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Disneyland delays debut of Fantasmic dragon yet again

Disneyland unveiled official photos and video of the new Fantasmic dragon but still has yet to set a date for the 40-foot-tall animatronic’s much-anticipated debut.

Despite top billing, the oft-delayed dragon failed to appear during the Disneyland’s Summer Nightastic promotion — a big black eye for the Anaheim theme park.

Several key dates lay on the horizon, including the upcoming Labor Day weekend when crowds will throng Disneyland and the Disney D23 Expo on Sept. 10-13 when the Disney faithful will descend on the Anaheim Convention Center. But when the dragon will take the stage along Disneyland’s Rivers of America remains a continuing mystery.

Disneyland officials said the dragon won’t appear tonight, despite rampant Web speculation to the contrary.

Online knife-twisters, who dubiously dubbed the malfunctioning monster Murphy (as in Murphy’s Law), have spent the summer delighting in the dragon’s continuing misfortune.

Dragon Tracker (@DragonTracker) on Twitter even provided nightly Fantasmic updates with a constant refrain: No Dragon.

Disneyland wasn’t alone in the misery department though. It was a painful year for several theme park projects across the United States:

* Repeated delays pushed the launch of Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit roller coaster at Universal Studios Orlando from spring to mid-August.

* Cliffhanger at North Carolina’s Ghost Town in the Sky closed one day after its debut when inspectors spotted hairline cracks in the coaster cars.

* California’s Great America in Santa Clara postponed a planned wooden coaster when neighbors raised noise concerns.

Find the latest amusement and theme park news at the Los Angeles Times Funland blog: www.latimes.com/funland. Follow Funland on Twitter and Facebook.

— Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times staff writer

Photo credit: Disneyland

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31, 2009 at 11:31 am by Brady MacDonald and is filed under California, California’s Great America, Disneyland, Family & Kids, Florida, Northern California, Orange County, San Francisco, Southern States, Theme Parks, Universal Studios Florida. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

One Comment on “Disneyland delays debut of Fantasmic dragon yet again”

Anonymous Says:
August 31st, 2009 at 10:41 pm
“Knife-twister” here. Just wanted to report that you guys are very seriously missing the mark. There is no delight in the misfortune Disney is having with their new dragon. It was nicknamed Murphy in an affectionate manner, and those who utilize MiceChat and MiceAge to speculate about the dragon are doing so out of excitement and enthusiasm. The Dragon Tracker on twitter was designed as a simple way to check each night whether or not there was a debut for the dragon since it is sometimes time consuming to sort through the pages and pages of comments posted on other forums. This article VERY seriously insulted Murphy’s biggest fans (the MiceChatters and other sites like them), who also happen to be some of Disney’s biggest fans. Way to go with the accurate reporting!