“Fantasmic” just reached the 25th anniversary of its debut as the nighttime spectacular at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It’s a landmark rarely reached at Walt Disney World. Even Epcot’s beloved “IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth” show bowed out after a 20-year run in 2019.
The nightly production received updates — technical and creative — when it reopened last year after an extended pandemic-prompted shutdown. Its story continues to center on the imagination of Mickey Mouse, moments of good versus evil, a dramatic dragon sequence and literally a boatload of Disney characters.
“I think what you never outgrow is the mix that ‘Fantasmic’ offers,” says Amy Ardelean, general manager of entertainment at Hollywood Studios. “You have unbelievable lighting. You’ve got still mist screens that we project on, which is a really unique way of carrying the imaging. You’ve got lifts and all sorts of special effects. You got pyrotechnics. But more than that, you literally have 49 characters a night.”
The characters from across the decades are “the secret sauce,” she says.
“People have a tendency, no matter what age, to want Disney characters,” she says.
Therefore, it’s all hands on deck for the long-standing “Fantasmic” finale, which puts the characters on a steamboat that passes in front of the amphitheater seating area. Dwarfs, chipmunks, princesses and others go through choreography (and streamer work) that rings the vessel, never leaving a blank space facing the crowd.
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“When we were in rehearsal, getting ready to open it again, our senior vice president Jason Kirk came to visit at the studios, and I said, ‘Hey, come with me. They’re there in the rehearsal room working on the steamboat,” Ardelean recalls. “He watched it intently for about 15 minutes and said to both [DHS VP] Jackie Swisher and myself, ‘I will never look at this the same way again. It looks so easy. But in reality, this is a lot to coordinate.’”
“Fantasmic” first appeared at Disneyland, and then a version in a new setting followed at Hollywood Studios — then known as Disney-MGM Studios — in 1998. Earlier this year, a fire involving the dragon during a Disneyland show went viral, and the California park’s production is on pause until spring 2024, Disney says. (Fear not, “our dragon’s healthy,” Ardelean says.)
The 30-minute show includes 80 people among the entertainment cast and crew, plus workers in operations, food and beverage and merchandise.
“Many of them saw it as guests,” Ardelean says.
Among the recent changes were additions to the digitalized projections.
“Instead of focusing on the live entertainment, we really leaned into some content updates in terms of the visuals that you see. You see so many different Disney characters throughout those images that we were able to stack some of our more recent releases and get them in that way,” Ardelean says.
When the show returned late last year, the storyline expanded beyond Pocahontas’ heroism to include Elsa, Aladdin, Moana and Mulan in action.
“What’s really classic about this new scene is that each of these characters are sort of unlikely or unexpected heroes in their storyline, and with that also they change the world in really unique ways,” Ardelean says. “And so when we get to that place where Mickey is in trouble and calls for a hero, the fact that we celebrate five instead of one, I think, has been a terrific update.”
An early role for Ardelean at WDW was as a maintenance choreographer for “Fantasmic” at age 19, she says.
“There are still a handful of performers that I taught the show to who do it nightly,” she says.
“You teach these things in rehearsal rooms, and the first time that these characters are on this steamboat and reveal themselves, they all forget everything we taught them,” Ardelean says.
Part of that is facing a large, live crowd, and part of it is getting lost in the big Disney moment.
“So many of our performers are dreamers. They’ve wanted to do what they’re doing for their whole lives,” she says. “So it’s not only the vastness of the theater, but it’s this recognition of I am a part of something that has been around in Disney culture for a really, really long time.”
Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. My Threads account is @dbevil. You can subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.
