Fantasmic! Has returned to Walt Disney World, and guests may notice a whole lot of heroes (besides Mickey, of course) on their next viewing of the favorite nighttime spectacular.
What’s Happening:
- Fantasmic!, the ultra-popular nighttime spectacular, has returned to Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World after a long absence.
- Originally closed due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the powers that be at the park decided to use this time to do something that had been discussed for numerous years – update the show.
- The show, originally dating back to 1998 at the Florida park, was itself an updated version of the Disneyland original, adding more (and modern) characters and villains into the mix, but stayed relatively stagnant until that closure in 2020, aside from a few character additions into the infamous Bubble sequence.
- Original to the Florida version of the show is several minutes featuring moments as seen in Pocahontas. Characters would float out in canoes while Governor Ratcliffe would instruct everyone to dig, dig, and dig before the whole scene would erupt into a battle sequence that featured a “flaming arrow,” stunts, and pyrotechnics before using the romance between Pocahontas and John Smith to segue into the iconic romance sequence that features Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Snow White and her prince.
- The Pocahontas scene was the biggest change overall in the update of the show, being completely removed. Now, where Mickey once transitioned into the scene with his eyeballs saying “Hey, what’s going on?!” before a cannon blast, he now says “Hey, what’s going on?! I can use a little help!,” kicking off a series of hero moments, starting with Pocahontas herself (likely remaining to pay homage to the past scene) before quickly giving the stage over to a mist-screen-montage of heroes including Hercules, Quasimodo, Mirabel, Tiana, Tarzan, and Mulan.
- Mulan takes over the physical stage in a training sequence before we see Aladdin climbing the mountain to stay “One Jump Ahead” of the palace guards chasing him, carrying the past John Smith stunts into this scene before getting into a heartfelt moment that leads to emotional hero moments, including Elsa as seen in Frozen 2 taking over the main stage with an effects filled rendition of “Show Yourself” which itself blends into a moment with Grandma Tala and Moana where the hero walks on the water briefly for her song, an effect originally intended for Mickey Mouse back in 1998.
- As Moana restores the heart of Te Fiti, the mist screens kick back on for more heroes across the water, revisiting the same stories mentioned in the first piece.
- If you think some of the stories shown on the screen are obscure choices, it’s also because their villains (Jafar, Hades, Frollo, etc) appear later in the show, as they have since 1998.
- From there, Tinker Bell appears to transition into the romance sequence, where formerly she only appeared in the show once to kick off the finale after Mickey faces Maleficent in dragon form.
- Aside from this major change, the bulk of Fantasmic! Remains the same aside from massive technological upgrades and a large quantity of lighting additions, as well as numerous moments featuring projection mapping on the mountain set.
- Now that you’ve seen the major changes to the show, take a look behind the scenes at the development of them in a special panel featuring Disney Live Entertainment Show Producer Laurice Marier, and Show Director Matthew Hamel, sharing what it took to bring Fantasmic! back to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the Walt Disney World Resort.
- You can catch the new hero scene in Fantasmic! For yourself the next time you visit Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Florida.
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