Disney's Fantillusion

Disney's Fantillusion
Disneyland Park (Paris)
Designer	Ron Logan
Opening date	July 5, 2003
Music	Disney's Fantillusion! (soundtrack)

Disney's Fantillusion! is a regularly scheduled night-time parade, created by Ron Logan, that performs nightly at Disneyland Park during its Summer and Winter Seasons. It features floats and live performers covered in thousands of electronically controlled lights and a synchronized soundtrack controlled by a Dual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF) tone broadcast along the parade route. The parade was originally created for Tokyo Disneyland where it ran for six years from 1995 - 2001. An updated version of the Main Street Electrical Parade replaced Fantillusion at Tokyo Disneyland known as the Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade: DreamLights.

Background and History

Disney's Fantillusion! existed long before it premiered at Disneyland Paris. When Disney's Fantillusion! premiered at Tokyo Disneyland on July 21, 1995, it was not just a new light parade, it was a magical masterpiece of light, music, special effects and Disney characters that created an experience that took Disney parades to a new level.

Created specifically for Tokyo Disneyland, Fantillusion! was developed by the team behind Fantasmic!, the show performed at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios, with the aim of condensing the story of Fantasmic! and putting it into a parade format. In fact, the parade's score was orchestrated by Bruce Healey, the same composer behind Fantasmic!'s theme and the Music Director at Disneyland.

The storyline of the parade is loosely based on the elements of Fantasmic!. The 31 floats were split in three acts. The parade starts with Tikerbell, Mickey Mouse and the three fairies from Disney's Sleeping Beauty "wishing upon a star to bring the gift of Disney light", before being disrupted by Disney villains who "take the light and make it night", and then ending with the Disney Heroes and Heroines who "turn the dark back into light". Fantasmic! features Mickey Mouse in combat with Disney villains, in fact, the three main villains of the show; Maleficent, Ursula and Jafar - Maleficent is the lead villain in both shows, whereas Ursula is the supporting villain at Disneyland as is Jafar at Disney's Hollywood Studios, are the three villains featured in Disney's Fantillusion!. Also in the show is Chernabog from Fantasia, and the Queen from Snow White.

Disney's Fantillusion! was purpose designed and built for the parade route of Tokyo Disneyland. Each act would enter one portion of the parks' parade route and then halt for a "show stop". The parade would the progress to the next section and halt again for the next showtop. This ensured that every guest watching the parade could see all three acts of the story.

After seven years of dazzling guests at Tokyo Disneyland, the parade closed at the end of its "Sayonara Disney's Fantillusion!" season on May 17, 2001.

After the parade was defunctioned, the floats which had been bought by Disneyland Paris were left outside in the harsh conditions of Tokyo by the Oriental Land Company, where they were left exposed to the elements before being packed and transported to Europe. The floats which had not been bought are thought to have been destroyed.

Of the 31 floats in the Tokyo version of the parade, Disneyland Paris only bought 15 due to financial limitations. Thirteen floats were used in Disneyland Paris' original production of the parade. The two floats that were bought, but never used are the Nasty Grotto and Murkey Dungeon units. These units were initially utilised to train new drivers but have since found other uses in providing spare parts.

Disneyland Paris also bought most of the original costumes used in Tokyo's production of the parade, but due to the European performers being larger than their Asian counterparts, most costumes didn't fit. New skirt-like costumes (similar to the Serpant Dancer costumes) were fasioned for the Evil Villains sections as a replacement for the "Ghouls" costumes and new Court Dancer costumes created for the Happy Ending. The costuming crisis was also a defining reason for not using the two extra floats in the Evil Villains section - as Disneyland Paris didn't have the time/funds to create costumes for performers onboard these floats.

It took the floats more than 40 days to reach to Disneyland Paris from the Tokyo Disney Resort. They travelled by cargo ship from Japan to Australia, then set off again through the Panama canal and Mediterranean Sea before finally travelling around Spain and up the west coast of France to reach the Calais. They were then taken by truck to Disneyland Paris where they were completely refurbished. The refurbishment of the parade floats took much longer than expected as the floats were badly damaged during transit. This meant that Disneyland Paris had to repair many of the floats, replace the thousands of tiny lightbulbs, convert their electrical system to the one used in Paris and enlarge the driving areas to fit the larger European drivers.

