Playing It Safe--and Sorry

By TERRY TEACHOUT

Musically speaking, Fantasia 2000 is a dumbed-down dud. The performances, mostly by James Levine and the Chicago Symphony, are competent but characterless. The selections are all abridged in one way or another, and some are mangled virtually beyond recognition. The first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which normally takes between seven and eight minutes, here is over in less than three. The sole exception is the uncut version of The Sorcerer's Apprentice extracted from the original Fantasia, in which Leopold Stokowski hypnotized an anonymous band of Hollywood studio musicians into sounding just like the Philadelphia Orchestra in its blazingly vital prewar prime. Even the ancient paleo-stereo sound track of that sequence has a raw, visceral impact missing from the glossy digital audio heard elsewhere in Fantasia 2000.

As for the choice of music, it's as safe as a Home Improvement rerun, especially by comparison with Walt Disney's daring decision to include Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring in Fantasia just 27 years after its cataclysmic Paris premiere triggered a near riot. Couldn't the makers of this ultracautious sequel have found anything more adventurous to animate than Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (yawn) or Shostakovich's Second Piano Concerto, a pleasant student piece written in 1957 for the composer's teenage son?

It may well be that the corporate conservatism of Fantasia 2000 accurately reflects postmodern American taste, and certainly some of the kids who see it will be hearing classical music for the first time. But it's hard to imagine their falling in love with Beethoven as a result.

--By Terry Teachout