News New Parade: Magic Happens

[DubyooDeeDubyoo]

I haven't posted on a Disney board in a long, long time. Apologies if I get things wrong.

This parade is "okay" and I think Entertainment did the best they could with their Chapek-assigned budget. There are large gaps in the parade which make me think there's room for future budget to add more to look at. I could see adding Mulan given that the floats have a lot of diverse backgrounds, and what the company was doing this year. I also agree that the Moana segment is a little long and the Maui float could be cut. What I do like about the parade is it puts a lot of characters on the ground and they seem to go to the sides and interact with kids at the curb as much as they can without holding the parade route up. People think the ending theme should be loaded up front and I'll disagree, it has that dreamy, sometimes sappy appeal going on that's good both for the Sleeping Beauty float and Disney "endings".

I'm not a parade guy usually. I feel like everything, say, after Hercules but before Soundsational wasn't that good? Once they hit the absolute pits with that blink-and-you-miss-it Hunchback 'procession' the daytime parades turned into character marches to the same orchestrated Disney music tropes that I could miss. The engagement and talent you saw in parades up until the EuroDisney-related recession was gone.

I'm not immediately in love with the parade because it needs some more work, but it reminds me a bit of a modern retooling of Party Gras which was my childhood parade. I doubt a Disneyland parade will ever throw collectables into the audience again, nor cover Main Street in confetti (janitorial is thankful), and yeah the "camp avant-garde" drag aesthetic is not personally my thing. But I get it, because it's that aesthetic that's associated with late 80s/early 90s dance nostalgia. It's fine for a troupe of people voguing to what sounds like an homage of "Everybody Dance Now". If you're going to throwback to Party Gras and Totally Minnie in 2020, that's how it's gonna be.

 

[Rich T]

Still not better than Dreaming Up at Tokyo but alas are we really surprised. Nice effort DL, nice effort.

Magic Happens gets a “participant” star sticker.

 

[Rich T]

Wow. I decided to play the parade in the background as I did some taxes on the computer.

This has to be the most aggravating parade music loop ever conceived. It is so awfully generic, spiritless, and tell-not-show. I had to shut it off. How can anyone sit through this whole parade? The music is tragic.

You’d think Disney would want a parade soundtrack that would actually sell on CD and digital. Who the heck in charge listened to this and said, “Yeah! That’s awesome!”

 

[DubyooDeeDubyoo]

I forgot to mention: The Frozen float is way too huge. The size and verticality of it makes it feel like a parade ending float. I get that using a snowy mountaintop as a metaphor for social isolation is a big part of the original movie, but how about bringing Elsa down where we don't have to look up at her? Tthat way the float isn't this huge visual barrier in the same way the Aurora finale is supposed to be.

 

[tirian]

Since I probably won’t be able to check the forums for a few days, I’ll just leave this here.

And they still run Dreamlights too. If American Disney needs sponsors to present parades like this, so be it.

 

[Mickeyboof]

I forgot to mention: The Frozen float is way too huge. The size and verticality of it makes it feel like a parade ending float. I get that using a snowy mountaintop as a metaphor for social isolation is a big part of the original movie, but how about bringing Elsa down where we don't have to look up at her? Tthat way the float isn't this huge visual barrier in the same way the Aurora finale is supposed to be.

I love the size! It’s like the big splashy mid act two song before the 11 o’clock number.

 

[mickeyfan5534]

Since I probably won’t be able to check the forums for a few days, I’ll just leave this here.

And they still run Dreamlights too. If American Disney needs sponsors to present parades like this, so be it.

I think something of this size would feel almost wrong in Disneyland. IMO, Magic Happens for all its flaws fits Disneyland like a glove with its mix of classic and modern. It's a smaller scale production but the smaller scale gets used to its advantage. I can't envision that giant airship coming down Main Street like I can with the hat.

 

[Brenthodge]

Since I probably won’t be able to check the forums for a few days, I’ll just leave this here.

And they still run Dreamlights too. If American Disney needs sponsors to present parades like this, so be it.

The “rainbow ribbons” carried through from the opening float to the closing one, the opening dancers flags carried through to the close, the over the top style was consistent throughout, the pacing was better with a mix of large and smaller, filler units. I don’t love the overall look of Dreaming Up, but for a parade that wants to be taken as “high art” Magic Happens feels like it has a less sophisticated design thought process.

 

[DubyooDeeDubyoo]

I think something of this size would feel almost wrong in Disneyland. IMO, Magic Happens for all its flaws fits Disneyland like a glove with its mix of classic and modern. It's a smaller scale production but the smaller scale gets used to its advantage. I can't envision that giant airship coming down Main Street like I can with the hat.

