Disneyland Fantasmic Dragon Engulfed in Flames

Too Many Hats

Too Many Hats

Well-Known Member
PiratesMansion said:
But also, people watch videos of Fantasmic constantly to find evidence of mistakes, and are shocked when there are, in fact, mistakes? Make it make sense.

Is it frustrating to see errors again and again? Yes. But also, there has got to be a more productive, enjoyable use of people's time than policing the state of Fantasmic from afar night after night.
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I guess the question is -- are these types of issues typical for Fantasmic, dating back to 1992? Or is this a recent Iger-money-grubbing-era phenomenon?

I enjoy Fantasmic but I'm not a super fan; saw the show last Saturday and thought it looked great, didn't notice any issues (aside from Murphy's absence, which is a bummer but understandable for now).
 
PiratesMansion

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
Too Many Hats said:
I guess the question is -- are these types of issues typical for Fantasmic, dating back to 1992? Or is this a recent Iger-money-grubbing-era phenomenon?

I enjoy Fantasmic but I'm not a super fan; saw the show last Saturday and thought it looked great, didn't notice any issues (aside from Murphy's absence, which is a bummer but understandable for now).
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Have these sorts of issues increased over time? Probably, age will do that for any piece of entertainment. But did issues happen in 1992? Undoubtedly. There just wasn't a whole internet of people watching livestreams every night waiting for the show to fail so they could tell their parasocial friends that they have yet more evidence of Disney's failure/incompetence/cheapness/insert personal grivance here. It just seems like things were definitively better in the past because we didn't have evidence of failure on video that could be taken by every single person with smartphone, many of whom are looking for followers/clout/attention/fame/whatever. We have a culture, or at the very least a significant percentage of people, that would rather watch videos of fails than videos of successes. Put those things together and people will tune in for "Fantasmic effect broken" or "Disneyland Fantasmic Malfunction AGAIN" but not "Fantasmic show works perfectly, enthusiastic audience."

And we DO have people who visit Disneyland everyday or, clearly, who watch livestreams of Fantasmic every night. To most people, that would be pretty odd, but this fandom and social media are the way they are, so it's become somewhat normalized. And people who do that tend to be pretty familiar with the parks and are going to notice and comment on effects that didn't work or things that weren't perfect, things that a newcomer usually wouldn't catch.

Another example: just imagine how many times coasters stopped on the lift hill or had minor failures in the past that people that didn't witness it directly just didn't know or think about because people couldn't whip out their phone and capture it on video and hype it up to their friends/followers/etc. with virtually no effort or time expended. But now seemingly every single time something minor happens, it makes the news. Same principle is at work.

I've always found Fantasmic to be overrated in general and for the most recent versions to be overhated, TBH. That said, I don't really have an interest in watching the show again until 1) they get a new dragon, or 2) I happen to be visiting with someone who's never seen the show before. Not worth the hassle of getting a spot to me without either of those things being true.
 
gerarar

gerarar

Premium Member
I've been actively watching Fantasmic! for years now (for both WDW & DL), probably since around 2012-2013.

DL has had all sorts of issues dating back. A decade ago when moving fountain heads were introduced, they were super unreliable. They were eventually pulled and made static. Wasn't until the 2017 2.0 revamp that moving heads were finally done right. Whenever projectors were upgraded, there were also issues at first but eventually worked out.

But as far as pyro, there has never been a constant stream of issues like we have seen in the past 6 months. Usually pyro is the one thing you can count on for this show. This is one of the worst states I've probably seen the show in.

Over at WDW, pyro has also never been a problem. There have been times when barges were dormant, mostly due to them being refurbished on timely matters. Certain products get pulled if there's a misfire, but usually returns after a couple days.

So no, I don't just watch livestreams because I want to see F! fail. I dearly love the show, as most of Disney's nighttime spectaculars. I want to see the show done right by Disney and performed to the best of their ability.
It's also important (imo) to document the show's progression online. The original 2017 F! thread got deleted a couple years ago, so we lost all the history there.

I do feel for the guests that pay money to get a prime sitting spot for the show, yet this is all they get. Majority of the show's pyro, 2/3 of it, being missing for months is just unacceptable at this point. Add with the show only being performed on weekends now, it just adds to the confusion..
 
PiratesMansion

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
gerarar said:
So no, I don't just watch livestreams because I want to see F! fail. I dearly love the show, as most of Disney's nighttime spectaculars. I want to see the show done right by Disney and performed to the best of their ability.
It's also important (imo) to document the show's progression online. The original 2017 F! thread got deleted a couple years ago, so we lost all the history there.
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Why not just watch one masterfully filmed version of the show with all of the effects working then?

I suppose we agree to disagree about the importance of noting every single blemish for history's sake.
TheCoasterNerd said:
I only watch the livestreams to see the show because I love the show (and because I'm working on learning the finale choreo) but when I do see an issue why not share it... isn't that the point of the thread?
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The point of the thread is that The Dragon Burned, actually.

It might be more straightfoward at this point to start an official Fantasmic Daily Grievance Thread (I imagine somebody who feels more positively about the practice than I do should and could name it something that sounds nicer), rather than turn every single thread about Fantasmic into a variation on the same idea. That way, those who enjoy the grievances, er, documentation have a designated space for that, theoretically everything is easier to find and more organized rather than sprawled over a variety of threads from over the years (I'm sure there's got to be a way to port all of the historical stuff that exists into that, yes), and those who are looking for nothing more than actual, substantive news (or at least discussion) on the new dragon don't have to wade through post after post of "effect X is broken again". Everybody wins that way.
 
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T

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
I’m waiting for Halloween Screams in the hub, but while I heard the music start, I did not hear the cannon, nor see the fireworks from the first show of Fantasmic tonight. Anyone know if something happened?

Edit-Mark Twain steamed through randomly so something must have really gone wrong.
 
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TheCoasterNerd

TheCoasterNerd

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Touchdown said:
I’m waiting for Halloween Screams in the hub, but while I heard the music start, I did not hear the cannon, nor see the fireworks from the first show of Fantasmic tonight. Anyone know if something happened?

Edit-Mark Twain steamed through randomly so something must have really gone wrong.
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UPDATE: In the second show, she was present on the island doing C mode (running around shaking her wand) and full fire was present
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PiratesMansion

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
I was under the impression that Fantasmic, like fireworks, was Fri-Sun unless it was a major school break?

Just seems like the article is framed to scapegoat unions for something that, to my knowledge, has been the case for some time most of the year. And, frankly, if our Fantasmic forecasters and other people watching the show are any indication, Fantasmic could benefit from some major work on the nights when the show is dark.

EDIT: This source is from the Site That Shall Not Be Named too. They don't always have the best track record when it comes to posting reliable info anyway.
 
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AJFireman

AJFireman

Well-Known Member
Touring plans has the entertainment schedule posted on their site. I selected multiple days during the Holiday Season in 2022 (no showings in 2020, 2021 and 2023) and days in 2019, it does show that during the week Fantasmic did not have showings. During the Holiday Season other then Thanksgiving week and the 2 weeks around Christmas it was showing only during the weekend.

Disneyland Showtimes for 12/7/2022

Disneyland Showtimes for 12/7/2022 - TouringPlans.com
touringplans.com touringplans.com
 

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