Happy (late) 28th birthday to the greatest piece of live entertainment Disneyland has ever produced! So many great memories watching this over the years. The original was a masterclass in themed entertainment- a near perfect show that still hasn't been topped.
Originally titled Imagination, the title was changed to Fantasmic! prior to debut, derived from the word phantasmagoria.
Here's a wonderful series of photos on its construction.
And here's a delightfully cringy dedication featuring Michael Eisner:
The original show went through remarkably few changes over the years. The audio was untouched, but the effects were upgraded incrementally over the years and majorly overhauled around 2009 with major effect reworks, projection improvements, and most noticeably a new dragon lovingly titled 'Murphy' due to its rocky debut and consistent issues since.
The original show ended January of 2016 to make way for Star Wars: The Shopping Mall which necessitated the shortening of Walt Disney's Rivers of America and gave Davison and his team of creatives the perfect opportunity to meddle with a bona fide classic. The new show debuted July 17, 2017 and features numerous creative differences from the original as well as all new effects, sound, lighting, and pyrotechnics.
Originally titled Imagination, the title was changed to Fantasmic! prior to debut, derived from the word phantasmagoria.
Here's a wonderful series of photos on its construction.
And here's a delightfully cringy dedication featuring Michael Eisner:
The original show went through remarkably few changes over the years. The audio was untouched, but the effects were upgraded incrementally over the years and majorly overhauled around 2009 with major effect reworks, projection improvements, and most noticeably a new dragon lovingly titled 'Murphy' due to its rocky debut and consistent issues since.
The original show ended January of 2016 to make way for Star Wars: The Shopping Mall which necessitated the shortening of Walt Disney's Rivers of America and gave Davison and his team of creatives the perfect opportunity to meddle with a bona fide classic. The new show debuted July 17, 2017 and features numerous creative differences from the original as well as all new effects, sound, lighting, and pyrotechnics.
