Fantasmic
We capped off our day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and our
vacation, with Fantasmic. (I know it has an exclamation point, but I’m going to
omit it for easier typing and to avoid punctuation oddities). I love the
dazzling original at Disneyland, but the Studios version is longer and newer,
so we were curious to see how it compared. Here, Fantasmic gets its own devoted
stadium, so you can actually sit as you wait for the show to begin. The path to
the stadium from Sunset Boulevard is much longer than it looks on the park map.
The stadium itself is partially covered by lighting equipment supported by
poles that unfortunately lie right in the middle of the view from many seats.
It seats more than 8,000, and it was mostly filled by the time the show
started, though some empty sections remained on the far right. For the preshow,
some over-enthusiastic cast members held an audience singing competition. They
had the DJ play the beginning of a song (not all of which were Disney, though
don’t ask me what they were specifically), and then one or the other side of
the amphitheater would finish the phrase as loud as they could. Of course, the
leader of each side would goad the other, but of course, it all ended up happy
as they encouraged the whole audience to sing together by the end.
The stage itself is a large mountain with some thin ledges,
but they’re only really used for the Pocahontas sequence. The show starts the
same as the Disneyland version. Bu after the flower part, several costumed
animals begin dancing on stage. There is no Kaa, and it is Rafiki, not King
Louie, who leads the monkeys on the passing barges. Then the mist screens start
up, and images of bubbles with scenes from a veritable cornucopia of Disney
movies appear. This goes on for a while before it finally segues to the Jiminy
and Monstro segment followed by Mickey getting sucked into the whirlpool.
But instead of Peter Pan’s ship, we get an interminable
Pocahontas sequence. In fact, it’s longer than any single element of the show,
based on a movie that is the very pinnacle of Disney animation. Forget Snow
White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin,
and The Lion King. Heck, forget Citizen Kane, The Godfather, The Shawshank
Redemption, Psycho, and Jaws. The Mona Lisa, Michelangelo’s David, Shakespeare,
Einstein, and Gandhi pale next to the might that is Pocahontas! All shall bow
before its pure awesomeness and unsurpassable perfection! POCAHONTAS 4-EVER!
Anyway, the unremarkable sequence starts with Radcliffe, the
most menacing cinematic villain of all time, proclaiming the mountain for King
James. Then, Native Americans in boats appear and then there is a disjointed
battle scene between the settlers and the Indians. John Smith is about to be
killed when Grandmother Willow—yes, SHE CANNOT BE KILLED—interrupts,
disregarding the conflict as a “terrible dream.” Is it finally over? Nope,
there’s still more as “Colors of the Wind” plays on the mist screens.
At long last, the barges with the couples from Snow White,
The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast arrive, followed by the
Queen/Witch scene. She calls the villains, but now there are much more than
just Ursula, Chernabog, and Maleficent. We also get Cruella de Vil, Scar,
Frollo , and Jafar. Why does Cruella want to go after Mickey? Does she want to
turn his skin into a leather coat? And what about Frollo? Does he lust after
Mickey and want to burn him as a witch if he can’t, erm, have him for his own?
After Jafar appears, he sends Mickey to the Cave of Wonders,
and the mist screens show Mickey escaping the lava on a magic carpet. The live
Mickey then encounters Jafar as a snake. Mickey then finds a lamp and rubs it,
which turns Jafar into a genie. Now all-powerful, Jafar logically decides to
withdraw, making way for Hades, who seems to have ADD with a series of
disconnected and rather silly statements: “Hades rules! OK, I’m cool, I’m cool.
So Mickey’s so noble. Oh, and you’ll love this one more thing.”
Chernabog appears on the mist screens as on Disneyland and
then we get the Maleficent sequence, though the dragon is apparently older and
not as advanced as the upgraded Disneyland one. For her death scene, after
Mickey says, “You may think you’re so powerful. This is my dream!” he stalls
around and Maleficent is considerate enough to accommodate as she watches
Mickey laboriously create a wall of water. He then marches over to a sword that
happens to be in a nearby rock, pulls it out, and then it shoots some sparks at
the Maleficent dragon who suddenly realizes that she should have taken Mickey
out while we was taking his time making the water wall and marching over to the
sword.
Then we get the villain death scenes, three of which are
hilarious. Not coincidentally, they are all new to this Disney World version.
Cruella shouts, “Imbeciles!” thwarted out of getting her mouse-skin coat.
Frollo says “Witchcraft!” and Hades goes, “Ooh! Eeh! Ow!” as if he’s getting
bitten by mosquitos of the underworld. Needless to say, these scenes undermine
the drama and intensity of the death scenes, though it’s possible that some
parents thought that the Disneyland version was too intense and complained, and
the Studios got this as a result.
After this, the finale is the same, with one difference: the
Mark Twain Riverboat is replaced by a dinky steamboat with fewer characters and
no spinning sparklers on the side. This is inexplicable; they built a whole new
stadium just for this show, so why did they have to use such a small boat? The
final pyrotechnics are the same as the upgraded Disneyland version, the show
ending with the loud, bright mines.
