTASIA is wonderful. Finally restored, unseen since the initial release, are the complete introductory sequences, including a chimes player's accident with his instrument, the orchestra applauding Mickey Mouse, and the orchestra shuffling out for the intermission. Even the original title card has been returned to its proper place, during the intermission. (Some of the narration was rerecorded due to original voice tracks being no longer available.)

But there is CONSIDERABLE CONTROVERSY over the continued censorship of the "Pastorale" sequence. Circa 1969, the seemingly racist shots of a black centaurette (similar to Our Gang's "Buckwheat") attending on the white centaurettes were cut from the film, resulting in a "jump" in the music. Allegedly, the 1980 release's newly recorded music soundtrack covered up the clumsy edit, so that the remaining choreography was in sync. Subsequent releases to video have used optical tricks to remove the appearance of black centaurs, so that the original music track scans properly.

In this "restored" version, these optical edits are still glaringly obvious. (E.g., an optical zoom to avoid the black centaurette shows you the film grain up close, in another shot, a green bush magically slides across the ground by itself!)

The film survives as a masterpiece of filmic art, and this presentation of a "politically correct, original version" (my description) is tempting. But Disney does this release, and all customers and fans, a disservice by inappropriately calling it a "restored" and "uncut" version, when in fact it is NOT the version that was seen in the 1940 road shows.

Let your buying conscience be your guide, but consider the significance of buying an "original, restored" version that is neither, and perpetuates revisionist cuts as if they never happened.

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Don't get me wrong -this film is fantastic, and by itself it rates 5 stars. But this DVD edition is not all its cracked up to be.

First, there's the editing in the Pastoral Symphony, as noted by other reviewers. This is nothing new -that editing was originally done back in the 60s -but it makes for some very grainy frames in an otherwise beautiful print.

Then there's the re-dubbing of Deems Taylor's parts. As I understand it, this was necessary because the original soundtrack was missing for parts of the extended interstitials. However, I can't believe that they couldn't find a better voice match for Taylor, given the wealth of voice talent in Hollywood these days. If you're used to the original, the difference is kind of jarring.

My biggest gripe, though, is the apparent re-mixing of the music. The original soundtrack was full-on surround sound (what Disney called Fantasound) that had the music literally surrounding the viewer, often sweeping about the room to follow movement on the screen. The 1990 theatrical and video releases contained this Fantasound mix, but the DVD seems re-mixed as a static symphony recording, with the rear channels carrying only reverb. The sound is a bit cleaner than the last go-round, but it's far less dramatic. And the differences are noticable even in plain stereo.

All of these things add up to considerably less than a faithful rendering of this film. The editing is understandable since racial stereotypes are unacceptable these days, but the rest is a shame, and hard to understand in view of Disney's usual attention to detail.

As I noted, the film itself is well worth seeing, and aside of the editing, it has never looked better. But the original laserdisc/VHS release is far more interesting.

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It was great to see all of the narration put back into the film, but this so called "Uncut" edition, is not what is seems. Being a life-long fan and collector of "Fantasia" items, I was shocked to see (or not to see), the small black centaurette pyganinnies, totally removed from the film in the "Pastoral Symphony". Disney's "pan & scan" techinque in one sequence chopped them out and when Bacchus is ushered up the stairs, they have been totally wiped out of the segment (the carpet now rolls itself up to the throne...ah,Disney magic). I have many of the above mentioned sequences on video and was really hoping that they would find their way back into the DVD "uncut version". I realize that in this age of 'racial discrimination" that certain things can't be shown or referred to, but give me a break, "Fantasia" is art and should not have been censored, besides, these are mythical creatures. Also,......I remember Demms Taylor as having a different voice, the one in the DVD really does not sound like him at all. Anyway these are my thoughts. Having waited so long for the "uncut version", I feel very let down.

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I loved Fantasia when I was a kid, and it was now time to share it with my grandchildren. I was satisfied with the price, quality and availability of this product, but, when my daughter first inserted the DVD into the player, she was disconcerted to find that the language of the speaker and the settings was Korean. She's a clever woman and she managed to fiddle with the controls to find how to switch both the spoken and subtitled portions to English, but there was no indication in the ad on Amazon that this would be necessary, and no instructions accompanying the item as to how to adjust the settings for language.

Great show, but I think that the marketing was unclear at the least, and possibly misleading. I am disappointed in the seller, whose response to my emailed comments was unsatisfactory to me.

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As a child, I grew up watching the "almost original" VHS copy of my favorite Disney film of all-time.

Since purchasing the DVD, I was thoroughly disappointed. The redubbing of Deems Taylor's dialogue was blasphemous, and I'm sure that it could be easily restored with the technology we have today. Also, another point of interest is the censored "Black Centaur" scene (talk about 'political correctness'). Hasn't anyone seen the recent "Donald Duck" and WWII cartoon shorts from the "Walt Disney Treasures" series? They can at least have someone come on before the movie to warn those who may be offended by an animated African-American caricature.

All I can say is I hope Disney will have the common sense to faithfully restore the entire "Roadshow" edition on DVD and Blu-Ray next year for their upcoming "Diamond" release in Fall 2010. Oh, I pray that the day will finally come!!!

