Trivia / Fantasmic!

• Acting for Two: In the Hollywood Studios show, the late Tony Jay reprised his roles as both Frollo and the Magic Mirror.
• Distanced from Current Events: When the marketing for the original show in Disneyland first appeared, the slogan used was "Be here when the night ignites!". It was heavily used in the marketing for a press premiere event scheduled for April 29, 1992. Early that day, however, riots erupted over the verdict of the Los Angeles Rodney King beatings, and the unfortunate wording of the slogan resulted in Disney cancelling the event, as well as pulling or modifying all promotions displaying the slogan.
• Milestone Celebration:
  • The Tokyo DisneySea version opened during the park's 10th anniversary.
  • During the 20th anniversary of the Disneyland premiere, Annual Passholders could attend an exclusive performance. It began with a video compiling behind-the-scenes footage, archival news reports hyping the show, and highlights from the premiere. Plus, the finale included cameos by characters who made appearances in the initial performances, but eventually got replaced by the stars of newer Disney movies.
  • The reopening of the original Disneyland version of the production lined up with its 25th anniversary.
  • The 2022 update of the Hollywood Studios incarnation of the show debuted during Walt Disney World's 50th anniversary celebration. It also debuted 30 years after the original Disneyland show's opening.
• The Other Darrin: The 2017 Disneyland update that features new dialogue from the Magic Mirror sees Corey Burton take over the role from the long-dead Tony Jay.
• The Other Marty: The 2022 Hollywood Studios update, which includes new dialogue for Mickey, sees Bret Iwan fully re-record all of Mickey’s dialogue in addition to recording the new lines for consistency’s sake as Wayne Allwine had died in 2009.
• Role Reprise: Many voice clips are lifted from Disney films wholesale, but for the new dialogue present in the shows, many veteran Disney voice actors return to their roles such as Pat Carroll as Ursula and James Woods as Hades. The late Tony Jay returned as Frollo, notable because the character made so few appearances outside of his original film.
• Uncancelled: The Disneyland production became so popular, Disney decided to indefinitely extend its originally five-year run. It ended up running 24 years before Disney replaced it with a new version.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Prior to the "Mickey dreams of the worlds of Disney" storyline, a Haunted Mansion-based concept where the ghosts would take over the river at night was considered.
  • Early plans for the Disney World version included a new reimagining of the show called Hollywood Fantasmic! It would have reportedly included characters and scenes from MGM movies along with those from Disney.
  • The climax would have featured Mickey walking on water, except that they couldn't get the effect to work. Though rumors claim that it was removed because of fear that such an act would draw Messiah parallels. In 2022, Disney World's updated version would finally add this effect for Moana's segment.
  • One deleted scene features Captain Nemo and the giant squid, both from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
  • The Pink Elephants sequence was originally going to include live actors in "flexible, glow-in-the-dark elephant costumes", while the Bald Mountain scene was planned to implement performers in glowing skeleton suits. Both of these ideas were scrapped, resulting in the scenes merely using footage for those characters.
  • The 50-foot dragon animatronic that had been used in the Disneyland version ^note  this dragon, with the Fan Nickname of Murphy a la Murphy's Law, burned up on 4/22/23 due to a technical malfunction during the second show was actually how the character was envisioned during early development (a stop motion test dating back to 1991 can be found here). However, it proved to be too difficult to bring to life (presumably due to the limited technology of the time), and to quote designer Kevin Kidney, she was "'hacked away' until she was virtually just a dragon's mechanical head on a boom lift... concealed in thick fog to encourage the viewer's own imagination to fill in the details." It took a lengthy 13 years before the intended model for the beast was finally implemented.
• Working Title: "Imagination River Spectacular".

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