"Believe" it ... or Not
About two weeks ago rumors started flying within the
Disneyland Entertainment department that the four year old "Believe...There's Magic In The Stars" fireworks show was about to be cancelled for the summer. And while a contingency plan for a Believe-less summer had been in the works for over a month, late last week Disneyland formally admitted that Believe was indeed suddenly going away after Memorial Day and being replaced by something called "Disney's Imagine...A Fantasy In The Sky".
The reason for this sudden change in fireworks strategy lies not with an evil plot by TDA to lower expectations for the scaled back 50th Anniversary show that debuts next May, as some Cast Members began whispering around water coolers last week. And while there was some concern that the Castle refurbishment project this summer would ruin the show when viewed from the Hub, they had actually worked around that with a plan to dress up the scaffolding and scrims enveloping the Castle. (By the way, that Castle rehab has been pushed back a couple of weeks and extended, and it's now scheduled to get under way right before the 4th of July weekend and last until early November.) And while it got alot of local press, the smoke and noise complaints from the neighbors were really falling on deaf ears in TDA as well as the Anaheim City Council who knows they owe their very existence to the Mouse even though they like to pretend otherwise with the voters.
Those pesky issues with the media-savvy neighbors and an unfortunately timed Castle rehab could all be worked around, and even the grand conspiracy theory offered by whispering Mouseketeers wasn't enough to end Believe's run prematurely. Rather, this surprise move by TDA is caused primarily with some hot water the Park has gotten in with the South Coast Air Quality Management District, or AQMD for short. Readers outside of Southern California may not be familiar with a government body like the AQMD, but they've been setting policy and regulating private enterprise in a successful attempt to reduce the amount of air pollution in Orange and Los Angeles counties for decades now.
The Disneyland Resort is one of the 28,000 private businesses that operates with a permit from the AQMD, and is allowed a certain number of "pollution credits" each year. A business like Disneyland can earn credits by enrolling employees in clean air commuting plans that encourage Anaheim Cast Members to carpool, ride their bikes, or take the train to work. Disneyland Cast Members can earn a dollar per day each time they "Clean Air Commute", and Disneyland occasionally raises those stakes to three dollars per day and doles out the cash in paychecks or with gift certificates to Target or other big box retailers. While Disneyland earns credits with good citizen programs like those, it also loses credits by operating polluting engines such as on the Mark Twain or the parking lot trams. And as one of the biggest single site employers in Southern California with a huge physical plant of potential pollution sources, Disneyland often walks a fine line with the AQMD.
Photo courtesy of Kevin Yee
This regulatory environment that Disneyland operates in is what has led to a need to reduce the amount of smoke and pollution that the nightly fireworks displays pump into the air. Although the vocal group of Anaheim neighbors that got a decent amount of media attention last year with their constant complaints about the noisy and smoky Disneyland fireworks shows haven't helped matters, it's the more definable processes the AQMD uses to measure pollution that led to this situation. In fact, the AQMD's regulations are what led Disneyland to invest several million dollars into a new pneumatic air launching system installed just north of the park this past winter. It was hoped by TDA that this cleaner and less smoky process of launching fireworks into the air from a large block of modern launch tubes dubbed "The Black Forest" by Disneyland's pyro technicians would gain the park some leeway with the AQMD inspectors.
Unfortunately however, while the new launch system was effective with the standard fireworks shells that shoot straight up, it left a great deal to be desired from an artistic standpoint with some of the more unique effects. When Believe returned for the Easter Vacation period after its long winter's absence, several of the key effects that defined the Believe show simply weren't able to be accomplished with the new launch system. Most noticeably, the shooting star effect used several times during the show almost ceased to exist. Instead of the graceful arc of a shooting star sailing over the Castle that the Believe designers created, the air launch tubes could only manage an effect that was more like an errant fireworks shell fizzling towards Tomorrowland. The show's original producer Steve Davison, and the artistic professionals of the Disneyland Entertainment Department, were not at all amused at what the new environmentally friendly launch system had done with their show. And within a few weeks the tinkering that had begun on Believe during surprise showings in May had turned into a realization that a new show was needed that would satisfy both the artsy types in the Entertainment Department and the bureaucrats at the AQMD. And, oh yeah, they needed something that the paying customers out in the park might like too. The new Imagine show debuts Friday, June 4th, and the Entertainment Department doesn't expect it to be fully refined until later in June.
A decision has yet to be made regarding the Holiday version of Believe that has become the smash hit of the Christmas season at Disneyland. They could either go to the expense of producing an all new Christmas show that uses the limited ability of the new launching system and keep the customers happy, or they could cancel the Christmas version outright to make the AQMD happy and earn a few extra pollution credits in the process. We'll keep you posted on the prospects for a Christmas fireworks show, but for now expect a summer of nightly fireworks through Labor Day that hopefully satisfies everyone involved. Except of course the cranky neighbors.
The 50th Anniversary show, "Remember...Dreams Come True", is still chugging along through its design and planning phases. While it has been drastically scaled back from its original version due to the demands and requirements of the AQMD, it still looks to be a show that will differ noticeably from any previous fireworks offering at Disneyland. The new Tinker Bell effects are almost all still intact, and testing of the more mobile and realistic Tink for the Matterhorn cable should begin later this year. The Tinker Bell effect uses the same technology from the robotic stadium cameras the NFL uses is still a go, and viewers standing along Main Street USA can expect a close encounters of the Tinker Bell kind come 2005. It's really just the corny disco ball effects on the Matterhorn that have been cut, as well as initial plans to shoot fireworks off from the Downtown Disney and DCA rooftops.
And again, most of those changes were made to keep Disneyland from getting in hot water with the AQMD.
