On September 25th at the 4:50 pm show of Aladdin – A Musical Spectacular at California Adventure there was a frightening malfunction of the flying carpet effect during the show. Thankfully, redundant safety systems prevented any real injury, but the show was stopped and the audience evacuated while performers on the flying carpet swung upside down above the audience.
This video shows the moments after the carpet flipped over. Both performers can be seen strapped into the carpet, but the Jasmine performer is obviously (and understandably) upset. So don’t watch the video if that bothers you:
Here’s another angle that shows the carpet actually flipping over:
Well, at least it wasn’t anything violent.
I wasn’t going to post about this incident, chalking it up to a freak accident, but it turns out this is not the only time the flying carpet effect has had problems. Spoilers and more details below:
If you haven’t seen the show, then you don’t know that the actors on the carpet aren’t the main performers of their roles for that show. The actual performers are backstage singing while doubles (who might be playing Aladdin and Jasmine in a different show) are on the carpet flying over the audience. So you can see how scared she was since even without a mic, she could be heard from the Mezzanine where this was filmed
This is not the first time the carpet effect has malfunctioned, a video from April of this year shows the carpet also stalled in near the same location, but did not flip over. Back when Aladdin first launched the show often ran without the carpet effect due to one malfunction or another. So this is not just a recent thing either. Let’s hope that after this incident they get it solved once and for all.
Finally you may have heard that, the Disney Fantasy, the fourth ship in the Disney Cruise Line, is planning to produce it’s own version of the DCA Aladdin show. They won’t be using the same technology for the flying carpet effect, however. So no danger of this happening at sea.
The Aladdin Show at Disneyland California Adventure Park was evacuated due to a malfunction during the magic carpet ride scene. My three children and I were seated in Orchestra Center/Center and Aladdin’s hat nearly fell directly in my daughters lap. My oldest daughter is a Theatre Major at UCR and we have been a Thespian family for decades. We are annual passport holders and are glad to hear that none of the actors were hurt during this incident an look forward to the resume of the original magic carpet ride scene. “BREAK A LEG” and see you soon.
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How can the article author claim “Jasmine is upset”? The video is so blurry that you can’t see any facial detail at all so I’m curious why that assumption was made.
Listen to her screams on the first video. She’s clearly upset
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Looks like they’re strapped in pretty well there, presumably to avoid the kind of “publicity” Spider-man’s gotten.
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Thank you for posting. I had read some comments elsewhere that must have been posted to incite reaction. Those poor performers, no matter how safe a system may be I bet they never practiced hanging upside down, even when you know the safeguards, it’s gotta be scary. Saw the show yesterday without flying carpet, it is a spectacular effect but the show is so marvelous and so beautiful, it does not suffer at all from the change.
Thank you for sharing the information… I know we are supposed to be watching the results… but the way it all works, fascinates me.
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