Fantasia

Walt Disney's animation classic "Fantasia" will be updated with several new segments now being created for release in 1996-97. The revamped version, to be called "Fantasia Continued," will fulfill Disney's original wish to keep the 1941 film fresh by periodically replacing old segments with new ones, the studio said earlier this week. "We would . . . change the program just like the ballet does," Disney said when "Fantasia" was released. Details about the new segments and which old ones would be dropped were not released.

A new face on Broadway has done something that producer Oprah Winfrey couldn't - convinced this reviewer that "The Color Purple" is a must-see. But it is right now and will be through October. "American Idol" winner Fantasia gives such a powerful performance in her Broadway debut that it's almost, to borrow a lyric from the show, "too beautiful for words. " What makes it even more of a triumph is that Fantasia had never acted on stage or even seen a Broadway show before stepping into the role that won La Chanze a Tony last year.

The Neverending Story, the 1984 film directed by Wolfgang (Das Boot) Petersen, was an intense fantasy about, well, fantasy. The story of a boy who loses himself completely to the book he is reading - so much so that the barrier between reality and imagination breaks down - it follows young Bastian Bux as he is sucked into Fantasia, a magical realm that is imploding with despair and that, it seems, only he can save. A new-age fairy tale adapted from German author Michael Ende's 1979 novel, it was a global hit and a video bestseller, which explains why mobs of families turned out this weekend to catch The Neverending Story II - The Next Chapter.

At the top of this week's list of new movies on video: a genuine classic from Walt Disney, a documentary of the Beatles' first visit to the United States, a sizzling tale of love and music, and a modern retelling of the legend of Robin Hood. FANTASIA (1940) (Disney) $24.99. 120 minutes. Mickey Mouse cavorts to classical music in this charming, entertaining and occasionally pretentious anthology of Disney cartoons that illustrates well-known pieces by Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and others.

Whoever invented fast-forward probably got the idea while watching Fantasia. We're not talking about its delightful segments, such as The Dance of the Hours, which memorably features hippos pirouetting in tutus and toe shoes. We're talking about such interminable sequences as The Rite of Spring, which traces the evolution of the universe from amoeba to dinosaur and unfolds, it would seem, during the entire Mesozoic Era. The Disney chestnut that prefigured MTV by marrying eight pieces of classical music with animated imagery will be available as of tomorrow on videocassette, so now it's safe for children.

ITOTALLY agree with columnist Jenice Armstrong that Fantasia is treated differently because of her looks. She is a beautiful black woman, but society places different stipulations on dark-skinned, full-lipped women. I have these features, and I feel beautiful, but growing up was different. I was constantly teased about how I looked. It took me years to learn how to really love myself. When I didn't, it was OK to sleep around, wear revealing clothes and everything else to get attention.

The forthcoming video release of Fantasia on Nov. 1, priced at $24.99, was the surprise announcement last month at a convention of video retailers in Las Vegas. Walt Disney Studio chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg showed up in the desert heat to do the honors and to lend the appropriate gravity to the moment. This was, after all, the movie that Walt Disney regarded as the ultimate marriage of art and music. It combines his studio's celebrated animation with the work of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Bach as interpreted by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

For the past five decades, the gateway to classical music for much of America has been Walt Disney's 1940 animated film "Fantasia," with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Leopold Stokowski. The 50th anniversary of its premiere will be celebrated tomorrow at a gala 8 p.m. screening at Olde City Cinema to benefit the Curtis Institute of Music. "Fantasia" is less a movie than an animated concert of eight pieces of classical music interspersed with live action shots of the orchestra.

Childe Byron, Romulus Linney's lyrical drama of reconciliation of child with parent, has received a production from the Wilma Theater that catches the play's intensity and unique character. Nothing in the contemporary theater is quite like this fantasia on the life of Lord Byron as seen by the daughter he loved but never knew after infancy. Extended passages from the poet's work, including Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, have been incorporated as dialogue in the confrontation that occurs in the imagination of Byron's lost daughter, Ada. Sections of Berlioz's music, some of it inspired by Byron's work, enhance the musical nature of the play's construction.

As an adventurous fusion of music and image, Fantasia has stood as a landmark in screen history for a half-century. But even though it has been seen often over the years, it has not been heard properly since its premiere. Today's reissue of Fantasia on its 50th birthday has been heralded by the Disney studio with appropriate fanfare, but most of the attention has focused on the painstaking refurbishment of the film that has given the colors pin- bright vividness. What moviegoers - either revisiting an old friend from childhood or lucky enough to be discovering the Disney classic for the first time - will hear is the result of an equally laborious and loving restoration.

