Description And Comments

Fantasmic! is a mixed-media show presented twice weekly when the park is open late. Located off Sunset Boulevard behind the Tower of Terror, Fantasmic! is staged on an island opposite a 6,900-seat amphitheater. By far the largest theater facility ever created by Disney, the amphitheater can accommodate an additional 3,000 standing guests for an audience of nearly 10,000.

Until recently Fantasmic! was staged nightly and always played to a full house. Presumably as a cost-containment measure, Disney has cut performances to two evenings a week. As you might imagine, trying to cram seven nights of capacity crowds into two nights is not working very well, as a reader from Sandwich, Illinois, reports:

The reduction in Fantasmic! shows per week is ridiculous to me. The Studios is an absolute ghost town on nights it doesn't show, and packed to capacity on nights when it does! There has to be a happy medium.

Nonetheless, Fantasmic! is far and away the most innovative outdoor spectacle ever attempted at any theme park. Starring Mickey Mouse in his role as the Sorcerer's Apprentice from Fantasia, the production uses lasers, images projected on a shroud of mist, fireworks, lighting effects, and music in combinations so stunning you can scarcely believe what you are seeing. The plot is simple: good versus evil. The story gets lost in all the special effects at times, but no matter, it's the spectacle, not the story line, that is so overpowering. While beautiful, stunning, and powerful are words that immediately come to mind, they fail to convey the uniqueness of this presentation.

A Queensbury, New York, dad offers this advice to boot:

Fantasmic! is the most entertaining show we've ever seen, and the technology is beyond belief. It really takes the shine off the other shows, which were truly wonderful. Don't see it before you see the laser and fireworks show at Epcot.

A reader from Down Under found Fantasmic! a bit too sentimental:

We were disappointed by this show. While it features boats, characters, water, and light, it was a bit too nostalgic about Disney films. If this is what Mickey thinks about when he dreams, Minnie must be a little disappointed!

A mom from Pearland, Texas, found Fantasmic! too intense for her young child:

Fantasmic! should come with a warning label. The show features a multitude of characters in various vignettes interspersed with water and laser-light interludes as Mickey Mouse begins his lighthearted and fanciful dream. Unfortunately for the impressionable and tender of mind, the dream becomes a nightmare as the evil villains take over Mickey's imagination. The combination of actual characters, their larger-than-life laser visages, ominous, unbearably loud music, and thundering explosions with blinding flashes of light, fire, and sparks (which went on for a seemingly interminable length of time) sent hordes of parents with screaming children fleeing for the exits. Naturally, good does eventually prevail over evil, and the finale returns to a beautiful, magical Disney style, but not soon enough. Please, please warn parents not to take young children to this show. (For adults and teenagers, it is truly spectacular.)

Though we do not receive many reports of young children being terrified by Fantasmic!, the reader's point is well taken. We suggest you spend a little time preparing your younger children for what they will see. Also, make sure to hang on to your children after Fantasmic! and to give them explicit instructions for regrouping in the event you are separated. Also, you can mitigate the fright factor somewhat by sitting back a bit.