Fantasia2000

Before you read, I suggest watching the film here*  on youtube.

Major Post 3, by Victoria Courchesne

The Firebird is a masterpiece retelling of the concepts of death and rebirth. It is featured in Fantasia 2000, Disney’s long awaited sequel to the first Fantasia. Walt Disney himself always wanted a sequel to Fantasia, as his original plan for the first film was to continuously replace different shorts so no one would see the same film twice. But the sequel was shelved until 1991. It took 9 years to create the film, but what came out of it was a marvel of 2D and 3D animation.

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The Firebird’s concept was first thought of after the eruption of Mount St.Helens in Oregon. The event was so catastrophic the land was left completely barren. The Disney producers imagined what it would be like to witness a time-lapse of the rebirth of the land, and thus The Firebird was born.

Most of the scenes in the film relied on 2D animation, with a large amount of that being 2D effects. The technical team was called on to create many assets for the short, such as the particles, rotoscoping mesh that acted as the character’s robe, and more.

The Firebird concludes Fantasia 2000 in a fantastical demonstration of talent from the Disney Studio.

If you’d like to learn more, there is a video below featuring the making of Fantasia 2000.

*The video is kind of low quality, I suggest playing it without headphones to get a better quality of sound.

Sources:

Computer Graphics World Article:

http://www.cgw.com/Publications/CGW/2000/Volume-23-Issue-1-January-2000-/Fantasia-2000.aspx

Making of Fantasia 2000