Fire Breaks Out at Disneyland Fantasmic Show
Another thing chasing people away from their theme parks is the last thing Disney needs right now, but here we are. On Saturday night, a fire started at Disneyland during the Fantasmic show. Fantasmic is a live performance where Mickey Mouse, in his Sorcerer’s Apprentice guise from Fantasia, battles a series of popular Disney villains, with the climax being his showdown with the dragon form of Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. The dragon is a 45-foot animatronic, and part of the show is Maleficent breathing fire at Mickey, which is done with pyrotechnics. On Saturday, something went wrong, and the dragon caught on fire, which led to evacuations from Sawyer Island, where Fantasmic takes place. You can see video of the incident below:
RIP Maleficent 😭#disneyland
— Park Hoppin’ (@ParkHoppin) April 24, 2023
That’s a shame. I’m glad nobody was hurt, but apparently, Fantasmic is well-liked. According to a Disneyland official, all shows at Disney parks worldwide are suspending fire effects “out of an abundance of caution.” From a public relations standpoint, that’s necessary; even though this was an anomaly for a show that’s run for over thirty years without something like this happening, people are going to be freaked out, and a lot of kids won’t be allowed near anything that so much as emits smoke for a while. As for Fantasmic itself, in addition to the safety concerns, they need to repair (or rebuild) the dragon. It’s a shame; it actually sounds like a pretty cool show.
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