Disney's Groundbreaking New 'Fantasia/2000' Web Site Makes Its Debut On October 22

A groundbreaking new Web site - www.fantasia2000.com - will debut on Friday, October 22. Once logged on, browsers will take an exciting and dynamic behind-the-scenes tour of Walt Disney Pictures' animated extravaganza, ""Fantasia/2000,"" it was announced today (10/22) by Roy E. Disney, the film's Executive Producer and Vice Chairman of The Walt Disney Company.Using an innovative approach, the site explores various aspects of the creation of the film -- the art, the music and the technology - through virtual visits to Roy Disney's office, an animator's work station and a scoring stage. Icons and images provide portals to audio and video elements that are designed to bring backstage to the forefront and create a dynamic and seamless Web experience.Those elements will include sneak preview clips from the film, interviews with the artistic and musical talents as well as games and activities that will entertain as they educate.The ""Fantasia/2000"" Web site will also provide the first complete listing of IMAXÆ theatres around the world that will be debuting the film on Jan. 1, 2000. ""Fantasia/2000"" is the first full-length animated feature to ever be formatted for IMAX and it will play exclusively in IMAX theatres for four months.Projected on screens up to eight stories high, the IMAX image is ten times larger than a conventional 35mm frame and is accompanied by state-of-the-art sound systems that make audiences feel as though they are part of the on-screen experience.Commenting on the announcement, Disney said, ""We've had a lot of fun designing the 'Fantasia/2000' Web site and trying to make it as unique as the film itself. Web visitors all around the world can experience the same creative journeys that the artists and musicians took in creating the seven new pieces and interstitials for the film.""They can also learn about the history of the first 'Fantasia' and how Walt Disney and his team made motion picture history by combining sight and sound. This Web site is truly groundbreaking in its approach and applications of the latest technological advances. It's a great way to learn about the film as well as the artistic process.""Among the highlights of the ""Fantasia/2000"" Web site, visitors have an opportunity to see a variety of things not commonly shown. In Roy Disney's office, inside the giant Sorcerer's Apprentice hat at the Burbank Feature Animation Building, a history of the film complete with timelines and posters will be on display. Inside the animator's office, visitors can flip sketches, download color art and sculpted maquettes and hear comments and career advice from the animators. The scoring stage section offers background information on the composers, comments from Maestro James Levine, as well as other activities.A special area devoted to the exclusive IMAX engagement of ""Fantasia/2000"" is also accessible on the site. A listing of theaters and a look at the creation of the first animated feature in the IMAX format is presented.Continuing Walt Disney's bold 1940 experiment in sight and sound, ""Fantasia/2000"" offers an exciting showcase for the talents of a new generation of Disney animators and filmmakers as they visually interpret classical compositions by Beethoven, Shostakovich, Respighi, Saint-Saens, Elgar, Gershwin and Stravinsky.Originally conceived as a ""repertoire program"" with changing musical selections, the film returns in time for the millennium with seven new selections plus ""The Sorcerer's Apprentice"" from the 1940 classic. World renowned conductor James Levine takes up the baton this time out as he leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Like its pioneering predecessor, this new version of ""Fantasia"" embraces all the latest technological tools and innovations to tell its stories and create breathtaking imagery. This production is under the personal supervision of Roy E. Disney, who also serves as chairman of Walt Disney Feature Animation. Don Ernst was the film's producer.About Disney OnlineDisney Online, a unit of Buena Vista Internet Group, has headquarters in North Hollywood, Calif., with satellite offices in New York, San Francisco, and Detroit. The number one site in kids and family entertainment online, Disney Online was established in 1995 to bring the magic of Disney to the online world.Disney Online creates and publishes a variety of award-winning services that include Disney.com, part of the GO Network (www.go.com). The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) recently announced that it has reached an agreement with Infoseek Corporation (NASDAQ:SEEK) to combine its Buena Vista Internet Group (BVIG) with Infoseek and create a single Internet business called go.com.