“A BOLDER FANTASMIC!” blares the Disneyland's hired promotion guns (uppercase and in boldface, just as we've done here) about after-dark entertainment they're calling “Summer Nightastic!” around the Anaheim rat hole.
Promised are a new fireworks
spectacular, “Magical,” starring Dumbo the flying elephant; Tinker
Bell's “pixie magic” in “Disney's Electrical Parade”; and a sensational new
headless dragon frightening tots at “Fantasmic!”
Okay, the headless dragon bit is actually based on a rumor lighting up the internet like an electrical parade float. It claims the
noggin of the five-ton, 40-foot tall,
fire-breathing dragon Maleficent broke off during a dress rehearsal of the show Sunday
night. Apparently, that was not part of the act.
The official word to the always-on-top-of-things MousePlanet is “mechancial issues are preventing the new and improved
dragon” from being ready for tonight's roll out. But the better dragon–with head attached–is promised by summer's end.
That'll obviously be too late for the street post banners featuring the dragon (grill intact, spewing fire) that are already up all around the resort and shown on the next page …
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At least the rest of the show will go off as planned.
You can only imagine the horror show if thousands of screaming little girls witnessed Tink's head going all Jayne Mansfield on Main Street USA.
Not losing their heads so far are members of Unite HERE Local 11. As
MousePlanet reports elsewhere
on its site (see, told you are on top of everything), officials from
the resort and the union, which represents about 1,300 workers at
the Anaheim parks' three hotels, met Tuesday for the first time since
December. The last contract expired early in 2008, and what had been
termed a “last, best and final offer” by Disney to the workers was rejected without a
vote in January. What separates the two sides apparently is health insurance. The union
wants free coverage for workers who log so many hours, while Disney wants to roll the membership into a plan covering other workers
who pay monthly premiums.
While there has yet to be any word of progress from the talks, it
can't be too bad because the most recent item on the website Unite HERE
Local 11 created during their last labor dispute with the resort–DisneyIsUnfaithful.org–is dated April 6 and concerns chocolate
granola bars from the “Hannah Montana” food products range being pulled from shelves due to suspected salmonella
contamination.
Mouse ears off to the Unite HERE blogger who imagineered the headline for the post: “Miley Virus.”
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.