In 1987, Disneyland developed a spectacular nighttime show by which ghosts, skeletons and black widows escaped from the haunted house to entertain the crowds along the Rivers of America – five years before “Fantasmic” became a surprise sensation.
Disneyland consultant Don Dorsey discussed the history of the shelved haunted house-themed nighttime spectacular through the Magic After Dark panel on the D23 fan event on the Anaheim Convention Center.
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In 1987, Dorsey was working on the brand new nighttime spectacular “IllumiNations” for Epcot in Florida when the Disney entertainment team was asked to create the same show for Disneyland.
The marching orders: Create an exciting evening show the likes of which has never been seen before on the Anaheim theme park.
After touring the park, the team decided that the Rivers of America can be the perfect location to perform the show, because the waterfront area of New Orleans Square offered the most important audience capability.
The next challenge was to develop a show concept that will fit the thematic environment of New Orleans Square. Their big idea: What would occur if the 999 ghosts from the haunted mansion took over Tom Sawyer Island?
The concept image developed for the nighttime spectacular with the theme “The Haunted Mansion” shows ghosts streaming out of the classic haunted house and flowing in a ghostly rainbow over the Rivers of America on Tom Sawyer Island.
Performers on river rafts handled fire rings while tombstones bobbed within the water and skeletons danced on a Tom Sawyer Island stage.
In a spooky castle scene, headless knights lifted a coffin into the air while ghost brides lingered amongst scattered skulls.
Another scene developed for the nighttime spectacle featured pirates fighting with swords within the mast of a ghost version of the sailing ship Columbia while fireworks exploded near the strict.
In the finale, the villain of Chernabog from Fantasia towered over us as flames consumed the water below.
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“Everyone thought, 'Oh, this is going to be great,'” Dorsey said through the D23 panel presentation. “Then it was put on hold for a while until Disneyland celebrates its 35th anniversary.”
After the thirty fifth anniversary celebration in 1990, attention turned to a different nighttime water and fireworks display, ultimately held at the identical location on Disneyland's Rivers of America.
“Fantasmic” premiered in 1992 – but that was not the unique name of the show.
“The actual show was called 'Imagination,'” said Steven Davison, vice chairman of parades and spectacles at Walt Disney Imagineering, through the D23 panel. “That's why you heard 'I-mag-i-na-tion' at the top of the show.”
However, the word “Imagination” couldn’t be trademarked, so Disney’s creative team had to start out from scratch.
“Everyone pitched names and Fantasmic was born,” Davison said through the D23 panel.
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“Fantasmic” is a play on the word “phantasmic,” which refers to an illusion that exists only within the imagination—a fitting description for a show by which Mickey Mouse uses his imagination to bring Disney characters to life.
Fantasmic also evokes the 1940 Disney cartoon “Fantasia,” the word “fantastic,” and the “mic” in Mickey. And most significantly, Fantasmic was unique enough to be trademarked by Disney Enterprises.
Dorsey, who worked on the parades and spectacles at Disneyland and Disney World for a long time for the reason that Nineteen Seventies, later designed the sound effects for “Fantasmic.”
Originally published:
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