News New Parade: Magic Happens

[Giss Neric]

The thing that bugs me with this whole Drag Race aesthetic for a Disneyland parade is that no one smiles. They are all too cool for that, as if they are vamping at the bar trying to get the bartender to notice them since the hot guy two barstools down from them obviously isn't going to.

Seriously kids, would it kill you to smile?!? You're at Disneyland. This is supposed to be fun!
The mouse is smiling, why can't you?

May I interrupt but I think what they are projecting is "swag" which is a very confident attitude/borderline cocky in a good way. Swag hypes up the crowd more and as a result gets more cheers -woooohhhhs and aahhhhhhs!

 

[TP2000]

May I interrupt but I think what they are projecting is "swag" which is a very confident attitude/borderline cocky in a good way. Swag hypes up the crowd more and as a result gets more cheers -woooohhhhs and aahhhhhhs!

Really? They just look bitchy to me.

That said, I'm seriously considering turning this girl into my new avatar. Samantha has had enough to drink already, and this girl deserves a shot at stardom...

 

[Kram Sacul]

Wow some comments in here are homophobic.

Not really. It’s just bad attempts at comedy. Nothing new around here.

 

[DanielBB8]

I thought there was something "off" and just sort of atrocious about the looks of the performers and after I did several seconds of research and found out it was designed by RuPaul's Drag Race (which I also had to research), I guess I understand now.

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Oy...

I'm surprised no one mentions Hunger Games' Effie Twinket.

 

[DanielBB8]

Or Caesar Flickerman in Hunger Games.

 

[FigmentForver96]

Really? They just look bitchy to me.

That said, I'm seriously considering turning this girl into my new avatar. Samantha has had enough to drink already, and this girl deserves a shot at stardom...

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Or perhaps she wants another...Her hand is poised. However, to your point, I’m not sure why they felt the need to be edgy. Some things don’t mix well with Disney and I feel edgy stuff like this is one of those things. It was like when Disney tried to be “rad” and “hip” in the 80s and 90s to appeal to teens.

 

[Disneylover152]

The interesting thing to note is Dreaming Up! only has 13 floats (and 4 of them are the small broom-floats).

For a parade that doesn't have many more floats, it sure does feel a lot longer and more complete than Magic Happens. Even Soundsational which has the same number of floats feels longer and more complete. Same with Festival of Fantasy, it has 8 floats (7 when the dragon was absent for a year) and both times it felt like a complete parade. This parade just is lacking something. It doesn't feel complete.

Also, does anyone know where the Mickey float from Tokyo went after Soundsational left? Why isn't it repurposed for this parade?

 

[mickeyfan5534]

The interesting thing to note is Dreaming Up! only has 13 floats (and 4 of them are the small broom-floats).

For a parade that doesn't have many more floats, it sure does feel a lot longer and more complete than Magic Happens. Even Soundsational which has the same number of floats feels longer and more complete. Same with Festival of Fantasy, it has 8 floats (7 when the dragon was absent for a year) and both times it felt like a complete parade. This parade just is lacking something. It doesn't feel complete.

Also, does anyone know where the Mickey float from Tokyo went after Soundsational left? Why isn't it repurposed for this parade?

I think float placement has a lot to do with it. Soundsational went Big float-little float the entire time and Dreaming Up! introduces each unit with the small broom floats and then follows it with one or two larger floats in that unit’s theme. Meanwhile Magic Happens goes Big-big-little-big-big-little and then out of nowhere reverses the pattern with little-little-big. Maybe the Dreaming Up format would have helped the pacing.

 

[Brenthodge]

I admit - I haven't seen it in person, but Ive tried to like it from day, to night video something just isn't gelling for me. One though - easy "fix" I wonder if they played with the sequence of the "finale" since the music NEVER changes, it wouldn't matter the order - Maybe if Sword started the "finale". By pulling the sword out of the stone "magic happens" and the next 3 units show that - even if the lost random characters wandering down the street were more around Merlin with the "twirly gig" dudes from the beginning (to bring a design element from open to close) and the streamer flag guys - just to make the "beginning of the end" feel more impactful. Then a small princess unit with two flags, sleepy beauty with her flappy flag girls, then close with a small princess and her flags - sort of "bookending" the big unit to make it feel like a cohesive "magic of princesses" unit. Either that or have the princesses all come together right after the frozen girls and END with Sword - that way we begin with a sorcerer and end with one (Micky and Merlin). Wondering if they play with order as they run rehearsals or if it is "set" before they take to the streets.

 

[Brenthodge]

I think float placement has a lot to do with it. Soundsational went Big float-little float the entire time and Dreaming Up! introduces each unit with the small broom floats and then follows it with one or two larger floats in that unit’s theme. Meanwhile Magic Happens goes Big-big-little-big-big-little and then out of nowhere reverses the pattern with little-little-big. Maybe the Dreaming Up format would have helped the pacing.

I've felt that from the beginning. It doesn't feel like they looked at this as a "whole" rather some cool individual moments that they hoped would gell together when they all rolled in a line.

 

[Brenthodge]

So I haven't been following this parade in the slightest, to the point where I did not even realize the parade was debuting, but I was in the parks today and decided to stick around for the 6:00 PM showing.

