Disney's Hollywood Studios Fantasmic adds Frozen as part of projector upgrades

Jul 27, 2015 in "Fantasmic!"

Posted: Monday July 27, 2015 9:58am EDT by WDWMAGIC Staff

Fantasmic! at Disney's Hollywood Studios has received an upgrade to its projection system and added a new animated sequence.

The old film based water screen projectors have been removed, and in their place comes a new digital projection system. Not only is the image brighter and more colorful, the digital system has benefits in the event of a show stop and restart.

During the animated bubble sequence projected onto the water screens, Anna and Elsa from Disney's 'Frozen' make an appearance. There is no change to the audio, and the appearance of the Frozen characters is brief.

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GVentolaAug 01, 2015

Fantasmic is my very favorite attraction, and I was so afraid they were going to add Frozen to it and ruin it by having it replace the Pocahontas sequence. Glad to find out that won't happen. Fantasmic proves that even Mickey Mouse likes to imagine Pocahontas and John Smith together, even if the historical Pocahontas (who is not one and the same with Disney's Pocahontas) married John Rolfe.

The Visionary SoulJul 31, 2015

After seeing it for myself last night, I can tell you that they actually re-edited ALL the footage going on to the mist screens. That means someone went back to the original source files and tried to re-match everything with the restored versions of the films. To be honest, they didn't do a perfect job. It's good, but not perfect. A lot of transition timings are off by about half a second from the music, and some things that used to be present are just gone now. (For example, in the old bubble sequence, a bubble pops and the character inside falls down. That sound effect is still there, but the imagery of the bubble popping is gone.) Also, it looks like some video scenes were not changed because it would have been too costly to re-edit them with the new restored footage, so some of the old stuff is in there too. (The villains all laughing sticks out to me as being one of those times, but there are others.) Having said all that, the quality of the new footage is just amazing. I think this is telling that someone requested an editable living master be created for the show that can be continually updated. I expect more in changes in the future.

FigmentJediJul 30, 2015

You're both wrong. Disney's Cinderella is based on the Charles Perrault version, which is the source of the whole glass slipper thing, the result of a mistranslation.

ToTBellHopJul 30, 2015

I agree. While there's not much to our dragon, there doesn't have to be. It's a nighttime show. I'm sure she looks ridiculous in daylight though! As you say, though, until they can get her fire effect back to going all the way into the water, the illusion of lighting the water on fire is ruined.

Twilight_RoxasJul 30, 2015

Your thinking of Brothers Grimm.

marni1971Jul 29, 2015

Personally I hope not. Snap is too cartoon like and not menacing enough.

Jon81ukJul 29, 2015

Although it is based on a comic book it was made by Disney Animation not Marvel Studios so I count it more as Disney. Like Cinderella being based on a Hans Christian Anderson story.

brb1006Jul 29, 2015

I hope they get a new Dragon in the future. Especially after seeing the new version at Disneyland.

Twilight_RoxasJul 29, 2015

Big Hero 6 is both Disney, and Marvel.

YodaManJul 29, 2015

I know that not every single character appears every night on the riverboat and that sometimes they switch things up for a performance or too, but just an FYI that both Mary Poppins and Bert have been AWOL from both shows for the past two nights. I'm curious to know if they're gone again tonight.

Matt_BlackJul 29, 2015

Which actually makes sense, because they get more time in the movie. I love Aurora to bits, but let's be honest- from a character standpoint, she's probably the least developed of any of the princesses. There's nothing about her that isn't really represented with the others. Oh, she's nice, animals love her, and she sings? That's not unique.

Kman101Jul 29, 2015

Snow White was the first princess. She's still visible in a lot of things they promote. If anything it's become "Aurora who?" especially after another popular blonde (Rapunzel) basically took her spot. Aurora constantly gets booted. She was booted from the Festival of Fantasy parade and the meet and grope for Frozen. I mean, her prince, Maleficent and the fairies get more time than she does. At least she has her own castle in two parks. LOL

Matt_BlackJul 29, 2015

I'd say a decent number. It's shown on cable quite a bit.

Jon81ukJul 29, 2015

I agree that a new Fantasmic with that same dream/nightmare theme would work well. But I disagree that Star Wars should be added. Star Wars, Marvel and Mickey Mouse exist in different universes and should be left alone. While some Pixar could work, others aren't set in the same sort of fantasyland as Mickey so won't work. For example Toy Story is real world toys, so don't fit with Mickey, but Brave is a fantasy version of history so would sort of be OK.