LP Lotion: Fantasia 2000 Tenth Anniversary Opening Night Panel at the El Capitan Theatre
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Hollywood’s El Capitan Theater has presented a number of amazing panel discussions over the years. Wednesday, February 17th marked another, as a group of the creators of Fantasia 2000 gathered to celebrate its tenth anniversary.
Preceeding the screening of Fantasia 2000 was a rare big screen showing of Destino, an unusual collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali, which was actually finished after Fantasia 2000. It would prove a fitting opening, as it is mentioned in one of the interstitials as a “lost” sequence.
After welcoming the audience, moderator Don Hahn (one of the directors of the film) mentioned that some of the members of the panel that night hadn’t seen each other in the ten years since Fantasia 2000 opened. The panelists were Eric Goldberg, director of the Rhapsody in Blue and Carnival of the Animals, twin brothers Paul and Gaetan Brizzi, directoirs of the Firebird, twenty five year Disney veteran Dave Bossert who was the visual effects supervisor, and producer Don Ernst.
After introducing the panel, Hahn discussed the early days of the Fantasia 2000 “idea,” and its champion, Roy Disney “It’s impossible to talk about Fantasia 2000 without talking about Roy,” Hahn said, “because it was his project.”
Don Ernst began the discussion by explaining the original intention of the film—to use about half of the original 1940 Fantasia, and add new material. As a wealth of possibilities were offered, Fabntasia 2000 ended up with all new material except for the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
Don Hahn recalled flying around with Roy and the crew during this time as they sought material and inspiration. “It was really nice to have somebody with their own jet,” he chuckled. In 1995 the crew even took a trip up to Pixar’s original strip mall studio to see if they would provide a sequence. As fans of film know, this did not work out.
Hahn stated that there was a nearly ten year genesis of the film. Many Disney animators and directors worked on sequences between other projects. By 1997 it had become something of a way station for people leaving the studio. Eventually, Fantasia 2000 would utilize the cream of the crop of Disney’s animation talent. During this time title underwent changes, going from Fantasia Continued to Fantasia 99 until settling on Fantasia 2000.
Discussion of film itself opened with a brief look at the interstitials, filmed sequences with celebrity hosts such as Steve Martin, Angela Lansbury, and James Earl Jones. The setting selected for these utilized stylized sails, inspired by Roy Disney’s love of sailing, and Frank Gehry’s designs for the yet unbuilt Walt Disney Concert Hall.
As director of these sequences, Don Hahn mentioned he wanted to include not only the orchestra and chorus, but working artists as well. “I always thought it was cheap that the artists never got to be on screen during the first one,” he said. Pointing to the large scale reproduction on the screen, Dave Bossert found himself in the image, seated at his drawing board.
Bossert also recalled a touching incident from the final day of shooting. They were using a sound stage at the Fox Studios. After the last shot, the orchestra played “When You Wish Upon a Star,” which they had been practicing in secret. This magical moment was not captured by a film crew, as they had already gone for the day.
Before getting into the individual sections of Fantasia 2000, Hahn brought up conductor James Levine. Others were considered, including Leonard Bernstein. Producer Don Ernst and Roy Disney spoke to Levine, and found him enthusiastic about “animations,” as he was inclined to call them. Levine was great help in selecting and editing the selections. Or, as Don Hahn called it, “cutting up the classics.”
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
Pixote Hunt’s goal in developing this piece was to create an abstract film with a non-linear story. Producer Don Ernst explained that six or seven different versions were considered before arriving at the sequence seen in film. A series of overhead slides showed difficulty of creating piece based on pure animation.
Ernst also discussed the difficulty the producers had in choosing a logical order for each of the pieces in the film. Each time they would arrive at an order that pleased them all, they would be convinced it was all wrong. Eventually they arrived at the order seen in the final release.
Pines of Rome
This memorable sequence, filled with images of flying whales, included the earliest computer graphics done by the Disney Studio. A big challenge for the visual effects artists was combining both live and CGI animation. The water surface alone took six months of development—a task accomplished easily now with readily available programs. (Hahn joked that today you could get it for your iPhone.) Traditional animation included the splashes of water, as well as the eyes of the whales. The computer programs developed for the Pines of Rome was often strained by the requirements of the various scenes. The closing sequence actually “broke” the computer, which was capable of handling up to 10,000 pieces of art—a number the engineers at that time believed would never be exceeded. Other sequences presented other unique challenges for the system.
Rhapsody in Blue
Eric Goldberg and his wife Sue developed this popular sequence. The idea sparked during the production of Aladdin, which had characters inspired by the art of Al Hirschfeld. Al and Dolly Hirschfeld visited the Disney studio, and Goldberg proposed a collaborative venture to design fifty different character designs for a New York based piece. Hirschfeld declined, citing his age, but eventually gave his blessing for the Disney artists to use his existing body of work as inspiration.
