Here's what it looked like at Fantasmic:
The ears respond to radio signals in the show, and and it was that technology - the signals - that had their debut tonight (Saturday) at the Magic Kingdom.
First up was the castle projection show, Celebrate the Magic. They were not giving out free ears on THIS night, and only about 80 or 100 people seemed to be wearing the hats of the hundreds we saw around us in the Hub. It was sparse, in other words. But: it wasn't TOO sparse. I kind of think this program will 'work' here in Orlando, since many folks on vacation buy glow merchandise anyway.
It seemed to us that the ears worked pretty well with the projections, at least for a few minutes. It didn't look like there was much synchronization after a few minutes though - was the programming even done? The ears were dark completely for the final parts of the show. Maybe there was a glitch.
For the fireworks (Wishes) itself, the ears worked well and all the way through to the end. We saw a few occasions where an individual set of ears didn't light up on command, so maybe there are communication issues with some headsets. But by and large, they worked just as advertised!
---
Kevin Yee is the author of numerous independent Disney books, including the popular Walt Disney World Earbook series and Walt Disney World Hidden History.
