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

[ToTBellHop]

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.

I think they match the creative vision. It seems you don’t like the vision. Personally, I’ll wait til I see it in person with finished lighting. Hopefully, it’s brighter in person by tomorrow.

 

[cwoms197]

No. Another unit of street performers.

Really hoping for something with Coco, light up skeletons would be awesome!

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I think they match the creative vision. It seems you don’t like the vision.

I mean harmonious matched the “creative vision” too. For that matter so did Light Magic! Haha.

 

[SpectroBro]

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.

If you’re referencing a Coco unit, I’ve been told that it’s been cut.

 

[CoastalElite64]

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.

I am glad this is the case. With Starlight the vision is dreamy elegance and with PtN the vision is a colorful celebration. I look forward for see how they improve Starlight with time.

 

[Ayla]

No. Another unit of street performers.

They need way more than a unit of street performers.

 

[Brian]

They need way more than a unit of street performers.

I'd think they need to add a metric ton of street performers at the very least!

 

[brb1006]

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.

The parade needs more filler content between units. Some floats for MSEP and Dreamlights had multiple floats (and smaller floats) representing a Disney Film. Alice in Wonderland had Mushroom floats, moving bugs, snails, turtles, and singing fireflies. Cinderella had a long section lead by a horse-drawn carriage and ended with a clock that rung. Dopey driving a mine cart followed by the Dwarfs' Mine, and the Pleasure Island section (before one ended up destroyed).

Spectromagic took similar cues with certain floats with chained or close together (such as The Silly Symphony, Fantasia, and finale).

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

I think they match the creative vision. It seems you don’t like the vision. Personally, I’ll wait til I see it in person with finished lighting. Hopefully, it’s brighter in person by tomorrow.

No, I do not like the "vision" for the costumes at all. And I vehemently disagree that they match the rest of the floats and theme of the parade. To be very blunt, I would not use the word "creative" in a sentence with them. I'm sorry if that seems harsh, but it's the truth and I say this as someone who sees great potential in this parade and want to see it improved. But some of these do look absolutely awful. I think this kind of speaks for itself-

The Encanto and Frozen "costumes" are the worst examples. Absolutely bafflingly awful. They need to scrap and redesign these two groups entirely as they are unacceptable and there's truly nothing worth salvaging. Over 50 years of consistently beautiful butterfly costumes, and then they create THIS awful hideous monstrosity... Even the ancient 1972 MSEP costume blows it out of the water. Just take ANY of those past costume designs and equip them with modern lighting tech (PtN style). Easy fix...

High quality snowflake/ice costumes for Frozen also already exist in other parades. Paint the Night has had two different high quality design iterations (first iteration was better but was probably changed due to comfort, the current one is still good though). Dreamlights' costume-minifloat hybrid designs are also lovely.

The Moana water dancers wave sparkling veils around. The veils themselves look fine enough and can probably stay. But the costumes being worn have much the same problems as the other aforementioned ones and need to go back to the drawing board. Give their costumes a healthy abundance of ocean wave patterns or something.

The ballroom dancers around the princess floats aren't "terrible" in comparison to the aforementioned ones and might be salvageable. But as they are now, they are way too dark and need far more lights.

Tinkerbell is the only street performer in the entire thing whose costume looks decent (wings are smaller than they should be, but at least she's lit properly). She's also the ONLY major known characters who they have walking around, which again puts into contrast how skimpy they're being with street characters compared to the majority of other parades.

 

[culturenthrills]

They haven't "retired" it yet, but Disneyland's entertainment issues is a story for a different thread. Either way MK needs a complete new parade. Hopefully they managed to get some Dreaming Up floats for that. Those floats are too good to be scrapped and hopefully can be maintained better than FoF.

I hope so. Dreaming Up is the best Disney parade ever. Also, i hope the soundtrack for a new daytime parade is like DU too.

 

[flynnibus]

I hadn't seen PTN since it's first run in DLR.. so it was long from my memory. I just watched it on youtube and I can emphasize with people feeling the bigger gap to Starlight.

Energy - PTN used contemporary hits from the film to bring an upbeat 'dance party' element to it as someone mentioned and I agree. While I do not think this is a matter of which is right or wrong.. (the less pop the better IMO) I think PTN delivers a more immediate impact with it's music.

The ground units and dancers.. I mean, there is no comparison at all. From the great units like the toy story crane, to the puppets, to just all the 'wow' pop the distinctive different apparatus the different groups have. PTN has you awing in whimsical "can only see this at Disney" kind of impact. The Starlight units look downright dark ages in comparison. As bad as this is, it's also potentially one of the easier areas to 'fix' if they choose to. Here's hoping we get a real boost in both units and performers in this element.

Technology - While PTN was always a big "pop" from the first big implementation of the bright light LEDs and such.. it's kind of glaring that 10+ years later.. I think Starlight really isn't much of a big gain here. Yes, Starlight is going more classical look than PTN.. but even the way the floats are lit and constructed so it's not going to be as whizbang looking as PTN.. they really feel a bit more hollow than the PTN floats. I mean, BatB is probably the closest in style to Starlight.. and Frozen.. and both those just seem on a different level than the Starlight design. It's like for Starlight they chose the black canvas with lights.. where as PTN used lit elements WITH lights as accents. Style or not.. PTN certainly felt like it left you with more emotion.

