It's one thing to witness Maleficent in her colossal dragon transformation get defeated by the powers of Mickey's incredible imagination. It's quite another to find out her neck was broken by mistake.
Despite several confirmations by cast members, MiceAge editor Al Lutz, and secondhand accounts, Disney officials dismissed the Internet gossip that the dragon's neck had snapped as false and chose the empty phrase "technical issues" to describe the cause of the problem.
Now no one should have expected Disney to divulge what actually happened; after all, they have their reputation to worry about. If Disney were to formally announce that the dragon suffered a severed neck, people might start to question the safety of the other mechanical equipment on property. Since Safety is the #1 concern at the Disneyland Resort (and any news to the contrary is picked up by mainstream media faster than you can say "DOSH"), it's best for them to paint as pretty a picture as possible. Here at DisneyFAIL, we believe in the broken neck theory, because let's face it: you know that's what really happened. ;)
The new Fantasmic dragon, the icon of the big Summer Nightastic campaign, sits broken in the pit beneath Tom Sawyer Island and the Disneyland PR machine has shifted into heavy damage control mode. The dragon's repairs are now being estimated in weeks instead of days, and the media party on Thursday is being shifted to focus on the Magical fireworks show instead. Dumbo to the rescue! - Al Lutz
Now the Disney marketing team is trying in vain to downplay the failing dragon (nicknamed Murphy) as much as possible, even as the dragon is featured prominently in TV commercials, Downtown Disney banners, freeway billboards and bus advertisements as the mascot of the Summer Nightastic! promotion (as seen below).
Within the past few days, Disney removed a video that featured a "making of" documentary about the Fantasmic! dragon from their YouTube channel, and soon after someone also removed a video of the TV commercial that features a CG dragon from their Summer Nightastic! website. However, the reaction is too-little, too-late. Park guests who paid $99 for their Summer FunPasses and stake out their spots along the Rivers of America five hours in advance of showtime are expecting dragon, and when they don't get no dragon, cue anger, disappointment, rage, fury. Fail.
Disney's official press release for Fantasmic's return, distributed June 10th, makes it sound like the dragon's delay was planned all along:
Making its debut later this summer will be a fully animated, three-dimensional dragon who breathes fire across the Rivers of America. The 40-foot-tall dragon will dazzle guests like never before as the creature steps out of the shadows that concealed it in past “Fantasmic!” performances.
What the press release fails to say (if you'll pardon the expression) is that those mysterious "shadows" that conceal the dragon were probably cast by an epic Audio-Animatronic outsourcing fail, an Imagineering fail, a rehearsal fail, or some combination of the three. But no one should have expected it to say that, either. In the wonderful fabricated land of Disney press releases, even broken dragons can sound really, really cool.
Meanwhile, for park guests who live in the real world, the wait to see Murphy may take weeks, perhaps as long as a month.
That Murphy the dragon is not making its debut with the rest of the Summer Nightastic! offerings on June 12th is inexcusable. If Disney decides to centralize its entire summer campaign around one image, that's fine, but wouldn't it make sense to plan ahead and be damned sure that that image is in working condition and ready to go for showtime?
Clearly, that wasn't the case. Clearly, Murphy the dragon deserves to be our first DisneyFAIL.
What's that in the sky? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's DragonFail, brought to you by Summer Failtastic!
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