Trivia / Fantasia 2000

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• Creator Killer: This movie would put additional strain on the relationship between Roy and then-Disney chairman Michael Eisner (he was canned thanks to Roy 5 years later). It also was beginning of the end for hand-drawn animation at Disney.
• Descended Creator: Tony Anselmo serves as an additional animation artist, in addition to reprising his longtime role as Donald Duck.
• Executive Meddling: The Pomp and Circumstance sequence was inserted at the insistence of Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who had just gone to his son Eric's graduation and wanted a song "everyone can relate to".
• In Memoriam: The 2010 Blu-Ray and DVD re-releases both have one for Roy before the film's beginning, as he had died the year before.
• The Other Darrin:
  • While not in the Fantasia 2000 sequence proper, Daisy's scream is provided by Wayne Allwine's wife, Russi Taylor, as opposed to her usual voice actress Tress MacNeille. Even more confusing is that Russi appears in-character during the audio commentary for The Sorcerer's Apprentice as Minnie, which occurs just a few minutes before she supplies the scream.
  • Allwine himself re-dubs Walt Disney's original audio in the scene where Mickey shakes Leopold Stokowski's hand, since there's a brand new scene with Mickey immediately afterward.
• Reality Subtext:
  • The "Firebird" sequence was apparently based off images of the Mount St. Helens' disaster, and how life slowly returned.
  • Also, you know how the Sprite withers away in the ashes trying to protect a small tree from the debris? After photographer Robert Landsburg took some photos of the eruption, he died doing the exact same thing, as after he knew he was unable to escape, he put his camera in his bag and laid on top of it in order to protect it. The film would later be developed after his body was found.
• Refitted for Sequel: Donald Duck was supposed to be the star of The Sorcerer's Apprentice segment of the original film. He gets his own short here.
• Sequel Gap: The movie was released 59 years after the first Fantasia. While this surprisingly isn't the record for longest gap between sequel, Bambi holds that honor; it is the longest gap for theatrically released sequel (Bambi II was direct-to-DVD) as well as making Fantasia the oldest installment in Disney Animated Canon to receive a sequel.
• Stillborn Franchise: While Roy Disney did succeed in creating a continuation of Walt's Fantasia idea, it has yet to go any further than this due to this film taking a misstep at the box office due to not screening in anything other than the still-in-relative-infancy IMAX until the summer. Four cartoons prepared for a third Fantasia had to find other ways of reaching the public, as further detailed on the original movie's page.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Hostess Bette Midler mentions several abandoned concepts (it's not stated whether these are from the original or later), including a segment based on Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries", one based on Jean Sibelius's "The Swan of Tuonela," a "bug ballet" ^note Which was featured in Melody Time as "Bumble Boogie", using the music "Flight of the Bumblebee.", a "baby ballet", something inspired by the Polka and the Fugue from "Schwanda the Bagpiper," and Destino, directed by Salvador Dalí, and featured alongside Fantasia 2000 in its DVD/Blu-Ray re-release. It was referred to as a "baseball ballet", though it actually has very little to do with baseball, save for a couple of shots towards the end (it's a Salvador Dali piece - it's very random).
  • The flamingos from "Carnival of the Animals" were originally meant to be the ostriches from "Dance of the Hours"; however, Roy Disney felt that it would be too familiar.
  • Originally the rats in the "Steadfast Tin Soldier" were more comical, but their scenes were changed because they didn't fit the ominous tone of the music for that section. Early on, the director toyed with the idea of using the original story's Downer Ending, but rejected it for similar reasons.
  • The original ending of the "Firebird Suite" had the Sprite turning into some kind of sun goddess.
  • Apparently the Pomp and Circumstance segment was going to be a large wedding and graduation by having the Disney princes getting diplomas and getting married to the princesses who are having children, and they even invited the Nine Old Men; this got rejected for various reasons such as the idea of a multi couple wedding and graduation would have been seen as too cult-ish and according to the book Disneywar, could have implied they had engaged in underage sex seeing how most of the princesses are under the ages of 18 (for what it's worth, the Chaste Toons trope was averted with one of those princesses, Ariel, since The Little Mermaid's sequel came Direct to Video towards the end of the year and she has a daughter in that movie).
  • Rhapsody in Blue was originally produced as a standalone short film to keep animators busy while The Emperor's New Groove's production troubles could be resolved, with the possibility it could run theatrically with the aforementioned film. It was incorporated into Fantasia 2000 after issues with remastering The Nutcracker Suite from the original Fantasia for IMAX screens became apparent.
  • Fantasia 2000 was originally going to include Dance of the Hours and Nutcracker Suite. A glimpse of Nutcracker can be seen in the original trailer.
  • Like the Fantasia Blu-ray, Disney originally advertised Fantasia 2000 as a Platinum Edition. (This would have made it the one Disney Animated Classic released past the death of Frank Wells and the departure of Jeffrey Katzenberg to be part of the collection, although it did still start production while those two were still in Disney.) However, after the 2009 retirement of the Platinum Edition name^note Pinocchio became the last movie with this branding., Disney started advertising the Fantasia 2000 Blu-ray as a Diamond Edition instead (following suit of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Beauty and the Beast). For unknown reasons, Fantasia 2000 ultimately received only a "Special Edition" Blu-ray Disc; unlike Fantasia, Blu-ray players don't even read it as a Diamond Edition.
• Working Title: Originally titled Fantasia Continued. Meanwhile, the Pomp and Circumstance segment was internally titled "Donald’s Last Roundup" and "Noah's Duck".

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