Walt Disney World has began to tug again the curtain on the upcoming Magic Kingdom nighttime parade, Disney Starlight: Dream the Evening Away. This shares new idea artwork, contemporary particulars concerning the upcoming leisure spectacular, artistic costuming…and greater than just a bit hype for Essential Road’s first evening parade in virtually a decade, and first new evening parade since I used to be a child. (And I’m not younger!)
For individuals who are unfamiliar with Disney Starlight: Dream the Evening Away Parade, it’s the religious successor to SpectroMagic and Essential Road Electrical Parade and is slated to debut in Summer season 2025. It was first introduced throughout final 12 months’s D23 Expo, and particulars have slowly trickled out since then, most just lately over the vacation season with the complete identify and a contemporary piece of idea artwork.
Disney Starlight will use the newest expertise to inform new tales concerning the characters you’re keen on, in accordance with Walt Disney World. All of this is delivered to life by the magic of the Blue Fairy, along with beloved characters from Walt Disney Animation Studios movies “Peter Pan,” “Encanto,” “Frozen,” and extra. Nonetheless, we didn’t know an entire lot about Starlight till late January 2025, when Walt Disney World actually began revealing Disney Starlight: Dream the Evening Away Parade.
Let’s not bury the lede, and as an alternative begin with the tidbit that has us most excited. Because the announcement, which was made throughout a nostalgia-laden presentation, Walt Disney World has insinuated that Starlight could be a love letter to previous parades. Sturdy emphasis on insinuated. The phrases “religious successor” and “love letter” are ours–Disney has by no means immediately said as a lot.
Till in the present day. Walt Disney World is describing the parade as “a nod to the previous with our eyes firmly set on the longer term” and saying that this has turn into “a motto for the artistic group bringing ‘Disney Starlight: Dream the Evening Away’ to life.”
Because the artistic group prepares this all-new nighttime parade for its debut in Summer season 2025, they’re “drawing inspiration from not solely the wealthy historical past of nighttime parades at Magic Kingdom…but in addition a few of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ earliest animated options.” Disney can be indicating that there are “quite a lot of” easter eggs for parade lovers.
This reverence for the previous can be on full show in Disney Starlight Parade’s princess unit. Right here’s a have a look at the newly-revealed princess float idea artwork:
The princess parade unit pays homage to Disney Legend and artist Mary Blair’s authentic idea art work for Disney Animation’s “Cinderella.” Anchored by a gleaming fountain of sunshine that overflows to light up a cosmic ballroom, the float is only one piece of the constellation of traditional and modern tales that make up this new parade.
We love this. If Bob Iger and Josh D’Amaro need to curry favor with followers, they need to institute a “Mary Blair Mandate” alongside their one for extra IP. Blair’s trademark visuals are Distinctly Disney, and are really timeless. In all places they’ve been utilized lately, they’ve enhanced. If the entire Up to date reimagining have been carried out pursuant to the Mary Blair Mandate, it is likely to be the perfect resort at Walt Disney World proper now, as an alternative of a incoherent mess. However I digress.
Level being, we love that the artistic group is being impressed by Mary Blairy, and in addition previous evening parades at Magic Kingdom. That is a simple and apparent win, as Walt Disney World diehards largely love evening parades. Magic Kingdom has by no means had a dangerous evening parade–each Essential Road Electrical Parade and SpectroMagic are beloved by generations of followers. Even those that by no means noticed them carried out dwell, and have solely discovered about them by means of the magic of YouTube.
Despite the fact that I’ve skilled a number of different evening parades, SpectroMagic was the formative one in my fandom–the one one I bear in mind experiencing as each a child and fledgling Disney Grownup.
SpectroMagic was operating the primary a number of years Sarah and I visited Walt Disney World collectively. It was one of many main contributing components to our falling in love with Disney yet again collectively that ultimately led to this weblog. So you’ll be able to both thank or curse SpectroMagic for that, because the case could also be.
