The previous Fantasmic dragon
Despite a huge marketing push and a press preview scheduled for today, the new 5-ton three-dimensional Maleficent dragon set to debut in the revamped "Fantasmic!" show won't be appearing any time soon, as the new effect is laying crumpled backstage, with repairs estimated in weeks, not days.
Disneyland's new "Nightastic" campaign will go on, however, and the press will be treated to the new "Magical" fireworks show set to debut this weekend. Other enhancements to the popular "Fantasmic" show, including jet skis dressed up like the electric eels Flotsam and Jetsam from "The Little Mermaid," and a re-designed Tock crocodile float from "Peter Pan," will still debut tonight.
"Yikes," said Kristen Nowicki, a cohost of the Mousetalgia podcast. "I was really looking forward to seeing the new dragon. It would have been a great replacement for the Chinese New Year parade kite they've been using until now."
Contrary to internet reports, Disneyland insists that the head of the beast did NOT fall off during recent tests, although the internet rumors did seem to have a basis in fact, as the dragon is, in fact, not debuting tonight. What actually went wrong with the enormous prop during rehearsals is not being reported by Disney, though it can safely be assumed that the glitch is significant, as the dragon was to be the centerpiece of the huge press event being hosted tonight.
Comments
It is very unfortunate that the new dragon won't be ready in time. But hey, that's life. These things happen. This is a 40 foot tall animatronic dragon, Disneyland has never attempted something like this before, so there were bound to be some problems.
At least this gives people something to look forward to.
Also, I find that "internet reports" link to complete crap.
People in that forum are acting nasty and ungrateful; Acting like it was Disney's fault that the new dragon is delayed. Something like this is no one's fault, it was an issue that no one could have foreseen.
I guess that's to be expected since that forum is made up mostly of ignorant teenagers and/or adults.
If Disney denies that specific rumor, who says Disney is lying? Disney has absolutely nothing to gain by lying.
It should also be noted that the forum's website is run by a dogmatic person.
i have some family that work there and actually said that something on the dragon broke, wasnt just a rumor something did happen to it she just wasn't able to say what though
at the guy two posts down:
I have a friend who worked on the dragon install. It WAS Disney's fault, they tested the dragon without the programmer. And during a minor glitch, some fool hit the kill switch and reboot which caused the hydraulics holding up the structure to fail, thus causing it to collapse partly on itself. Disney is DENYing this because there were a couple employees ON the structure when it gave; Disney doesn't want to have to confess that the actions of one of their employees not only messed up the dragon like the day before opening, but also that a few people could have been killed in the process.
Don't forget, there is fact in the basis of rumors. And since Disney isn't talking, its obvious they are hiding things.
I think maybe you work for the corporation....
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