The
Disneyland Resort sure loves to celebrate Christmas. Not only do
thematically specific decorations go up in most areas of both parks,
but a handful of attractions get made over into holiday-specific
versions of themselves.* The most notable might be the shows and live
entertainment offerings, nearly all
of which, from the humble and homey Dapper Dans to the extravagant
fireworks display, are in holiday mode at this time of year.
Disneyland has hosted any number of Christmas
parades over the years. Across the Esplanade, World of Color is
on its second
holiday
version. But there’s one live show that has so far bucked the
trend: Fantasmic!
It’s
not hard to see why—Fantasmic! is possibly the most complex and
intricate performance in theme park history. Not only does it involve
multiple types of live performers and special effects, but it was
designed from start to finish to be a satisfying whole. It tells a
complete story with a three-act structure (something almost never
done in theme park entertainment), and the musical score is as much a
symphony as a medley. It's amazing that something like this was
achieved once;
doing it all over again with
a more specific theme
would be almost unfathomably difficult.
But what is Armchair Imagineering
for, if not indulging in these wild Blue-Sky ideas? Come brainstorm
with me...
(Well,
okay, technically for now you're going to read while I
brainstorm, but I welcome any and all contributions in the comments.)
Music
The
main theme for Fantasmic! is one of the most adored pieces of theme
park music in existence. Ride themes like “Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life
For Me)” and “Grim Grinning Ghosts” and “Now Is the Time”
and “One Little Spark” certainly have their devotees, but because
Fantasmic! is such an epic show, and because the theme suits it so
perfectly and is used so well throughout, it packs a big emotional
punch even with the sort of people who don't normally notice music
all that much.
And
it's definitive.
I don't think you can have a show that people recognize as Fantasmic!
without that theme. Yet at the same time, I want Holiday Fantasmic!
to be unique in its own way. So right off the bat, we have the
difficult balancing act of composing a main theme for this show that
a) incorporates recognizable elements of the basic Fantasmic! theme
while still b) being its own piece of music and c) clearly belonging
to the holiday season. C) is probably the easiest of the three—just
use plenty of handbells in the instrumentation. The rest, however,
would be a challenge for any composer/arranger.
Beyond
that, we must consider which other
tunes to use. Fantasmic! makes excellent use of its clips and
rearrangements of well-known Disney songs...but few Disney songs even
take place against a winter or Christmas backdrop, much less are
about
it, and fewer still of those will be recognized by the average park
guest. It's probably best to focus on the mainstream Christmas
library, as most such shows do. “A
Christmas Fantasy Parade,” “Believe...In
Holiday Magic,” and possibly “LuminAria”
constitute the textbooks to study for interweaving an original main
composition with melodies and leitmotives from classic holiday tunes.
I
think for a show like this, it is best to focus on secular Christmas
songs. Busting out the “Joy to the World” and “Silent Night”
is fine when you're only looking at fireworks or illuminated water,
but Fantasmic!, like the parades, makes such constant use of Disney
characters that I think it would be strange to juxtapose them with
specific religions. Ask yourself: Is it weird to contemplate Mickey
Mouse adoring the baby Jesus? I think so.
This
being a version of Fantasmic!, we'll want to start off as the
original does, with high energy and triumphant-sounding major chords.
One of the great things about the original is the way it segues
seamlessly between different moods, and hopefully we would be able to
duplicate that feat in this version.
Plot
The
plot of Fantasmic! follows a very simple three-act structure:
Act
1:
Mickey Mouse, dreaming, experiences great flights of imagination.
Act 2:
Mickey's imagination starts to run away with him, and the Disney
Villains take advantage of his loss of control to stage a psychic
invasion.
Act
3: Mickey
gets ahold of himself, curb-stomps the Villains, and makes the dream
a happy one again.
Don't
fix what ain't broken, is my view. Holiday Fantasmic! needs to
maintain this basic premise or it's just not properly Fantasmic! Only
of course this time the whole thing has a Christmas/wintery veneer.
