The culmination of Disneyland’s Fantasmic show is an electric battle between Maleficent the dragon and Mickey Mouse. With a burst of sparks, Mickey blasts the dragon — who is screaming as if she’s being tortured — into oblivion, fading away behind a towering water display. But over the weekend, Mickey grew too powerful: Instead of disappearing, the Maleficent dragon caught fire on at Disneyland in Anaheim.
Parkgoers captured the fiery disaster from all angles in videos that went viral across several social media platforms. It looks like the problem started shortly after the dragon breathed fire but before Mickey rudely blasts her with sparks. Whoops! People in the parks quickly started to realize that’s not how it’s supposed to go, and the lights went up to stop the show. “Due to unforeseen circumstances, this performance of Fantasmic cannot continue,” an announcer said over park speakers as viewers laughed. Unforeseen, huh?
The fire seems to have started at the head before it engulfed the whole animatronic dragon. Cast members were evacuated, as were visitors nearby, a Disneyland representative told Los Angeles news outlet KTLA. Anaheim Fire & Rescue were on hand to put out the flames. Disneyland will also temporarily stop “fire effects similar to those used at Disneyland park’s Fantasmic at select shows and entertainment experiences globally,” it said. No injuries were reported.
Future Fantasmic shows at Disneyland were removed from the schedule, according to Walt Disney World News Today, but a similar show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando will still go on.
Polygon has reached out to Disneyland for comment and will update this story when Disney responds.
This wasn’t the first time Maleficent has caught fire at a Disney park. In 2018, the Maleficent dragon went up in flames during the Festival of Fantasy Parade at Orlando’s Magic Kingdom. The dragon was supposed to breathe fire during the parade, but its head caught fire instead. There were no injuries reported at that incident either, but it certainly has a dramatic display. The float eventually returned to the parade, where it still breathed fire until that effect was halted over the weekend after the Disneyland fire.
Disney’s Fantasmic shows are some of its more popular performances, combining lights, fire, water, and colossal animatronics during the nighttime spectacular. It was paused for a bit during the COVID-19 pandemic, but returned about a year after the parks reopened to visitors.
Nicole Carpenter
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