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

[MerlinTheGoat]

List of critiques I have thus far (long post ahead)-

1- Fix the street performers. I've already gone into detail about what is needed. Their outfits are ugly and there's not enough. Unacceptable, back to the drawing board now.

2- The Frozen and Wish floats need work. I won't debate whether Wish deserves to be there as I do think it fits thematically, but I expect a better looking float. Frozen is worse though and needs to be redesigned entirely. Even an exact copy of either Dreamlights/PtN would be fine IMO.

3- The Blue Fairy's wings are weirdly tiny. Did anyone else notice this? Go image search the version of this float from either the original MSEP or Dreamlights for comparison and you'll see what I mean. I realize the back of her float is larger and has an interior now, but the wings just need to be larger.

4- The complete absence of smaller "spacer" floats is glaring. You know, the sort that can swivel and move around. The fish, turtles, snails, spectroballs etc from pretty much every other parade ever. This would also help offset the sparse number of larger floats as well.

5- Here's where we get into the nitty gritty of float layout and quantity. Long paragraph ahead. The parade is just way too short. There's only 9 major floats. About the same as the also criminally short PtN (which I think it has 8 major floats, and had even less when it originated at HKDL), but with far fewer and less impressively costumed street performers and no smaller spacer floats except for the tiny manually pushed parade logo at the end (which should have been a major float and moved to the beginning). Several of the princesses should have had their own large standalone floats. There were plenty of fitting choices. I'm shocked Princess and the Frog didn't get one for various reasons, what with Ray and Evangeline. Aladdin has the magic carpet flying through the starry sky. Rapunzel thought the lanterns were stars. Hercules has constellations and planets. If Wish deserved to get a float despite it bombing spectacularly, then i'll throw out Treasure Planet as an unrealistic but very appropriate choice. Even the Lion King had some cosmic scenes in it. Especially surprised Sorcerer Mickey commanding the cosmos wasn't in there somewhere. Overall, the parade needed several more large floats, pretty much any of those suggestions would fit.

 

[brb1006]

Yeah… they kind of built that up to a whole lot of nothing. Not sure I understand that.

“We know everyone loves this character… so we are going to put him on a screen at the very end so if you look for him, you can see his silhouette.”

I miss the AA/Puppet Jiminy Cricket from Spectro who actually waved at guests.

In Starlight, Jiminy only shows up for a couple seconds and vanishes.

 

[Disney Analyst]

List of critiques I have thus far (long post ahead)-

1- Fix the street performers. I've already gone into detail about what is needed. Their outfits are ugly and there's not enough. Unacceptable, back to the drawing board now.

2- The Frozen and Wish floats need work. I won't debate whether Wish deserves to be there as I do think it fits thematically, but I expect a better looking float. Frozen is worse though and needs to be redesigned entirely. Even an exact copy of either Dreamlights/PtN would be fine IMO.

3- The Blue Fairy's wings are weirdly tiny. Did anyone else notice this? Go image search the Dreamlights version for comparison and you'll see what I mean. I realize the back of her float is larger and has an interior now, but the wings just need to be larger.

4- The absence of smaller "spacer" floats is glaring. You know, the type that can swivel and move around. The fish, turtles, snails, spectro balls etc present in pretty much all other parades. This would also help offset the sparse number of larger floats as well.

5- Here's where we get into the nitty gritty of float layout and quantity. Long paragraph ahead. The parade is way too short. There's only 9 major floats. About the same as the also criminally short PtN (which I think it has 8 major floats), but with far fewer and less impressively costumed street performers and no smaller spacer floats except for the tiny parade logo at the end (which should have been a major float and moved to the beginning). Several of the princesses should have had their own large standalone floats. There were plenty of fitting choices. I'm shocked Princess and the Frog didn't get one for various reasons, what with Ray and Evangeline. Aladdin has the magic carpet flying through the starry sky. Rapunzel thought the lanterns were stars. Hercules has constellations and planets. If Wish deserved to get a float despite it bombing spectacularly, then i'll throw out Treasure Planet as an unrealistic but very appropriate choice. Even the Lion King had some cosmic scenes in it. Especially surprised Sorcerer Mickey commanding the cosmos wasn't in there somewhere. Overall, the parade needed several more large floats, pretty much any of those suggestions would fit.

PTN:

Fairy dancers, Tink’s friends

Opening float with Tink & Pan

Genie, Lumier, Tigger (puppets)

Monsters Inc Float (Mike & Sully)

Lightning McQueen, Cars Dancers

Truck Float

Under the sea Dancers

Mermaid Float

Jellyfishes, nemo & marlin

Cowgirl dancers, Jessie

Toy Story float (Woody & Buzz)

Princess Dancers

Princess Float (Belle, Rapunzel, Cinderella)

Frozen Dancers

Frozen Float (Anna, Elsa, Olaf)

Pinwheel Dancers

Minnie, Donald, Goofy on orbs

Pinwheel Dancers

Mickey Float

End rope dancers.

