Jim Hill: From the Archives
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Rhapsody in Blue from Fantasia 2000
(c) Disney

Goldberg -- best known for his work on the Genie in "Aladdin" as well as his co-direction of "Pocahontas" -- had dreamed of doing an animated short that combined George Gershwin's beautiful "Rhapsody in Blue" to Al Hirshfeld's warm, witty N.Y. Times caricatures. He had actually approached the producers of the new "Fantasia" project about using this concept as a segment for their movie. Back in 1995, there hadn't been much enthusiasm for Eric's idea.

But now it was 1998. And Mark and Randy would gladly accept any assignment to keep their guys occupied (And -- more importantly -- employed). Eric Goldberg's dream of animating Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" seemed to be the ideal way to fill this six month hole in the schedule.

So Fullmer, Dindal and Goldberg went to Disney Feature Animation heads Thomas Schumacher and Peter Schneider and told them about Goldberg's proposal. Tom & Peter immediately agreed ...

And that -- my friends -- is the real reason that "Rhapsody in Blue" ended up in "Fantasia 2000." Not because that Gershwin piece made a great addition to the film. Not because it was a brilliant idea for Disney to animate Hirshfeld's caricatures. But just because the Mouse needed something quick to fill a hole in its production schedule. And -- lucky for them -- Eric Goldberg already had an concept in hand.

Okay, now that their production team was temporarily occupied, Dindal and Fullmer turned their attention back to overhauling "Kingdom of the Sun." Since the new version of the film had radically re-imagined some characters and totally eliminated several others, the next thing Mark and Randy had to do was revamp the vocal cast of the movie.

Now that Pacha was supposed to be this beefy, barrel chested guy -- not some reed thin, teenaged Prince Manco look-alike-- it didn't make much sense to have twenty-something "Bottle Rocket" star Owen Wilson continue in this role. So Wilson was quietly let go and sitcom favorite John Goodman was hired to provide new vocals for the pleasant peasant.

However -- now that Goodman was voicing Pacha -- adjustments also had to be made to that character's love interest. In "Kingdom's" original storyline, Nina was supposed to be this beautiful young woman who was a member of Prince Manco's court. So Disney had hired sexy "Snake Eyes" starlet Carla Gugino to voice the character.

But now Pacha was a middle aged man, the age of the llama herder's mate would have to be moved up as well. Because she sounded so young, Gugino had to be let go. In her place, Wendy Malick -- who co-stars with Spade in the NBC sitcom, "Just Shoot Me" -- was hired to provide the new voice of Pacha's very pregnant wife.

Mind you, it wasn't just the film's protagonists that got a major make-over. Dindal and Fullmer also made some significant changes with "Kingdom" 's villains.

Yzma and Kronk
(c) Disney

First and foremost, Yzma got herself a new henchmen. Though everyone at the studio loved the work that Nik Raineri had been doing with Hucua, the sorceress's talking talisman (As well as being wildly enthusiastic about the vocals that playwright Harvey Fierstein had been providing for the little bauble), there was no place for this character in the revamped version of "Kingdom of the Sun."

In the new storyline for the film, Yzma need someone big and strong to send out into the world to do her dirty work. But this new sorceress's assistant also had to be dumb, had to continually keep screwing up Yzma's orders -- so that "Kingdom" 's new plot could keep moving forward.

Obviously, a teeny tiny talisman wasn't going to able to do much of Yzma's bidding. So Hucua (along with Fierstein's fine vocals) were reluctantly dropped from the film to make way for the muscle-bound Kronk. "Mulan" director Tony Bancroft took over the job of animating Yzma's assistant, while "Seinfeld" 's Patrick Warburton (AKA Elaine's boyfriend, Puddy) provided vocals for the dense oaf.

Once the voices of "Kingdom" 's characters had been adjusted, it was now time for Fullmer and Dindal to face their most difficult task: what to do with all the songs Sting had written for the film.

Hoping to repeat the success that the studio had had with 1994's "The Lion King" (which featured music written by Elton John) and 1999's "Tarzan" (which featured songs that was written and performed by Phil Collins), Disney Feature Animation had deliberately sought out the former Police star and offered him the opportunity to write the score for "Kingdom of the Sun." Sting responded enthusiastically to Disney's proposal, quickly churning out six songs for this Incan epic.

Only now "Kingdom" wasn't an Incan epic anymore. Many of the scenes, characters and situations that Sting had specifically written music for weren't in the film anymore. Mark and Randy now had the unenviable task of having to tell a Grammy Award winning artist that all but one of his songs was being dropped from the film.

In the end, Fullmer spared Dindal the embarrassment of having to tell Sting that most of his carefully crafted score was being cut from "Kingdom." Since Randy is the film's producer, he decided that it was his job to break the bad news to the pop star.

Now here's the weird part: Come December, you'll actually be able to sit in a movie theater and -- on a wide screen -- watch as Fullmer tells Sting that most of his score had been cut from "Kingdom of the Sun."