Disney’s ‘Fantasmic!’ Takes Wing Friday : Entertainment: Musical theater and special effects are mixed in park’s new multimedia attraction.

Starting Friday, a 45-foot-tall, fire-breathing dragon will set Disneyland’s Rivers of America ablaze three times nightly as visitors watch from the banks of Frontierland and New Orleans Square. The dragon won’t be real----but the fire will.

It’s all part of the Magic Kingdom’s newest offering, a multimedia presentation called “Fantasmic!” that depicts what might happen were Mickey Mouse to unleash his imagination. Part musical theater, part special effects show, the production will mix 51 live performers with animated scenes, huge props, pyrotechnics, lasers, fog and fiber optics.

“We call this an adventure or an attraction rather than a show,” says Disneyland entertainment director/Fantasmic producer Mike Davis, “because it’s of that size and scope. It goes beyond the Main Street Electrical Parade or Fantasy in the Sky, where Tinkerbelle flies before the fireworks display.”

The 22-minute production begins at 9, 10:30 and 11 p.m. when Mickey, dressed as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice from “Fantasia,” appears on Tom Sawyer’s Island amid brightly colored lights. Comets start to shoot, apparently from his fingertips.

Mickey conjures scenes from such animated Disney films as “Dumbo,” “Pinocchio” and “Beauty and the Beast,” at which point his “imagination” is invaded by various Disney villains. He must do battle with the likes of the Wicked Queen from “Snow White,” Ursula the Sea Witch from “The Little Mermaid,” and that fire-breathing dragon, from “Sleeping Beauty.”

Along the way are giant flowers and marionettes, the 100-foot-long snake Kaa from “The Jungle Book,” and a “Peter Pan” pirate stunt fight aboard the ship Columbia, set to Disney music. The finale, as Mickey triumphs over the evil forces, incorporates the Mark Twain steamboat.

“The river was, to us, really the next large entertainment venue,” said Davis. “It has a large viewing capacity.” In preparation, the Rivers of America were drained for several months and Tom Sawyer’s Island was overhauled with a new stage, a new Cider Mill (the basement serves as the special effects control center) and a backstage marina for the barges used in the show.

Nearly 350 waterproof costumes were created, and an original orchestral score was composed. Familiar music was re-scored.

The most innovative elements of the show are its three mist screens, each 30 feet tall by 50 feet wide. Water projected upward from nozzles, the resulting mist and molecules of air combine to create a surface that is transparent yet dense enough that images can be projected upon them.

On these screens, manufactured by a French company, clips from animated films are shown via rear screen projection. For instance, an animated Monstro the whale from “Pinocchio” will appear to swim in the river, while animated “Dumbo” elephants cavort with live performers in fluorescent elephant costumes.

“You’re going to see a coordination of light, sound, fogging effects, et cetera,” Davis said. “I don’t believe a show has ever pulled together so many effects and live performers, in an outdoor venue, on the water.”

The most impressive prop element well may be the transformation, as in “Sleeping Beauty,” of the evil fairy Maleficent into the fire-breathing dragon. Davis will not reveal its secrets, but it appears to be inflatable, a la the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade balloons, with a fully animated head and mouth.

Davis says the biggest challenge was neither props nor technology, but “constructing the facility to meet the requirements of a nighttime show theatrically, and yet, from a design point of view, still be a good experience during the day. To have lighting towers during the day, in preparation for the night, would be a disservice to (daytime visitors).”

Indeed, visitors are free to explore the stage by day.

Davis foresees other editions of Fantasmic editions in the future. “We have a venue now that allows us to do a variety of things,” he said.