After trying to get the work going for several years, the crew for “Kingdom of the Sun” (which eventually became “The Emperor’s New Groove”) was suddenly available, and were put to work on Rhapsody in Blue. Work went quickly, as all pre-production work had already been meticulously prepared by Eric and Sue Goldberg. Although it was originally intended as a stand-alone short, it was added to Fantasia 2000.
Goldberg couldn’t resist mentioning that caricatures of all the major animators and staffers were included in the film. They can be seen, along with the Hirschfelds, as a crowd streams from the doors of the Hotel Goldberg. As to the name of the hotel, “Not my idea,” he declared.
The Steadfast Tin Soldier:
This was another early attempt at computer animation. Dave Bossert pointed out that the ballerina’s skirt required development of cloth software that did not exist at that time. Lighting was also a challenge, both for CGI characters and traditionally rendered settings.
Carnival of the Animals
Hahn complimented Eric Goldberg for wearing his colorful Carnival of the Animals aloha shirt. While Carnival is the shortest sequence in the film, it presented its own challenges, as the concept was to animate water colors—to make an animated film that looked very handmade. Each frame was actually created by taking cleanup mattes and creating individual panels that were water colored. “So each frame is a painting by itself?” asked Hahn. “Every frame is a painting by itself,” replied Goldberg. “Well that’s insane,” concluded Hahn.
Hahn pointed out that the great humor in Carnival of the Animals belies the technical achievement and artistry of the piece. Each scene was animated against a watercolor background. Goldberg pointed out that the sequence was a color “tennis match.” Every time the non-conformist flamingo has the upper hand, the background is rendered in greens. When the “Snotty Six” have the upper hand, the skies are rendered in yellows. Hahn marveled that he had never realized this, saying, “This is why we show up on a Wednesday night.”
Sorcerer’s Apprentice
There was brief discussion about this original sequence, which was restored for the 2000 release. Hahn promised that the restoration that was to appear in the upcoming Blu-Ray release would reflect the technological advances of the last ten years. This restoration would bring back not only the animation, but Stokowski’s original audio tracks as well.
Pomp and Circumstance
This section, featuring Donald Duck, was in development for a long time. Michael Eisner insisted on the inclusion of the selection, which was tackled by several directors. Originally, it was to be a stately procession of all the Disney Princes and Princesses, receiving their babies! Goldberg gleefully shared his memories of the “fateful day” they brought in all the current animators, along with the studio’s remaining veterans, to share this idea. The idea was that each legendary animator would take a “star turn,” with Marc Davis animating Tinker bell, Ward Kimball animating Jiminy Cricket, and so on.
As the story reel unspooled, it became apparent to many in the room that the idea didn’t really work. But none of the current animators wanted to speak up, especially with Michael Eisner present. “But thank God for the old guys,” said Goldberg, “Because they were the first ones to chime in and say, ‘Why, this the biggest piece of…’ (This is Ward Kimball)…’I’ve ever seen! It’s just a big commercial!” And it was gone from that point onward.
Eventually, of course, the story that did make it to the screen as the story of Noah’s ark, starring Donald Duck.
The Firebird Suite
Hahn began by lauding the unique artistry of Paul and Gaetan Brizzi. When asked how the piece came about, Paul first explained how honored they were that Roy Disney called them to participate in the film. Fantasia was one of their favorite Disney movies, and they enjoyed working with music. So this was a most felicitous project.
As the finale of the film, this was envisioned on a grand scale. Disney offered Stravinsky’s music, and a theme of death and rebirth. Having been impressed by a visit to Mt. Saint Helens, Disney requested that a volcanic eruption figure prominently in the sequence. After a visit to the site of the 1980 eruption, the brothers chose a symbolist approach to the subject matter.
As development drawings were shown, Hahn mentioned their unique working style, in which each brother actually works on each other’s drawings. Paul added that while each of the brothers specialized in a specific aspect of their art, their efforts were always complementary.
Hahn then asked about the techniques they employed to make their exquisite drawings come to life on the screen. Gaetan immediately thanked Dave Bossert for sparing them the onerous task of dealing with the technical problems that are the inevitable part of an animated film. He went on to laud the entire Disney organization for putting their artistic vision on the screen.
This led to a discussion of one technical aspect of the film— the rendering of the lava. By looking at the Rite of Spring sequence of the original Fantasia, they realized that the black crust floating on the surface did much to create the sense that the lava was molten hot. Adaptations of these techniques were used to create the volcanic Firebird creature.
Gaetan spoke of the care and attention given to scale and detail in The Firebird. Paul added that listening to the Stravinsky music was an amazing part of the process. “Our main concern was to make sure that [the] image and music would marry perfectly.” Hahn agreed that this was, indeed the case, with this dramatic finale for Fantasia 2000.
Don Hahn thanked the panel, saying it was time to celebrate their work.
Fantasia 2000 will continue at the El Capitan Theater through February 27. Log on to www.elcapitantickets.com for more information.
Videos
Click below to play the video clips. The two clips, together, make up the entire panel discussion.
Lobby sign advertises one night only event
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