Fantasy Gardens is one of the two major sublands of Fantasia Springs. Rather than a strictly followed land from any one movie, this immerses you in a new kind of way, with inspiration from the magical and beautiful gardens and landscapes presented in Fantasia, but is also home to a collection of many different attractions and experiences from classic animation all together. 

 

 

Plane Crazy

 

Plane Crazy is a family-friendly indoor roller coaster themed upon the 1929 Mickey Mouse short, located in the brand new Fantasy Gardens area of Disney's Hollywood Adventure. Guests board areoplanes and soar through the sky with Mickey and Minnie Mouse around barnyards and across the wild blue yonder.

 

 

Facade and Queue:

The entrance to the attraction seems to be a rustic, yet elegant red barn, where Mickey designed his first airplane. 

 

The two doors on the barn serve as the Standby and Fastpass+ entrances.

 

Once entering the barn however, a big design change is noticeable. The entire queue line and part of the ride itself is completely in black and white, in the style of the original cartoon.

 

The queue itself is highly themed and detailed. Guests weave through the barnyard (guests are now fully indoors) observing anamatronic farms animals graze in pens. Mickey sits on a haystack in the center of the line, reading a book titled "How to Fly". Minnie peeks behind the haystack, watching him.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

After leaving the barn, guests inch their way towards a hangar, where our planes will embark. Construction tools and blueprints show Mickey's efforts into designing his flying machine. Once through the line, we embark onto our areoplanes and after Minnie reads the saftey spiel, our planes set off out of the hangar.

 

 

Ride Vehicle/System:

Plane Crazy is a family coaster, not too intense for junior aces, but not too slow-paced for thrill-seekers. The maximum drop is only 25 feet, and the biggest thrill element is banked turns, but the true crown jewel of the ride is the screens that wrap around the track and our car ( the space is large enough so cars don't scrape the screens and providing guests a lack of claustrophobia while riding) that simulate flying in the wild blue yonder alongside Mickey and Minnie through crazy situations and daring feats.

 

The cars themselves look like the planes from the cartoon, nearly exactly like these ones- 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The planes seat sixteen riders, eight rows, and two seats per row.

 

 

Ride Experience:

(The ride itself is very different from the cartoon, in order to keep the ride engaging and to make Mickey Mouse into a more likable character than he was in the short, but still keeping the premise, a wild trip through the heavens and whatever lies above...)

 

~Scene One (Ascent)~

The plane turns into the first black-and white show scene. Mickey and Minnie are seated in the plane, eager for the journey ahead.

 

Mickey: Alright everybody... Here we go!

 

With that, the plane launches to 25 MPH and ascends up a 35 foot lift hill, into the sky itself! Planes through mist to simulate going over the clouds. In one of the ride's signature moments, once planes breach the heavens, the surroundings turn from black-and white tofull color!

 

~Scene Two (The Wild Blue Yonder)~

As guests take in the beauty of the crisp, blue skies surrounding them, we see Mickey and Minnie (done using a screen effect) fly by us. We hear the roaring engine of the plane as it rockets next to us. We turn and exit the screen, which leads to a small coaster segment. Planes dip in and out of clouds in this somewhat-thrilling segment.

 

 

~Scene Three (A Gaggle of Geese)~

This scene is relativity short. In a show scene, dozens of geese seem to fly alongside the car, migrating for greener pastures down south.

 

Minnie: Whoa! Birds incoming!

 

Planes take a little banked drop to evade the geese before entering the start of the climax.

 

~Scene Four (The Storm)~

On a large screen, we notice the clouds turning dark and rain starting to pour. Thunder can be heard above. Suddenly, a huge tornado funnels out of the clouds.. straight towards us! Planes turn and to guests horror, through projections, we enter the funnel itself!

 

~Scene Five (The Tornado)~

Planes enter a helix, cycling through the funnel. We see Mickey and Minnie's plane soar down the funnel (via highly detailed projections). A cow soars right above our heads! This is the most thrilling part of the entire ride, both by coaster elements and props!

 

~Scene Six (Descent)~

After dropping out of the funnel, guests are now back into the black-and white world of the original short. We see that Mickey's plane has crashed into a tree. Fortunately, Mickey and Minnie (anamatronics) are perfectly fine, though a little shaken up from the event.

