Mad Mickey: Beyond Thumderdome or How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?

Hey Dorks!

I hope you all enjoyed the Pin Trading post. I know there was a lot of information, so I hope I was helpful. It also made me realize just how many pins we have at the Lair! Like... a dungeon full.

Little house keeping. If you have been watching the news, or Twitter, or Facebook, you may have seen that Disney is increasing the price of all tickets. The article also says that parking went up by a buck. Haven't been there since the increase, but that raised parking fee will totally change the amount of change they will need to keep in the booths. They'll need a massive amount of singles or a not as massive, but still pretty huge amount of two dollar bills. There has obviously been some backlash since the announcement with some people even going as far as saying that they will never come to the Parks again... Well, good. More room in the park for me!

<---- Lick my Facebook Fan Page! Yikes! Typo and it's staying!!  Post a picture of you licking my Fan Page and I will send you a dollar(offer only good in the continental US and it also includes the forty six cents postage so it's really more like .54 cents) What that was supposed to say is Please LIKE my Facebook Fan page.

And yes, there is a GIF at the end... Maybe two.

On to the good stuff!

Request from Twitter! @Timbo426 asked "How about a blog about World of Color vs Fantasmic? Who do the hippies watch? If I could only watch one for the rest of my life?" I actually have well thought out answers to those questions... I ALSO have some not so well thought out ones too. Let's see which wins out!

Welcome to the Thunderdome!

Two shows enter.. One show leaves!

Fantasmic
Fantasmic is the night time spectacular that takes place on the Rivers of America at Disneyland. The show features water fountains, live action characters, fireworks, music, boats, water projections and a giant dragon. A what? A dragon. It began in 1992 as a way to reinvigorate the area between New Orleans Square and Frontierland. Much of the area needed to be reworked prior to the premier. Tom Sawyer Island got a face life to act as a stage for most of the performance, the River got some pipes, lights and fountains and the walk way was terraced to help with viewing.

My run down of the show goes a little like this...

Mickey shows up and talks about imagination. It's cool that the show has live action characters. I can get down with that. Scenes from Sorcerer's Apprentice projected on a water screen. That blends into some weird flowers. Starting to show its age. 30 foot long puppet of Kaa. Boats with King Louie and some day-glow apes... Ah, what? Ummm... Did I teleport to a rave? Wonder what could be next... Pink Elephants on Parade? This is weird... Now I was just thrown into the Disney version of a Pink Floyd laser show! Monstro! Now we are getting good! My favorite part comes next. The Columbia comes into view with a Knott's Berry Farm(yeah, I went there) type stunt show being performed featuring Peter Pan and Captain Hook. It is pretty damn awesome. Maybe this is why everyone calls the Columbia a pirate ship. It's not... It's a merchant ship, except during Fantasmic, when it's wearing a costume. After that, barges with the Princess float by. Snooze. Villians time!! Evil Queen comes out and calls Ursula who calls Chernabog(who knew Bald Mountain got good cell reception?). A live, costumed Malificent comes out, rises thirty feet in the air and then turns into a full sized animatronic dragon. Fireworks. Flames. Mickey wins. A bunch of characters come out and do a ribbon dance... Mary Poppins' is there... Big points for that. Could you picture it all in your mind? No? Well, here is a video... The video was shot during the Mark Twain referb so the final scene has the characters on Pirate Island doing their ribbon dance instead of on the old paddle boat.



Thanks to MoneySavingVideos for one of the best videos I have seen!

Now, what you have been waiting for... My thoughts on Fastasmic! I think it is time for a confession. Are you sitting down? Maybe you should. Okay, here goes. I have never seen Fantasmic live... Before you jump down my throat, let me tell you why. The BEST time to get on a ride at Disneyland is during the show. I have seen bits and pieces walking from Haunted Mansion to Pirates... does that count?

The show seems a little... dated? I mean, it's great and all! The glowing apes and 70's rock opera sound track during the trippy Pink Elephants scene are... well... weird. I get it's about Mickey's imagination, but who knew Mickey had the mind of an 80's teenager watching The Wall...

I do think the use of live action, puppets, animatronics and water projections is amazing. It's a great use of the Rivers of America, right? What's the old saying? How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Location, location, location? Just kidding. Here is how you get to Carnegie Hall. You don't really have to do all that practicing, we have GPS now. Duh.

I got another one! How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!

The location is the perfect place to perform the show. They made great use of the part of Pirate Island and the use of Rivers of America adds a whole new dimension to the show. WAY TO GO EISNER!(that was for Rossco, he has a small man crush on him). The down side of the perfect performance location is that it isn't the optimal viewing location. They say show up 75 minutes prior to show time to get good seats, but it isn't odd to see people setting up blankets 2+ hours before the show. It is a bottleneck through that section as it is, but add a bunch of people saving seats and it becomes... even more annoying(but I am Angry Disney... I find a lot of people annoying... Slow walkers, looking at you... Have an agenda for Pete's sake!). The CM's do a good job at keeping everyone wrangled.

