ATTRACTION REVIEW : Flashes, Splashes and Villains in a Rollicking Good Revue

ANAHEIM — In an era of hype, it’s a rare treat to encounter something that actually lives up to its billing. Disneyland’s much-publicized “Fantasmic!” show, which opens tonight, combines fireworks, fire, film, costumed actors, fountains, audio-animatronic figures, lasers, fiber optics, music and sound effects. The result is a dazzling multimedia show that makes the “Main Street Electrical Parade” and the fireworks displays atop Sleeping Beauty’s Castle look like so many matches in the dark.

In a production proving the narrator’s dictum that “nothing is more wonderful than imagination and nothing is more powerful than imagination,” the Wicked Queen from “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” takes over Mickey Mouse’s dream and turns it into a sort of pageant of villains from the Disney animated features. The heavies almost invariably dominate animated films, and many tend to remember the Wicked Queen rather than Snow White, Captain Hook instead of Peter Pan, Maleficent more than Princess Aurora. Those redoubtable nasties appear in re-edited clips with Tchernobog from the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence of “Fantasia,” Monstro from “Pinocchio,” Ursula from “The Little Mermaid” and the Crocodile from “Peter Pan.”

The 70-millimeter film segments are projected onto “mist screens,” dense 30-by-50-foot curtains of water droplets. Disney artists reportedly found this technique being used in a French historical pageant, and it provides a more effective outdoor screen than the usual billowing sheets of cloth. The shimmering droplets make a striking showcase for atmospheric images, especially the dead rising from their graves in “Bald Mountain.”

Special effects cleverly underscore the animation: When Mickey conducts the crashing comets in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” section of “Fantasia,” skyrockets carry the motions beyond the screen, into the audience’s space. Monstro’s crashing flukes seem to produce real splashes in the pool.

The cast of 51 live performers cavorts to thunderous John Williams-esque arrangements of familiar Disney tunes: Belle and Beast, Ariel and Eric, Snow White and Prince Charming dance on barges festooned with colored lights. The humans are joined by the sailing ship Columbia (refitted as Captain Hook’s pirate ship) and an array of gargantuan figures including a 17-foot-tall Crocodile and an obese, simpering Ursula who’s 20 feet high, but 32 feet wide. A 100-foot image of Kaa, the sibilant python from “The Jungle Book,” looks like a cross between a People Mover train and the dragon in a Chinese New Year’s parade.

The 22-minute salute to the villains gets sidetracked from time to time, as Tinker Bell, Pinocchio (with glowing, fiber-optic “strings”) and the dancing monkeys from “The Jungle Book” take their bows. The surreal “Pink Elephants on Parade” number from “Dumbo” combines animation with black-light effects to produce a comic chorus of dancing, disembodied elephant heads.

The dragon from “Sleeping Beauty” appears in the knock-your-socks-off finale, towering over the stage as the animated figure arises in a column of fire on the screens. The wonderfully vivid monster snaps at the audience, exhaling a bolt of flame that somehow sets the surface of the lake on fire. Mickey, rather than the movie’s Prince Philip, slays the dragon with a sword of laser light, and the 45-foot creature dies a spectacular death that recalls the destruction of Smaug in “The Hobbit.”

Performed on a platform-stage at the Cider Mill on Tom Sawyer’s Island, “Fantasmic!,” written and directed by Barnette Ricci, can be seen by up to 6,430 people in the “rest area” that bridges Frontierland and New Orleans Square. (A trash can on the terrace of the Riverbelle restaurant provided an excellent seat at Wednesday’s press preview.) The mist screens cool the surrounding air noticeably, which should provide a welcome relief on hot summer nights, but viewers may want to keep a jacket handy until it gets a bit warmer.

“Fantasmic!” is at Disneyland, 1313 S. Harbor Blvd., Anaheim. Until June 1, performances will be at 8:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and at 9, 10:30 and 11:45 p.m. Fridays through Sundays. On Memorial Day only, shows will be at 8:30 and 10 p.m. From June 1 through Labor Day, performances are nightly at 9, 10:30 and 11:45 p.m., except for June 4, 10-11 and 16-18, when shows will be at 8:30 p.m. only. Park admission: $22 to $27.50. (714) 999-4565.