 

[brb1006]

And I thought Anna would surely be on the float somewhere or even on the ground walking/dancing. How can they have a Frozen float without Anna!?

And Olaf

 

[brb1006]

Blue Fairy’s magic is the catalyst for the parade.

That pales in comparison to the amount of effort Disney put into Fantillusion and Spectromagic which actually told a story through floats.

 

[peter11435]

That pales in comparison to the amount of effort Disney put into Fantillusion and Spectromagic which actually told a story through floats.

I loved spectro but I think saying that it told a story through floats might be a little much.

 

[AxolotlTales]

- The princess unit's dancers need a clearer silhouette. The outfits seemed to have been designed without lighting fully in mind which would explain why the lights are kinda just pinned at random places on it. Fiber optics would be a nicer way to highlight the shaping or integrating other light effects in more ways. The other street performers need a better costume design too and not just be there to hold whatever prop is being used. I don't mind if some units don't have dancers, but the ones that do should have some thought put into it.

- I think they should've integrated the Blue fairy better into the float.

The gap between the performer and the float is a bit unpleasant. Would be nicer if it looked something more like the image on the right.

- The Wish float felt a bit too small, and Star should've been a physical piece. Not stuck on the screen in the windows of the tree.

- The Frozen float was as I suspected, but it feels less grand than what I assumed. The walls of Ahtohallan would've been nicer if they were a bit bigger and have a more complex shape. The orb things in front of the float look a bit weird too.

- The Coco float felt a bit too small and it would've been nicer if Pepita was a bit more animated.

- The finale float stayed true to concept art, but was a bit smaller. I do find it a bit weird they didn't include Snow White, Aladdin or Rapunzel in the score for the unit's audio. It's a bit random to have them there to begin with, but these characters are out of the possibility for any future additions to the parade now and I think they could've been represented better even in the current finale.

Overall I found Starlight to be quite lovely. It brought back what MK was missing. I have my nitpicks, but the parade as a whole is nice and fits together. It would definitely benefit from future additions, which shouldn't be too hard as all the floats share a similar base and theme. Redesigns (as in scrapping and redoing) seem unlikely so I didn't include them in my critiques.

 

[Jedi14]

That pales in comparison to the amount of effort Disney put into Fantillusion and Spectromagic which actually told a story through floats.

Fantillusion sure, but i don’t know about Spectro.

 

[flynnibus]

I just dont get the overhead props and the performers are just wearing all black. Why cant they make their clothes light up as well?

Several things going on here...

1) the kind of performers you want to disappear.. you obviously dark out (for puppet like effects)
2) When you watch things filmed on video at night.. the camera is way clamped down on the iris to deal with the very bright LEDs in the dark field of view.. to avoid blowing out the view of the lights, everything else is overly darkened.

There were several of the ground performers that had lit costumes, but they looked even worse on video due to the camera issues.

 

[flynnibus]

Not sure why so many here keep comparing this to Paint the Night whether for better or worse,,,

Because it was the most recent domestic night time parade?? Why is it a stretch to compare with the company's other recent efforts?

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I don't have any real complaints about the light strands, the straight grid-like patterns of PtN are one of the reasons I dislike that parade.

I much prefer how in MSEP, Spectro, Fantallusion the patterns and forms of the floats look like they're created from individual bulbs (like a Light Brite) instead of having large, solid blocks or shapes that are back lit

Some of the floats in Starlight do this, but not all.

 

[Squishy]

I think overall I much prefer this parade over them dragging MSEP back out. I like starlight's floats much better compared to PTN but it's a different style parade where one tries to be like dreamlights and the other one is a upbeat successor to msep that uses more backlit panels & other diffused led effects. Only complaint is lack of performers but that might be out of the creative's control and more so what the executives who run & budget the park want since FoF has been running 3 years now with a reduced lineup.

 

[IMDREW]

A lot of thoughts! But most importantly, where are all the dancers?! Have they just forgotten about them? And the few that are there are dressed in dark blue? I don’t get these choices at all! The parade feels very empty without them. This is a step down even from bare FoF. It’s one thing Paint The Night understands very well and it’s glaringly obvious.

I do like the choreo for the few that are there. The ballroom and water wave dancers. But they are hardly visible in those outfits. And I won’t start about those hoods. Whoever approved those..

