For over 30 years, Disney fans have flocked to Disneyland to see “Fantasmic!,” a nighttime show that celebrates the power of imagination. But no one could have imagined seeing the dragon used during the show’s climax to burn down to the ground in a tower of flames.
On Saturday night, Anaheim firefighters were dispatched to the Happiest Place on Earth when the show’s 45-foot fire-breathing animatronic dragon burst into flames during the nightly performance of “Fantasmic!” on Tom Sawyer Island. No one was injured in the incident, and fire officials are investigating the accident with Disneyland’s cooperation.
In the finale of “Fantasmic!,” the famous villain Maleficent transforms into a black and green dragon, just as she does in the classic Disney film “Sleeping Beauty,” to destroy Mickey Mouse within the world he’s created in his imagination. The dragon shoots out a blast of fire onto the water surrounding Tom Sawyer Island, creating a ring of flames. But Mickey, taking control of his dream world, quenches the fire with water fountains and blasts Maleficent with a shot of magic to defeat her.
But during Saturday’s show, as Mickey began to extinguish the flames, the head of the dragon — called Murphy by hardcore Disneyland fans — suddenly ignited. Within a minute or so, the fire had spread to the rest of Murphy’s body, consuming the amusement park marvel that had been introduced to “Fantasmic!” in 2009 as part of a modernization of the show’s special effects.
Videos and photos of the accident and its aftermath have gone viral among Disney fans, including one taken by a parkgoer who was recording his ride on the soon-to-be-closed Splash Mountain and could catch a glimpse of Murphy on fire in the distance.
On Sunday, further pictures were posted online of Murphy’s burning demise and its charred remains, which were removed from Tom Sawyer Island by Sunday morning. Some Disneyland fans mourned the loss of the awe-inspiring animatronic, while others made some tongue-in-cheek jokes.
As for where Murphy got his name, it originated from the repeated delays that Disneyland had to make in debuting the dragon in summer 2009 due to various difficulties in getting the giant thing to work. As weeks of waiting turned into months, fans called the dragon Murphy after Murphy’s Law, which states that “anything that can go wrong, will.”
With that in mind, Murphy’s final fate was quite fitting.