Fantasia / Fantasia 2000 (Four-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo) (2010) Reviews

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For those of you who may be reading through the other reviews here on Amazon, and being turned off of this product due to all of the complaints of so-called "censorship", I feel the need to set things straight. You are not being told the whole story by the angry one-star reviews.

First of all, the missing (approximately) 15 seconds from the film has been missing since 1969. Most of us probably weren't even born at that time. So it's not like this isn't the Fantasia that we grew up with. Besides, Fantasia has undergone many edits over the years. The original theatrical version was only 81 minutes long (and included the 15 seconds of racism), the version on this new blu-ray/DVD release is 125 minutes (and does not include the 15 seconds of racism, but has 44 minutes of footage that has been restored since the original release). There have been almost a dozen re-edits of Fantasia since it's release in 1940, most of them to restore and repair lost or damaged footage, so making a big deal out of losing 15 seconds is redundant.

More importantly, if you actually saw the 15 seconds of edited film that has caused such a stir, you'd understand the need to remove it (by the way, if you're curious enough you can find the missing scenes on youtube, or do a google image search for "Fantasia Sunflower" to see the black centaur). This is no small offense. The Pastoral Symphony scene is packed with beautiful skinny centaur girls of many different vibrant colors, all with perfect bodies (at least the non-horse part) and long flowing hair. Of the many colors of centaur there is only on black one, and this one black centaur also happens to be short and goofy looking with crooked teeth, big hips, messy matted hair, and huge pail lips. To top it all off, she's clearly the servant to the other female centaurs, we first see her giving a pedicure to another centaur and then happily breathing on her hoof to polish it off like a good slave. She decorates her master centaur's flowing tail with flowers only to get comically slapped in the face by it when the master runs off to see the male centaurs coming. The last we see of her she is dutifully walking behind her master carrying a string of flowers worn like a gown. There's no doubt about it, this is racist as hell. The argument over this content is not whether or not the content is racist. We know, with absolute certainty, that it's racist. The argument is whether or not it's okay to excise it from the film.

Now I understand the need to preserve even the worst things in history, in fact, it drives me absolutely insane how many people completely disregard the fact that the founding fathers of this country were slave-owners. Just because this is a dark and abhorrent side of our history does not mean it should be ignored and that it shouldn't be in our children's school textbooks, this is stuff they shouldn't have hidden from them. I also don't think it would be okay to ban any re-release of the classic silent film "Birth of a Nation" even though it contains some of the most atrocious racism ever depicted on camera (and in a positive light, no less), it's still an important piece of cinema history and the controversy only makes it more interesting. And I even find it completely ridiculous that Disney has not yet released "Song of the South" on any recent home video format, albeit with an introduction/disclaimer to remind people that it's a product of a different time.

Be all that as it may, Fantasia is a different story, unlike the stuff mentioned above, Fantasia is not to be remembered as nothing more than a historical relic, Fantasia is still a culturally relevant movie with fans spanning many generations. It's not "Song of the South". If Disney was to release a remastered and unedited "Song of the South" on blu-ray next week, the only people to buy it would be fans of film history, it's not the kind of thing parents are going to give to their kids to watch, in fact, it would be seriously irresponsible of any parent to let their kid watch a movie that reinforces negative racial stereotypes as much as that one does. The same could be said of "Birth of a Nation" (though I doubt many kids are interested in that anyway). Fantasia is a movie that kids still love, it's timeless, it's perfect, and it would be a shame to lose it all because of 15 seconds.

What prompted me to write this review was one single review on amazon among all the negative reviews. There was one that stuck out to me, because this guy said that he would have loved to show Fantasia to his daughters, but he didn't want to show them the edited version, so he was boycotting this release. Think about that, this guy was basically saying 'I won't show this movie to my children unless it includes offensive racist material!' That's stupid. This is my point, Fantasia is a movie for children, and to include that 15 seconds of racism and market it to children would be a bad idea, even if they got Whoopi Goldberg to give an introduction to the film and forgive the racism (as many reviewers here have suggested they do) the point would still be lost on the kids, all they would see is an ugly black centaur acting as a servant to the others. Fantasia is a movie of a different time, we accept that either way, but there's two ways to deal with that, either we could preserve the racism and let Fantasia become nothing more than a relic that needs to be justified by Whoopi Goldberg before every viewing, or we can lose 15 seconds and let Fantasia remain relevant and thrive throughout the ages as a gorgeous and unspoiled piece of art.

This is one hell of a blu-ray, I can't think of any movie that can show off the technical splendor of blu-ray more than this one, the perfect combination of stunning visuals and magnificent music. I recommend this product to everyone, with a reminder that the missing 15 seconds does not diminish the enjoyment of this classic one bit.

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After originally looking at this item and its reviews, I was worried that I wouldn't get the version I'd grown up with (I'm 26) people were complaining about censorship and edits (one review said the movie was only 90 minutes long). I checked the VHS I own it's 120 minutes. So, of course, I was concerned.