"Disney's Fantillusion parade" was due to debut in Paris in 2002, when the Main Street Electrical Parade would have been running for ten years, but instead, because of the problems with the floats and the fact that Disneyland Paris still pushed emphasis on their newly opened Walt Disney Studios Park, Fantillusion had to wait another whole year for its Parisian debut.

After many weeks of the parade rehearsing in Disneyland Park after park closing hours, there was a special Fantillusion preview night on June 28, 2004 for Annual Passport holders. The parade then premiered to the public at the start of its first Summer season in on July 5, 2003, running until August 31. Fantillusion returned for its first Christmas season in the resort from November 8 to January 4, and has been playing to crowds of fans and guests every Summer and Christmas season since.

In Summer 2005, the "Bat Forest" float was removed from the parade in response to budget cuts and guest feedback. As the only villain float with no character or transformation effects, the float was no longer seen as an important part of the parade. However, every Halloween season, the "Bat Forest" float returns, carrying Jack Skellington and Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Disney's Christmas Season in 2005 brought a further change to the parade, with the parade now running from Fantasyland to Town Square. While this brought with it a huge amount of technical troubles in the days after the switch, it allowed for better efficiency with the backstage parade preparation and meant guests would now follow the parade to the park's exit instead of back into the park. This change also meant that a maximum of 2 showstops are able to be viewed from any single location.

At Disneyland Park, Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant is co-ordinated with the parade so it plays a part of the show and changes colour with the music, etc.

Introductions

The introduction to the parade at Tokyo Disneyland was notable for saying the line:
"From out of the night, comes the Magic of light... As Tokyo Disneyland proudly presents: Disney's Fantillusion!".
At Disneyland Paris, the introduction in both English and French is simply:
"Mesdames et Messieurs et vous les enfents. Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls. Disneyland Park est d'heureux de vous presenter - proudly presents: the Disney's Fantillusion Parade!".

Tokyo Disneyland Version

Disney's Fantillusion!
Tokyo Disneyland
Designer	Ron Logan
Opening date	July 21, 1995
Closing date	May 15, 2001
Music	Disney's Fantillusion! (soundtrack)
Sponsored by	Unisys

• Park: Tokyo Disneyland
• Original Run: July 21, 1995 - May 15, 2001
• Sponsor: Unisys
• Succeeded by: Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade: DreamLights

Act 1 - The Enchanted Fary Garden "We wish upon a star tonight, to bring the gift of Disney light!" ^[1]

1. "Disney's Fantillusion!"
2. Mickey's Fantillusion
3. Unisys float
4. Enchanted Flower Wheel (retired in 1999)
5. Flora's Gazebo
6. Enchanted Flower Swing
7. Enchanted Dragonfly
8. Fauna's Carousel
9. Dragonfly Tower
10. Enchanted Web Garden (retired in 1999)
11. Merryweather's Gazebo
12. Enchanted Butterfly Flower

Act 2: The Evil Villains "We take this light and make it night!" ^[2]

1. Jafar
2. Nasty Grotto
3. Ursula
4. Bat Forest
5. Maleficent
6. Murky Dungeon
7. Evil Queen
8. Vulture Rock
9. Chernabog

Act 3 - The Happy Ending "We Wish and Dream with all our might, and turn the dark back into light!" ^[3]

1. Princess Ariel and Prince Eric
2. Fountain of Light #1
3. Snow White
4. Snow White's Castle
5. Belle and the Beast
6. Fountain of Light #2
7. Aladdin and Princess Jasmine
8. Fountain of Light #3 (retired in 1999)
9. Cinderella and Princess Aurora
10. Princess Minnie's Castle/Finale

"From the dark of night, comes the magic light. With its colours bright, and its brilliant light.
There's an evil spell, with its sparkling lights... from the Earth to the Sky! A fantastic Fantillusion! (Fantillusion!...)"

