warning for those with young children going to see fantasmic

[princess_grace]

This is my opinion only (and I wish I had this information ahead of time)...Fantasmic was a little on the scary side. I sort of expected it to be somewhat scary since it is a battle between Mickey and the evil ones but my 4 year old who is very brave and does not get scared easily was frightened and did not like fantasmic...except for the boat with all of the characters at the very end which she thought was amazing. She had her hands over her eyes and ears for most of the show and I lost count of all of the parents carrying out crying children during the show. So just prepare your kids ahead of time that it is loud and all of the evil folks from all movies are there and are out to get Mickey. Just let them be prepared that is not as "happy" as all of the other shows, parades, firework displays, etc.
That being said it was an amazing show and one that I personally thought was worth seeing and would love to see again! It was disney at its best.

 

[SueM in MN]

On our recent trip to WDW, we had my niece and her three and 1/2 yr old DD. We had seen Fantasmic before, so we warned my niece that it would be somewhat scary..
We explained it to her DD that Mickey was asleep and is having a good dream, but then the bad guys try to take over his dream and make him dream about them. The happy ending is when he realizes it's his dream and he can dream about good things. (I don't know that it's very clear, but this is the backstory I have read about Fantasmic). That helped her a lot with making it less scary (if fact, she even said a few times -"Mickey should just wake up and his bad dream will be over."). We also had some light sticks and when she got really scared, she either held up her light stick or buried her head in her mom's shoulder.

 

[Princess Wannabe]

This is so true...we were there about 2 weeks ago, and right behind us, during Fantasmic, a family with 2 young kids sat...During the show, BOTH kids were screaming at the top of their lungs, crying, sobbing, etc, etc...basically just TOTAL TERROR!! I kept thinking if they didn't get those kids out of there, the kids would need therapy the rest of their lives!

Finally, after about 10 minutes of this, the parents got wise (or else tired of all of the dirty looks being thrown their way by everyone else) and took the kids out.

Parents - DON'T force your children to watch a show that is obviously terrifying to them....!

 

[Catrin]

I think with Fantasmic, it is an easy mistake to make! It IS Scarry!! Luckily, we warned my kids, and they were fine.

NOW>. the Great Movie Ride, on the other hand... we totally blew it. We didn't even think that our then 5 yr old would be freaked out.. but he was. He is now 10, and returning for the first time in 5 yrs and still knows he wants nothing to do with that ride!

Catrin

 

[haner]

Where would you say would be the best place to sit for fantasmic?

 

[sunshine girl]

There is a helpful section in the Unofficial Guide about Fantasmic! that features several guest reviews (in the 2005 book, it's on p. 594-7).

Just another reason why I love the Unofficial Guide! It does a great job of preparing you in advance for situations such as this, so that you can have all the information you need ahead of time!