Cinquante-huit ans après Fantasia, ce film est composé de huit séquences illustrant huit morceaux de musique classique, interprétés pour la plupart par l'Orchestre symphonique de Chicago sous la direction de James Levine. Chaque séquence est précédée d'une courte présentation par des artistes ayant travaillé pour les studios Disney.
In 1919, Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) enters the University of Cambridge, where he experiences anti-Semitism from the staff, but enjoys participating in the Gilbert and Sullivan club. He becomes the first person to ever complete the Trinity Great Court Run – running around the college courtyard in the time it takes for the clock to strike 12. Abrahams achieves an undefeated string of victories in various national running competitions. Although focused on his running, he falls in love with a leading Gilbert and Sullivan soprano, Sybil (Alice Krige).
The film opens with on-screen text stating: "A true story". It is August 1941, and Nazi Einsatzgruppen are sweeping through Eastern Europe, systematically killing Jews. Among the survivors not killed or restricted to ghettoes are the Polish Jewish Bielski brothers: Tuvia (Daniel Craig), Zus (Liev Schreiber), Asael (Jamie Bell), and Aron (George MacKay). Their parents are dead, slain by the local police under orders from the occupying Germans. The brothers flee to the Naliboki forest, vowing to avenge their parents.
In 1965, Mossad agent Rachel Singer (Jessica Chastain) arrives in East Berlin to meet with fellow agents David Peretz (Sam Worthington) and Stefan Gold (Marton Csokas). Their mission is to capture Nazi war criminal Dieter Vogel (Jesper Christensen)—infamously known as "The Surgeon of Birkenau" for his medical experiments on Jews during World War II—and bring him to Israel to face justice.
Eddie, Dov et Yvan, trois amis, sont associés dans une entreprise de textile du quartier du Sentier à Paris. Après un énième problème avec un détaillant qui ne peut pas payer sa marchandise, ils entreprennent de mettre le pied dans le monde impitoyable de la grande distribution en travaillant avec, une chaîne européenne d'hypermarchés. Reçus dans un premier temps par Peznec, dubitatif quant à la marchandise, ils sont finalement pris en charge par Denis Vierhouten, directeur des achats d'Eurodiscount. Eddie et Yvan découvrent alors vite les lois du milieu des supermarchés : en échange d'une grande quantité de marchandise vendue, ils doivent prendre en charge le fait que leurs produits soient en tête de gondole, doivent faire un don pour fêter la fusion d'Eurodiscount avec un autre groupe de supermarchés, sponsoriser un événement sportif organisé par Eurodiscount…
Judd Altman (Jason Bateman) finds out his wife Quinn (Abigail Spencer) has been having an affair with his boss Wade (Dax Shepard) for a year. After he moves out, Judd's sister Wendy (Tina Fey) calls to tell him their father Mort has died. The Altmans gather together for the funeral at their mother's home where they reconnect with family friends Horry Callen (Timothy Olyphant), and his mother Linda (Debra Monk). Wendy is unhappy because her husband Barry (Aaron Lazar) is too busy with work. Judd reunites with his older brother Paul (Corey Stoll) and Paul's wife Annie (Kathryn Hahn), who had once been Judd's girlfriend. The youngest brother, Phillip (Adam Driver), arrives late with girlfriend Tracy (Connie Britton) and interrupts the funeral.
La bande d'amis du Sentier travaille dans la banlieue, désormais plus dynamique, d'Aubervilliers. Les hommes d'affaires juifs doivent partager le terrain avec des grossistes chinois. Victimes d'une manœuvre de Simon le mafieux, qui les laisse sous la menace de la douane, les compères vont redresser la situation grâce à une arnaque avec les Chinois, utilisant Serge, qui fait semblant de quitter la bande d'amis parce qu'il n'obtient pas sa part d'argent, pour se venger de Simon.
The comedian Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) is trying to understand why his relationship with Annie Hall (Diane Keaton) ended a year ago. Growing up in New York, he vexed his mother with impossible questions about the emptiness of existence, but he was precocious about his innocent sexual curiosity.
The film consists of five main sections: The Creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah's Ark, and the story of Abraham. There are also a pair of shorter sections, one recounting the building of the Tower of Babel, and the other the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The sections vary greatly in tone. The story of Abraham is somber and reverential, while that of Noah repeatedly focuses on his love of all animals—herbivorous and carnivorous or omnivorous. Cats (including lions) drink milk, with Noah's relationship with the animals being depicted harmoniously. It was originally conceived as the first in a series of films retelling the entire Old Testament, but these sequels were never made.
In a prologue, a Jewish man in an unnamed Eastern European shtetl tells his wife that he was helped on his way home by Traitle Groshkover, whom he has invited in for soup. She says Groshkover is dead and must be a dybbuk. Groshkover (Fyvush Finkel) arrives and laughs off the accusation, but she plunges an icepick into his chest. Bleeding, he exits into the snowy night.
Barbra Streisand portrays Yentl Mendel, a girl living in an Ashkenazi shtetl named Pechev in Poland in the early 20th century. Yentl's father, Rebbe Mendel (Nehemiah Persoff), secretly instructs her in the Talmud despite the proscription of such study by women according to the custom of her community.
In 1947, Stingo relocates to Brooklyn in order to write a novel and is befriended by Sophie Zawistowski, a Polish immigrant, and her emotionally unstable lover, Nathan Landau.
In Paris, Eddie Vuibert (Richard Anconina) is an unemployed man in financial difficulty. A rich Jewish cloth manufacturer takes Eddie into his corporation out of pity because he mistakenly believes him to be Jewish as well. Eddie rapidly integrates in the Parisian Jewish community and rises as a sales manager. He continues his masquerade of pretending to be Ashkenazi Jew in order to woo his boss's daughter (played by Amira Casar).
In New York City, Jess Robin (Neil Diamond), whose real name is Yussel Rabinovitch, is an Orthodox Jewish cantor performing at the synagogue of his imperious father Cantor Rabinovitch (Laurence Olivier). Yussel is married to his childhood sweetheart Rivka (Catlin Adams) and has settled down to a life of religious devotion to the teaching of his faith; as a sideline, he writes songs for a black vocal quartet, "The Four Brothers". One night after Maariv, Yussel is recruited by the group to cover for one of the members who is in trouble with the law and must wear blackface and an Afro wig as it is a strictly all-black venue. The group performs "You Baby" and the engagement is a success, but an audience member (Ernie Hudson) notices that Yussel's hands are white, sparking a riot in which the band is arrested. Cantor Rabinovitch goes to the jail to bail them out but finds there is not a Yussel Rabinovitch there, only a Jess Robin. Yussel explains his use of a stage name, but his father informs him that his singing voice is to be used for God's purposes, not his own. Yussel/Jess decides to relent and do whatever his father wants, at least for now.