Interesting points,
@MANEATINGWREATH. I certainly hope to hear more from you, having more experience with this place, after all.
I'd like to share the first of my few ideas. This is an idea inspired by recent news. A few days ago, it was announced that the Main Street Electrical Parade would march down Magic Kingdom's Main Street for the last time in October, before heading off to Disneyland for a limited engagement. And I got to thinking, "What if this limited engagement...became
permanent?"
So, this is my idea for an all-new version of the iconic Disneyland classic: the
Main Street Electrical Parade!
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Originally performed back in 1972, the Disneyland staple played a long run before "glowing away forever" in 1996. But just five years later, the parade returned to the opposite side of the resort--Disney's California Adventure, to be exact--where it delighted for another nine years before heading off to the Magic Kingdom. Well, the iconic parade has at last returned back home to Disneyland, and it's better than ever! While much of the parade will be the same, there will also be numerous differences as well, all in an effort to really make the classic sparkle as never before. There will be appearances by new characters and, more importantly, new scenes in the parade! What say we start?
All along the route from "it's a small world" to Main Street, U.S.A., you hear the original 1972 music (digitally remastered) swell up, the lights dim in the park and a classic-sounding, computerized announcer introduces the parade...
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Disneyland proudly presents our spectacular festival pageant of nighttime magic and imagination, in thousands of sparkling lights and electro-synthe-magnetic musical sounds... the Main Street Electrical Parade!"
With that, the iconic "Baroque Hoedown" starts up as the parade's grand marshal, the
Blue Fairy, leads the way. A unique float makes her dress look larger than it would normally seem.
Following behind the Blue Fairy's leading float is another, much more classic float, the
Casey Jr. train, which is being driven by none other than Goofy. He playfully pulls on the train whistle, which emits a silly whistle (and real steam) as it comes by the route. The engine is pulling a huge drum upon which the name of the parade,
Main Street Electrical Parade, is proudly displayed. As in the past, standing on the drum are Mickey and Minnie Mouse, but now they are joined by an old friend, who makes his formal appearance in the parade for the first time, Donald Duck. He stands next to Minnie, while Mickey stands alone up atop the drum and a little further behind. Another new difference is that Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy all speak to you as they pass by, their mouths moving to new technology and everything. They interact with you by way of LCI, so it's always different each time.
After the train and drum pass by, you are now treated to the first of many scenes from many Disney classics to come your way in lit-up lights and synthesized music. First up, it is the world of
Alice in Wonderland. It is similar to the version of old, but with numerous differences, not the least of which is the lack of any mushroom floats, all of which have been repurposed for use elsewhere in the parade, but we'll get to that later. First you see, three classic floats, three spinning creatures that spin around and race from one side of the route to the other. The first is a turtle wearing glasses, then a snail with a red shell and finally a green lightning bug. Amid these spinning critters, you are also treated to more classic characters from the film, most notably, the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit and the Queen of Hearts. Behind this little bunch of characters, you finally see Alice herself reclining on the back of a new float, a giant Cheshire Cat. The float, in keeping with the feline himself, is constantly shifting the lights on and off. Alice herself talks to you as she does in the past, making comments based her experiences in the movie. The float looks like the same float as in the image below:
Behind the Cheshire Cat float cavort more characters and more classic spinning critters. Here, the characters are Tweedledee and Tweedledum and the Walrus and the spinning critters include a turtle wearing a hat, a snail with a green/blue shell and an orange lightning bug. Finally, the last float in the scene is another new float, a giant version of the hookah-smoking Caterpillar, all done up in blue lights. Real smoke rises from the hookah as the Caterpillar makes comments (i.e., "A-E-I-O-U", "Who... R... U...?", "How doth the little crocodile improve his shining tail...", etc.). This float is one of the longest in the parade thus far. And when the Caterpillar float passes by, the "Alice in Wonderland" scene ends.
Following Alice in Wonderland is the
Cinderella unit. On the first float, the Fairy Godmother works her magic as Cinderella’s pumpkin carraige rides past. Like at Tokyo, the horses seem to actually trot! Then, we have the classic “Ballroom Dancers” unit from the current parade. This is followed by a float where Cinderella and Prince Charming, share a romantic waltz as the mice (Jaq, Gus, Suzy and Perla) look on. A clock tower stands at the far back of the float.
Up next, a unit taken directly from Tokyo's DreamLights, themed to
Winnie the Pooh. This features Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore (also using LCI) sitting outside a tree, pictured right. Piglet, Rabbit and Christopher Robin dance around on the streets, accompanied by bees whose yellow and black stripes light up in time with synthesized renditions of “Winnie the Pooh”, “The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers” and “Hip-Hip-Pooh-Ray".
