MK All-New Nighttime Parade Disney Starlight Set to Debut at Magic Kingdom in 2025

THEMEPARKPIONEER

THEMEPARKPIONEER

Well-Known Member
Opening fanfare and closing fanfare not used for any units were fantastic, although I think Jiminy Cricked should have announced it. I love that there were no vocals I’m glad where back to that.
Both the beginning and the end almost sounded like there was a technical difficulty with the music it was like underliner music. One thing I don’t like is how underwhelming the blue fairy and finally music is. You have this great fanfare play just for it to turn into a quiet electronic piece once the parade rolls in. At the ending the unit sounds like a cheesy Christmas decoration and again when the parade rolls out you get another great symphonic track that matches it almost sounded like we were only hearing the underliner for that as well. I do believe there will be adjustments and a whole lot of them something was off and it didn’t sound intentional to me.
 
Last edited:
brb1006

brb1006

Well-Known Member
So I just did a lot of thinking last night and this morning about why I felt something was missing from Disney Starlight that over posters hadn't brought up. I decided to rewatch old footage of Disney's Fantillusion and Spectromagic and noticed that Starlight was missing a story.

I'm not saying that all electrical parades need a story (as evident by MSEP, Dreamlights, and PTN). But when Disney decided to create two brand new electrical parades in the 1990s (Spectromagic in 1991 and Fantillusion in 1995) they decided to tell stories from different sections of both parades.

While the official backstory for Spectromagic was only known by Disney Imagineering, Spectro relied on guests interpreting their own stories for certain sections of the parade (mainly The opening section, the Silly Symphony float, the Sleeping Beauty section, Fantasia section, and the Cavalcade of Disney Characters finale) which made the parade very unique for WDW.

Disney's Fantillusion (mainly the Tokyo version) was loosely based on Fantasmic which told a simple "Good vs Evil story" and told in three acts. While the story was simple, the execution was wonderful. Since Fantillusion was originally designed for Tokyo's parade route, it was able to have show stops at certain sections of the park. This ensured that every guest watching the parade could see all three acts of the story. This aspect was even emphasized in Japanese ads for the parade.









When moved to Paris, the execution was clunky due to shortening the parade's length and cutting the performers.

While Starlight brought back the elegant aspect that Spectromagic had. Besides something about "Dream the Night Away", "Stars", and "Starlight". The parade focused on Disney IPs (and a single Pixar IP) saved for a single float while a majority of the parade never utilizing "Stars" and "Starlight" (only the Blue Fairy, Wish, and Whimsy acknowledge this). While the finale only had a train containing just Mickey & Friends, Tangled, and Snow White. For a finale, it felt very anti-climatic.
 
Last edited:
GhostHost1000

GhostHost1000

Premium Member
brb1006 said:
So I just did a lot of thinking last night and this morning about why I felt something was missing from Disney Starlight that over posters hadn't brought up. I decided to rewatch old footage of Disney's Fantillusion and Spectromagic and noticed that Starlight was missing a story.

I'm not saying that all electrical parades need a a story (as evident by MSEP, Dreamlights, and PTN). But when Disney decided to create two brand new electrical parades in the 1990s (Spectromagic in 1991 and Fantillusion in 1995) they decided to tell stories from different sections of both parades.

While the official backstory for Spectromagic was only known by Disney Imagineering, Spectro relied on guests interpreting their own stories for certain sections of the parade (mainly The opening section, the Silly Symphony float, the Sleeping Beauty section, Fantasia section, and the Cavalcade of Disney Characters finale) which made the parade very unique for WDW.

Disney's Fantillusion (mainly the Tokyo version) was loosely based on Fantasmic which told a simple "Good vs Evil story" and told in three acts. While the story was simple, the execution was wonderful. Since Fantillusion was originally designed for Tokyo's parade route, it was able to have show stops at certain sections of the park. This ensured that every guest watching the parade could see all three acts of the story. This aspect was even empathized in Japanese ads for the parade.








When moved to Paris, the execution was clunky due to shortening the parade's length and cutting the performers.

While Starlight brought back the elegant aspect that Spectromagic had. Besides something about "Dream the Night Away" and "Stars", it focused on Disney IPs (and a single Pixar IP) saved for a single float. While the finale only had a train contaning just Mickey & Friends, Tangled, and Snow White. For a finale, it felt very anti-climatic.
Click to expand...

