I'm fine with clones. I'm usually thrilled whenever Disneyland gets something Disney World (or other Disney Park) already has. My beef with clones is that in the process they usually come out degraded, cheapened. It's happened at Disneyland with Tower of Terror. Not that I think it's all that great of an attraction to begin with, but the 5th dimension part was the one thing that impressed me about it. When they put it in here, they eliminated the forward motion to save themselves some bucks. Similarly, when they put in Fantasmic! in Disney-MGM, not only did they reduce costs by putting in the Pocahontas scene, but they decided to rely more heavily on the mist screens (there's now an entire sequence devoted to "bubbles" of characters rising out of the water, and they've added way more villains than they needed - the screaming seems to drag on forever!), eliminated the Ursula float, dropped the Pinocchio scene, and built a rather sad-looking steamship for Mickey to drive. I realize Disney used a lot of pre-existing elements at Disneyland to do their version of it, but they managed to do it in a way that truly works.
If you've never seen the Disneyland version, then yes, Disney-MGM's Fantasmic! is probably pretty amazing. Maybe I'm simply jaded because I've seen what the parent can do and am always extremely impressed. The child just doesn't follow in the footsteps closely enough, and comes across looking rather cheesy. If Disney is going to clone something, then any changes should be for the better (plussing, to use Walt's term)...and not just to cut costs.
Edit: Nowhere do I state that I hate the show because of the Pocahontas scene. I love Fantasmic! the show. I just don't feel this version is as good as it could and should be based on Disneyland's precedent. And getting back on topic, I'm once again happy the tarps have been replaced. May it be a sign of things to come.
