3. Seamlessness of story
Image: Disney (Walt Disney World)
Mickey’s magical freefall into the realm of imagination makes for a particularly gripping story, especially for a nighttime spectacular. While all versions of Fantasmic tell this story, the Walt Disney World version admittedly feels a little more Frankensteined together. The transitions between scenes just aren’t as seamless, even when compared to the original Disneyland version. This lack of continuity becomes especially obvious during the uniquely-lengthy bubble montage scene. With a lackluster melody of classic Disney soundtracks, the show seems to take a break from the main story to give the audience a broad smattering of Disney scenes that appear inside floating bubbles. The effect feels more like a bland survey of Disney’s most profitable IP’s rather than continuing to follow Mickey through the trippy layers of his dreamworld.
In the Disneyland version, Mickey’s journey makes weird sense. It feels like the progression of a dream. Playing with magic and colors leads Mickey to the kaleidoscope of flowers, which provides a garden for the Lion King / Jungle Book mashup. This foray into the jungle logically leads to the fan-favorite pink elephants on parade (which might include the catchiest cover of a Disney song EVER), then from that psychedelic insanity to the master of psychedelic insanity—the Genie. Mickey dives from the Genie’s menagerie of wonders deeper into the sea, leading us to the manta rays from Finding Nemo, then to Pinocchio and Monstro, then back to the surface with the pirates. This seamlessness carries throughout the production, avoiding the choppiness of the Walt Disney World version and preserving our captivation with Mickey’s dream.
4. Lions, snakes, and pink elephants—Oh my!
Image: Disney (Disneyland)
The jungle scene is one of the first areas where differences between the shows becomes apparent. While both Disneyland and Walt Disney World utilize The Lion King in their jungle scene—and Walt Disney World’s use of glowing puppets is well done—there are a few elements that once again give Disneyland’s Fantasmic 2.0 the advantage.
The transition from the flower scene to the famous African sunrise from The Lion King is particularly dramatic, but one of our favorite elements from Disneyland’s Fantasmic remains Kaa the snake, who has been a mainstay in the show since it’s opening. The snake itself is a wonder of engineering and manpower, particularly with its eerie spotlight eyes. While Walt Disney World does utilize the snake effect later in the show for Jafar’s transformation, Kaa just seems like a better fit for the effects and the flow of the story. The music is wonderfully catchy in both Disneyland versions, and the dancing tribal-paint animals in the 2.0 version are a very nice upgrade from King Louie’s monkeys in the original.
More significant than the jungle section is a scene that’s entirely missing in Walt Disney World’s version—the pink elephants on parade (what did poor Mickey eat before having this trippy of a dream?). There were few things as a child that terrified me more than Dumbo’s nightmare elephants, but I came to love the pink elephants scene from Fantasmic more and more as an adult. Both Disneyland versions covered the song with undeniably catchy remakes, and the scene provides a perfect opportunity for Disney to go crazy with insane color and projection effects while upping crowd energy. It is sorely missed at Walt Disney World, especially since it's replaced with the dull bubble montage mentioned earlier.
5. Of genies and princesses
Image: Disney (Disneyland)
The genie scene added into Disneyland’s Fantasmic 2.0 is a perfect example of areas where the update improved on the original. Fantasmic provides one of the most realistic platforms imaginable to portray the Genie in all his wackiness, and dreamscape Mickey is the perfect audience for his antics. The scene is missing from Walt Disney World’s version, but again, this is somewhat understandable since the original DL Fantasmic didn’t include the genie either.
Aladdin actually provides two great contributions to Fantasmic 2.0. In Disneyland’s updated version, the princess scene actually starts with a dazzling depiction of Aladdin and Jasmine riding the magic carpet through the clouds while singing a Whole New World. The princess scene that follows is one of the show’s highlights in all versions. The one difference is that while Walt Disney World's version still includes Snow White as the third princess (a very fitting tribute to Disney’s first feature length animated film), in Disneyland’s 2.0 version, Snow White and Charming are replaced with Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder. The latter pair fit perfectly into the scene, especially since “At Last I See the Light” themes well with the show’s dreamy light effects (which look like floating lanterns).
Comments
Amazing article! In general, I've always preferred the original Disneyland version, although I love some of the upgrades done in the 2.0 version, like the Jungle Book/Lion King merger for the jungle sequence and the new Aladdin scenes (I do miss Peter Pan, though; much more fitting than PoC, plus it's my favorite Disney animated film). The only thing that I think WDW does improve upon is the addition of more classic villains (although I can do without the whole Cave of Wonders sequence). My ideal version of the show would be the original Disneyland version (with Peter Pan), plus the new jungle and Aladdin sequences from 2.0 and the villains montage from WDW.