"In every job that must be done there is an element of fun" - Mary Poppins

As you all know it is hard to journal my Disney World adventures since my job is backstage where all the magic and Tinkerbell pixie dust is. But I did want to share with you an idea of the working atmosphere at Fantasmic!

For those who don't know it is a night show; depending on the time of season it can run 1-3 times a night. But because it is a night show outdoors the weather isn't always kind to us.


If its storming too bad then we Mickey and his friends cannot come out to perform, we wouldn't want Brier Bear to slip and fall on Pinocchio would we? (He's a little heavy of a bear...)
If there is lightning in the area then we also cannot perform the show, we have to think of the safety of not only our magical friends but of our guests in the audience and working at the concession stands too.
Plus then everyone gets wet and we have to use twice as many blow dryers and towels to get fur wet, feather dry, dresses dry-cleaned and shoes aired out.

So we have a silly little tradition at Fantasmic! that whenever a Storm Warning is called, we perform a 'turtle circumstance' in order to please Hercules and his other fellow demi-gods enough to either make the storm stop or make it so bad that the show will be cancelled due to safety concerns.

These circumstances are not literally.. but visually. It's a way to bring us all together as a family (and make fun of ourselves in the process.) It doesn't matter if your great or gruesome at drawing or sketching - you can be very artistic or draw stick figures. All that matters is if you draw in one way or another a turtle having an 'unfortunate circumstance' with a Disney villain.

The way it works is if you draw a circumstance and it works, your picture gets posted on the 'Wall of Turtle' and if it doesn't than we recycle the paper and try again another day (He may not be Disney but we don't want the Lorax coming and yelling at us for harming the environment after all.)

So because I cannot take backstage working pictures for your viewing pleasure, I decided to show you a recent turtle circumstance I drew last week. I ran out of villain ideas so unfortunately it's Chip and Dale who accidentally dropped their peanut stash on a poor turtle. Needless to say it didn't work and the turtle after having a long nap and some Advil got up and forgave Chip and Dale for the accident :)