Dumbo, a retired unit is back and better than ever with plenty of new color and effects.
Following this is the
Pinocchio unit, which receives no changes.
The
Peter Pan unit faces both gains and losses, starting with the old Jolly Roger float. A brand-new and much larger pirate ship (still the Jolly Roger) replaces the float, allowing more room for Pan, Wendy and Hook to battle along with the addition of Mr. Smee whom has been evicted from his tiny rowboat float. In place of the rowboat is a giant recreation of the infamous crocodile, a brightly-lit-green float roving around the street and coming up close and personal with spectators. Wrapped in his tail is a giant alarm clock with spinning hands (spinning clockwise for a bit before turning around and going counter clockwise).
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is up next featuring much of the original unit, starting with the mine carts and jewel mine (all refurbished). One of the old mushroom floats from
Alice in Wonderland has been transformed into a recreation of Prince Ferdinand's Castle, the float obviously centered around a waving Snow White and Prince Ferdinand.
Another new unit to the parade is the
Jungle unit, which represents
The Jungle Book and
The Lion King. Taking a cue from Tokyo DisneySea's Fantasmic!, an over-sized Simba and Baloo appear on two separate floats, the floats glowing green and adorned with vivid blue waterfalls and colorful flowers. Baroque Hoedown-style versions of "I Wanna Be Like You" and "Hakuna Matata" are the two main songs heard here, appropriate for a unit as such. The giant Simba cub figure is composed of yellow and orange lights on a close-resembling figure (just about as close a resemblance as the Cheshire Cat is to the original) and features a humongous mane composed of color-changing leaves (think "I Just Can't Wait to Be King"). Timon, Rafiki, and some puppet-made African wildlife parade around Simba while King Louie and his jazzy monkey army dance around Baloo who like Simba greatly resembles his movie counterpart. Baloo full-on changes colors to truly match his jazzy and upbeat personality. The colors change into images and shapes as well showing jungles, waterfalls, shapes, stripes, and so on so forth.
Next up, another new addition:
The Little Mermaid. This new underwater unit marks the first time since the early 1980s that a scene themed to the ocean is featured, that being the Briny Deep, which was later rethemed as Pinocchio Underwater.
Anyway, the new Little Mermaid unit's music has some of Baroque Hoedown intertwined with "Under the Sea" and "Part of Your World". This new unit has some elements of the old Briny Deep scene thrown in, most notably some depictions of seaweed, seahorses and lots of colorful fish, all under a series of ripples to further enhance the underwater effect and bubbles, both lights to simulate those floating up to the surface and real bubbles that are sprayed out towards the audience. It is an entirely new version of the old Briny Deep unit, but new and drastically improved. The fish all swim around in a circle underneath Flounder and Sebastian all lit up. On the end of the float, Ariel herself waves to the audience. Bringing up the rear is a gigantic Ursula float, about the same height as the clock tower in the Cinderella unit, all done up in lights and surrounded on both sides by the Flotsam and Jetsam puppets from the old Parade of Dreams, but which are now re-purposed for this new parade here.
Next up, you witness still another classic scene in the parade:
Pete's Dragon! It's the same float as before, a giant Elliot the dragon comes down the street, spewing smoke from his nostrils, disappearing and reappearing at will, his friend Pete riding him on his neck, and a lantern hanging off of his tail. Pete also continues to comment on Elliot to the guests and vice-versa.
Finally, we have still another returning classic, the finale unit
To Honor America. Like some of the earlier scenes of the parade, this closing scene is the same traditional unit, but remastered, restored, and given new life, color, and lighting effects. It features the same elements as before: a banner reading "To Honor America", firework rockets, firework effects, a long, elongated American flag, drums, and finally, at the very end of the line, a giant bald eagle to close out. Flanking the sides of the unit are several female performers in colorful colonial getup doing high-kicking dances as they parade along. Behind the eagle, more patriotic girls act as rope tenders to allow the guests to leave.
As the music reaches its end, you hear the classic closing line:
"Disneyland's Main Street Electrical Parade!" And the music finally reaches its dramatic close, the lights along the parade route are turned back on and the parade is over.
What do you think?
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If anything, I'd suggest ripping out the Toy Story Lot and Katella Cast Member Lot entirely. Their combined acreage is enough for at least one Disneyland-sized park, I'd estimate, maybe a little smaller. Perhaps purchase the properties directly around the lot for added room.
