Murphy broke.

[Gemini Cricket]

8/30: Murphy the Dragon suffered a rather public humiliation during the first Fantasmic! show Sat. night. The infrastructure of the sophisticated animatronic failed after a busy summer of twice-nightly performances, snapping some internal components and nearly dislodging the entire dragon from its hydraulically lifted mounts. It's too early to tell how long it will be before a fix is completed. Although the initial rumors from the Entertainment Dept of 4 to 6 months of downtime are probably over-dramatized, it's fairly safe to say that the dragon won't be in the remaining shows through Labor Day weekend. They didn't christen that dragon Murphy for nothing. - Al Lutz
Is it just me or does it seem like something's not right at Disney. Broken Yeti, broken World of Color platform, crappy Rocket Rods, heavy Space Mtn cars ruining the track, new monorails with windows that don't open...

[Gemini Cricket]

Spooky!

[Gemini Cricket]

!

[Gemini Cricket]

!!

[innerSpaceman]

Bah. I KNEW I should have high-tailed it to Fantasmic earlier this summer.

Um, will someone please remind me why I purchased an AP. I barely go to the Park anymore.

[Gemini Cricket]

!!!

[scaeagles]

Everybody sing now!

Murphy, the Head-less dragon
Lived at Disney
And had his head completely off
for all the guests to see!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Is it just me or does it seem like something's not right at Disney. Broken Yeti, broken World of Color platform, crappy Rocket Rods, heavy Space Mtn cars ruining the track, new monorails with windows that don't open...Your "something's not right" spans 12 years.

[Gemini Cricket]

Your "something's not right" spans 12 years.
Totally.
Maybe they're not spending enough money on engineering or something? I don't know. Just a wonderin'.
:)

[Disneyphile]

The dragon wasn't built by Disney, but an outside contractor, who was also responsible for last year's idiot mistake.

Rocket Rods and Light Magic were made from a different outside contractor.

Disney really needs to stop contracting. Really.

[scaeagles]

I thought with both the monorail and the murphy that the specs given to the contractors were wrong, making it Disney's error.

[Chernabog]

Damn, and I still haven't seen that effing dragon. We've gone a few times when it was supposedly working, and lo and behold, Maleficent-on-a-stick B-mode.

It is amazing though how the GIANT, CONSTANTLY-MOVING ANIMATRONIC LAVA MONSTER in Tokyo Disney Sea has worked for nearly 10 years, but a dragon that pops up for 30 seconds (ok, 90 seconds if you count all three shows) and a Yeti that just swings his arm cannot work for longer than a few months.

[Stan4dSteph]

Yep, it was all over twitter. Just when I thought I was finally going to get to see the show. Between this broken, HM closed, TSM closed, construction wall-a-palooza I shouldn't have bothered buying passes for my trip this weekend.

[Kevy Baby]

Damn, and I still haven't seen that effing dragon.Neither have I damnit.

And why do I keep getting all my Disneyland updates from a guy who lives in Hawaii?

[Ghoulish Delight]

I thought with both the monorail and the murphy that the specs given to the contractors were wrong, making it Disney's error.
Spec errors are inevitable in any engineering project. They are, generally, much easier to rectify internally than when dealing with contractors.

[Disneyphile]

The mishap last year was due to one of the contractor's programmers triggering the dragon to open before the trap door. And, the entire thing basically blew up underground. Totally not Disney's fault.

[flippyshark]

Visible sca mojo for the song - and what a sorry sight to see.

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

No Murphy at last nights Fantasmic & no Mickey pop out of the pit and the beginning and end. Sad show.

Disney- where the magic works 1/4 of the time.

[alphabassettgrrl]

Bummer. I haven't seen him yet, either. Sad.

[Ghoulish Delight]

I know Candace Bergen hasn't worked in a while, but I'd have figured she'd be better at managing her money than that.

[BarTopDancer]

Neither have I damnit.

And why do I keep getting all my Disneyland updates from a guy who lives in Hawaii?

Ditto to both.

[keith - SuPeR K!]

Bah. I KNEW I should have high-tailed it to Fantasmic earlier this summer.

Um, will someone please remind me why I purchased an AP. I barely go to the Park anymore.

I wish we would have, too! ...and you bought your pass so you could go to the parks with me since I always end up dragging you there anyway!

[innerSpaceman]

ok, well I hope you're still moving to California.

[€uroMeinke]

The mishap last year was due to one of the contractor's programmers triggering the dragon to open before the trap door. And, the entire thing basically blew up underground. Totally not Disney's fault.

So who selected the contractor and managed the contract? Disney chose to downsize imagineering and rely on contractors.

[innerSpaceman]

On the other hand, if I get out to the Park in the very near future, it looks as if the sight of a headless dragon helplessly exposed in full daylight is pretty rad, and certainly unique.

[Disneyphile]

Think of the Photoshop possibilities! ;)

[Gn2Dlnd]

Is this a good place for me to post my totally radical and cool "How to see all three nighttime spectaculars at Disneyland" itinerary? No?

IMMAGOIN2DISNEYWORLDELEVENTY!!!!LOLOLOL

[Kevy Baby]

Story in today's LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-disney-dragon-20100831,0,3787283.story), though nothing really new.

So why did I post it? Eh, who knows...

[Disneyphile]

Here's video of the epic fail in action. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJoCtV08i7w)

It happens right around 1:13, and I'm surprised at how long they let it linger before they killed the show. You even hear Mickey saying his line, let there's no Mickey, because he's escorted off the stage a little bit before.

[alphabassettgrrl]

It's so sad... that poor dragon, just hanging there...

[Gemini Cricket]

Here's video of the epic fail in action. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJoCtV08i7w)

It happens right around 1:13, and I'm surprised at how long they let it linger before they killed the show. You even hear Mickey saying his line, let there's no Mickey, because he's escorted off the stage a little bit before.
lol!
:D

It reminds me of the time when I rode Jurassic Park and everything was resetting as our boat passed by. At the end, the T-Rex was just hanging there upside down twitching and flailing his arms roaring without sound at the ground.
:D

[Chernabog]

Thats an awesome vid. And GC I remember riding Jurassic Park when one of the brontosauruses at the beginning was missing a head!! (And, in the early days, the dino that comes out of the water near the boat used to have its head come off, due to the fact that they didn't really take into account the force of the water exerts as the dino rises up).

[CoasterMatt]

(And, in the early days, the dino that comes out of the water near the boat used to have its head come off, due to the fact that they didn't really take into account the force of the water exerts as the dino rises up).
Talk to me about this one off the board :D

[Kevy Baby]

One time, one Jurrasic Park, when I rode through, there were 50th Anniversary Golden Mickey Ears floating in the water!

[innerSpaceman]

Until I saw that video, I had assumed (from the day-after photographs) that Murphy was decapitated DURING the performance.



I confess I'm rather disappointed. :(