Mantis Miscellany--Walt Disney World Part 6: Fantasmic and Conclusion

Originally Published May 16, 2013

Fantasmic

We capped off our day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and our vacation, with Fantasmic. (I know it has an exclamation point, but I’m going to omit it for easier typing and to avoid punctuation oddities). I love the dazzling original at Disneyland, but the Studios version is longer and newer, so we were curious to see how it compared. Here, Fantasmic gets its own devoted stadium, so you can actually sit as you wait for the show to begin. The path to the stadium from Sunset Boulevard is much longer than it looks on the park map. The stadium itself is partially covered by lighting equipment supported by poles that unfortunately lie right in the middle of the view from many seats. It seats more than 8,000, and it was mostly filled by the time the show started, though some empty sections remained on the far right. For the preshow, some over-enthusiastic cast members held an audience singing competition. They had the DJ play the beginning of a song (not all of which were Disney, though don’t ask me what they were specifically), and then one or the other side of the amphitheater would finish the phrase as loud as they could. Of course, the leader of each side would goad the other, but of course, it all ended up happy as they encouraged the whole audience to sing together by the end.

The stage itself is a large mountain with some thin ledges, but they’re only really used for the Pocahontas sequence. The show starts the same as the Disneyland version. Bu after the flower part, several costumed animals begin dancing on stage. There is no Kaa, and it is Rafiki, not King Louie, who leads the monkeys on the passing barges. Then the mist screens start up, and images of bubbles with scenes from a veritable cornucopia of Disney movies appear. This goes on for a while before it finally segues to the Jiminy and Monstro segment followed by Mickey getting sucked into the whirlpool.

But instead of Peter Pan’s ship, we get an interminable Pocahontas sequence. In fact, it’s longer than any single element of the show, based on a movie that is the very pinnacle of Disney animation. Forget Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. Heck, forget Citizen Kane, The Godfather, The Shawshank Redemption, Psycho, and Jaws. The Mona Lisa, Michelangelo’s David, Shakespeare, Einstein, and Gandhi pale next to the might that is Pocahontas! All shall bow before its pure awesomeness and unsurpassable perfection! POCAHONTAS 4-EVER!

Anyway, the unremarkable sequence starts with Radcliffe, the most menacing cinematic villain of all time, proclaiming the mountain for King James. Then, Native Americans in boats appear and then there is a disjointed battle scene between the settlers and the Indians. John Smith is about to be killed when Grandmother Willow—yes, SHE CANNOT BE KILLED—interrupts, disregarding the conflict as a “terrible dream.” Is it finally over? Nope, there’s still more as “Colors of the Wind” plays on the mist screens.

At long last, the barges with the couples from Snow White, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast arrive, followed by the Queen/Witch scene. She calls the villains, but now there are much more than just Ursula, Chernabog, and Maleficent. We also get Cruella de Vil, Scar, Frollo , and Jafar. Why does Cruella want to go after Mickey? Does she want to turn his skin into a leather coat? And what about Frollo? Does he lust after Mickey and want to burn him as a witch if he can’t, erm, have him for his own?

After Jafar appears, he sends Mickey to the Cave of Wonders, and the mist screens show Mickey escaping the lava on a magic carpet. The live Mickey then encounters Jafar as a snake. Mickey then finds a lamp and rubs it, which turns Jafar into a genie. Now all-powerful, Jafar logically decides to withdraw, making way for Hades, who seems to have ADD with a series of disconnected and rather silly statements: “Hades rules! OK, I’m cool, I’m cool. So Mickey’s so noble. Oh, and you’ll love this one more thing.”

Chernabog appears on the mist screens as on Disneyland and then we get the Maleficent sequence, though the dragon is apparently older and not as advanced as the upgraded Disneyland one. For her death scene, after Mickey says, “You may think you’re so powerful. This is my dream!” he stalls around and Maleficent is considerate enough to accommodate as she watches Mickey laboriously create a wall of water. He then marches over to a sword that happens to be in a nearby rock, pulls it out, and then it shoots some sparks at the Maleficent dragon who suddenly realizes that she should have taken Mickey out while we was taking his time making the water wall and marching over to the sword.

Then we get the villain death scenes, three of which are hilarious. Not coincidentally, they are all new to this Disney World version. Cruella shouts, “Imbeciles!” thwarted out of getting her mouse-skin coat. Frollo says “Witchcraft!” and Hades goes, “Ooh! Eeh! Ow!” as if he’s getting bitten by mosquitos of the underworld. Needless to say, these scenes undermine the drama and intensity of the death scenes, though it’s possible that some parents thought that the Disneyland version was too intense and complained, and the Studios got this as a result.

