Disneyland says Fantasmic! will return in spring 2024

Disneyland’s popular Fantasmic! show will return next spring after a one-year closure prompted by a fire that engulfed the show’s giant prop dragon.

“With the goal of delivering the best possible show for our guests, performances of Fantasmic! are currently paused until Spring 2024,” park officials wrote this week.

The new show will no longer feature the dragon, but will instead add new special effects during the climactic battle between Sorcerer Mickey and Maleficent.

No one was injured when the dragon caught fire in April, but park officials temporarily suspended fire effects similar to those used at Fantasmic! at select shows worldwide.

The Anaheim Fire Department quickly responded to the fire, and all guests and cast members were safely evacuated from Tom Sawyer Island.

Fantasmic! opened in Frontierland in 1992 and featured fireworks, various Disney characters, live actors, water effects, pyrotechnics, lasers, music, audio-animatronics, searchlights, decorated boat floats and mist screen projections.

The show goes inside Mickey Mouse’s imagination as he battles various Disney villains, including Maleficent in her dragon form, which is about 45 feet tall.

Earlier this month, Disneyland officials announced that Jambalaya Jazz, on old-time New Orleans-style jazz band, would be performing on a floating raft on the Rivers of America as a temporary replacement while Fantasmic! is on hiatus.

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