“Fantasmic!” returns Friday. It will feature a few key changes, including the return of an extended segment focused on “Peter Pan.” It also won’t have a dragon.
Yet the apex of the “Fantasmic!” will still revolve around a battle between Mickey and Maleficent, who in images is seen towering over the star of the show, her figure conjuring an array of lighting, projection and pyrotechnic effects. Maleficent, with scepter in hand, will ascend to a height of 35 feet. Firework effects will appear to shoot from Mickey’s hands, and Maleficent will set the river ablaze.
“The whole theme of the show — good versus evil, and Mickey’s magic and imagination overpowering the evil — it’s important to have that peak in the show,” says Disney Live Entertainment’s Tobi Longo, who has been working on “Fantasmic!” for nearly all of its three-plus decades. It’s Disney’s longest-running so-called nighttime spectacular.
“Maleficent is still going to be spectacular,” Longo says. “She’s on the stage longer than she used to be. We’ve added new pyro effects, with really cool projections and lasers. The river is still going to light on fire. ... As much as we miss the dragon right now, it’s still going to be a spectacular scene.”
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