After numerous unsuccessful attempts to develop a Fantasia sequel, The Walt Disney Company revived the idea shortly after Michael Eisner became chief executive officer in 1984.

Development paused until the commercial success of the 1991 home video release of Fantasia convinced Eisner that there was enough public interest and funds for a sequel, to which he assigned Disney as executive producer.

[4][5] Fantasia 2000 premiered on December 17, 1999, at Carnegie Hall in New York City as part of a concert tour that also visited London, Paris, Tokyo, and Pasadena, California.

Eisner finally gave the green-light to the film in 1991, and had Disney serve as executive producer on the basis that its production was funded by the proceeds from the video sales.

[23] Because Katzenberg continued to express some hostility towards the film, Disney held development meetings without him and reported directly to Eisner instead, something that author James B. Stewart wrote "would have been unthinkable on any other future animation project.

[27] Later on, Dance of the Hours was dropped and The Nutcracker Suite was replaced by Rhapsody in Blue during the last few months of production following the response from numerous test screenings.

[30] Disney considered using Clair de Lune, a piece originally made for Fantasia that followed two Great white herons flying through the Everglades at night, but thought it was "pretty boring".

[28] An idea to have "a nightmare and a dream struggling for a sleeping child's soul" to Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninoff was fully storyboarded, but fell through.

[34] To gain inspiration in how the shapes would move, Hunt and his associates visited San Diego Zoo, a butterfly farm, and observed slow motion footage of bats.

[35] The segment combines hand drawn backgrounds using pastels and paint that were scanned into the Computer Animation Production System (CAPS), and computer-generated imagery (CGI) of abstract shapes and effects, which were layered on top.

[44] Butoy recalled the challenge of having the water appear and move as naturally as possible; the team decided to write computer code from scratch as traditional animation would have been too time-consuming and would have produced undesired results.

In December 1998, Goldberg pitched Rhapsody in Blue to Thomas Schumacher and received the green-light to produce it, and Hirschfeld agreed to serve as artistic consultant and allowed the animators to adapt his works.

[60] Initially Butoy asked Pixar Animation Studios to handle the computer graphics, but CGI artist Steve Goldberg convinced him to let Disney's own team produce it.

Originally the drain sequence included friendly rats who performed comical gags, but the team found it did not fit the mood of the rest of the segment.

[66] Mostly known as Britain's most loved patriotic song (thanks its choral counterpart Land of Hope and Glory)[67] the original march was created for royal and solemn events, but Eisner suggested his use as a stand-alone piece after he attended a graduation and thought its familiarity would be suitable for a Fantasia segment.

[30] The music to The Sorcerer's Apprentice was already recorded on January 9, 1938, for the first film at Culver Studios, California with Leopold Stokowski conducting a group of session musicians.

The recording of Rhapsody in Blue used in the film is an edited version of Ferde Grofé's orchestration of the piece performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra with conductor Bruce Broughton.

Disney felt the need to keep interstitials (bridges) as used in Fantasia in order to give audiences a chance to "cleanse their emotional palate" from the previous segment while also providing some information about the next one.

[85] The interstitials were filmed in various locations; the orchestra, Jones, Lansbury, and Bronfman[86] were shot in Los Angeles, Perlman and Midler in New York City, and others in Boston, Massachusetts.

[106][107] Walt Disney Records released 60,000 copies of a limited edition of the film's soundtrack on November 30, 1999, in the United States and internationally under the Sony Classical label.

[109] A Fantasia 2000 Deluxe Read-Along cassette and CD followed which contains two tracks telling the stories of Pomp and Circumstance and The Sorcerer's Apprentice, with narration by Pat Carroll.

[112][113] A temporary 622-seat theatre costing almost $4 million was built in four weeks for its Los Angeles run as Disney was unable to reach an agreement to only have the film shown during the four months at the city's sole IMAX theater at the time at the California Science Center.

[122] Following its release in 1,313 regular theatres in the United States on June 16, 2000, the film grossed an additional $2.8 million in its opening weekend that ranked eleventh at the box office.

[126] Todd McCarthy of Variety pointed out that while the original Fantasia felt too long and formal, its "enjoyable follow-up is, at 75 minutes, simply too breezy and lightweight".

5 and The Firebird he thought lacked the "abstract grace" from Toccata and Fugue from the original, and Pines of Rome was "even less successful" due to the computer imagery which affected its quality.

[128] Richard Corliss of Time magazine wrote a positive review of the film, citing Pines of Rome as "a superb, uplifting flight of the spirit" and Piano Concerto No.

He pointed out that though the film includes moments of comedy and pastoral, "the themes running through the old 'Fantasia' – the struggle between light and dark, the war between chaos and order, the ultimate triumph of goodness – find only a pale equivalent in this new version".

Sibley argued the film lacked an even quality, highlighting Pines of Rome with its "breathtaking" opening before "its magic has been overtaken by chronic boredom" when the baby whale reunites with his parents.

Pomp and Circumstance, he thought, contained "shamefully sloppy animation" but is saved by Donald's comical gags, but pointed out Rhapsody in Blue, with its "strong lines and vivid, flat colours that are fashionably retro", and the "classic Disneyesque ... exquisite beauty and raw natural violence" in Firebird Suite, as the film's most successful segments as they "ironically, hark back to older times".

The project was originally a collaboration between Walt Disney and Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, and features music written by Mexican songwriter Armando Domínguez and performed by Dora Luz.