Disney's 'Fantasia' and 'Fantasia 2000' Arrive As 2-Movie Special Editions Nov. 30

Walt Disney Home Entertainment will release the classic Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 in 2-in-1 Blu-ray and DVD Special Editions November 30.

The Fantasia and Fantasia 2000: 2-Movie Collection Special Edition will be available in a 4-disc Blu-ray Combo Pack and a 2-Disc DVD for a limited time. Among the Blu-ray special features is the Academy Award-nominated short "Destino"  Available for the first time ever on Blu-ray, the seven minute film was a collaboration between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali that began in 1946, but was put on hold due to studio financial concerns.  In 2003, Roy E. Disney worked with a contemporary animators to complete the film as a tribute to Walt’s vision.
Accompanying the short is an all-new feature length documentary, “Dali & Disney: A Date With Destino,” exploring the origins of the relationship between Disney and Dali, their collaboration, and how the film finally was completed more than a half-century later.
Fantasia, a blend of colorful images and story set to classical music, was initially released in 1940 as a “road show” release. The following year, at the 14th Annual Academy Awards, the film received two special awards; the first was given to Walt Disney and associates for their outstanding contribution to the advancement of the use of sound in motion pictures as "Fantasia" was the first commercial film released in multi-channel sound using a process called Fantasound;  the second honor went to to conductor Leopold Stokowski and his associates “for…unique achievement in the creation of a new form of visualized music…thereby widening the scope of the motion picture as entertainment and as an art form.”
In 1990, Fantasia was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”  Featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Stokowski, the animation is set to eight musical pieces, narrated by Deems Taylor and includes an appearance by Mickey Mouse (voiced by Disney himself) as the sorcerer’s apprentice, along with winged fairies and cascading snowflakes, Noah’s ark and a hippo ballet.
Fantasia 2000 was executive produced by the late Roy E. Disney and features a line-up of celebrity hosts that include Steve Martin, Bette Midler, James Earl Jones, Penn and Teller, Angela Lansbury, Itzhak Perlman and Quincy Jones.  Like the original film, the movie sets animation and live-action introductions to classical music primarily performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and conducted by James Levine. The seven segments include a Depression-era metropolis in the style of Al Hirschfeld’s famous cartoons, a flock of flamingos with slapstick yo-yo talents, an ark full of animals gathered by Donald Duck as Noah’s first mate, and a family of flying humpback whales.


Fantasia DVD Bonus Features:
• New Audio Commentary with Disney historian Brian Sibley
• Disney Family Museum (running time: approx. 5 minutes) – Walt’s daughter Diane Disney-Miller takes viewers on a tour of the new Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, California featuring a very large exhibit on Fantasia and most importantly, the Schultheis notebook with long lost Fantasia production notes found in more recent years in the walls of a convent.
Fantasia Blu-ray Bonus Features: 
Everything on the DVD plus:
• Disney View – This viewing mode maximizes the Blu-ray viewing experience with a 16 x 9 aspect ratio. Original artwork created by a Disney artist, in a style that complements the beauty of the film.
• The Shultheis Notebook: A Disney Treasure (running time: approx. 14 minutes) –An in depth look at the recently discovered Schultheis Notebook.  The detailed log was created by Herman Schultheis, an effects man on Fantasia, and intricately breaks down the film from a technical view. Many of the special effects used in Fantasia were a mystery to modern day animators until this notebook was recovered.
• Interactive Art Gallery and Screensavers – Viewers can explore the artwork of Fantasia as never before, in HD resolution with unique Blu-ray interactivity and programming.
• Audio Commentaries from Fantasia Legacy Collection with executive producer Roy E. Disney, conductor James Levine, animation historian John Canemaker, and Scott McQueen, manager of film restoration; Audio commentary with interviews and story note recreations by Walt Disney, hosted by John Canemaker.
Fantasia 2000 DVD Bonus Features:
• Musicana – Walt’s Inspiration for a Sequel – A documentary revealing rarely-seen art created for Musicana, a late 1970’s project intended as a Fantasia sequel with a focus on exploring other cultures via their greatest musical compositions.  Viewers are offered a look at the origins of pieces that were started by Walt, such as “The Emperor and the Nightingale” which was then taken over by a very young John Lasseter (now of Pixar). Musicana was stopped to begin production on Mickey’s Christmas Carol.
Fantasia 2000 Blu-ray Bonus Features:
Everything on the DVD plus:
• Dali & Disney: A Date With Destino – This feature length documentary explores the collaborative relationship between Walt Disney and Salvador Dali, revealing how and why the Destino short came to fruition under the lead of Roy E. Disney in 2003 so many years after its inception in 1946.
• Destino (running time: approx. 7 minutes) – The legacy of Walt Disney and Salvador Dali lives on in this highly anticipated short film.
• Disney’s Virtual Vault -- BD-Live Feature - Original DVD Bonus Features from Legacy Collection
• Audio Commentaries from Fantasia Legacy Collection - With executive producer Roy E. Disney, conductor James Levine, and producer Don Ernst;  Audio commentary with the directors and art directors for each segment.
• New Audio Commentary with Disney historian Brian Sibley
• Disney Family Museum – Walt’s daughter Diane Disney-Miller takes viewers on a tour of the new Disney Family Museum in San Francisco, California featuring a very large exhibit on Fantasia and most importantly, the Schultheis notebook with long lost Fantasia production notes found in more recent years in the walls of a convent.

'Secret of Moonacre' On DVD/Blu-ray in September

The fantasy adventure The Secret of Moonacre will be released on DVD and Blu-ray September 21 from Entertainment One.
The world of Moonacre Valley comes to life in the film directed by Emmy Award-winner Gabor Csupo (Bridge to Terabithia, creator of Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys). The film is based on Elizabeth Goudge’s Carnegie Medal-winning novel The Little White Horse, which Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling called  a "favorite childhood book." 
Moonacre is a magical world inhabited by outlandish characters and mythical beasts with the able assistance of a first-rate cast including Dakota Blue Richards(The Golden Compass), Juliet Stevenson (Triage, Bend It Like Beckham), Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Charlie’s Angels), Natascha McElhone (Californication, The Truman Show) and Ioan Gruffudd (Fantastic Four, King Arthur).

As the synopsis says, "When 13-year-old Maria Merryweather's (Richards) father dies, she is left orphaned and homeless, forced to leave her luxurious London home to go and live at the mysterious Moonacre Manor with Sir Benjamin (Gruffudd), an eccentric uncle she didn't know she had.  Soon Maria finds herself in a crumbling moonlit world torn apart by a hatred borne of an ancient feud with the dark and sinister De Noir family.  Maria discovers that she is the last Moon Princess and, guided by an unlikely mix of allies, she must unearth the secrets of her past before the 5000th moon rises and Moonacre disappears into the sea forever."

The Secret of Moonacre is Dove and Kids First!-approved and includes 90 minutes of bonus features including an on-set  “making-of” featurette, deleted scenes, cast and crew interviews and behind-the-scenes footage.  The film was shown as an exclusive one-night-only premiere on 75 screens across the country in August.