Latest: Fantasmic! dragon still not ready

Originally Posted By AutoPost

This topic is for Discussion of <a href="http://www.LaughingPlace.com/Latest.asp?I1=ID&I2=4293" target="_blank"><b>Latest: Fantasmic! dragon still not ready</b></a>
<p>An event was scheduled for early this morning at Disneyland to debut the Fantasmic! dragon to the media. Unfortunately, the event had to be canceled at the last minute as Disneyland has informed the media the dragon is still not ready.</p>

 

Originally Posted By MomluvsDisney

What a surprise!! LOL

We caught thrree performanaces of the show starting Wednesday and did not see it once...C'est la vie!!

 

Originally Posted By BrianinSD

Does this mean there's gonna be no dragon tonight either?

 

Originally Posted By monorailblue

<a href="http://ocresort.freedomblogging.com/2009/08/31/disney-dragon-debut-canceled-but-photos-and-video-released/16363/#more-16363" target="_blank">http://ocresort.freedombloggin...re-16363</a>

Here's the video from the OC Register.

My reaction: egads--waaaay too much hype. The thing barely moves at all--very slow, not realistic. I hope the real thing turns out to be much more impressive--or more commanding in real life.

 

Originally Posted By FerretAfros

"The thing barely moves at all--very slow, not realistic."

How do you know it's not realistic? When was the last time you saw a dragon? : )

 

Originally Posted By wonderingalice

I'm hoping there are safeguards in place to prevent it from turning Mickey into toast via mis-fire. Very impressive nose blowing!

 

Originally Posted By danyoung

The video appears to be gone.

 

Originally Posted By wonderingalice

Dan... Here's one at YouTube via MiceAge:

<a href="http://micechat.com/forums/blogs/dateline-disneyland/1218-fantasyland-construction-refurbishments-disneyland-hotel-remodel-dca-work-more.html" target="_blank">http://micechat.com/forums/blo...ore.html</a>

 

Originally Posted By DlandJB

It's not gone - I just looked at it.

 

Originally Posted By leemac

What time was this press event scheduled for? It must have been some ungodly hour like 5am based on the postings! How on earth did they expect the general media to turn up at that hour?

 

Originally Posted By TMICHAEL

Hmmm, It definitely looks better than the head on a crane we are all so used to. BUT, with all the hype I am a bit underwhelmed. Were those little flaps supposed to be wings? LOL I figured that it would run the same pattern as the old version. But come on programmers, when she lights the river on fire, her head needs to go MUCH lower to the water. Here's hoping that that is what was wrong and they are correcting the movements.

 

Originally Posted By grlweatswchpstx

The general media turns up at 5 am very easily, you'd be surprised I guess.

And as for the video, why do you think its not ready yet? I mean, you really think that want it to be in the show that way?

 

Originally Posted By grlweatswchpstx

Also, I'm not entirely sure you can really get the immensity of the thing from the video. Standing next to it, the thing is huge and compared to the contraption we had before, it is very impressive.

 

Originally Posted By BrianinSD

From what I've been reading at a lot of other news/disney info sites is that the dragon IS indeed ready. The press event was canceled due to poor attendance of the media because of the covering of some kind of fire happening near the LA area. So they are postponing it so the media will report for local socal stations.

 

Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt

I can't possibly imagine why the media would be interested in this.

 

Originally Posted By Hista98

I'm sorry but this whole thing is to darn funny. How do you spell irony.

 

Originally Posted By gadzuux

It makes sense in a strange 21st century pop-culture way.

Television is always hungry for visuals. And every station has it's own 'morning show' with traffic and weather and fluff stories. This kind of photo-op is perfect for disney AND for the local media.

But it needs to be dark outside for the whole thing to work. Hence, 5 am.

And unfortunately LA is going through its annual rite of fire and brimstone, death and calamity right now, so it isn't the best possible day for debuting your brand new FIRE BREATHING DRAGON.

You'll thrill to the spectacle of it all!

 

Originally Posted By Darkbeer

OK, Why the 4 AM Press Event....

First off, it needs to be held in the DARK! After the sun rises, there is not the "WOW" factor with the fire, the video screens, etc....

Disney has been had some MAJOR frustrations and then tries to get a few selected media folks out in the AM to get the first photos before it ran that night. (And hopefully sold more tickets and/or brought more AP holders whould would spend on other things showing up).

But there was TWO major issues, the first was the "Murphy" broke down again in reheresal over the weekend.

Second off, the amount of Media (read into that the Local TV News Stations, all of which have shows in the early AM (Some as early as 4 AM) couldn't attend due to the MAJOR Southern Californian Fires.

On Sunday, it looked like just the LA Times and the OC Register, plus a couple of websites would attend, and NO live Video.

Plus the fact that the "Fire effect" might be thought as "tasteless" in the SoCal area, which was the reason they were going to hold the event....

<a href="http://miceage.micechat.com/" target="_blank">http://miceage.micechat.com/</a>

>>Editor's Note 8/31: Murphy the Dragon's press event this morning was cancelled. This isn't just a ploy to be sensitive to the wildfires, it's another round of legit technical problems. Murphy will NOT appear at tonight's performance, and there is no current ETA for when he will. The OC Register has PR video and photos of Murphy. | 8/28: Captain EO has now received the green light to return to Tomorrowland, but timing was too tight to make it by HalloweenTime. Hooter and gang will now land at Disneyland this Jan to boost winter attendance, the official announcement coming from Jay Rasulo at the D23 Expo- Al Lutz<<

And as for this comment...

>>I can't possibly imagine why the media would be interested in this.<<

I spent three weeks working for a Theme Park Savings Story for KABC 7, and it took a lot of time on Friday, it got delayed about an hour due to the fire, but it was still filmed last Friday, even though the fires were a major part of the news.

How many SoCal Theme Parks are there? And now many folks are looking for a "last chance" to visit a Theme/Amusement Park before School starts????

 

Originally Posted By Kira

<<I spent three weeks working for a Theme Park Savings Story for KABC 7, and it took a lot of time on Friday, it got delayed about an hour due to the fire, but it was still filmed last Friday, even though the fires were a major part of the news.>>

I caught that on the news! Saw you and was like HEY DARKBEER!

But your LPers didn't get a shout out! What's with that?

 

Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt

It's one small part of a theme park show that's been running for what, 20 years now? Fantasmic has a new dragon. So what?