Disneyland Fantasmic Dragon Engulfed in Flames

[marni1971]

Even if Imagineering had the will to build another one,

They didn’t build this one. They did however snap it.

 

[JustInTime]

I suspect that there is no way Disney would approve a new "Murphy" creation in 2023-2024. "Murphy" was a wonderful product of PAST philosophy Imagineering that seems to be long gone today. Even if Imagineering had the will to build another one, Disney management would prolly never green light it again.

I think the old "glory days" of Imagineering are now way behind us. I don't blame them...I blame the top Disney bean-counters that dont see the return on investment of builing epic machines like "Murphy".

So....The old "B-mode" is the new "A-mode". I hope I'm wrong...but it's my guess that "Murphy" wont return for a long time....if ever.

Maybe if it were Disney World. I’d guess this one will get replaced since Disneyland is treated differently.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

I’m surprised the actor in the Mickey suit didn’t react faster and gtfo. I guess he/she couldn’t see what was happening right away?

 

[Disney Analyst]

They didn’t build this one. They did however snap it.

Garner Holt creation.

 

[Brian]

From a YouTube livestream, it would seem the scrim has been erected.

View attachment 712035

"Nothin' to see here, folks."

Signs will be going up on the scrim by end of day for the folks passing by on the various boats to enjoy.

 

[jrhwdw]

The B-mode without the dragon just sees Maleficent stay "levitating" on the stage. See below for a pic at WDW, I'm sure it's similar at DL

DL did this all of Summer of 2009. So it shouldn't be surprising that DL can do this again.

 

[Squishy]

DL did this all of Summer of 2009. So it shouldn't be surprising that DL can do this again.

The show has changed since then so it will be up to management if they want to spend the money to have someone adjust the b mode sequence.

 

[IanDLBZF]

My theory is that the Dragon here is presumed to be a total loss following this fire, and it may be some time (probably a year or more) before Murphy comes back.

 

[IanDLBZF]

They could install a system like the one below, but they aren’t cheap by any sense of the word, but I’m not necessarily sure a few hoses scattered around the dragon would’ve helped.



You can’t just shoot large columns of water on an active stage occupied by people as it would pose a significant safety risk, beyond the fire itself, so before a system like that would even get activation, minutes would need to pass for the stage to get cleared (and by that point the dragon was already engulfed).

That or a clean agent system like Halon or CO2.

 

[IanDLBZF]

Update from WDW, only Festival of Fantasy will be affected.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

The new show lacks the charm of the original and the crowds it brings to Frontierland and NOS are just miserable.

Disagree - the new old show and new show both have pros and cons but they are both good. As for the crowds….. those crowds in NOL helped with the crowds in other areas of the park - that’s why fantastic exists - because one upon a time Disney used to add entertainment and attractions to help disperse crowds instead of charging money to skip lines.

That's a good call, the footage is disturbing. And in no small part because of the behavior of some guests who clearly saw something was wrong and decided to make a show of it rather than evacuate the area.

Like . . . this isn't a stand-up special, what was happening was dangerous. Use your common sense, listen to the Cast Members, skip the one-liners, and get away!

Eh…. The first wasn’t that close to the guests. This wasn’t like the one one the parade route where guests could have been in danger if things went down. Yes, Follow instructions of CM’s but it’s not really that big of a deal.

My guess is this is the end of live fire effects in domestic parks anywhere near an audience, stage, or performers.

I hope not - fire effects are one of the coolest things to see in person. I miss the days of physical effects in major attractions. Compare Indiana Jones with Rise of the Resistence for example…. Projections just don’t cut it.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Disagree - the new old show and new show both have pros and cons but they are both good. As for the crowds….. those crowds in NOL helped with the crowds in other areas of the park - that’s why fantastic exists - because one upon a time Disney used to add entertainment and attractions to help disperse crowds instead of charging money to skip lines.

Eh…. The first wasn’t that close to the guests. This wasn’t like the one one the parade route where guests could have been in danger if things went down. Yes, Follow instructions of CM’s but it’s not really that big of a deal.



I hope not - fire effects are one of the coolest things to see in person. I miss the days of physical effects in major attractions. Compare Indiana Jones with Rise of the Resistence for example…. Projections just don’t cut it.

It won’t be. People are overreacting just a tad.

Disney will investigate, try and figure out what exactly went wrong, ensure similar effects don’t have the same issue, and fire will return.

I also expect a new dragon will come, the question is will it be an exact copy made by Garner Holt? A new 2.0. design based on new AA technology? Something completely different?

 

[EagleScout610]

"Hey, Murphy's a girl dragon, right?"
"Yeah...why?"
"Because, as they say, this girl's on fire!"
"D'ohohohoh!!"

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

…now that’s it’s charred…do they feed it to the kraken?

 

[DCBaker]

Some additional photos of the area now -

 

[NotCalledBob]

…now that’s it’s charred…do they feed it to the kraken?

Depends if they kept Chapek's forwarding address.

 

[Brian]

…now that’s it’s charred…do they feed it to the kraken?

Hasn't been released yet. Check with Sidney.

 

[Brer Oswald]

Apologies if this comes across as insensitive, but stunt performers at the Indiana Jones stunt show have died, which didn’t end the show. A Monorail driver died in a crash, which didn’t end the monorail. Matterhorn has killed multiple people, which didn’t end the ride. Cast members have died on the parade route, which didn’t end parades.

While the dragon itself may have been a catastrophic failure, it remained contained to a catastrophic failure of the dragon, and not the park itself.

Since everyone is thankfully safe, outside losing the dragon, I’d wager this isn’t a big deal.

Inspecting the fire effects elsewhere once a cause is determined out of an abundance of caution for the performers and guests is what they should do.

How many of those incidents involved a $10 million company asset becoming worthless?

 

[BagOfGroceries]

Yep, she gone.

 

[PiratesMansion]

I'd generally agree with you except that Disney's response here was to halt all fire effects, globally. That worries me about the future of Murphy. Current Disney is penny-pinching and risk-averse. I hope I'm wrong.

It's pretty standard procedure industry wide that in the event of an incident, all similar hardware goes down until the cause can be determined. It's just a precautionary measure. Once they determine what the cause was, and make any appropriate modifications, the other fire effects should return within a relatively short period of time.

Once the cause is determined and appropriate modifications are in place, things typically return to how they were before, albeit with modified safety provisions.

I feel like this is a freak incident that doesn't say nearly as much about Disney, their maintenance, response, etc. as many people are claiming it does. I also question the notion that just throwing more water at the problem faster (as suggested by others) was the obvious solution-is it really if hydraulic or other machine-related fluids are involved?

There have been far worse (from a guest perspective) incidents involving, say, Colombia and Big Thunder, and those attractions came back. I imagine this will be the case for the Fantasmic dragon too.