25 Years of Fantasmic! – A Look Back and a Review

"Welcome to Fantasmic! Tonight, our friend and host, Mickey Mouse, uses his vivid imagination to create magical imagery for all to enjoy." For over 25 years those words have started my all time favorite theme park show and now with this latest update looks like it could go for another 25! But I am getting ahead of myself, — first I would like to look back at May of 1992 where a teenage boy after seeing and hearing all about this new "river show" decided to ditch his high school graduation and take his first girlfriend to Disneyland. Little did I know how much that would change my love of Disney!

For those of you that don't remember, or more likely weren't born yet, prior to Fantasmic! New Orleans Square and the area around the Rivers of America was a peaceful place. But, in the early 90's, that all changed. Here is an excerpt from the 1992 Disney News Magazine about the process to create the show:

"Disneyland is made up of a variety of experiences," explains Bob McTyre, Vice President of Entertainment at Disneyland, "attractions, food, merchandise, characters, live entertainment. We try to make the whole work together.

"As part of that effort, we were looking at ways to make nighttime at Disneyland a more exciting place to be. And we were most interested in New Orleans Square. Although we have done shows on the River in the past, a real show experience had never been done there."

The article goes on to talk about how IllumInations was part of the inspiration and the technological advances it took to bring the River to life:

"We had been wanting to do a spectacle on the River for at least 10 years," says Mike Davis, Director of Entertainment at Disneyland. "When we saw 'IllumiNations' at Walt Disney World we started thinking about it again. Then, last year, Michael (Eisner, The Walt Disney Company Chairman and CEO) gave us the go-ahead to try something new, so we said, 'Let's finally do that River spectacular."'

Through the high-tech sorcery of FANTASMIC!, Mickey Mouse draws the audience into a world of his own vivid and colorful imagination.

Of course, Mickey has more than 60 years of spectacular memories stored up, so it should come as no surprise that, once he turns his imagination loose, he can conjure up a sensational array of images — enormous blooming flowers, giant dancing marionettes, swashbuckling "Peter Pan" pirates (aboard a full-scale pirate ship), and exotic "Jungle Book" beasts, including a gigantic Kaa, which slithers its 100-foot-long body around the tip of Tom Sawyer Island.

There are some malevolent forces at work in FANTASMIC! however. A formidable array of Disney villains invades Mickey's imagination for a thrilling climax, pitting Mickey against the likes of the Wicked Queen from "Snow White," the demon Chernabog from "Fantasia," Ursula the Sea Witch from "The Little Mermaid," and the towering, fire-breathing dragon from "Sleeping Beauty." It takes all the goodness Mickey can muster to end the nightmare and return Disneyland to its normal state as The Happiest Place on Earth.

In addition to a cast of nearly 50 live performers in hundreds of costumes and a variety of roles, FANTASMIC! features lasers, fog effects, specially choreographed water fountains, fireworks, fiber-optics technology and a full cast of creeping, floating, fire-breathing and generally intimidating monsters.

One innovative technique employed by FANTASMIC! has never before been seen in a Disney Theme Park. As Mickey works his magic, three massive mist screens, each one 50 feet wide, 30 feet high and 6 inches thick, will appear on the River alongside Tom Sawyer Island. These screens are so dense that actual film images can be projected upon them.

Originally Fantasmic! was planned to have its media opening on April 29nd, 1992, but due to the Los Angeles riots that broke out that day after the acquittal of the officers involved in the Rodney King beatings, plans were put on hold. Without any official records and lack of internet, we only know it did open on May 13th, 1992.

Over the years Fantasmic! has seen and caused some changes both big and small, the first of which was, after the opening summer and record crowds, the area around the Rivers of America were reconfigured to add terracing to enhance sight lines for guests. One of the other major changes early on is the highly debated Ursula float. To this day, I have friends that recall seeing her float past on their "last visit" but, in fact, she never made it full time in show past the second summer due to a great number of reasons including breaking down mid show and bringing the entire show to a full stop.

Once the first year growing pains were out of the way it was smooth sailing... or was it? Head to page 2 and find out!

Disneyland's Fantasmic! ran for nearly 20 years basically unchanged, from the guest point of view, until the summer of 2009 aka Summer Nightastic!

Summer Nightastic was a summer push to drive guests back into Disneyland with new fireworks, a dance party in Tomorrowland, and a plussed Fantasmic! with a fully animated 40-foot-tall dragon, cutting-edge digital video technology and an appearance by Flotsam and Jetsam — the slithering eels who serve Ursula the Sea Witch in The Little Mermaid.

Unfortunately, Murphy the dragon, as he was dubbed because of the Murphy's Law "anything that can go wrong will," was far from reliable and would often cause the show to be canceled before or even during. Eventually, the dragon's appearance was pulled from the performance and Maleficent would just stay in her elevated position to battle Mickey Mouse. The Flotsam and Jetsam jet ski duo, while visually impressive, didn't work out so well either (seems to be the curse of the Sea Witch) having difficulty seeing, the drivers were said to "often run into things along the river including each other" and just as the Ursula float before them they also didn't last more than a few summers before being removed.

Of course, over its 20 year run, technology had been updated behind the scenes with projectors and lighting being revamped every few years. But with the exception of Murphy, who finally started working more than not by 2011, the show celebrated its 20th anniversary with a few special parties for annual passholders with a special opening featuring special opening day footage.

Before we move on to the New Fantasmic! we have to take a look at the other two shows located around the world.

