I saw a sneak preview of it back in December, and it's a great movie! Of course, I am totally biased, as I love Disney films...I saw it sober, as it was during the middle of the week when I went to see it, but it was wonderful just the same.
The animation styles are all different, not like the first one, where they are all similar to each other. The New York number is great. Lots of action going on. The Sprite and the Thunderbird number are very fluid. The Sprite, which represents Spring, is modeled after the Japanese anime, and she's a sea foam green color with wide brown eyes. My favorite was the Humpback Whales and the iceburgs. Lots of good stuff there...
Fantasia was originally supposed to be updated with new musical numbers and new shorts when it was released, I believe 60 years ago. Unfortunately, it bombed at the box office when it was released as nobody 'got it.' Some of the scenes that are shown in the new movie are sketches done by artists that contributed to future Fantasia movies, but were never done. Picasso for example, contributed a set of sketches for a scene, but since another one was never made until now, all there are is sketches...
It had a resurgence (sp??) in the late 60's and early 70's with all the hippies and acid heads. Lots of vibrant colors, no plot, orchestra music and silly things. The acid the animators were on was probably much better than the stuff going around in the 60's. Come on, marching brooksticks carrying buckets of water?? Dancing hippos in tutu's??
Personally, I have seen it dozens of times, sober and messed up. My favorite scene in the original is in the dancing scene with the elephants and the alligators and hippos. One of the elephants is blowing a bubble and there is a goldfish in the bubble. It pops, and the elephant and the goldfish just have this 'look' on their face. "Surprise, bewilderment, did you see what I saw" kind of look... I was candy flipping one time and saw 'the look' and was hysterical. I couldn't stop laughing...
Anyway, enough babbling. Iwould reccommend seeing it sober, just to soak it in. Then see it messed up. Let me know how things went!
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PLUR always,
TABOOMA

"Private opinion creates public opinion ... . That is why private opinion, and private behavior, and private conversation are so terrifyingly important." -- British poet Jan Struther (1901-53)