After this, the finale is the same, with one difference: the Mark Twain Riverboat is replaced by a dinky steamboat with fewer characters and no spinning sparklers on the side. This is inexplicable; they built a whole new stadium just for this show, so why did they have to use such a small boat? The final pyrotechnics are the same as the upgraded Disneyland version, the show ending with the loud, bright mines.

I have to say that I like the Disneyland version more, despite the shorter running time. The pink elephants and Pinocchio sequences are more interesting than the long bubble sequence, where it’s hard to make out a lot of the movie scenes anyway. The Pocahontas scene, as you may have guessed, is an underwhelming sequence from an underwhelming movie, and made even worse by a comparison to the Peter Pan scene with the Columbia sailing ship. A dynamic and humorous scene is jettisoned here for a staid, plodding one that has a narrative cop-out (Grandmother Willow) to boot. And the addition of so many villains is like the old saying of too many cooks spoiling the broth. Some, like Cruella and Hades, are more humorous than menacing, though maybe that was the point. Scar is hardly a presence at all and Frollo, who is a great (and creepy) character in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, is laughably out of place here. And while I did harp a bit on Mickey taking his sweet time to kill Maleficent in this version, I do think the water wall is effective as an element of spectacle.

I want to make clear that these disappointing aspects are all in comparison with the Disneyland show, and are furthermore my own opinion. Fantasmic is still a sensational show with astonishing effects and majestic, powerful music. It is the best show I saw at Disney World, and I suspect very few people would walk away from it disappointed. To say that it is the epitome of visual spectacle may be an exaggeration, but few things I’ve seen have come close.

Conclusion

Disney World is a huge, overwhelming place, and I am aware that I still have lots more to see in the four major parks alone. I still found a variety of attractions to enjoy, from blockbusters like Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Festival of the Lion King, Test Track, Mission: Space, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror to hidden gems such as the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover, Flights of Wonder, Living With the Land, Spaceship Earth (admittedly not so hidden), the manatees in The Living Seas, the train set in Germany, and the koi pond in Japan.

As far as food went, with the exception of Kona Café in the Polynesian Resort, all of the best food was at the quick-service restaurants (though this was probably because the good full-service restaurants in the parks were already booked). From the Flame Tree Barbecue in Animal Kingdom to Sunshine Seasons, Karamell-Küche, and Boulangerie Patisserie in Epcot, food at these counter-service eateries was better than I expected. Even the sandwiches from the Pop Century food court and the items from Magic Kingdom’s Columbia Harbor House weren’t bad.

I was surprised at how few E-ticket attractions were at each park. Maybe with four parks, Disney World can afford to spread its headliners out. But Disneyland and even California Adventure have more top-tier rides than any single Disney World park. For comparison:

Magic Kingdom: Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (3)

Animal Kingdom: Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Kali River Rapids, Dinosaur (4)

Epcot: Test Track, Mission: Space, Soarin’ (3)

Disney’s Hollywood Studios: Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Star Tours, Toy Story Midway Mania (4)

California Adventure: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Soarin’ Over California, Toy Story Midway Mania, Grizzly River Run, California Screamin’, Radiator Springs Racers (6)

Disneyland: Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Star Tours, Matterhorn, Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye (6)

In other words, Disney World has two more headliner rides than Disneyland with twice the number of parks. Of course, there are other good attractions, but Disneyland in particular has a high number of attractions that the Disney World parks can’t match. Plus, in California you can walk from one park to the other in less than five minutes, so there’s definitely a larger concentration of attractions in a much smaller area in Anaheim.

That said, Disney World still has many things that Disneyland will probably never have, most notably Animal Kingdom and Epcot. The latter shows that it’s not all about the quantity of attractions. Epcot only has three headliners yet, as I’ve stated, it is the Florida park I enjoyed the most. It has a down-to-earth feeling that’s removed from the fantasy of Disneyland, yet is still engrossing and fresh.

Since I’ve been to Disneyland so much, I would, at present, be more excited by a trip to Disney World than Disneyland. The sense of novelty will probably take a few trips to wear off. The vast number of things to do at Disney World may be what appeals to many, but I suspect I will always like Disneyland more. One could argue about Disneyland’s originality, sense of history, merits of its individual attractions, and I would probably agree with them. One could also say that because I went to Disneyland first, I have a bias for it. But none of these arguments would influence the truth that Disneyland feels better to me. Of course it would come down to feeling for me—I’m a writer, not a mathematician. And, as is universally known, all writers are touchy-feely, wishy-washy wimps. Then again, I’ve always been interested in science and examining why I like what I like. It may be all due to personal bias, which would honestly be disappointing. But these posts, written for myself more than anyone, are an attempt to explore the differences between the two resorts and come to some kind of conclusion.

Anyway, that’s way more words on a theme park than is necessary. Disney World was a great place, though very strange and almost alien to this Disneylander. But this strangeness is intriguing, and I would be eager to discover more about this wonderful destination.