However, after looking into it, this seems to be one of the most complete copies that exists. I looked for images of the back of the actual box the running times are listed as 125 minutes for Fantasia, and 75 minutes for Fantasia 2000. Both of these times are LONGER than their respective VHS times. The original roadshow release of Fantasia was 125 minutes long, so it sounds as if everything has been restored.

This leaves the censorship. The "censored" scenes haven't been in the releases of the film since 1969, so I'd never even seen them. After viewing the "uncut" version on YouTube, I have to say that this is VERY minor, and I don't miss it at all. The character of Sunflower (besides being very racist) is very jarring amongst the rest of the sequence. She simply doesn't fit in, which was probably the original racist intention, but it disrupts the rest of the art. Besides, in total, the cuts number a few seconds in length, and have no impact on the storyline. I don't think it's that important especially since OTHER black centaurs exist in the film. (They accompany Bacchus/Dionysus into frame they are the "zebra" centaurs, and in my opinion are some of the prettiest.)

Finally (and look down on this if you like), I read the release history of the film on Wikipedia. The history confirms that this is likely the most complete release available (it mentions no differences between this release and the 60th anniversary edition). We are also lucky that Disney was able to restore as much as it has, since there have been numerous problems with the film or its audio degrading. The only other thing that hasn't been restored is the original Deems Taylor audio the full audio track of the live action scenes (shortened in early edits) has been unusable for decades, so Disney had a voice actor redub it. Perhaps in the future, new techniques will make restoration possible; but for now, be happy that the video has been restored.

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If you're looking for the highest quality presentation of Fantasia available, this is the set to purchase. The Blu-ray versions of both Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 in 1080p are positively beautiful. Crystal clear animation with no discernible artifact (banding), lush grays and blacks, and the artistic beauty of Disney's animators at their best is featured in these two extravagant movies. And yes, the movie has been censored in that we're missing a portion of one frame for a few seconds thanks to some overanxious lawyers at Disney, but that shouldn't stop you from enjoying what are otherwise superb video presentations. (One star lost to the censorship issue).

There's an additional downside. The prior release of this set was the Fantasia Anthology. This was a DVD (not Bluray) release with three discs. You'd not be faulted for thinking: "That set has three discs. This one has four. This one, therefore, has more content." You would, however, be wrong. In both sets, one disc is Fantasia and one disc is Fantasia 2000. In the Anthology, Disc 3 is Fantasia Legacy, a bank of hours of supplemental features. In the new four disc set, Disc 3 is simply a DVD (non Bluray) of Fantasia while Disc 4 is simply a DVD of Fantasia 2000. Where did the Legacy supplemental material go? It's now on BD-Live in the "Disney Virtual Vault." So the picture resolution and overall quality has deteriorated AND you get to wait for the BD-Live connection to come to life AND you're counting on Disney making this available for the life of the disc (e.g. forever) which may or may not be the case.

Fantasia lovers out there will therefore want both the Bluray set here for the best possible presentation of the movie AND the Anthology 3 disc set for the supplemental feature disc.

I have Bluray. Why would I want two discs for an older format? Why wouldn't I want the supplemental disc that was included on the earlier set? Another star lost for a bad marketing decision by Disney.

I feel terrible giving this wonderful movie three stars, so let me underscore that the movie gets 5 stars as one of Disney's all time best works. The dropped stars are for hypervigilant attorneys and the transition of supplemental features to BD-Live instead of providing them as part of the overall package.

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Two of Disney's best and most unique animated classics are finally coming to Blu-Ray -Fantasia and Fantasia 2000. This is exciting news for Disney fans everywhere, but even better, Disney is including Destino, an animated collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali. This unique animated short was planned back in the 1940s, but was only completed by Disney's animators a few years ago.

This 4-disc collection includes the movies and extras on two Blu-Ray discs, along with two DVDs with the movies and limited extras. Contents for each disc are as follows:

Disc One: Fantasia Blu-Ray

* DisneyView

* Disney Family Museum

* The Schultheis Notebook Newly discovered document reveals movie secrets

* Interactive Art Gallery

* Audio Commentaries

Disc Two: Fantasia 2000 Blu-Ray

* Destino 2003 animated short debuting on Blu-Ray

* Dali and Disney A date with Destino documentary

* Musicana Walt's inpiration for a sequel

* Disney's Virtual Vault BD-Live

* Audio Commentaries

Disc Three: Fantasia DVD

* Audio Commentary

* Disney Family Museum

Disc Four: Fantasia 2000 DVD

* Musicana Walt's inpiration for a sequel

This will be a must-own Blu-Ray set for all Disney collectors and animation fans alike. For years, fans have been clamoring for the release of Destino, so picking this up at Amazon's discounted price is a no-brainer. For those who have been putting off upgrading to Blu-Ray, this might finally be the incentive for which you've been looking.

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The movie and quality of the picture and sound are terrific. I was very disappointed that all of the great special features from the last DVD release were not on the BD except via BD Live which requires a BD player with internet capabilities. I was really hoping to see a restored HD version of the Claire de Lune sequence. Please Disney, make past special features easily available, like other studios do, on the new BD versions.