
The countdown is on: Disney brings “Fantasia” to Blu-ray on Nov. 30.
The release, which had been expected earlier this year, packages the original 1940 film with its semi-sequel, “Fantasia 2000.”
The animated films will be available in a four-disc Blu-ray Combo Pack ($46) and as a double DVD package ($40). Disney, as it often does with its film properties, plans to make the “Fantasia” set available for “a very limited time.”
The Blu-ray “Fantasia” & “Fantasia 2000″ Special Edition
prices out at $32 on Amazon and is now available for preorder.
Disney vows “pristine 7.1 Digital Theater System Hi-Def Surround Sound” and a “state of the art” restoration of the original film.
“Fantasia” marries its eight animated pieces with swirling and pastoral classical music played by the Philadelphia Orchestra and conducted by Leopold Stokowski. Composers include Tchaikovsky, Moussorgsky and Bach.
(The 2000 version’s new animations were accompanied by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.)
The most famous bit in “Fantasia,” of course, stars Mickey Mouse as “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” Close behind are the dancing plump hippos and “A Night on Bald Mountain.”
Here are some of the “Fantasia” extra features on Blu-ray:
- New audio commentary by Disney historian Brian Sibley along with the commentaries from the 2000 DVD release.
- “The Shultheis Notebook”: a 14-minute piece on the “Fantasia” production log created by effects man Herman Shultheis and recently discovered in a convent wall.
- Something called Disney View, which puts the full-frame film into 16×9.
The “Fantasia 2000″ Blu-ray extras include “A Date With Destino,” the Salvador Dali-Walt Disney short that wasn’t officially completed until the Roy Disney era. The seven-minute “Destino” debuts in HD. There’s also a feature-length documentary look at “Destino.”
For modern audiences, “Fantasia” thrills and disappoints — the well-known segments soar above the rest of the animated pieces, which tend to drag for casual viewers. That, perhaps, was part of the inspiration for “Fantasia 2000.”
At any rate, keep the remote handy and “Fantasia’s” greatest hits will play like magic at the family’s Thanksgiving gathering.