I like the idea of the glowing butterflies and fractals, but they’re just static poles. Let them spin, pulse or something! Beside that this just desperately needs a goup of dancers (in real costumes, lit up) between each float and an extra bunch of walk-around characters. Having tink be all alone in front of the Peter Pan float is just a bit sad.

I do absolutely love the Moana and Peter Pan float designs. The Blue Fairy is monstrous compared to the beautiful Dreamlights one. Coco would’ve hit much harder with some colorful mariachi dancers leading the way. And I personally don’t like them using a train again in the finale. It’s been done to death imo. Would’ve much preferred something original. But looking at the reaction when they announced it, I’m in the minority on that one.

I do think it’s all very easily fixable. The floats are good enough, it’s just lacking the filler stuff. In length and in energy. It’s great to have a nighttime parade at MK again for sure and I would definitely rather have this than nothing. But it just isn’t good enough, yet.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I personally loved how PTN felt more “finished” and custom. All the lights are designed and embedded into the floats in some way, whether it’s panels, custom fixtures, etc.

And so many floats have wonderful kinetics and movement.

The parade feels full. Alive.

Starlight feels empty.

 

[ToTBellHop]

I think the floats look beautiful from the typical guest perspective. This project had a very healthy budget.

As for the street performers, are we surprised? They’ve shown continual disdain toward paying for extra live performers, especially backup dancers, unless it’s at an upcharge event. Compare Spelltacular at MNSSHP to the Villain show at DHS.

The audio does have clear opening and closing segments but not every location heard them last night. That’s easily fixed and the reason for rehearsals.

The good news is that this was designed for one more floor unit. Let’s hope it wasn’t cut and just delayed. This was quite the sprint to get this going for 7/20 and their work isn’t done. Once Pete and the Wendybird fly, we can assume there will be no further additions for awhile.

And yes, lyrics do exist for the new music. Clearly, the decided full-instrumental sounded best. Perhaps orchestral+synth+vocals+movie music+character voices was too much. I do get the impression they decided to not have vocals pretty early in the soundtrack work process.

Given their task to build a new parade drawing inspiration from Spectro, MSEP, and Wishes, I think they did a heck of a job. This would’ve been really nice for the 50th as originally planned. Glad we finally have it.

 

[The Peanut Gallery]

I must confess, I felt underwhelmed watching the video the first time. Felt off for some reason that I couldn't quite peg down. However, it's beginning to grow on me when I watch other videos. I love the formality of it versus the dance party atmosphere of PTN. I'll have to see it in person before I rush to judgment too much. I know it's cliche but videos never do live entertainment justice.

I just wish they made Jiminy the MC again like he was in Spectro.

 

[djkidkaz]

Great floats but needs more in between the floats. Just add some more performers with light up dresses and maybe a few smaller light up features so the whole thing feels more like one flowing parade. Not here’s float A, empty space, here’s float B, empty space, etc.

The music also didn’t knock my socks off. Maybe with time it will grow on me but I didn’t have that initial “wow, that’s a catchy tune” feeling.

 

[cwoms197]

I think the floats look beautiful from the typical guest perspective. This project had a very healthy budget.

As for the street performers, are we surprised? They’ve shown continual disdain toward paying for extra live performers, especially backup dancers, unless it’s at an upcharge event. Compare Spelltacular at MNSSHP to the Villain show at DHS.

The audio does have clear opening and closing segments but not every location heard them last night. That’s easily fixed and the reason for rehearsals.

The good news is that this was designed for one more floor unit. Let’s hope it wasn’t cut and just delayed. This was quite the sprint to get this going for 7/20 and their work isn’t done. Once Pete and the Wendybird fly, we can assume there will be no further additions for awhile.

And yes, lyrics do exist for the new music. Clearly, the decided full-instrumental sounded best. Perhaps orchestral+synth+vocals+movie music+character voices was too much. I do get the impression they decided to not have vocals pretty early in the soundtrack work process.

Given their task to build a new parade drawing inspiration from Spectro, MSEP, and Wishes, I think they did a heck of a job. This would’ve been really nice for the 50th as originally planned. Glad we finally have it.

Are you hinting at there potentially being another float in the parade? I can’t imagine which characters it would feature, especially if it’s a surprise float that was not announced.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Are you hinting at there potentially being another float in the parade? I can’t imagine which characters it would feature, especially if it’s a surprise float that was not announced.

No. Another unit of street performers.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

As for the street performers, are we surprised? They’ve shown continual disdain toward paying for extra live performers, especially backup dancers, unless it’s at an upcharge event. Compare Spelltacular at MNSSHP to the Villain show at DHS.

The low quantity of performers is disappointing, but not surprising. It is the terrible quality of the costumes that is surprising. Yes it needs more people out there as well, but more than anything they need to go back to the drawing board with the wardrobe.