I do give the Finale float to Starlight tho. It does feel wierd that PTN feels like it had more MSEP throwbacks than Starlight does too.. even tho Starlight has kind of more in common in the canvas in the visual department than PTN did.

So while initial impression of Starlight was great - mainly because I'm happy to see a night parade again - I can certainly see why many would be let down compared to the standard set before.

 

[culturenthrills]

Depending on who you ask, Fantillusion is still the standard the company measures nighttime parades against internally.

That’s interesting because i feel Dreamlights is the best nighttime parade ever.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

So while initial impression of Starlight was great - mainly because I'm happy to see a night parade again - I can certainly see why many would be let down compared to the standard set before.

Yes, that’s my feelings. Over all it’s so good to have a legit night parade back.

But yes, your comparison to paint the night is spot on. And I agree with something you mentioned….. paint the night is on an “only at Disney scale” where starlight feels like a few steps up from a regional park. Not terrible…. But not that wow.

 

[culturenthrills]

Sadly those are the ballroom dancers. All that detail they went on and on about with "custom printed fabric with the swirl pattern" and hand applied crystals is all wasted on dark navy outfits in the dark. Why did they even bother?

I was hoping MK would finally put in proper nighttime lighting for their parade route for this parade but they did not. This is one of the reasons why DL parade route is so much better

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I was hoping MK would finally put in proper nighttime lighting for their parade route for this parade but they did not. This is one of the reasons why DL parade route is so much better

Also one of the reasons the costumes are an issue…. I wonder if they were designed with parade lighting in mind?

The “announcement” and pre-parade light show on the parade route at Disneyland is such a cool moment…. Again it’s that “wow” over the top moment. Too bad that wasn’t part of “the vision” for this show.

 

[Starship824]

I was hoping MK would finally put in proper nighttime lighting for their parade route for this parade but they did not. This is one of the reasons why DL parade route is so much better

I mean does it really matter when they only use the lighting for the intro and the rest of the parade is in darkness.

 

[Starship824]

Also one of the reasons the costumes are an issue…. I wonder if they were designed with parade lighting in mind?

The “announcement” and pre-parade light show on the parade route at Disneyland is such a cool moment…. Again it’s that “wow” over the top moment. Too bad that wasn’t part of “the vision” for this show.

That's true, didn't think about that.

 

[Brer Panther]

Not only does Wish get a float in the parade, it's the first float after the Blue Fairy? I think it must be one of Bob Iger's favorite Disney movies...

That's the worst Frozen float i've seen in a night parade so far.

Yeah, the Frozen float is the only one that I think looks bad.

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!?

It's like doing a Princess and the Frog ride where Naveen is a non-entity... oh, wait.

I'd settle for Anna and Kristoff walking along the float, ideally with some trolls, but even that feels like an insult to her character. She's just as (if not more) important to the story than Elsa.

Isn't she the main character, at least of the first movie? They weren't expecting Elsa to be more popular, right? Anna exists solely as a desperate attempt to cash in on the success of Rapunzel - they were expecting HER to be the marketable character everyone wants a doll of. So to have her (and Kristoff and Olaf) nowhere in the parade is a headscratcher.

SpectroMagic was loads of fun and full of beauty and great music. This just feels like it checks a box next to "night-time parade".

Yeah, that's basically how I feel too. Maybe I'd be more enthusiastic if it weren't for the fact that the IPs featured in the parade I'm either a casual fan of at best (Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Coco) or really don't care for (Frozen, Encanto). It's better than nothing.

 

[Castle Cake Apologist]

These reactions are honestly blowing my mind. Were we so starved for a night parade that we really think this is good? This is easily one of the weakest overall parades they've ever designed, and certainly the weakest night one. Barren floats. Barren streets. Screens instead of performers. Occasional troops of people walking in black body suits waving static props instead of any choreography. A completely motionless manta ray rises from one of the floats occasionally, and you guys are losing your minds? And what's with the incredibly stupid effect where the awkward obvious glass occasionally disappears to reveal Pinocchio and Geppetto dancing around in what looks like a stark black warehouse shaped dance club? Eef.

This company is truly not for me anymore.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Unfortunately regardless of our opinions on how Starlight can be improved the problem is unless there is a very large amount of guests that feel the same way as we do I don’t think anything will be done. It did happen with Harmonious although that was a very different situation and I do not think Starlight needs to be torn apart and thrown in a dumpster, it just need things added to it and adjustments. Time will tell what happens.

There were a variety of issues with Harmonious including people complaining about the barges out during the day but I think the big thing was it was negatively impacting people staying in the park later, booking restaurants that have viewing areas, booking firework cruises, booking the private viewing areas, etc

So if the same happens here and everyone rushes out after HEA/2nd parade is deserted, etc - probably won't see a major overhaul

Does seem like there was a rush to get it done so hopefully they are aware of some touch ups/plussing that could elevate it though