  JANET JACKSON has had another secret wedding. This time around, she married uber-hot Qatari businessman Wissam Al Mana . In a statement to "Entertainment Tonight," the newlyweds said: "The rumours regarding an extravagant wedding are simply not true. Last year we were married in a quiet, private, and beautiful ceremony. " She's no doubt hoping that the third time will be the charm. Her first marriage to singer James DeBarge was annulled after just a year in 1985.

In a statement to "Entertainment Tonight," the newlyweds said: "The rumours regarding an extravagant wedding are simply not true. Last year we were married in a quiet, private, and beautiful ceremony. " She's no doubt hoping that the third time will be the charm. Her first marriage, to singer James DeBarge, was annulled after just a year in 1985. She then married Rene Elizondo in 1991 and somehow kept the union secret for nine years. It's unclear exactly how long Janet, youngest of the talented Jackson clan, has been hitched this time around.

Toting Mickey Mouse dolls and donning Lilly Pulitzer shifts, the city's youngest classical-music fans made for a gorgeous spectacle Saturday morning filing into the Academy of Music. Yes, the Philadelphia Orchestra's family concert was returning just this once to the Academy, which the ensemble largely left behind in 2001 for more acoustically advanced environs down the block. The Academy is "still a little bit our home," the orchestra's next music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, told the audience.

Leopold Stokowski could only have been invented — by Leopold Stokowski. Magnetic, innovative, and the exception to most rules, starting a century ago Stokowski made the Philadelphia Orchestra what it is today, with a glamour and showmanship that reached listeners well beyond the core classical audience. So, as the Philadelphia Orchestra forges its post-bankruptcy identity, music director-designate Yannick Nézet-Séguin is looking back to that launching point of the orchestra's international reputation with a four-concert centennial Stokowski Celebration from Thursday through Saturday in the hall where it all began, the Academy of Music.

My vote for Oscar's best animated short? Glad you asked. I'm torn between the evocative "Madagascar: A Journey Diary," an impressionistic sketchbook/audiobook of the African island's people, places, and sounds, and "The Lost Thing," a surrealist steampunk parable from Australia. All five contenders are screening at the Ritz at the Bourse. Total running time: 85 minutes. If you saw Toy Story 3 , then you've probably caught Pixar's entry, Teddy Newton's "Day & Night," a charming tale of mutual suspicion, curiosity, and growing respect.

Coming through the "Hurricane" of that not-so-well-received release, soulful R&B singer Eric Benet sounded strong and joyful on 2008's critically acclaimed "Love & Life. " He dropped his latest single, "Sometimes I Cry," this August, and the Milwaukee native is gearing up to release his fifth studio album, "Lost in Time. " "Love & Life" earned him Grammy nods for best R&B album and best male R&B vocal for "You're the Only One. " The album was also his highest-charting release, making its way up to the 11th spot on the Billboard Hot 200. Although he headlines this show, he joins Fantasia later this fall on her Back to Me tour.

ITOTALLY agree with columnist Jenice Armstrong that Fantasia is treated differently because of her looks. She is a beautiful black woman, but society places different stipulations on dark-skinned, full-lipped women. I have these features, and I feel beautiful, but growing up was different. I was constantly teased about how I looked. It took me years to learn how to really love myself. When I didn't, it was OK to sleep around, wear revealing clothes and everything else to get attention.

Fantasia Barrino , 26, says the overdose that sent her to the emergency room on Aug. 9 was a suicide attempt, not an accident. "I didn't have any fight in me. I didn't care about anything. I just wanted out," the American Idol winner tells VH1 in an interview set to air Tuesday, the same day her new CD, Back to Me , is due out. "At that moment, I wanted out. I wanted it to be over with. " In the chat, which has been excerpted by People.com, Fantasia says she was driven to despair after Paula Cook , the wife of her former lover Antwaun Cook , accused her of destroying the Cooks' marriage.

SAN FRANCISCO - It might seem odd to make a live-action feature film based on a Mickey Mouse character from the 1940s. But that's what actor Nicolas Cage and director Jon Turtletaub have done with "The Sorcerer's Apprentice. " The film is based on the animated segment of the same name from the Disney classic "Fantasia. " In the segment, one of eight shorts set to classical music, Mickey Mouse is the eager assistant to magician Yen Sid. After being assigned housework, Mickey tries using magic to take care of the tasks.

With the trailers suddenly running everywhere for the new, live-action adaptation of Maurice Sendak's durable children's classic Where the Wild Things Are , it seemed a fine moment to drop in at the Rosenbach Museum. The Rosenbach, whose library and exhibits occupy two stately townhouses on Delancey Place at 20th Street, is home to the world's largest collection of "Sendakia," as it calls it, a trove of 10,000 sketches and original drafts and watercolors that made it into his books; or, more intriguingly in some cases, did not. What drew our attention particularly was an intimate exhibition that opened last week called "Too Many Thoughts to Chew: A Sendak Stew," a visual feast of the perils (and adventures)