 

Mickey-Boy, what a flight that was!

 

Minnie-You said it! Want to rebuild the plane and go at it again?

 

Mickey-Sounds great!

 

After the show scene, planes turn back into the plane hangar and the passengers disembark, satisfied with their madcap trip through the sky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steamboat Willie Walkthrough

 

Steamboat Willie is one of the most iconic cartoons of all time, so it is only fitting that it receives its first attraction at a Disney Park. This walkthrough will be extremely detailed and a carbon copy of the ship from the cartoon. Just like the cartoon, the boat will be all black and white and music will play an integral part in the experience.

 

Podunk Landing: This will be the dock that you walk across to board the ship. As seen in the short, there will be a "Boat Tickets" stand where you can purchase small souvenirs such as Steamboat Willie pins and Vinylmations. Hanging off of a crane from the boat will be the cow from the short, occasionally letting out a concerned moo. Guests will enter on the left side of the gangplank to the boat, as guests will exit on the right side.

 

Walkthrough: There is one set path going clockwise around the ship that guests must follow. There are cast members onboard to keep the flow of guests moving and to make sure there is nobody hogging the interactive experiences. The music from the short will be playing throughout. Following are the scenes in order that they appear on the walkthrough.

 

Captain Quarters: This is the area where the boat is captained, and feathered at the beginning of the short. The wheel is turntable, and the bell rings. You can hear the whistles from the top of the ship from here as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deck: You will go down the stairs to the right of the Captains Quarters and end up on the deck. Here, there are many animals that can be used as instruments, such as the xylophone cow and goat music box. You also have a magnificent view of the rest of the land.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kitchen: You will walk through a hallway and pass a few interesting doors on the way to the kitchen. You will pass Mickey's quarters and Pete's quarters, and here them in their respective rooms (Mickey & his iconic whistle, Pete grumbling). Eventually you make it to the kitchen, where there are pots and pans that can be used for percussion purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Potato Bin: As you walk from the kitchen, you end up in your final room, the Potato Bin. There is a stack of potatoes 15 feet high on one side of the room, with an AA parrot in the porthole acting jovial and chatting to the guests. You then exit the ship on the gangplank that you entered back onto Podunk Landing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Into the Inkwell

 

One of the focal points of Fantasia Springs is calling attention to early works in the studio's history which served as the stepping stones of the Disney legacy. While the famous saying goes "it all started with a mouse", many animation buffs know this isn't entirely true. Walt and Roy Disney's first venture was Laugh-O-Gram Studios where they produced crude "modern day" parodies of classic fairy tales they'd later turn into iconic classics.

 

More well known are the Alice Comedies and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. The Alice shorts have their place in history as early examples of mixing animation with live action, while Oswald's saga with the studio serves as the catalst for Mickey's creation. Into the Inkwell combines are three of these series into a thrilling tribute to the earliest days of Disney animation.

 

The Elias Disney Movie House (Exterior):

Taking inspiration from Mickey's Movie Barn at Disneyland's Toontown, this fanciful three story farmhouse will serve as your entry point "Into the Inkwell". The large house on the farm side of the Fantasia Springs lake has been fashioned inside and out to resemble a 1920s movie theater with a look similar but not exactly resembling the Main Street Cinema marquee.

 

A windmill will mark the sign to the attraction and start of the queue. The outside portion of the queue will wind its way through the vegetable garden and a large patch of sunflowers. Guests will pass many stick drawings of farm animals in the mud. This whole section is meant to represent Walt's early farm days with the mud drawings being the absolute earliest example of "Disney animation".

 

Once inside the theater guests are entered into a lobby which serves as a waiting room to the main ride. Here a ten minute reel of trailers plays of various Laugh-O-Gram, Alice Comedies, and Oswald shorts, and posters on the sides of the walls of the three series. The smell of buttered popcorn fills what is essentially a large, emptied out living room and dining hall.