Visions of sugar plums are dancing in Mickey's head, and he's using
his Sorcerer's Apprentice magic to create delightful snowfalls and
dancing lights.
Only—here's
the cool bit—since this time of year is all about family and
friends, he's found a way to let other characters share the dream.
They're all asleep in their own beds, wherever those are, but their
consciousnesses are visiting the same dreamscape. The fact that the
Villains invade
Mickey's mind in the original supports this possibility.
So
Mickey puts on this imaginative dream-pageant for his friends, and at
a climactic moment, invites them to join in. And who should step up
but Queen Elsa? The dreamscape offers her a consequence-free chance
to go for broke with her powers...and that's when the Villains make
their move, using Elsa's doubts as a window into her mind.
I
think this is in keeping with the new trend toward more subtle
behavior on the part of Disney Villains. Rather than muscling their
way into the psyche of their primary target (Mickey), they manipulate
Elsa into believing she is no better than a Villain herself. Her
power turns dangerous, threatening all the good-hearted characters
involved. Worse, she “freezes” the borders of the dreamscape so
that no one can wake up to escape.** Now it's her
dreamscape, and Mickey can't wrest back control of it the way he could in
the original.
Fans
of Frozen
will already have guessed the solution to this predicament: Elsa's
sister Anna comes forward to talk Elsa down from the Villains'
influence. This lends the show's climax a poignancy that is not
present in the original version, further distinguishing them despite
the similar plots. After a tense moment of uncertainty, Anna's plea
gets through, and Elsa reclaims control of herself, leading to a
triumphant finale.
Visuals
The
really outstanding thing about Fantasmic!, of course, is the sheer
variety of performance types, special effects, and Disneyland
infrastructure it uses. The holiday version would have to offer a
similar variety in order to measure up.***
Fortunately,
I think it probably can. The two biggies—the Mark
Twain
and S.S.
Columbia—could
still be used, although in this case I would swap them. Have the Mark
come cruising around the bend in the river when Mickey invites the
other characters into his dream, with them aboard and the boat all
hung with lights and garlands. Then use the Columbia
during the climax, which could be staged similarly to the climax of
Frozen,
with Elsa causing a blizzard in a harbor.
What
else? Dancers could represent snowflakes like the fairies in
Fantasia.
A giant Christmas tree could grow out of the stage, sprouting
ornaments as it emerged. The barges could be floating party
platforms. The climax could also feature a giant figure of
Marshmallow
and/or threatening icicles jutting from the stage. The famous water
screens could show footage from films that include winter or
Christmas scenes. There is more than enough material in the Disney
library to provide inspiration, especially with more than two
additional decades to draw upon over the original Fantasmic!
I've
reached the point now where I'm spinning my wheels, so I'll move
along to my conclusion. But first, a couple of counter-arguments to
my own idea.
First...I
realize that this is very
very similar
to Fantasmic! as we already know it, and thus must seem incredibly
redundant. Yeah, probably. Think of it more as expressing a variation
on a theme. It's through this sort of permutation exercise that ideas
are perfected. I have absolutely no expectation that we will ever see
a holiday version of Fantasmic!, which is after all pretty close to
perfect as it is.****
Second,
if you started rolling your eyes the second you saw Elsa's name
mentioned, then don't worry, I rolled mine the second I thought of
it. But honestly, if you're running a winter-themed Disney park show
with an actual plot, how could elements from Frozen
not
be included? And I think it's a better use of these characters than
just beat-for-beat rehashes of the movie itself, or else pure
pandering like what's been inflicted on Epcot.
Regardless,
please let me know what you think in the comments! I would love to
get some more input into the concept of a Holiday Fantasmic!
*
Opinions on these vary. A lot.
**
Just go with it. It's fantasy logic that has to fit into a ~25-minute
show.
***
Although let's be honest...it wouldn't quite measure up no matter how
good it was. Fantasmic! was a game-changer. You can't change the game
a second time by doing the same things over again.
****
Or rather, as it has
been. Oh yes, I have
heard the rumors, and I find them extremely unsettling.
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