Many people, especially those who have seen Disneyland's Fantasmic!, feel the same way about WDW's Fantasmic! It's good in theory, poor in execution.
Perfectly said.
The good news here is that WDW's Fantasmic! is apparently getting a big multi-month rehab during the winter/spring of 2012. That will be plenty of time to fix everything and bring over the 21st century tech that Disneyland has had for several years.
The Disneyland show was upgraded in a major way over a period of three separate months-long rehabs during the winter/spring of 2007, '08 and '09. In '07 they replaced the 1990's lighting and audio equipment on the "mainland" side of the show, with all of the lighting and audio rigs that come up from underground or hidden boxes, and the change was stunning when it came to the clarity of sound and crispness and saturation of color.
In '08 Disneyland then replaced the original 70mm film projectors with brand new HD Digital projectors, and the change was amazing! If you've only seen the WDW version of Fantasmic!, you have no idea what images you are missing and what's actually supposed to be appearing on the mist screens until you've seen the HD versions at Disneyland. In '08 they also redid the lighting and pyro effects and freshened the stagecraft on the "island" side of the show, adding more clarity and new projection effects to the stage.
And finally, in '09, Disneyland redid the floating barges and watercraft that appear in the show. The Peter Pan Vs. Captain Hook sequence got a new crocodile float, and Flotsam and Jetsam floats (powered by hidden jetskis) were added to the Ursula scene.
And most famously, Murphy The Dragon made his much-delayed debut at the end of summer in '09!
Disneyland did all of this in planned phases over a three year period, and by 2009 it looked and felt and sounded like a brand new show designed for the 21st century audience. It was a good thing too, because the very next spring a little show called
World Of Color started performing at the theme park next door, so the competition was heating up. :lol:
The question is, can WDW's Fantasmic! cram this much stuff in if they are closed for three or four months during the first part of 2012? I wonder if they'll announce this big WDW Fantasmic! rehab at D23 next month? The Disney fan community who gets to both coasts like most of the D23 Expo audience would, will know that the WDW Fantasmic! has gotten embarassingly hokey looking. And the D23 audience at the Expo would have seen Fantasmic! since it plays twice nightly seven nights per week right across the street from the Anaheim Convention Center.
D23 Expo would seem to be the perfect place to announce this upcoming big rehab and refresh for WDW's Fantasmic!. :sohappy:
But to be fair I didn't go last year so haven't been for about atleast 5 years...