 

The Screening Room/Ride System:

The attraction will have a trackless ride system using movie theater style seats. Each ride vehicle will sit nine people in three rows of three. The arm rests of the seats will be fashioned to serve as natural lap bars to make for quick loading. 500 people at a time are admitted into the main "theater" which disembarks every three to five minutes. This makes the attraction a big people eater. Much like Universe of Energy and The Great Movie Ride the vehicles start off looking like a regular theater setting before breaking apart and separating.

 

3D glasses will be used on the ride to showcase advanced projection effects and also illustrate the vivid technicolor that will work its way into the attraction in various fun and creative ways throughout the duration. There will be a natural movie theater "screen" with a large inkwell tipped over and spilling out ink in a 3D effect in the center of the screen. Once the vehicles break apart a gap in the inkwell opens up and guests are literally ushered into it to start their adventure!

 

While first going through the inkwell, riders are surrounded by blackness that eventually fades into a hazy black and white landscape made prominent by the 3D. As the room comes into focus we see a boy and girl sitting in a tree reading a fairy tale book with a pair of cartoon cats. This is a recreation of the Laugh-O-Grams title screen. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We quickly pass a suburban street before going to the high school gym for the Friday the 13th "Ball". Here we see static cartoon figures "dancing" on a turntable in a very herky-jerky way. In the corner of the room the beautiful Cinderella and Prince Charming are gazing into each other's eyes. Keep in mind Laugh-O-Grams were all modern day parodies of the fairy tales. 

The clock strikes midnight and something completely unexpected happens. The 1950s Disney version of the Fairy Godmother appears in full technicolor and waves her magic wand. Suddenly the black and white room transforms into a full color gym. We see the iconic Disney Cinderella starring at the Laugh-O-Grams Cinderella, the two perplexed by the whole situation. The clock strikes again and 1950s Cinderella runs along side us as the room fades back into black and white and we go through a dark tunnel. 

We hear the roar of a train whistle as we go through the tunnel. Before emerging from the other side we see a silent movie subtitle card...the very first one in fact, from an Alice Comedy... "I would like to watch you draw some funnies..." 

We then see a black and white AA of Alice actress Virgina Davis waving to us from the end of the tunnel. Finally coming out we see a circus train full of black and white cartoon animals welcoming us into Wonderland. Our vehicles travel down one side of a train, Over the hill of a tunnel the train is coming out of, and then back down the other side. 

Continuing on we hear the voice of Sterling Holloway singing "Twas Brilling" and we know we've crossed over into a different wonderland! We enter a Tugly Woods segment where the giant head of the Chesire Cat looms above us and technicolor paint is being splatted onto the black and white landscape. At the end we see the playing cards literally painting the roses red. 

The ringing of a bell is heard and we see Oswald aboard the famous trolley from Trolley Troubles, waving at us. We then enter a self contained three story "arena" type of room where the Trolley Troubles segment takes place. It is a completely black and white roller coaster type room with an elevator style system of drops. 

Each of the three floors has a screen the vehicles go up to which plays a brief simulation of riding on the out of control trolley before dropping us down to the level below. All in all this thrilling segment lasts for about 50 seconds. 

Finally, we come upon the grand finale which is Oswald and Mickey Mouse waving to us from Steamboat Willie. A technicolor Chesire Cat is in the place of the sun and grinning at us from above. The two Cinderellas and Virgina Davis's Alice are also on Steamboat Willie gathered around Mickey and Oswald. 

Another inkwell overflowing with ink resides at the far corner of the Steamboat Willie room which serves as our transition back into the Elias Disney Movie House. Armrests come undone and guests leave their 3D glasses at the exit. Coming out of the movie house, guests can see the Plane Crazy barn not too far off in the distance and the "real" Steamboat Willie" docked along the shores of the Fantasia Springs Lake.

 

 

 

 

The Musical Voyage of Fantasia

 

Looming over the rest of Fantasia Springs and taking residence as the titular E Ticket attraction of the expansion, The Musical Voyage of Fantasia promises to be one of the most ambitious new attractions that Disney Hollywood Studios has ever seen.

 

The facade takes on the form of Bald Mountain, a sight that's both intimidating and awe inspiring. Rising to be 3/4 the size of Animal Kingdom's Everest, Bald Mountain will sure to take on a life of its own as a prominent new fixture in the skyline of the park and of all the WDW property.