This is Murphy. The old dragon head from Fantasmic seen at D23 presents Treasures from the Walt Disney Archives at the Ronald Regan Library. The new dragon is named Snaps McGee. Allegedly 

All in all, it's a good show! From the bits and pieces I have seen of the show I have caught a glimpse of walking to other attractions, the video is a good representation of what it is like, but doesn't do the actual live show any justice. I look forward to maybe possibly watching it in person sometime...

World of Color
Seventy five million dollars and 15 months brought the night time extravaganza in California Adventure called World of Color. It features 1200 fountains, with lights, lasers, fog, fire, music and high definition projections on water screens... No dragons though.

Here is my run down of WoC! Ohhhh! Wooow! That's amazing! Ahhhhh! OOOOOH!  Of course I am not biased! Really, the show opens up with the World of Color theme then projects various scenes from Disney and Pixar films. Colored jets of water shoot up to 200 feet in the air. Starts out with Little Mermaid... Up where they walk, up where they run... The "water screen" is way better than the one at Fantasmic. Water jets transition us to Crush on  the PCC, Dori and Nemo's Dad... Ahh... Walter? No. Marlin! Got it. Throw a little Walle and Eve in, then some Toy Story action... Aladdin and crap...  Merida from Brave has a great part. "I am Merida." The Pocahontas part is beautiful. The Pirates of the Carribean part is a little different now, but it still has lots of flames. You can feel the heat. Pretty amazing! My favorite part is the Lion King part. Not necessarily my favorite movie, but when everything stops and you hear Scar say "Long live the King." Crazy chills... then Lion-O or what ever the little lions name is(calm down internet, I know his name is Simba.) says, "Dad?". Not a dry eye in the house... Except me. The liquid dripping down my face is from the mist that the fountains create... I am a cold hearted snake. Oh! Look into my eyes. Boom! Paula Abdul reference! I rule!

 Here is another video... Thanks again MoneySavingVideos!

As with Fantasmic the video, this doesn't quite do it justice. This is as slightly different version from the show that is playing now. They tend to add or change things depend on the time of year or if something big is on the horizon, like when they had an encore when Tron Legacy was coming out.

If I have learned anything from this show, it's that the world IS a carousel of color. I love this show so much. The colors are so bright, the fountains go so high and when the flames hit... you can feel the heat! The location of the show, in Paradise Bay, is just about perfect. The show can be seen from the HUGE viewing area(which is off the main pathways) using the Fastpass system. Tickets are also as available dinner packages through Wine Country Trattoria and Carthay Circle. If you can't get tickets, don't worry because it is viewable from the bridge to Ariel's Grotto, behind by Toy Story Midway Mania, to the far right by the Golden Zephyr and if you are lucky enough to get one, from some of the rooms at The Grand Californian. The guest control is precision. Great system.

Two Shows Enter, One Show Leaves!

Both are great shows. Fantasmic shows it's age and I am not a big fan of the seating system, but it does have a floating stunt show, Chernabog and a visit by Mary Poppins. World of Color is a bright vibrant show, where you can simultaneously get wet from the fountains and warmed by the flames. You will laugh, you will cry, you will scream. I have to give the victory to WoC!

Yay! Congratulations! Do a victory dance!

Geez. Now you are just showing off!

If you disagree with me on the decision... you are wrong, but I won't hold it against you... I may make up nicknames to call you behind your back like Fantas-yak or Not-So-Fantasmic. Oh! Or Mediocre-mic! More will probably come to me...

To answer the rest of Timbo's questions... I would totally watch World of Color everyday. I already do watch it every week! We always watch from out favorite spot. I will give you a hint... Sounds a lot like Bove Car. You get a great perspective on the show from there... Plus, there is always at least one person who is drunk and providing GREAT commentary(no not me, jerks).

The hippies... well they are obviously choosing Fantasmic if ONLY because the system for viewing isn't regulated by "the Man". Although... At World of Color you get wet, so it's like a passive shower... Hmmm! Now I am stumped! If you have an opinion on which show hippies would watch, please leave a comment at the end or on the Facebook fanpage.

I think that is all for now!

Oh! I promised GIF's! 

FSL and I are headed to the parks for two days to celebrate our 10th Wedding Anniversary(totally beat the over/under... Josh!) including a lunch at Club 33 and wings at Cove("Wings" is totally the code word for cocktails).

Stay Dorky!

-Jumba

P.S. Brianne... How was your trip? Did you get some pins?