Disneyland's Main Street still looks alright with floats that were height-limited to duck under the Skyway line. The World According to Goofy had some really tall mylar balloons, too. These floats are not as imposing when transplanted into MK but the problem isn't Main Street. The problem with the airship (and a lot of the floats designed for the other parks) would maybe be squeezing through the Matterhorn pass.

 

[Rich T]

I think something of this size would feel almost wrong in Disneyland. IMO, Magic Happens for all its flaws fits Disneyland like a glove with its mix of classic and modern. It's a smaller scale production but the smaller scale gets used to its advantage. I can't envision that giant airship coming down Main Street like I can with the hat.

The scale of the floats could be altered. What makes Dreaming Up so wonderful is the mind-blowing creativity and design that takes classic Disney imagery and presents it in charming and unexpected ways. Mary Poppins penguins (and the fox!) flying around Big Ben on kites!!! The dancers portraying Tulgey Wood birds, croquet flamingos and Gepetto’s clock figures are as wonderful as the floats. It’s a true celebration of everything people love and remember about those films.

 

[DubyooDeeDubyoo]

The thing about the smaller parade floats, and particularly when it comes to Disneyland, is that they can be run multiple times. In my old guidebooks, the last of the big old heyday parades, Legend of the Lion King, ran once at 4PM and that's it. Magic Happens might be smaller, but it makes two trips in a day I swear that it seemed like it made four runs on Friday even if the schedule online only listed two, but that might be working out the kinks.

Probably the bigger change is that backstage is no longer as roomy as it was. The turnaround area behind Main Street doesn't look too different from the old days, but Toontown and Star Wars might leave them with less room for big floats? Only an Imagineer or a very long tenured CM would know.

 

[DLRP NEWS]

My biggest deception is the Frozen float ... Paris version is not perfect but it look way less cheap ... The colors in California seem wrong. And can we talk about Sven ? In Paris is a super realistic puppet. In California he looks way too plastic ...

 

[TwilightZone]

I actually like the music here. But I'm a fan of the genre.

 

[rreading]

Is it sad to say that I’m not surprised about this. While I liked Paint the Night a bit better, this feels cut from the same cloth. Too much synth rhythm; too little heart

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

My biggest deception is the Frozen float ... Paris version is not perfect but it look way less cheap ... The colors in California seem wrong. And can we talk about Sven ? In Paris is a super realistic puppet. In California he looks way too plastic ...
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Overall it almost seems as if these floats should be swapped - Disneyland Paris could use the richer color and the foliage to pop against its grayer skies and more-open parade route, and Disneyland is so well planted it could bear the lack of trees on the float. The paint job seems more sophisticated at DLP, letting the lights do most of the work to cast the blues from the float. It does appear that this parade was meant to evoke some level of sophistication.

I agree that overall the parade doesn't seem to come together - scale is definitely a factor here. More than a few floats feel like the beginning of a unit but end up being the unit itself. I think some of the more literal moments are beautifully realized, though they don't seem to balance with the more stylized moments in the design. I don't entirely dislike the idea of a more literal parade - I think I might even actively like it - but a float has to do more than be a beautiful structure to really catch your eye. The set design seem to lack the kinetic energy that makes a float exciting to look at. Seeing the swirling rings on top of Mickey's float I thought that somehow 75% of the float animation had failed and the rings were the 25% that was working, but it appears that's all that was designed to activate. That means all you get from that whole big hat unit are the rings, Mickey waving, and the lights at night. The rest of that float feels almost like a chromatic paper weight.

 

[TTA94]

Has anyone been successful yet in finding a video with clear audio and no crowd noise or very little?

 

[Olliehernanadez0917]

I have found nothing and I’m thinking the same thing

 

[Mickeyboof]

Has anyone been successful yet in finding a video with clear audio and no crowd noise or very little?

Seems like you want a rehearsal video.

Unlikely you’ll find one. Otherwise, this video is decent.

 

[Disney Irish]

Has anyone been successful yet in finding a video with clear audio and no crowd noise or very little?

I think the only way you're going to get what you're looking for is if someone records the parade with no sound and then overlays the soundtrack in the final video. Something that isn't likely until either Disney releases the soundtrack or until someone pieces it together.

 

[TTA94]

I think the only way you're going to get what you're looking for is if someone records the parade with no sound and then overlays the soundtrack in the final video. Something that isn't likely until either Disney releases the soundtrack or until someone pieces it together.

We know that’s not likely to happen lol. IMO they are loosing out on a opportunity to make $ by not releasing it and other soundtracks. There are probably other factors at play though that’s preventing it.