Mickey's PhilharMagic

Mickey's PhilharMagic is an attraction located in Fantasyland.

Attraction Development and History

The creation of Mickey's PhilharMagic began in the early 2000s when Walt Disney Imagineering and the Walt Disney Feature Animation division teamed up to create a new attraction. The partnership had previously worked together to create Fantasmic! for Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disneyland. Walt Disney Imagineering created the attraction's storyline and choose the featured characters. They then turned the project over to Walt Disney Feature Animation who created the film. Many of the artists who worked on the characters in their original movie, contributed to both the storyline and animation process.

Mickey's PhilharMagic is a "4D" show that uses 3D technology, scents and water to tell a story. The film took over three years to complete, due to the fact that many characters had to be re-rendered in 3D. 3000 3D elements had to be molded, painted and animated in order to create the show. Disney animator Glen Keane returned to render Ariel in 3D. Likewise, Nik Ranieri the supervising animator of Lumiere (during Beauty and the Beast) re-rendered him. Disney tried to use the characters original voice actors as much as possible (either through re-recording or archival recordings), although some characters required new voice actors to be brought in. Perhaps most significantly, archival recordings of Clarence Nash (the original voice of Donald Duck) were used to voice Donald. According to George Scribner, the animation director of Mickey's PhilharMagic said that Donald Duck was chosen as the films main character because he showed his emotional extremes quickly.

Disney announced the creation of PhilharMagic in a press release issued on January 31, 2002. The show replaced the Legend of the Lion King in the Fantasyland Theater (the theater located next to Peter Pan's Flight. Construction began on March 1, 2002, only five days after the Legend of the Lion King Closed. On October 3, 2003 Mickey's PhilharMagic officially opened. Since it's opening, the show has not experienced any significant changes.

Attraction Plot

Mickey's PhilharMagic is a 4D show, which follows Donald Duck in his quest to recover Mickey's Sorcerer Hat.

Preshow and Queue

According to the attraction's backstory, Mickey Mouse is going to be performing with his PhilharMagic Orchestra, at the Fantasyland Concert Hall. As guests enter the concert hall, classic Disney music can be heard overhead. Painted along the right wall, are large music notes and staffs. Signs advertising Mickey's concert can also be seen. As guests continue along the queue, they can see posters for various other acts that have performed (or will be performing) at the concert hall. These posters are located on the right hand wall, and feature some sort of pun. The posters showcase:

• An Evening with Weezy, which the poster notes is "Now in in it's final squeak!". Weezy is a toy penguin who appeared in the Disney-Pixar movie Toy Story. When squeezed, Weezy would "squeak".

• Genie, who will be singing the blues. Genie is colored blue, and he appeared in the Disney movie Aladdin and it's sequels.

• Hades, who will be performing torch songs. Hades appeared in the Disney movie Hercules, as the God of the underworld.

• Wolf Gang Trio. A band made up of the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs who appeared in a 1932 Silly Symphony. The Wolf Gang Trio will be performing, "Sticks, stones and bricks in B flat".

• A poster showing the The Three Caballeros, which reads, "Festiva! Mariachis." and "Nina Fiesta Festiva". Translated to English this means "Festive! Mariachi!" and "Not Festive Festival". The Three Caballeros consist of Donald Duck, José Carioca, and Panchito Pistoles. The three appeared in the 1944 Disney movie, appropriately title, "The Three Caballeros".

• I Pagliaccci performed by Willy the Whale. Willy the Whale was the star of the Disney short, "The Whale Who Wanted To Sing At the Met". The short was about an opera singing whale and it appeared in the 1946 Disney film, "Make Mine Music".