YMMV / Fantasmic!

• Awesome Music: The main theme, especially during the finale. Also the "exit music" that plays as the crowd is leaving.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Some fans like to call Disneyland's version of Maleficent's dragon form, "Murphy", because of its tendency to break down.
    • And it seems as if Murphy has lived up to her Fan Nickname one last time; during the late performance on 4/22/23, the animatronic caught fire after its initial fire effect. Not many details have been released by Disney detailing what's going to happen next, presumably due to the fact that they need to assess everything, though there were no injuries reported.
  • Disneyland's 2017 show has the unofficial alias Fantasmic! 2.0 to distinguish it from its predecessors. The alias has also been assigned to Hollywood Studios' 2022 revamp for similar reasons.
• Funny Moments:
  • Frollo getting defeated in the Florida version, more specifically his horrified cry of "WITCHCRAFT!" as he watches Mickey work his magic. Short, sweet, and oddly in-character for him.
  • Hades barely winces when he’s being struck by the powers of Mickey’s imagination, and simply chuckles, since presumably he’s not going to really get destroyed being an immortal god and all. His cohorts besides Chernabog aren’t so lucky, howling and screaming in terror. This especially goes for Cruella who’s just a mundane human who never came close to the world-ending stakes of the other villains, or the threat of damnation in Frollo’s case.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Some people might just watch this show to see Mickey slay a huge dragon.
• Most Wonderful Sound: You've been sitting on a blanket for two hours, the sky getting darker, as more and more people gradually fill in the space around you. And then...finally...over the crowd noise, your ears barely detect a bell-like tone. Over the next several seconds it rises in volume, and all is well, because the show is finally beginning!
• Narm: Scar gets a pretty rough time in the Florida version. First, Scar says "Yes, puuuurfect" when he agrees to join the Evil Queen's Legion of Doom. It's... pretty cheesy, even for a character who did engage in the occasional pun or joke. Then when it cuts back to him laughing and gloating, we instead hear roaring and growling while a brief shot from "Be Prepared" is slowed down and looped a bit to give the impression he's laughing. Finally, when he’s shown being defeated with the other villains, he’s making cartoony growls in anguish.
  • If one is familiar with fanmade "animash" creations ^Explanation An "animash" is a fanmade video that uses editing and greenscreening tricks to make characters from different animated films look like they exist together in the same universe and interact with each other. They have a large following of teenage fans and many of them include plotlines such as "a character who is good in their canon movie is evil" or "X falls in love with Y". and many of them make extensive use and overuse of Adobe After Effects filters., the editing done during the villain segments is incredible evocative of those videos.
• Nightmare Fuel: Unsurprisingly, the Nightmare segment, in which several Disney Villains invade Mickey's dreams.
  • In all versions (excluding Disneyland's "Fantasmic 2.0"), the Evil Queen emerges from the darkness and, upon seeing the "three lovelier maids" enjoy their happy lives, transforms into the Witch in a fit of rage. Suffice to say, the old hag is just as frightening here as she was in the original film.
  • The "Night on Bald Mountain" sequence is definitely one of the show's most intense scenes, as it retains all the hellish imagery from the original. Just imagine being a little kid who's never watched Fantasia and suddenly seeing these nightmarish ghouls show up in a colorful Disney show!
  • The Jafar snake in the Disney World version. Unlike Disneyland's giant Kaa, who slithers around harmlessly during the jungle segment, Jafar actively guns for Mickey with his sharp fangs agape.
  • The original animatronic dragon (which is still used in the Disney World version) has a particularly scary-looking face that looks even creepier when it lights up in the darkness. The entire dragon sequence in general is pretty intense since Maleficent sets fire the entire lake; it's as if she's burning Mickey's world of imagination to ashes.
• Replacement Scrappy: Regarding Disneyland's 2017 version, the swapping of the Peter Pan scene for one inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl upset fans who considered the Peter Pan scene a highlight, and/or thought it sounded jarring to stick live-action characters in a show mostly inspired by Disney's animated movies, especially ones originating from a live-action series that has become highly divisive.^note Mary Poppins did already show up in the finale, but she doesn't say anything. Thankfully, it is confirmed that the original Peter Pan sequence will return in 2024 as part of the reopening of the show after the fire incident, which led to sparks for joy among fans of the show online.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Even before the premiere of the so-called Fantasmic! 2.0, some of the first show's oldest fans lamented the loss of Ursula's barge (which Disney frequently had technical problems with), leaving the "Poor Unfortunate Souls" number as nothing more than clips projected against mist.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Ever wonder why Mickey rarely wears his classic outfit from the cartoons in the parks? Well, the brief appearance of him in the classic outfit◊ in the Hollywood Studios version and the appearance of Steamboat Willie Mickey in the finale gives us the likely answer to that question, as Mickey's classic outfit, while perfectly okay in animated form, looks incredibly weird and off-putting when faithfully translated to a full-bodied costume.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Special mention for creativity must go to the clips projected against mist screens and to Disneyland's animatronic dragon. The Tokyo DisneySea version has a nifty cone-shaped structure with LEDs that form appropriate clips, and their dragon doesn't look too shabby either (especially when it appears to emerge from inside the Magic Mirror!).

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