Dragon at Disneyland's Fantasmic! destroyed by massive fire

Apr 23, 2023 in "Disneyland Resort"

Posted: Sunday April 23, 2023 10:08am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

A massive fire at Disneyland Fantasmic! last night resulted in the total loss of the Maleficent dragon that is featured in the finale of the show.

During the second showing of Fantasmic! last night, the show appeared to be running as normal, with Melficent shooting fire out to ignite the water between the audience and the stage.

Just after the planned fireball, fuel could be seen leaking from the head of the dragon, which soon ignited. The fire continued uncontrolled and quickly accelerated, engulfing the entire dragon in flames.

The show was halted, and all cast and crew were safely removed from the area. Disneyland reports that there were no injuries to cast or guests.

Performances of Fantasmic! have been halted, and the show is likely to be unavailable for the foreseeable future.

You can see the full sequence of events in the video below.

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Tony the Tigger19 days ago

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

SuddenStorm19 days ago

I'd love to learn the nuance of what triggers a show stop and what doesn't.

gerarar19 days ago

Tuxedo Mickey had a pyro malfunction on Friday night (7/6 10:30pm show). Weird thing is that during the first show, the pyro didn't go off. Kinda similar eerie forshadowing of what happened to the Murphy dragon when it too malfunctioned during the first show of that night before the fire on the second show.

PiratesMansion25 days ago

But but I was told it was gonna be in C mode forever and that Disney LIED to us again and and...

jrhwdw26 days ago

Lift is Fixed! :)

lazyboy97o27 days ago

That doesn’t tell you anything about the underlying causes.

TheCoasterNerd27 days ago

It's back to normal (not Dragon normal, 3.0 normal)

SuddenStorm27 days ago

Exhibit A: The effect not working within weeks of the show reopening doesn't exactly instill confidence in the quality of the work.

Figments Friend28 days ago

Ya know…. I actually kinda like Maleficent’s ‘C mode’ for a temporary version. The lifting Maleficent sequence, minus the change into the physical dragon, always struck me as a bit ‘silly’. She trashes around on a pole, over the top as only she can…and then dissapears behind a projection on a water spray. Having her on the stage like this ‘C Mode’, threatening Mickey like this as a free roaming character makes more ‘sense’ to me from a staging and story perspective. I can dig this alternative option. The stage pyro, lake of fire, etc all add to this nicely. Of the two, I will take ‘C’ until we get her back in dragon form proper. Nothing will ever beat the full sized dragon magically appearing on stage and doing her thing! -

PiratesMansion28 days ago

And I would have done things differently too. But still, there are so many people here who are *so sure* that if they were put in charge of running Disneyland Resort today, they would be able to quickly and easily fix every modern ill (or "modern ill", as the case may be) to the point that everyone visiting the park would bow to them in spontaneous wonderment, and I might suggest that the workings of a great many of these ills are a bit more complicated than that. I also don't find it productive to continuously fixate on every single grievance I have with the parks at all times and repeat them ad nauseum here as many do. It just seems like a lot of negative energy to hold onto at any given moment for me. Clearly others disagree. I'll say again what I've said before: some here have become so focused on their own Disney grievances, valid or otherwise, that they have become completely incapable of seeing the park (or company) through any other lens. They have lost focus on the macro in favor of the extreme, narrow, myopic micro. Which is, again, not to say there's never any validity there, but sometimes it seems to do little except further the tunnelvision some here display on a regular basis, in which that poster is of course always right and Disney is always an exceptionally inept corporation whose own and every action can only be malevolent, cheap, or actively harmful, and no due diligence was ever taken. As always, YMMV.

Disney Analyst28 days ago

Anecdotal. My partner is not a Disney person like us (although I’m converting him). He enjoys rides, the fun of it all, and the immersive theming. Galaxy’s Edge and San Fransokyo were his (and I quote) two favourites areas. He called Galaxy’s Edge his happy place, and said regarding San Fransokyo “this may be my favourite area to be in”. The music really gets you hyped in San Fransokyo.

TheCoasterNerd28 days ago

Galaxys Edge is IMMENSELY more popular than Big Thunder Ranch. San Fransokyo is widely regarded as a huge upgrade as well. GotG (the ride experience, not the facade) is also far more popular than ToT as well. Sorry if you don't like them, but the truth is the parks are better for the fact that these three changed. That's the truth. They sell more merch, have longer lines, and are overall better for the public and for TWDC.

lazyboy97o28 days ago

And how was this work shoddy? Give us specifics.

SuddenStorm28 days ago

Well, if I was running the park they would have saved hundreds of millions in costs by not building Galaxy's Edge in Anaheim, not changing Splash Mountain, not rebranding to Pixar Pier or Big Hero 6, and not changing to Guardians of the Galaxy. And the parks would be better for it.