I think this parade design was more “we want these characters to be focused on in the parade” and that’s exactly how it feels watching it.

I’m not going to come out and say what I thought seeing it, but splash mountain comes to mind and I’ll leave it at that.
 
B

Brenthodge

Well-Known Member
aladdin2007 said:
yeah why thats not at the beginning I couldn't figure out either, this needs a title float for sure at the start.
Click to expand...
They could almost just duplicate it - screen and Jiminy and all and open with it and close with it. Maybe the one at the end have a "good night" type message. That alone would help and I don't think having having JC both places would loose anything. Maybe if WISH was closer to Blue with a few "black jumpsuit people" with stars on a stick would help fill it out (even move the fractal people from Frozen here). I thought originally PP and Wendy were after Blue? I'd put that back there so all the "casting a magical spell" happens at the beginning. Have the star holding people spread all along this section. Even a few giant starburst "mini units" with light projectors would help. Basically turn the whole street into a starfield. I'd move Encanto and CoCo together to share the second set of ballroom dancers recostumed between the two since the costuming (skirts) could work for both. Moana with her lead in dancers. Princess float for a bit of a tonal shift with one set of ballroom dancers to lead in. Frozen with the fractal people, or 1-2 "ice crystal" mini units with projectors for snowflakes or frozen crystals. Then the finale with the final Jiminy "good night" unit.
 
Last edited:
C

Comped

Well-Known Member
brb1006 said:
So I just did a lot of thinking last night and this morning about why I felt something was missing from Disney Starlight that over posters hadn't brought up. I decided to rewatch old footage of Disney's Fantillusion and Spectromagic and noticed that Starlight was missing a story.

I'm not saying that all electrical parades need a a story (as evident by MSEP, Dreamlights, and PTN). But when Disney decided to create two brand new electrical parades in the 1990s (Spectromagic in 1991 and Fantillusion in 1995) they decided to tell stories from different sections of both parades.

While the official backstory for Spectromagic was only known by Disney Imagineering, Spectro relied on guests interpreting their own stories for certain sections of the parade (mainly The opening section, the Silly Symphony float, the Sleeping Beauty section, Fantasia section, and the Cavalcade of Disney Characters finale) which made the parade very unique for WDW.

Disney's Fantillusion (mainly the Tokyo version) was loosely based on Fantasmic which told a simple "Good vs Evil story" and told in three acts. While the story was simple, the execution was wonderful. Since Fantillusion was originally designed for Tokyo's parade route, it was able to have show stops at certain sections of the park. This ensured that every guest watching the parade could see all three acts of the story. This aspect was even empathized in Japanese ads for the parade.








When moved to Paris, the execution was clunky due to shortening the parade's length and cutting the performers.

While Starlight brought back the elegant aspect that Spectromagic had. Besides something about "Dream the Night Away" and "Stars", it focused on Disney IPs (and a single Pixar IP) saved for a single float. While the finale only had a train contaning just Mickey & Friends, Tangled, and Snow White. For a finale, it felt very anti-climatic.
Click to expand...

That's because the legendary nighttime parades you talk about were designed, built, and produced, in a time when live entertainment was literally a somewhat standalone part of the company, including most importantly a dedicated budget that could not be touched by park ops. The neutering of WDE by Eisner in 2001, eventually resulting in WDI taking it over (and giving day-to-day, and major investment decisions to respective park operations teams) should really be more discussed by the community as the primary reason why entertainment has gone downhill across WDW (and somewhat Disneyland), while even the non-Tokyo international locations realize the value of live entertainment and continue to invest. (Tokyo really is a league of its own.) The addition of DLR to that maybe a little controversial, but outside of continually refreshing daytime parades and some fireworks shows with occasional WOC work, their entertainment offerings resort-wide have decreased in quality and quantity over the past quarter century. I can (and have) written entire papers on this.

I once really ed off a DLE executive by asking their opinion on it at a company event. They were young enough that they had joined the company in the first place well after the way thing have been began, and didn't know any better, but it is still rather shocking that with some notable exceptions most people have forgotten about that era and why it allowed for entertainment to truly central to the parks.
 
Last edited:
dlr74

dlr74

Well-Known Member
I really do admire that they wanted to give this parade its own identity that I'm sure in time will solidify itself within the parks.

