In a depature of topics (religion, politics, prose), I must share my other big excitement this week: the newest version of Fantasmic! at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California debuted last night! This show has been the hands-down favorite part of Disneyland for me since it debuted in 1992. Over 16 years old now, the show continues to improve itself and keep up with the technical advancements and styles. Millions was spent on the most recent refurb, although these upgrades went more into the technical side. Aware visitors will notice the completely upgraded fountain jets (think Bellagio-capability), and entirely upgraded sound and lighting systems (not an easy task in a 9,000-person outdoor viewing area in middle of a theme park). A few other items were noticable in this upgrade as well, including a new blue ultra vilot cast of light on the stage with Mickey Mouse during the opening scenes, as well as new projected effects on the live-action scenes of the villian’s climax as they plot their revenge against Mickey. In addition, the old 70mm film projectors for the water mist screens were replaced with digital projectors, and combined with the new fountain jets, this is a VAST improvement!
The next big refurb will be next year (the final refurb for awhile), and THAT will be the one that makes you go “Wow!” You know Buckey, the fire-breathing, relatively bodiless-dragon that is little more than a head on a stick? He’s being replaced … my friend over at Imagineering is keeping me zip on the details, but this new dragon next year will NOT be a head on a stick anymore … and he’ll have QUITE a bit more interaction with Mickey!
Until then, here is a video of the reworked intro scene, with the new blue cast stage and fountains. The projectors that were added is not in this video (even though they were incredible, they had some glitches on the opening night last night and I didn’t want to post those). I NEED a Disneyland trip?
And is this random bit of Disneyland fun unrelated to most of my writing so far? No. I’ll explain more later.
EDIT: Almost forgot, HT to ChadEvansOfHollywood on YouTube for the video.