 

Every night an elaborate puppet of Chernabog comes out to cast his spells upon the land. The mountain serves as a focal point for a 120 foot flume drop...one of the largest in the world. Bald Mountain will be among the most effective Weenies of any Disney park in terms of drawing you into the area.

 

The queue for the attraction is very minimalist and winds its way through the base of the mountain where guests pass calming springs, waterfalls, and small caves set amidst a calming symphony soundtrack. After winding around the west corner of the mountain guests come upon the church from Ave Maria which serves as the load and unload for the land.

 

Once inside the church guests see that it has been flooded out and all the seats have been pushed to the side, making for a flume running through the middle of the building. Once up to the gates guests take a board on their blue and purple colored boats (using basically the exact same ride system as Pirates, resulting in another people eater for the area!)

 

Passing through a small hole in the corner of the church guests hear the sounds of instruments tuning up as they float through a small black tunnel. They come up the iconic silhouette of Igor Stravinski in a dramatic stance conducting the orchestra as flashes of color shoot by in wave like formations. We then go through another small tunnel which serves as a transition.

 

Tocatta and Fuge in D Minor is played here and guests are treated to a visually stunning array of projection mapping effects simulating, as Dean Taylor states in the film "the sights one might picture in their own mind if they were to close their eyes while listening to this music" (which in a way is the mission statement of Fantasia as a whole)

 

Passing out of the tunnel we come upon a barrage of AA servant brooms dumping water into an overflowing well. The Sorcerer's workshop has already been flooded which serves as a natural flume for our boats.

 

As the iconic Sorcerer's Apprentice tune plays and we see more and more brooms marching, we set our sights on Mickey Mouse perched on top of a forced perspective cliffside in his dreamscape. Mickey is famously conducting the stars as a comet whooshes by us as a projection. We then enter a cave within the side of the cliffs and drop down a small drop into the next area.

 

We see a small projection of a starry sky and the first few notes of Rite of Spring starting. Rite of Spring is not represented much here because so much of the segment already has visual cues taken in other attractions such as the Disneyland Railroad's Primeval World and Epcot's Universe of Energy.

 

What we see instead is the abstract "beginnings of life" scene that starts us off where we see atoms forming into small sea creatures. Exiting that tunnel we see that we are in the clouds with an AA of Zeus looming over it. We are in the ancient Greek mythology found in the Pastoral Symphony.

 

Zeus throws one of his lightning bolts down to ground level and we plummet down a three story flume drop along with it. The boats then pass a field of Cenataurs bathing in a waterfall spring.

 

The lighting in this large show building starts to glow an orange yellow and we see a group of cenataurs on a cliff waving to us. The sky suddenly changes to a starry night and we see this iconic image projected into the stars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then head through an opening in one of the room's rolling hills and fall down a small drop, finding ourselves right in the middle of the Dance of the Mushrooms segment from the Nutcracker Suite. Climbing up a brief lifthill we then find ourselves in the largest show room of the attraction...Dance of the Hours!

 

The Hippo and Crocodile dance their iconic dance as we enter the room. Rounding a corner, the boat goes down a thrilling double drop which lands us in the bottom level of the room. This wakes up the ostriches which cause a stir. Turning another corner into the center of the room we see a whole mess unfold as the room the animals are in is flooded. The hippos are trying to keep it together while the ostriches squawk impatiently. Meanwhile the crocodiles lurk in the corner with menace. 

 

Finally we come upon the 100 foot Night on Bald Mountain lifthill which sees us come face to face with a three story tall Chernabog AA at the top and projection mappings of the spirits of the underworld in which he's summoning encircling us as we make our ascent.

 

Gravity takes its course and we plummet down the soon to be iconic 120 foot flume drop off the side of Bald Mountain, making for a wonderful photo opprotunity. After the big splash down things come to a close in a very calm and naturalistic way as we make our way through an area of forest lit softly by candles. We hear the Ave Maria prayer being sung as hundreds of procession candles line the forest around us.

 

Heading into one final small cave within the base of Bald Mountain, we see this classic bit take place as a projection...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heading out of the cave we find ourselves back in the church to unload from the boats, the prayer of Ave Maria still ringing in our heads.