Fantasmic! 2.0 Rumors, Speculation, Announcments

I liked the "fireflies" projection mapping before the opening.
This was one of my absolute favorite new elements that is really hard to see on the videos. We were able to watch the 9 and the 10:30 last night. This element is actually NOT projection mapping. Its some sort of advanced laser system. Its mounted on top of the building with the gumbo/chowder window, above the Club 33 balcony.

It is the same kind of tech seen in the Mystic Manor ride from Hong Kong. It looks very different from the regular projections in that it just POPS and literally looks like pixie dust or some sort of magic fireflies. It is used very effectively throughout the show and when combined with the projections leads to some pretty amazing effects.
 

nevol

Well-Known Member
This was one of my absolute favorite new elements that is really hard to see on the videos. We were able to watch the 9 and the 10:30 last night. This element is actually NOT projection mapping. Its some sort of advanced laser system. Its mounted on top of the building with the gumbo/chowder window, above the Club 33 balcony.

It is the same kind of tech seen in the Mystic Manor ride from Hong Kong. It looks very different from the regular projections in that it just POPS and literally looks like pixie dust or some sort of magic fireflies. It is used very effectively throughout the show and when combined with the projections leads to some pretty amazing effects.

They're really cool. It is truly magical/eluding to metaphysical energy transfers. Looking at the show again, I found another cool use of them in that sequence! During "welcome to fantasmic" as the narrator says "overwhelming NIGHTMARE" one of the lights on the building "burns out." It goes way bright and then back to a normal level and that is where the first "firefly" escapes from. So the nightmare itself is what is escaping and invading the dream, right off the bat. Really amazing. As more of those lights appear, the lights on the island grow dimmer and dimmer.

And when mickey comes out he spins around in disbelief and goes "woahhh" like he's realizing his powers for the first time. Trippy.
 
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SuddenStorm

Well-Known Member
Objectively speaking, however we will be stuck with this show for 25 years so it isn't as casual and inconsequential as that.

I'd bet money this new version doesn't last 25 years- for many reasons already stated by myself and others. If the technology behind this new one wasn't so damn good, we would be up in arms for the original. I'll reserve final judgement when I see it live, but the soundtrack didn't get any form of emotional response from me, like the original was able to do.
 

Magenta Panther

Well-Known Member
I just saw a video of the new show, and WOW!!!!! Loved it! Breathtakingly magical! I think the new Pirates scene is great - very effective! And the new show open with the magical sparks...amazing!!!! So much color and pyro and water effects. This is a huge PLUS! Great job, TDO! I can't wait to see this in person!
 

George Lucas on a Bench

Well-Known Member
This is by far the best video of the new show I've found, and it was one of the first to upload. maybe the first or second... 4k, and good camera work. So many people zoom in on mickey too much and miss the pyro etc, which has its time and place but my goodness. Or people talk through the whole thing. But this one is solid!


Yeah, the guy who recorded that used to make incredible live binaural ASMR recordings of Disneyland. I still have them.
 

stitchcastle

Well-Known Member
I'm gonna go ahead and say that I don't like how they made the whole first half basically World of Color, it loses a lot of the charm and elegance of the more dimly lit older version. There is also too much projection mapping, not every segment has to include screensavers on Tom Sawyer island. It distracts from the performers and fountain projections way too much. Plus, showing Mickey so early takes away the anticipation and reveal that's already built into the score. I'm also so over watching/hearing "Friend Like Me" in every nighttime show, that it's shoe-horned into Fantasmic is overkill. The new Princess Medley is also overlong. The Aladdin part is kind of unnecessary and they wait too long to start the Tangled segment (even though i think its a great fit overall). I would've nixed the Genie section and put Moana in its place. That or take away the carpet ride and add "Let it Go" after the Princesses and before the villains.

Now for the positives, the new fountains are amazing as is the state of the art new projection system. Pirates replacing Peter Pan is long overdue and the dramatic lighting on the Columbia/Black Pearl was pretty great. The entire villains and finale sections were perfectly plussed thanks to the updated effects. Even though I'd much prefer to have Mickey in his Brave Little Taylor outfit and to not reveal live Sorcerer Mickey until the very end.

The new soundtrack feels polished and definitely epic but the slower parts are very lacking. I'll echo the sentiment earlier that the new recordings don't have the same emotional punch that the original had, particularly the Princess Medley. Part of me feels like it's because they crammed more stuff into the show that the soundtrack itself is sped up a little bit. Actually that's my main gripe with this version of Fantasmic! there's too much going on that it's like an ADD-addled version of the show.
 

mikenatcity1

Well-Known Member
Can anyone offer some info- looking at the dining schedule it looks like Fantasmic may go weekends only in mid-September...I know it used to do this, but I didn't think it would this soon after the re-launch. I'm going Sept 20-22 and was hoping to catch it on Sept 21!
 
I meant why aren't they using the articulated heads in the show.

I'd hazard a guess and say it's due to the amount of swap outs that have to do for Mickey in the show. There's at least three different Mickey's in the show, tux, steamboat and sorcerer, if they were articulated and one of them failed, it'd stand out like a sore thumb. (not to mention safety of the performer if they can't see when it goes dark) So I'd say just for ease they went the traditional route. Besides I don't think the articulated head would add that much if I'm being honest.
 

stitchcastle

Well-Known Member
I especially like the opening a lot more than the original. I never understood why Mickey was waving his hands back and forth over his head like he was at a rave.


I always saw that as Mickey conducting the fountains like an orchestra.

anyway, I feel like this version would be perfect for WDW, it's big and bombastic enough to warrant a set up like the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater. For Disneyland though I prefer the more intimate, stripped down previous version.
 
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Deleted member 107043

One of the crew members for fantasmic over at MiceCraZyChat mentioned that its heavy and can easily get damaged. I was sad to hear they weren't using it. I wish all characters in all shows got them, maybe some day?

Hopefully. Considering how everything has been so nicely upgraded it was surprising to see the old Mickey heads being used.
 

brb1006

Well-Known Member
After watching a video of it on YouTube, I can say that the refurbishment was a massive improvement on a technical level. But even though I do think the show has best effects any version of the show has ever had, I can't say it's an all around superior version. While I wouldn't say Disney ruined it, I would say major structural damage was caused in certain parts. They pretty much changed things just to change things. There are so many changes, I have to break it down scene by scene to describe how I feel about it.

The First major issue is that Mickey comes out way before his musical cue. It really diminishes the impact. Second major issue is that almost everything from the score to Mickey Mouse's dialogue has been unnecessarily rerecorded with a quality noticeably lower than the pitch perfect original. Because of this, the whole show never feels as right as it should. That isn't to say there weren't changes that I like. Combining the Lion King and Jungle Book scenes worked out very well as did the Genie replacement for the Pinocchio scene. But then there's the PotC scene on the Columbia which I knew I would like less than Peter Pan due to the latter being an inherently better IP for the show tonally speaking. After that is the Whole New World section which I feel is a little tacked on and would've been better if audio of Aladdin and Jasmine singing to each other was in place instead of a singer who sounds a bit over the top for what the scene should be. Another poor change is Rapunzel in place of Snow White in the Princess scene. I'm not against Rapunzel being in the show, but I feel the flow of the scene is broken. However, the absolute worst change in the show is the transition to the Villain section of the show. Instead of the Queen talking to the magic mirror and transforming into the witch, it's now Mickey for some strange reason. The witch still shows up after this, but the villainous buildup of that scene is completely destroyed. The show from here on out is pretty much the same aside from the unnecessarily rerecorded dialogue that I mentioned earlier.

All in all, I still think that Fantasmic! is a solid show and looks better than ever, but like a lot of things in Disney today, unnecessary modernizations hurt the final project. If it were up to me, I would've updated the effects in a similar fashion, but changed the actual content in very few ways. I do think there's a reason the original 1992 version of Fantasmic! is widely considered to be the best version around the world. Sadly, it appears Disney didn't learn why and turned it into something that suffers from a lot of the same issues as its clones but to a greater extent in some respects.
I think the new Villian transition might also be based on the Tokyo version.
 

GiveMeTheMusic

Well-Known Member
Hopefully. Considering how everything has been so nicely upgraded it was surprising to see the old Mickey heads being used.

Mickey has his new face in the show, but Fantasmic is unlikely to ever get articulated heads. It is felt that they are not necessary from such a far distance and aren't needed to be effective, so they're not used. Most guests wouldn't even be able to tell that his mouth would be moving, so they stick to "animation" - the broad moves of the performer to mime along with dialogue.
 
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