First, we have the Walt Disney World version. Opened in 1998 this was a departure from the Disneyland version as a full arena was built in the shadow of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney MGM-Studios (now Disney's Hollywood Studios) to increase capacity.

The show itself holds true to the original but goes through and does some "interesting" changes most notable is the Pocahontas section in place of the original Peter Pan section but without a Sailing Ship Columbia, it was understandable. Also, the addition of more villains and the infamous "bubbles" not only gave the ability to include more recent characters and add more as time went along it also added nearly five minutes bring the WDW version to 27 minutes whereas the Disneyland version was 23 minutes.

The most recent entry into the Fantasmic! world came in 2011 when Tokyo DisneySea retired its long running BraviSeamo! show.

Tokyo DisneySea unlike both the US parks is a park based around a volcano and waterways without a central island or structure to build off of, so being the most innovative park they decided to make the entire show moveable as to not disrupt the beauty of the park until closer to showtime.

This version sticks a little bit closer to the Disneyland version where less is more when it comes to the villains but does expand on the presence of Mickey as opposed to more of the scenes that all happened in the original. Being this is one of the largest viewing areas for a show of this type some views are not the best but this show as you are about to find out plays a HUGE part in the updated Disneyland version.

Now that we have seen the past, let's take a look at the present! Head to page 3 for what it now looks like!

In early 2016, it was announced that Fantasmic! was going to be going down for a refurbishment along with other attraction in Disneyland to make way for the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge expansion, little did we know what was planned. On a May update of the Disney Parks Blog, it was announced when Fantasmic! returns it would have "new magic" which sent the Disney Universe into a fit, which I think happens pretty much daily but this was a bigger than normal one. Speculation grew as the actual 25th anniversary date grew closer, but as with what happened 25 year ago, so did the rains in Southern California. While it was never announced to happen, it is believed that the return of El Niño bringing heavy rains may have been one of the reasons Fantasmic! was unable to celebrate its 25th birthday with the first performance. As the summer grew closer, so did the biennial Disney D23 Expo which brings thousands upon thousands of Disney's most die hard fans to the gates of the Disneyland Resort.

The D23 Expo had already been scheduled and almost sold out when June 15, 2017 hit and the Disney Parks Blog confirmed Fantasmic! would return to the Rivers of America on July 17th, 2017 (Disneyland 62nd Birthday) which would lead this die hard fan to change his return flight. For anyone that has been to a D23 Expo, you know surprises are a big part of the event. During the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts panel on Saturday, Bob Chapik announced the return of Fantasmic! would happen that night and we all were going to be given Disney Fastpass for it. That surprise brought the 7,000 fans to a roar!

We were given our choice of Saturday or Sunday for either of the showings (9:00 p.m. or 10:30 p.m.) and, after some challenges, guests were given a wristband and credential for whichever show they had chosen.

Me being me, I picked the first show that night! Finding the perfect unobstructed view right next to Tower A (told you — die hard fan) this was the first performance to the public of the new Fantasmic!

My feelings after this first viewing were very mixed because, if you couldn't tell by now, I loved the original! There was nothing wrong with the show, just different and as with most Disney fans different is always hard to accept.

Things I loved about the show:

• Keeping many of the same iconic scenes including the flower, Kaa, and King Louie[gallery link="file" columns="2" size="large" td_select_gallery_slide="slide" ids="212090,212091"]
• Enhancing the villains while keeping the most of the same footage
  

  Disneyland - Fantasmic!

• Paying tribute to the Pinocchio marionettes
  

  Disneyland - Fantasmic!

• Updating the Princess float parade by adding Rapunzel and Flynn
  

  Disneyland = Fantasmic! Tangled float

  The overall show is still Fantasmic!, but not the show I have known and loved for almost 25 years, which just means I need to see this show over and over again because it is great! The additions of Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King are a perfect way to bring the new Disney Classics into the show while keeping the emotional attachments that were already there. If I may note my only two downsides to the show, they would have to be the addition of Mickey's "ohhh" throughout the opening of the show and removing the original exit music and inserting the Tokyo DisneySea music.

  

  Disneyland - Fantasmic!

  On July 17, I had already booked the Fantasmic! dinning package with the grab-n-go option from the Hungry Bear Restaurant which worked out very well and the food was far better than expected.

  [gallery link="file" columns="2" size="large" td_select_gallery_slide="slide" ids="212095,212096,212097,212098"]

Having the chance to see the show a second time in the matter of days I was really able to put together how I felt about it, it is good just not great to me and the main reason I think is because I had just seen the source martial for this version just a few months ago in Tokyo. Disneyland Fantasmic! came full circle from being the most original show I had ever seen to being a knock-off of the Tokyo DisneySea version. Again, this is not a bad thing, but hearing the same score rearranged from Tokyo threw me. The visuals are amazing and do a better job in conveying the story of Mickey again getting into trouble ala the Sorcerers Apprentice scene in Fantasia, but this is not Mickey's dream so much as it is an adventure. The points I said I really enjoyed from above still hold true and were enough to bring me back to sitting right next to the fencing along the rivers during that first summer, but again, the rehashing of the other show would knock me back out. I am still a firm believer in updating and plussing classics without destroying it all and this is a perfect example of a good change. I know I will get past the few drawbacks I have from the show and love it — no matter what, it is still the best version of Fantasmic! in any of the parks!

Oh, I was also able to take video from the other side of the river so you can choose which you like but if you want to see the center view head over to Doug's coverage of the opening night here.