Fata Morgana is a water-based dark ride in the Dutch theme park Efteling. The ride, which is located in a huge Arabian palace next to a lake, takes visitors on a boat trip trough the so-called "Forbidden City", a setting inspired by the stories from the Arabian Nights. After starting the boat trip in a mysterious jungle, a wizard leads the visitors into the streets of the city, but afer having visited the local marketplace, the boat goes straight into a dungeon which leads to the jails of the city, where prisoners are tortured and have to live in horrible conditions. With some help from the wizard, the visitors escape the jails and end up in front of the royal palace of the pasha, the ruler of the city who is having a fancy party in his throne room. After ending up in the pasha's treasure room, the ride comes to its dark conclusion.
Fata Morgana was opened in 1986 and was mainly designed by Efteling's creative director Ton van de Ven, who got the idea for the ride from Pirates of the Caribbean when he visited Disneyland. The ride contains more than 200 animatronics and is accompanied by a soundtrack composed by Ruud Bos.
Tropes present in Fata Morgana include:
- All There in the Manual: Some major chracters from the ride have gotten names that are only known from publications, media and merchandise. Examples include the wizard's name 'Miraculus', the giant's name 'Djinn' and the ruler of the Forbidden City bearing the title of pasha.
- "Arabian Nights" Days: The ride is all about this setting.
- As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Notably averted, as all characters in the ride speak real Arabic phrases, although the spoken lines are mostly aesthetic and do not require the riders to understand them anyway. Some characters, mostly ones speaking directly to the visitors, also mangle some Dutch, French, German and English words in their language.
- Bazaar of the Bizarre: The visitors pass one during the beginning of the ride.
- Big Fancy Castle: The exteriour of the ride is formed by a large Arabian palace situated near a lake in which it can be seen reflecting from the distance.
- Black Comedy: The scene of the dentist trying to pull a tooth from his patient, which is screaming in pain, may be considered this.
- Bookends: Both the first and last scene of the ride take place in the jungle.
- Cultural Blending: The world featured in the ride combines elements of different cultures from the Middle East, including Maroccan, Arabian and even Indian.
- Depraved Dentist: Judging by the screaming of his patient, the dentist in the marketplace definitely is one.
- Downer Ending: The ride is quite famous for this. After passing a luxurious party in the pasha's throne room, the visitors enter the treasure room in which a fierce giant called Djinn is residing. After that, the visitors are led out by the wizard, who magically disappears into nothing, then passing through a stormy darkness, finally ending in a mysterious temple corridor which seems to be tilting. After finally escaping that room, the visitors end back into the jungle as if nothing happened at all.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: During the ride, the riders escape being killed by crocodiles, a falling drop gate, a guard shooting with a gun, a giant axe being released, an escaped tiger and a not so friendly giant.
- Fanservice: The girls of the harem are seen in scarce clothing.
- False Utopia: This trope is very prevalent in the ride, as it both shows the enormous decadence and wealth of the elite as well as the gruesome torture practices and horrible living conditions that are present in the jails.
- Flying Carpet: One merchant on the market sells these. The carpets can indeed be seen flying a few centimetres from the ground.
- Forbidden Zone: The subtitle of the ride is "the Forbidden City".
- Inside the ride itself, the trope is mostly prevalent in the Eastern jails sequence. The visitors are warned by a panicking man not to go forward, after which they enter a dark tunnel inhabited by crocodiles. When the visitors do arrive at the entrance of the jails, guards desperately try to stop them from going inside, even by trying to shoot them.
- Genie in a Bottle: The bottle merchant on the market seems to hold one in his hand.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: A guard at the jail tries to shoot the visitors with a gun, but he misses every time he fires.
- Jump Scare: When entering the palace, a not-so-tame tiger appears from behind a wall.
- Magic Staff: The wizard carries one on the third occasion the visitors meet him. Weirdly, he doesn't have one on the other two occasions, where he only has a Magic Wand.
- Mood Whiplash: After having passed the gruesome jails and torture rooms of the Forbidden City, the visitors enter the luxurious harbour in front of the pasha's pompous royal palace, in which a decadent and rich party is being held. After having visited this party, the visitors enter the treasure room in which they meet an angry-looking giant, and the ride comes to its dark conclusion.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: The boat of the visitors comes past two attacking crocodiles in a dark sewer corridor.
- No Fourth Wall: A somewhat unique aspect of Fata Morgana when compared to similar dark rides is the fact that the characters in the ride are constantly aware of the presence of the visitors inside the ride's universe and even speak directly to them. Clear examples include two beggars asking the visitors for money, the merchants offering their goods, a man warning the visitors not to go ahead and two sailors asking the visitors which country they're from.
- Sailor: Are you English? Deutsche? Français? Hollander?
- Our Giants Are Bigger: The visitors meet and pass underneath the legs of a fierce-looking giant, called 'Djinn', who is implied to guard the pasha's treasure room.
- Panthera Awesome: A few tame (however...) tigers are held at the royal palace, probably as a status symbol of the pasha's wealth.
- Royal Harem: The visitors pass the royal harem of the pasha.
- Sewer Gator: The crocodiles that the visitors meet are living in a dark stone corridor that looks to be a sewer-like construction.
- Snakes Are Sinister: The visitors pass underneath some sinister-looking snakes that are hanging in the jungle trees at the beginning of the ride.
- Snake Charmer: One can be seen on the marketplace.
- Source Music: While some music in the ride is non-diegetic, the music of the shake charmer on the market, the band at the jail building and the band in the throne room are all played in-universe.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: A deliberate example occurs in the porch of the jail building, where the visitors are being shot by one guard while the other guards are listening to the silly music played by a small band with a belly danser.
- Special Effects Evolution: The skyline of the Forbidden City that the visitors see from the distance in the jungle was originally just a static maquette. In 2014, it was replaced by a projection which shows the city magically disappearing like a real fata morgana.
- Stubborn Mule: A merchant can be seen trying to get his stubborn donkey to get over a bridge ramshackle bridge.
- Sultry Belly Dancer: The ride features several; both in the portable of the jail and in the throne room.
- Treasure Room: The visitors enter the royal treasure room of the pasha at the end of the ride, which is being guarded by a giant.
- Two Roads Before You: When the boats have entered a sewer, there seem to be two exits: one leading back to the jungle and another leading to the jails. As the former is being blocked by two crocodiles, the visitors can't do anything other than to choose the latter.
- Wizard Beard: The wizard has one.
- Wizard Classic: The visitors meet a silent but friendly wizard on three different occasions throughout the ride, where he shows the way to go while opening new passageways with the help of some magic.