There's a lot I like in the parade. I liked the mix between the newer stuff (giving Moana, Coco, and Frozen 1/2 a float) and the older stuff (the final Sleeping Beauty float is a showstopper), with my personal favorite being SWORD IN THE STONE OUT OF NOWHERE! That's a pull I definitely wasn't expecting from Disney in 2020 when they could have gone with BatB or Mermaid. The opening Mickey float with the costumes was so out there that I couldn't help but like it for the audacity of the entire thing. Similarly, I think the music grew on me as it went, though how much of that was being stuck having to listen to it while the parade was happening I'll never know. Also this show works WAY better at dusk than I would have thought - sometimes with the daytime parades, they have issues at night, but this one almost seems designed for a night run, which makes the fact that it's a daytime parade weird.

On the flip side, boy howdy that Maui float is bad. The Maui itself is pretty awful and unnecessary, and it just felt like too much Moana when the first float is already really good. Could have given that slot to something else (Aladdin/Genie, perhaps?). And for as much as I eventually liked the music, the last section very much felt like a hodgepodge where the opening segments each had their own themes and sections. I swear the entire section from Tiana and Cinderella, to SitS, to Aurora had the same musical backing and was all in the same theme? Felt like they spent a lot of their creative time on the opening half/the final Sleeping Beauty float, and just threw a bunch of half-baked ideas into one section at the end.

Overall, it's a fine parade, but nowhere near some of the fantastic ones we've had prior. I think I like Soundsational better, but that one took a bit to grow on me also.

Agree about the overkill with Maui - I wish that was another "theme" float that pulled some of the "Magic Rave Pose-fest" from the beginning deeper into the parade. Maybe something that the extra characters (in their "street clothes" that just wander the street later in the parade) could be around. A lamp for a genie, Something for a fairy or pixie to interact with - those guys seem lost later on, and Maui seems like the lobby of the Polynesian rolling down the route.

 

[mickeyfan5534]

I've felt that from the beginning. It doesn't feel like they looked at this as a "whole" rather some cool individual moments that they hoped would gell together when they all rolled in a line.

And the finale that is genuinely the better half of the parade really has a far more satisfying and cohesive whole than the first half and fits the “Magic Happens” theme

 

[MisterPenguin]

Wow some comments in here are homophobic.

For the sake of those taking this comment seriously. Calling elements of the parade "drag" is not homophobic. Especially since it looks exactly like drag.

Drag is cool now. They may have intentionally been copying drag.

If they copied drag *unintentionally*.... now *that* would be funny.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

From the videos, it honestly looks like a decent parade to me and I don't quite get the hate for the song. I get the impression that if the Internet was more of a thing in the 1990s we would have had a lot of comments about how irritating the music of the parades of that era was compared to the parade music of the 1960s and 1970s. The music doesn't seem as repetitive as some past parades that now seem surrounded in a glow of nostalgia.

As for the floats, they do seem a lot better at night than during the day. Also not sure why there is both a Moana and a Maui float. The Moana float is great, but Maui could easily be replaced with something else. I think replacing it with something that drew on 90s nostalgia like Hercules or Mulan would have been a good move. Personal favourite is the Coco float and Pepita. Sword in the Stone is a nice inclusion, even if the film is not one of my favourites. Uniqueness is always good! Overall, seems like a good parade to me. Honestly agree with @TP2000 that the Steve Davison extravaganzas were getting a little repetitive.

 

[SplashJacket]

Mulan would have been a good move

Especially with Mulan coming out. Corporate synergy 101.

I would make a Chapek joke but Disney had made numerous promotional parades, especially under Eisner.

I guess Chapek is enough of a joke in himself.

 

[Deleted member 107043]

If you had gone back in time 25 years and told someone that these would be the faces of the parade dancers for a new happy springtime day parade at Disneyland, they would have thought you were either crazy or had come from some horrible alternate future where all happiness was forbidden and moody bitchiness was the only human emotion allowed.

You just nailed it. Something was off in those photos and I couldn't put my finger on what it was. It's not the showy costumes, it everyone's RBF.

 

[Curious Constance]

Who exactly is this parade for? It’s a little creepy? Off? when you start getting the feeling that children aren’t its primary target audience.

 

[Deleted member 107043]

Some things don’t mix well with Disney and I feel edgy stuff like this is one of those things.

This is not hip nor is it edgy. Rupaul ushered drag into the mainstream in 2009. Lady Gaga has been doing her drag schtick ever since she became a household name with the release of her hit album The Fame in 2008. There are plenty of examples of flamboyant drag in everyday pop culture long before that, from Boy George to Sylvester to Annie Lennox to Grace Jones. If anything Disneyland is late to the party.

 

[TROR]

Disney's been doing drag since 1989 with Ursula.

 

[Giss Neric]

Who exactly is this parade for? It’s a little creepy? Off? when you start getting the feeling that children aren’t its primary target audience.

Disneyland and Disney in general target audience ain't kids anymore so I don't know why you still have that perception. Kids don't buy every kind of spirit jerseys, have the latest Loungefly bags, or even have the latest post on social media of what's happening. All of that are late teens to young adults and full grown adults. Include those YouTube vloggers too who document every new food, festival, ride or parades. So yeah, the parade is definitely not just for naive children.