Did You Know?

The "Rhapsody in Blue" segment is drawn in the style of caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. Hirschfeld is famous for incorporating the name of his daughter Nina Hirschfeld West into his drawings. There are three "Nina"s in this segment: one on the end of Duke's toothpaste tube, one in the fur collar of John's wife and one in her hair. She herself is caricatured mong the people rushing out of the Goldberg Hotel alongisde caricatures of Hirschfeld himself, sequence director Eric Goldberg, his wife Susan Goldberg, and producer Donald W. Ernst. The man running towards the camera with the coat in his arm is writer Brooks Atkinson, taken from a Hirschfeld illustration.

Unveiled just after the clock struck midnight on Dec 31st 1999, making it the first film to be released in the new millennium (pedantry over the date of the beginning of the millennium notwithstanding).

The short (under three minutes) segment, "The Carnival of the Animals" was meant to be a tour de force for some animator. Director Eric Goldberg animated the sequence himself. His separate short, based on George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", was released as part of Fantasia/2000 and became, at 12 minutes, the longest segment. "Rhapsody in Blue," originally planned by director Eric Goldberg as a stand-alone independent film, was an eleventh-hour addition to the lineup. "The Nutcracker Suite" from the original Fantasia was originally planned for this spot, until a production hiatus allowed Goldberg an opportunity to allow the Disney animators to work on "Rhapsody in Blue." See the trivia for The Emperor's New Groove. In the earliest trailer a clip was shown from the segment of "The Nutcracker Suite." However, when the trailer was re-purposed for the theatrical run in June of 2000, this segment was missing. Yo-Yo Ma had recorded a host segment for "The Nutcracker Suite."

The rain seen during Pomp and Circumstance was filmed back in 1940 and was used in the Rite of Spring segment in the first Fantasia.

George Gershwin himself features in the "Rhapsody in Blue" segment. He's the slender man seen playing the piano through his apartment window, above Rachel and her piano lessons.

The "Steadfast Tin Soldier" segment was originally slated to appear in Fantasia but no one could decide what music to set it to.

The first feature length animated film to be presented in IMAX. IMAX had to agree to Disney's terms and conditions to gain the exclusive first showings of the film. These included a limited engagement of 4 months and 50% of the box office receipts. It's for this reason that, when Fantasia/2000 had its first run, not all IMAX cinemas showed it as not all of them were prepared to accept Disney's terms. The California Science Center in Los Angeles was one such venue who refused to meet these terms so Disney built a purpose-built IMAX theatre for the 4 month run, costing them $4 million, and demolished it afterwards.

9 years in the making.

When Eric Goldberg first approached cartoonist Al Hirschfeld about adopting his visual style for the "Rhapsody in Blue" segment, Hirschfeld told him that if he was 50 years younger he would have been on a train the next day to come work on the project. Eric Goldberg showed "Rhapsody in Blue" to Al Hirschfeld shortly before the artist's 96th birthday. Hirschfeld's wife Louise called it the best birthday present he could have received.

Director Eric Goldberg animated the entire "carnival of the Animals" segment himself. He had just finished co-directing Pocahontas and, quite literally, wanted to get back to the drawing board. The whole process took him about 9 months.

In the "Rhapsody In Blue" segment, the hotel/apartment is called the Goldberg. It's named after the two directors of the segment, Eric Goldberg and Susan Goldberg.

In the "Carnival of the Animals" segment, the flamingo with the yo-yo is named "Our Hero"; the six flamingos who oppose him are called "The Snotty Six."

The "Pomp and Circumstance" sequence has hidden duck shapes throughout - webfoot-shaped puddles, the Ark's squat hull, etc. - to better fit Donald Duck into the picture.

In the original IMAX release, this film incorporated a multi-channel and multi-layer stereo system for the soundtrack. This was put into amusing use during the introduction of "Pomp and Circumstance", when Mickey Mouse went in search of Donald Duck. The sound was processed to give the illusion that Mickey was running about the theatre, behind the audience's seats.

Composer Bruce Broughton was initially contracted to pen original music for the interstitial sequences, and also conducted the recording of "Rhapsody in Blue" that is featured in the final film. Broughton ultimately did not provide any original score for the film, and the recording of "Rhapsody in Blue" on the film's CD soundtrack is an alternate version conducted by James Levine, who conducted every other recording for the final film. Broughton has continued to work with Disney, however, on many other Disney projects since.

Among the animals in the ark in the "Pomp and Circumstance" sequence is Frank, the frilled lizard from The Rescuers Down Under.

Eric Goldberg:  The animator seen "assisting" James Earl Jones in the intro to "Carnival of the Animals" is the director of that segment and of "Rhapsody in Blue". He also animated the Genie for Aladdin, and a stuffed doll of that character can be seen on his desk. A toy Mufasa (The Lion King) can be seen briefly before Jones, the voice of that character, steps in front of it.