just re-opened at Disneyland, but this new version has several changes from what fans had been used to.
It re-opened on May 24, 2024 to a packed audience, but that came with many changes.
How Long is Fantasmic!
Fantasmic!is a roughly 25-minute nighttime spectacular on the banks of the Rivers of America in Disneyland.
Fantasmic!brings audiences along as Mickey Mouse delves deeper and deeper into his own dream.
His imagination conjures up various songs and scenes from iconicDisneymovies, mesmerizing fountains, and swashbuckling adventures.
But Mickey’s dream is taken over by Disney villains, who make his dream darker and darker.
Historically, this ended with a steamboat full of beloved characters after an epic battle with a dragon.
The steamboat remained, of course, but the dragon did not see the same fate.
Of course, there are several more minor changes throughout the nighttime spectacular too.
So, what all changed from 2023 (Fantasmic!2.0) to 2024 (Fantasmic!3.0)?
But once the lights converge in the center, that’s where the changes begin.
In 3.0, a spotlight illuminates the center of the island, surrounded by two poles.
As the poles rise from the ground, several lights move in half-circles around the front of the poles.
The water is more of a gold color in 2.0, and a pink-purple color in 3.0.
Once Kaa appears, there is a more noticeable difference.
The flower adds even more kinetic energy to a fun, bright, and movement-filled scene.
A bit before both shows' halfway marks comes a stunt sequence on a pirate ship.
In 2.0, this was themed to thePirates of the Caribbeanfranchise starring Johnny Depp.
The scene featured a battle for Captain Jack Sparrow’s compass.
In the new sequence, there is a battle between Peter and Captain Hook.
From the ship’s deck, Wendy tells Peter to be careful.
TheFantasmic!theme music plays, and they sword fight before Hook falls from the top of the ship.
The ship in 3.0 appears slightly before the one in 2.0 did, as 2.0 had a longer introduction.
3.0 also features a crocodile projection that looks very convincingly like a three-dimensional figure.
This is skipped in 3.0, with the moon appearing on a relatively more still hat.
But that is not the biggest difference in this fountain segment.
This is where 3.0 aligns again but only somewhat.
In 3.0, the same music plays, and the cloud projections lessen as the lyrics begin.
But, Aladdin and Jasmine are not on a magic carpet.
The main difference is the fountain and lighting colors.
In 2.0, the water and lights were red, but in 3.0 they are yellow.
Both versions still turn green for the hag’s spell.
Despite it being central toFantasmic!
’s iconography since before 1.0 even opened, a dragon does not appear inFantasmic!3.0.
Quite simply, there is no need to distract audiences from anything that may be happening behind the screen.
As such, the fire sequence starts far earlier in 3.0 than it does in 2.0.
However, it doesn’t seem to have a massive impact on the overall duration of the show.
There are also some slightly different fountain colors here.
(May 25’s two 3.0 performances were used for this list.)
Both boats include:
Removed for 3.0:
Added for 3.0:
Is the Fantasmic!
It is honestly a little tricky to believe that Disneyland’sFantasmic!will never have a dragon again.
Historically, the dragon is almost synonymous with the show.
There have been two iterations of the dragon in Disneyland’sFantasmic!
1.0’s dragon head and 2.0’s full-body dragon.
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The 2.0 dragon was dubbed Murphy by cast members and fans in the know.
The figure was named after Murphy’s Law:“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
“When something went wrong with Murphy the dragon, it wentreally wrong.
Fantasmic!plays at least once every day at Disneyland at 9 p.m. PST.
On certain days, there is a second show at 10:30 p.m. PST.
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