We watched SpectroMagic each single evening we have been at Magic Kingdom, and there was simply one thing particular concerning the anticipation that constructed when Jiminy Cricket’s voice began coming over the loudspeakers. He was the voice for a technology of Walt Disney World followers, and made these evenings thrilling. There are solely a handful of extinct experiences at Walt Disney World that I miss greater than SpectroMagic.
With that mentioned, I’m not merely hoping for Starlight to be SpectroMagic 2.0. Expertise has improved by leaps and bounds, and different evening parades reveal that the idea can–and will–evolve. “A nod to the previous with our eyes firmly set on the longer term” is the proper artistic mission assertion for Disney Starlight: Dream the Evening Away.
Few issues profit from legacy like evening parades. The most effective ones have drawn liberal inspiration from their predecessors, and I hope that’s true of Starlight, too. Nothing would please me greater than for it to innovate and iterate on the idea whereas additionally being an amalgamation of previous Disney evening parades.
Outdated and new . That may be the perfect recipe for tugging on the sentimental heartstrings of old-timers like me, whereas creating new-nostalgia for an entire technology of followers (together with me, once more) and forging new lifelong followers within the course of. However we’re getting forward of ourselves.
Throughout this Starlight sneak peek, Walt Disney World additionally gave a glimpse contained in the Disney Dwell Leisure Costuming workshop. The group there was laborious at work designing an entire fleet of glimmering clothes for Disney Starlight: Dream the Evening Away.
Utilizing a mix of revolutionary lighting methods and kooky custom-fabrics, the group is developing every look to be “kissed by starlight.”
The photograph under reveals one of many prototype costume items for the parade, and Disney means that followers think about it swirling down the parade route, layers of shimmering cloth selecting up the glow of the encompassing floats, every mild twinkling in good synchronization with the music.
Whereas the photograph doesn’t reveal an excessive amount of, it’s an excellent reminder of the significance of parade expertise evolving.
Some followers have wished that Essential Road Electrical Parade would return as an alternative of Magic Kingdom getting a brand-new evening parade. I can respect the sentiment, which is seemingly a mixture of sentimentality and concern of the unknown. Longtime followers know that they love Essential Road Electrical Parade, which has turn into iconic and had a 50-year legacy for good purpose.
We’ve watched Essential Road Electrical Parade every now and then throughout its returns to Disneyland within the final decade. Once you want an evening parade repair, it does the trick. Nevertheless, having seen newer and extra technically-impressive evening parades, it’s laborious to return. Dreamlights, particularly, is a grasp class in taking all the pieces particular about Essential Road Electrical Parade, modernizing and bettering upon it. (The excellent news is that Starlight is most likely getting Tokyo’s hand-me-downs from a few totally different parades, which might be an enormous win for Walt Disney world followers.)
If Disney Starlight: Dream the Evening Away is even half nearly as good as Dreamlights, it is going to be the perfect nighttime parade to ever roll down Essential Road in Magic Kingdom. The music, floats, and costuming (talking of which, that photograph above jogs my memory of the Cinderella ball robe from Dreamlights–and that’s the previous model of the costume, from a pair many years in the past) are equal components expertise, creativity and coronary heart. If Starlight has all three, it is going to be an emotional tour de drive.
There’s a purpose this was the #1 announcement from D23 Expo for us. We can not wait to observe it with our fellow followers, and type new ‘core reminiscences’ of a Magic Kingdom evening parade with our daughter throughout her early life. Hyped is an understatement. Now the massive query on each fan’s thoughts: When Will Starlight Evening Parade Debut at Walt Disney World?
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider the Disney Starlight: Dream the Evening Away reveals to date? Trying ahead to Walt Disney World’s first brand-new evening parade in many years? Any floats, franchises, characters, or different nods to SpectroMagic or Magic Road Electrical Parade, and many others., that you just’re hoping to see out of the brand new Disney Starlight evening parade? Some other questions or remark? Listening to suggestions about your experiences is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!