I have to say that I like the Disneyland version more,
despite the shorter running time. The pink elephants and Pinocchio sequences
are more interesting than the long bubble sequence, where it’s hard to make out
a lot of the movie scenes anyway. The Pocahontas scene, as you may have
guessed, is an underwhelming sequence from an underwhelming movie, and made
even worse by a comparison to the Peter Pan scene with the Columbia sailing
ship. A dynamic and humorous scene is jettisoned here for a staid, plodding one
that has a narrative cop-out (Grandmother Willow) to boot. And the addition of
so many villains is like the old saying of too many cooks spoiling the broth.
Some, like Cruella and Hades, are more humorous than menacing, though maybe
that was the point. Scar is hardly a presence at all and Frollo, who is a great
(and creepy) character in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, is laughably out of
place here. And while I did harp a bit on Mickey taking his sweet time to kill
Maleficent in this version, I do think the water wall is effective as an
element of spectacle.
I want to make clear that these disappointing aspects are
all in comparison with the Disneyland show, and are furthermore my own opinion.
Fantasmic is still a sensational show with astonishing effects and majestic,
powerful music. It is the best show I saw at Disney World, and I suspect very
few people would walk away from it disappointed. To say that it is the epitome
of visual spectacle may be an exaggeration, but few things I’ve seen have come
close.
Conclusion
Disney World is a huge, overwhelming place, and I am aware
that I still have lots more to see in the four major parks alone. I still found
a variety of attractions to enjoy, from blockbusters like Expedition Everest,
Kilimanjaro Safaris, Festival of the Lion King, Test Track, Mission: Space,
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror to hidden gems such
as the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover, Flights of Wonder, Living
With the Land, Spaceship Earth (admittedly not so hidden), the manatees in The
Living Seas, the train set in Germany, and the koi pond in Japan.
As far as food went, with the exception of Kona Café in the
Polynesian Resort, all of the best food was at the quick-service restaurants
(though this was probably because the good full-service restaurants in the
parks were already booked). From the Flame Tree Barbecue in Animal Kingdom to
Sunshine Seasons, Karamell-Küche, and Boulangerie Patisserie in Epcot, food at
these counter-service eateries was better than I expected. Even the sandwiches
from the Pop Century food court and the items from Magic Kingdom’s Columbia
Harbor House weren’t bad.
I was surprised at how few E-ticket attractions were at each
park. Maybe with four parks, Disney World can afford to spread its headliners
out. But Disneyland and even California Adventure have more top-tier rides than
any single Disney World park. For comparison:
Magic Kingdom: Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder
Mountain Railroad (3)
Animal Kingdom: Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris,
Kali River Rapids, Dinosaur (4)
Epcot: Test Track, Mission: Space, Soarin’ (3)
Disney’s Hollywood Studios: Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, The
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Star Tours, Toy Story Midway Mania (4)
California Adventure: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror,
Soarin’ Over California, Toy Story Midway Mania, Grizzly River Run, California
Screamin’, Radiator Springs Racers (6)
Disneyland: Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder
Mountain Railroad, Star Tours, Matterhorn, Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of
the Forbidden Eye (6)
In other words, Disney World has two more headliner rides
than Disneyland with twice the number of parks. Of course, there are other good
attractions, but Disneyland in particular has a high number of attractions that
the Disney World parks can’t match. Plus, in California you can walk from one
park to the other in less than five minutes, so there’s definitely a larger
concentration of attractions in a much smaller area in Anaheim.
That said, Disney World still has many things that
Disneyland will probably never have, most notably Animal Kingdom and Epcot. The
latter shows that it’s not all about the quantity of attractions. Epcot only
has three headliners yet, as I’ve stated, it is the Florida park I enjoyed the
most. It has a down-to-earth feeling that’s removed from the fantasy of
Disneyland, yet is still engrossing and fresh.
Since I’ve been to Disneyland so much, I would, at present,
be more excited by a trip to Disney World than Disneyland. The sense of novelty
will probably take a few trips to wear off. The vast number of things to do at
Disney World may be what appeals to many, but I suspect I will always like
Disneyland more. One could argue about Disneyland’s originality, sense of history,
merits of its individual attractions, and I would probably agree with them. One
could also say that because I went to Disneyland first, I have a bias for it.
But none of these arguments would influence the truth that Disneyland feels
better to me. Of course it would come down to feeling for me—I’m a writer, not
a mathematician. And, as is universally known, all writers are touchy-feely,
wishy-washy wimps. Then again, I’ve always been interested in science and
examining why I like what I like. It may be all due to personal bias, which
would honestly be disappointing. But these posts, written for myself more than
anyone, are an attempt to explore the differences between the two resorts and
come to some kind of conclusion.
Anyway, that’s way more words on a theme park than is
necessary. Disney World was a great place, though very strange and almost alien
to this Disneylander. But this strangeness is intriguing, and I would be eager
to discover more about this wonderful destination.
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