Disney's Fantillusion - Background and History

Background and History

The Disney's Fantillusion! parade premiered at Tokyo Disneyland on July 21, 1995 featured light, music, special effects and Disney characters.

Created specifically for Tokyo Disneyland, Fantillusion! was developed by the team behind Fantasmic!, the show performed at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios, with the aim of condensing the story of Fantasmic! and putting it into a parade format. The parade's score was orchestrated by Bruce Healey, the same composer behind Fantasmic!'s theme and the Music Director at Disneyland.

The storyline of the parade is loosely based on the elements of Fantasmic!. The 31 floats were split in three acts. The parade starts with Tinkerbell, Mickey Mouse and the three fairies from Disney's Sleeping Beauty "wishing upon a star to bring the gift of Disney light" before being disrupted by Disney villains who "take the light and make it night", then ending with the Disney Heroes and Heroines who "turn the dark back into light".

Fantasmic! features Mickey Mouse in combat with Disney villains. The three main villains of the show; Maleficent, Ursula and Jafar - Maleficent is the lead villain in both shows, whereas Ursula is the supporting villain at Disneyland as is Jafar at Disney's Hollywood Studios, are the three villains featured in Disney's Fantillusion!. Chernabog from Fantasia, and the Queen from Snow White, are also in the show.

Disney's Fantillusion! was designed and built for the parade route of Tokyo Disneyland. Each act would enter one portion of the park's parade route and then halt for a "show stop". The parade would the progress to the next section and halt again for the next show stop. This ensured that every guest watching the parade could see all three acts of the story.

After seven years at Tokyo Disneyland, the parade closed at the end of its "Sayonara Disney's Fantillusion!" season on May 17, 2001.

After the parade was closed, the floats which had been bought by Disneyland Paris were left outside in the harsh conditions of Tokyo by the Oriental Land Company, where they were left exposed to the elements before being packed and transported to Europe. The floats which had not been bought are thought to have been destroyed.

Of the 31 floats in the Tokyo version of the parade, only 15 were brought to Disneyland Paris due to financial limitations. Of those 15, only thirteen floats were used in Disneyland Paris' original production of the parade. The two floats that were bought, but never used were the Nasty Grotto and Murkey Dungeon. These floats were initially utilized to train new drivers but have since found other uses in providing spare parts.

Disneyland Paris also bought most of the original costumes used in Tokyo's production of the parade, but due to the European performers being larger than their Asian counterparts, most costumes didn't fit. New skirt-like costumes were fasioned for the Evil Villains sections as a replacement for the "Ghouls" costumes, and new Court Dancer costumes were created for the Happy Ending. The costuming crisis was also a defining reason for not using the two extra floats in the Evil Villains section - as Disneyland Paris didn't have the time/funds to create costumes for performers on-board these floats.

It took the floats more than 40 days to reach to Disneyland Paris from the Tokyo Disney Resort. They traveled by cargo ship from Japan to Australia, then set off again through the Panama canal and Mediterranean Sea before finally traveling around Spain and up the west coast of France to reach the Calais. They were then taken by truck to Disneyland Paris where they were completely refurbished. The refurbishment of the parade floats took much longer than expected as the floats were badly damaged during transit. This meant that Disneyland Paris had to repair many of the floats, replace the thousands of tiny lightbulbs, convert their electrical system to the one used in Paris and enlarge the driving areas to fit the larger European drivers.

"Disney's Fantillusion parade" was due to debut in Paris in 2002, when the Main Street Electrical Parade would have been running for ten years, but instead, because of the problems with the floats and the fact that Disneyland Paris still pushed emphasis on their newly opened Walt Disney Studios Park, Fantillusion had to wait another year for its Parisian debut.

After many weeks of the parade rehearsing in Disneyland Park after park closing hours, there was a special Fantillusion preview night on June 28, 2003 for Annual Passport holders. The parade then premiered to the public at the start of its first Summer season in on July 5, 2003, running until August 31. Fantillusion returned for its first Christmas season in the resort from November 8 to January 4, and has been playing to crowds of fans and guests every Summer and Christmas season since.

In Summer 2005, the "Bat Forest" float was removed from the parade in response to budget cuts and guest feedback. As the only villain float with no character or transformation effects, the float was no longer seen as an important part of the parade. However, every Halloween season, the "Bat Forest" float returns, carrying Jack Skellington and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Disney's Christmas season in 2005 brought a further change to the parade, with the parade now running from Fantasyland to Town Square. While this brought with it a huge amount of technical troubles in the days after the switch, it allowed for better efficiency with the backstage parade preparation and meant guests would now follow the parade to the park's exit instead of back into the park. This change also meant that a maximum of two showstops are able to be viewed from any single location.

At Disneyland Park, Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant is co-ordinated with the parade so it plays a part of the show and changes colour with the music, etc.

In 2012 at the end of Disneyland Paris' summer season saw Fantillusion put on a temporary hiatus. It was announced that Fantillusion would not return for the Christmas season. No official confirmation has been given as to whether the parade has been axed or if it will return. Though the parade is still on temporary hiatus, the parade went out again on Halloween night, simply just the main floats with no floor performers for the guests who attended the Halloween event.