Fantasmic! - Disneyland Technology

Disneyland Technology

The water projection screens were initially designed with a single screen centered in front of the island. During development, show producers determined that the venue would need three screens to enable viewing along the entire waterfront. In addition to providing story development, the screens hide set changes that happen on stage while video playback is occurring. The pump house for the water screens and other fountain effects is located in the small structure along the river, just north of the Mark Twain dock. Water for the fountains is supplied via massive intake pipes directly under this structure. The fog system located around the banks of the river uses fresh water to create the fog effects along the river. The river's water itself is not suitable to be pumped through the mist nozzles, as aquashadow dye is added to the river to mask the bottom from guests. In the winter of 2008, Disneyland's Fantasmic! returned from another refurbishment with new high-definition digital projectors, most noticeable in the "Pink Elephants" and "Tinker Bell" segments, where the images look clearer and deeper colors compared to the 70 mm film projections that were used for 16 years.

There are six pyrotechnics barges that can hold up to three shows worth of pyrotechnics each. Two barges go on each side of the stage, and two are at center stage. The pyrotechnics were redesigned during the winter 2008 refurbishment. The show's final blast does not come from any of the 6 pyro barges, but rather 5 mines located along the island banks of the river.

The fire on water effect is created by natural gas lines running beneath the river. The gas simply bubbles up to the surface and 6 flame throwers along the banks of the river ignite the gas. With the original dragon, it initially would be the source of ignition for the water. This would cause the face of the dragon to burn and so 3 flame throwers were added. The new dragon's style of flame thrower sprays the stream of fuel, and then ignites it after it is all airborne, opposed to igniting the fuel as it sprays out. This allows the flame to throw further, aerosolize, and overall be more impressive.

The lighting system consists of three mainland towers along the shore of the Rivers of America, in the audience seating area, along with two island towers, and several auxiliary lighting systems (i.e. the river boxes with the new ColorKinetics ColorBlast 12s that replaced the Stonco Pars). In early 2008 the lighting system was completely replaced, the first major rework since the show opened in 1992. After a 3-month period, the show reopened on March 7, 2008 with new Clay Paky fixtures mounted on the completely redesigned towers, including Alpha Wash 1200s and Alpha Profile 1200s, replacing the old Morpheus PC Spot fixtures. Additionally 2 Syncrolite MX3000's on Tower B and one each on Towers A and C, 2 on each island tower and 2 behind the tavern. These Syncrolite fixtures add much brightness to the show and give a high intensity source of "black-light" effect used throughout the show. The two located behind the tavern are at roof level and act as intense backlighting while Mickey is directing the finale. The followspots were replaced with Strong Gladiator IV. Unlike the previous followspots, these do not accept gobos — most noticeable in the opening sequence where Mickey was formerly lit with a star.

Video and audio playback were originally mastered to laserdisc. Originally Triad provided the show control for the complex audio source and mixing systems, as well as programming services for Fantasmic! After the May to June 2007 remodel, there are four J arrays (d&b audio) consisting of two J8s and two J-SUBs per stack and there are three arrays mimicking the placement of the water screens as the primary music source. Along the edge of the mainland (land side of the river) there are Meyer UPA-1Cs that are manually hydraulically raised specifically for Fantasmic! for delay and 2 MSL-2As per mainland lighting tower. The centermost UPA's are also used in Tiana's Showboat Jubilee, running from November 18, 2009 to January 3, 2010. The sound system that is used daily for background music- Meyer UPM's mounted in the lamp posts- also remains active during the show. There is a surround system of d&b Ci90s and Ci60s and various EAW cabinets that are hidden above the River Belle Terrace in a wicker chest, above Club 33, The Dream Suite and the Haunted Mansion roof, as well as various other locations, are mounted on the roof on hydraulic lifts that operate the same way as the lighting mounts located on the Main Street Roofs. These speakers are cued to lift to show position at 2+ hours before showtime. Additional Meyer UPA-1C's are added to the Columbia because as it sails by during the Peter Pan segment, it physically blocks the sound from the island J arrays. All the audio runs off a Meyer/LCS Matrix3 system, with eight tracks of playback and close to forty outputs. There is something in the region of six different areas of sound that are duplicated on three sides of the stage. All loudspeakers, d&b and Meyer are run off d&b D12 or E-PAC amplifiers. The amplifiers are split into two locations, one on the island and one at the control booth. By using the d&b ROPE C control software, engineers can look at both parts of the system from the control area.

The Mark Twain Riverboat is actually powered by the rear-mounted paddle, but is guided by the same replacement track installed at the install time of Fantasmic! It is a real steam-powered sternwheeler, but the steam is regulated by the engineer in the rear of the boat and steam is powered by a biodiesel-fueled boiler. The boiler is regulated at the center of the boat with many gauges and a three-way toggle switch labeled "Slow," "Fast," and "FANTASMIC." The last setting provides the most speed.

The Columbia is CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) powered, unlike the bio-diesel powered Mark Twain. It sports a real cannon that gets shot during the Peter Pan segment of Fantasmic!

Lasers were part of the show from the beginning to the tree above the main building on the island, to the tavern roof itself, and later more were added directly above the stage deck facing upstage, used during the death of the dragon.