Word: characterless
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Musically speaking, Fantasia 2000 is a dumbed-down dud. The performances, mostly by James Levine and the Chicago Symphony, are competent but characterless. The selections are all abridged in one way or another, and some are mangled virtually beyond recognition. The first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which normally takes between seven and eight minutes, here is over in less than three. The sole exception is the uncut version of The Sorcerer's Apprentice extracted from the original Fantasia, in which Leopold Stokowski hypnotized an anonymous band of Hollywood studio musicians into sounding just like the Philadelphia Orchestra...
...Harvard (except for Gitano) cast serves to sing the music, and not much else; they do very little acting throughout. Colum Amory as Phileas Fogg is characterless at first, but by the end gives some emotional depth to the tight British explorer. Wynne Love as Maureen has perfected her Irish accent, and simultaneously sings and acts with soul. The chorus is unanimated in the background, providing no action or interest of note. The script doesn't allow for the actors to do very much else besides sing, and as the show progresses we are struck with the distinct impression that...
...administration ever attains its goal, every house will be a characterless clone of every other, and diversity within houses will have been achieved at the price of diversity among houses...
...lost those institutions completely, however, we'd all miss out. There's something to be said for individuality and character. Call it Harvard regional flavor. If every house were a sterile, characterless collection of numerically-diverse communities, some timeworn College institutions might disappear: the Dunster goat roast, the Kirkland Incest Fest...
...years here I have been labeled politely and insultingly as all three. Any ethnicity that does not fall into one of these three fantasmatic categories gets thrown into a grab-bag of "Other" interchangeable and characterless appellations...