Costumes

Like the floats, the costumes for the 160 performers sparkle and glow in ways never seen before. Truly unique costumes were created using 88 individual designs, 290 different fabrics, and 10 different light mediums including mini-lights and fiber optics. The costumes work together with the music, choreography, and lights to produce a fantastical, magical dream.^[4]

Disneyland Paris Version

• Park: Disneyland Park (Paris)
• Original Run: July 5, 2003 – Present
• Sponsor: None
• Preceded by: The Main Street Electrical Parade

Act 1 - Mickey's Magical Garden ^[5]

1. Mickey's Fantillusion
2. Flora's Gazebo
3. Fauna's Carousel
4. Enchanted Butterfly Flower

Act 2 - The Disney Villains

1. Ursula
2. Jafar
3. Maleficient

Act 3 - The Happy Ending

1. Snow White & Prince
2. Ariel & Prince Eric
3. Beauty & the Beast
4. Jasmine & Aladdin
5. Princess Minnie's Castle

Show Facts

• Disney's Fantillusion has 12 floats, 400 000 light bulbs and 60 km of cabling.

• Everynight, up to 50 performers take part for this magical parade. So do, approximately, 20 Guest Flows and more than 25 guest controls.

• One show can use over 600 litres of dry ice for the “show modes” and 9 tonnes of batteries are used every evening... recharged for the next day.

• Computers onboard each float control the lighting display, effects and music. The only thing that is sent to the units is a signal to keep the music in time with the underliner (background track) played in the park.

• Each float has its own orchestration and variation on the main theme, with music from the appropriate film telling the story along with character voices.

Soundtrack

Disney's Fantillusion!
Soundtrack album by Tokyo Disneyland
Released	1995, 2001
Genre	Theme Park
Length	38:47
Label	Pony Canyon / Avex Trax
Tokyo Disneyland chronology
Disney's Fantillusion! Disneyland/Walt Disney World Music Vacation

Disney's Fantillusion! was the soundtrack for Tokyo Disneyland's production of Disney's Fantillusion!, released in 1995. It is currently out of print.

Track listing

1. "The Enchanted Fairy Garden"
   • Fantillusion Fanfare and Announcement
   • Fantillusion Theme
   • Fantillusion, Flowers and Fairies Variation
   • Fantillusion, Dragonflies and Fairies Variation
   • Fantillusion, Butterflies and Fairies Variation
2. "Fairy Garden Fantasy"
3. "The Evil Villains"
   • Jafar
   • Ursula
   • Bat Forest
   • Maleficent
   • Murky Dungeon
   • Evil Queen and Mirror
   • Chernabog
4. "The Light Turns Into Night and the Ghouls Dance"
5. "The Happy Ending (Heroes and Heroines)"
   • Ariel and Eric
   • Fountain #1
   • Snow White and Prince
   • Fantillusion Theme, Castle Variation
   • Beauty and the Beast
   • Fountain #2
   • Aladdin and Jasmine
   • Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip/Cinderella and Prince Charming
   • Castle Finale
6. "The Happy Ending Medley"
7. "The Enchanted Fairy Garden Underliner - Left/Fantillusion Theme, Dragonflies and Fairies Variation - Right"
8. "The Evil Villains Underliner - Left/Jafar - Right"
9. "The Happy Ending (Heroes and Heroines) Underliner - Left/Beauty and the Beast - Right"

Trivia

John Haupt in "From One Lightbulb To Another" talking about SpectroMagic: "...in fact a lot of the preliminary technical work for the Fantillusion parade was proof of concept in this parade. So its kind of the interim step between The Main Street Electrical Parade and Fantillusion." ^[6]

References

1. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzpJHhPEEVI The Enchanted Fairy Garden
2. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unmW-walVUg The Evil Villains
3. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0Y0psEKEyU The Happy Ending
4. ^ http://www.mickey-mouse.com/tdlshowfantillusion.htm Tokyo Disneyland - Fantillusion
5. ^ http://www.dlrpmagic.com/guidebook/disneyland-park/entertainment/disneysfantillusion/ DLRP Magic - Fantillusion
6. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBpegQ7j0uE From one lightbulb to another

External links

• Official website
• Disney's Fantillusion photo album (Fan website)
• more tips, info and videos of Disney's Fantillusion Parade