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Credit: DisneyThis week, nearly 10,000 Walt Disney World Resort guests were kicked out of Fantasmic! just a few minutes into a performance. Many Disney’s Hollywood Studios guests had waited over an hour and a half to secure their seats for the nighttime spectacular.
Fantasmic! first opened at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on October 15, 1998, six years after its predecessor at Disneyland Park. The show has undergone several changes over the years, particularly during a 2022 update that introduced new sequences inspired by Pocahontas (1995), Aladdin (1992), Mulan (1998), Moana (2016), and the Frozen (2013) franchise. Tokyo DisneySea once offered a similar version of the show, which welcomed its final guests in 2020.
Over the years, each version of Fantasmic! has suffered its own technical issues. Most famously, Disneyland Resort’s Maleficent audio-animatronic caught fire during a performance on April 22, 2023. Several Disney Park guests filmed as flames engulfed the animatronic, making it a total loss. In 2024, a modified version of the show without the Maleficent animatronic returned to Disneyland Park.
This week, Walt Disney World Resort’s Fantasmic! experienced a less shocking but serious technical issue that forced the show to end abruptly, disappointing thousands of guests. TikTok user @bernerbutworse shared this video after evacuating the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater just minutes after the performance began:
@bernerbutworse
The video falsely claimed that 20,000 people were in the audience when the outdoor theater’s actual capacity is just under 10,000. Still, thousands of Disney Park guests were impacted by the sudden shutdown.
Redditor u/stretch1011 shared this photo from the same performance, writing, “This was the one picture I got before everything went dark.”
Fantasmic cancelled
“There’s goes 1.5 hours I’ll never get back,” the Disney Park guest continued. “Waited another 25 minutes before they announced it was cancelled. I’ve never seen Fantasmic and was looking forward to it.”
Walt Disney World Resort didn’t share the exact reason for the closure with guests. The Redditor said maintenance cast members were testing some special effects after the show paused, but before they announced it was canceled.
“I think it was technology [issues] as they were testing fountains after the initial shutdown,” the guest recalled.
The reason for this Fantasmic! shutdown remains unknown, but the show has operated normally in the days following the incident.
Fantasmic! occasionally ceases operations due to inclement weather or technical issues that can impact performer safety. If you purchased a Fantasmic! dining package, Walt Disney World Resort typically offers a reserved seat for another performance in exchange for the canceled date.
Does Walt Disney World Resort or Disneyland Resort have the better version of Fantasmic!? Inside the Magic would love to hear your opinion in the comments!