But at the same time, I wish there were more references to Spectro and MSEP. My favorite part of the whole parade was hearing Baroque Hoedown in the finale. That's my favorite thing about PTN too but it's weaved into the entire parade rather than just the finale. More Spectro references would have been nice too. Maybe I missed some.
 
Last edited:
Stupido

Stupido

Well-Known Member
*prepares for the tomatoes*

I think the Wish float is one of the most successful units. It provides a unique IP that isn't celebrated anywhere else, and the smaller scale provides contrast to allow the larger floats to have more wow. It's good to have levels to parades like this for story telling, and pacing. I think it's a beautiful vignette and one of the only floats that isn't blue. That moment of the film was easily the highlight, and on par with Disney's bests. A few more smaller scale floats like the Wish one would really change the perception of the parade for the better. My top choice for an IP that would be perfect for a smaller unit would be Hercules.

It's the classic Hollywood Studios issue: too many e tickets, not enough b's and c's.
 
Last edited:
brb1006

brb1006

Well-Known Member
Comped said:
That's because the legendary nighttime parades you talk about were designed, built, and produced, in a time when live entertainment was literally a somewhat standalone part of the company, including most importantly a dedicated budget that could not be touched by park ops. The neutering of WDE by Eisner in 2001, eventually resulting in WDI taking it over (and giving day-to-day, and major investment decisions to respective park operations teams) should really be more discussed by the community as the primary reason why entertainment has gone downhill across WDW (and somewhat Disneyland), while even the non-Tokyo international locations realize the value of live entertainment and continue to invest. (Tokyo really is a league of its own.) The addition of DLR to that maybe a little controversial, but outside of continually refreshing daytime parades and some fireworks shows with occasional WOC work, their entertainment offerings resort-wide have decreased in quality and quantity over the past quarter century. I can (and have) written entire papers on this.

I once really ed off a DLE executive by asking their opinion on it at a company event. They were young enough that they had joined the company in the first place well after the way thing have been began, and didn't know any better, but it is still rather shocking that with some notable exceptions most people have forgotten about that era and why it allowed for entertainment to truly central to the parks.
Click to expand...
Now that would make for a great discussion. Because I noticed a majority of the new generation of Disney Imagineers shown in Disney Parks videos promoting Disney Starlight had them mention of Spectromagic and MSEP served as inspiration for Disney Starlight. But the parade in execution lacked that aw-inspiring and grander tone Spectro and Fantillusion had.
 
Ayla

Ayla

Well-Known Member
Corbin Francis said:
Finally got around to watching several videos of the soft opening. For starters, it is so great to have a nighttime parade back in the Magic Kingdom. That alone makes this night a win. As I watch the videos, this parade is so close to hitting the mark. The floats themselves are stunning. Kudos to the teams who designed and constructed them. The soundtrack is also a big win for me. It just fits that classical feel of the Magic Kingdom and has that perfect blend of Spectro and MSEP.

There are three things missing for me though. 1. One of the things I always loved about Spectromagic is how big the intro felt. The opening trumpet fanfare mixed with the welcome from Jiminy Cricket created a sense of beginning to the parade. While the blue fairy float is beautiful, this parade just doesn’t feel like it has that grand start to it. The music just kind of begins and the Blue Fairy dialogue feels more like something we’d experience midway into the parade, not as an opener. I almost wish they would move the Disney starlight logo float to the front to atleast mark a beginning.
2. Several have mentioned in the group the need for additional performers between floats. One of the things I loved about Spectro is how well the additional performers and smaller floats supported the bigger floats. I always loved how Spectro included walking characters in between and Starlight could really benefit from that kind of addition. Right now it feels empty.
3. The Finale. Like the opening of Starlight, I also felt like the ending felt very abrupt. Spectro always had that sense of closure to it. The music would hit its crescendo, Jiminy Cricket would wish us good night and the parade felt complete. The finale float of Starlight is amazing. It’s feels like a finale float, but the music never comes to that swelling end and the character dialogue again feels like something experienced in the middle of the parade. Some small tweaks to the end like having Mickey say good night and having the soundtrack come to a big finish would be the perfect kiss good night on a parade that has so much potential.
Click to expand...
I agree with all this.

A huge design flaw is how out of proportion the floats are to the characters.

Also, that cold LED blue and white is not pleasant to look at, the colorized float is much prettier.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom