“I want there was a strategy to know you’re within the good previous days earlier than you’ve truly left them.” This assertion from one of many nice minds of our time is profoundly easy, but merely profound. It’s very true on the subject of Walt Disney World.
There are a variety of instances that I’d contemplate to be the great ole days at Walt Disney World. September by way of December 2019, November and December 2016, and Summer season 2014 all come to thoughts. Even what’s routinely considered as an period of stagnation, 2007 by way of 2011, holds lots of nostalgia for us. How I want we might’ve savored these seasons extra on the time, however to cite one other good and adventurous American, “the golden age by no means was the current age.”
With the advantage of hindsight, I might give examples of why every of these years had been particular: Cinderella Fort Dream Lights/Osborne Lights/Lights of Winter, 12 months of a Million Goals, Summer season Nightastic, Additional Magic Hours till 3 am, Star Wars Weekends, and a lot extra. One of many largest examples is heat summer time evenings in Magic Kingdom.
I nonetheless can vividly recall numerous nights, anxiously awaiting SpectroMagic whereas sitting on Essential Avenue by Casey’s Nook, scarfing down corn canine nuggets and plastic cheese after a protracted day of commando touring. The anticipation that constructed within the crowd when Jiminy Cricket’s voice began coming over the loudspeakers, letting us understand it was nearly showtime.
For Walt Disney World followers of a sure age, the one-two punch of SpectroMagic and Needs fashioned the inspiration of so many core recollections in Magic Kingdom. All of us had our particular rituals that give distinctive persona to the nostalgia, whether or not that be the accompanying meals, particular seats, and even what we did afterwards. However the commonality for my fellow millennials was SpectroMagic and Needs.
For this reason it was such a devastating blow when SpectroMagic didn’t return after Summer season Nightastic. Destroyed with no alternative attributable to poor storage, we hoped for the longest time that Magic Kingdom would get a correct new nighttime parade. Through the years, followers went by way of the levels of grief, ultimately accepting that SpectroMagic 2.0 was not coming. The perfect we might hope for was importing Paint the Night time or Essential Avenue Electrical Parade (but once more) from Disneyland. However even that didn’t occur.
It wasn’t only a parade we misplaced. It was the top of an period. The collective neighborhood misplaced a communal expertise that outlined evenings in Magic Kingdom, and we’ve been lacking that for a decade. It’s downright prison that a complete era has by no means had a correct parade counterpart for the unimaginable Fortunately Ever After!
Suffice to say, there was a purpose why Starlight was our #1 announcement of a jam-packed D23 Expo final yr (given how we’ve been anxiously awaiting this for the final decade, the evaluate is lengthy; if all you care about is the takeaway, scroll right down to “Starlight Verdict”). In spite of everything this ready, it was thrilling to lastly say good day once more to a nighttime parade in Magic Kingdom.
Because the lights dance from float to drift by way of the facility of Blue Fairy’s magic, visitors see favourite traditional and modern characters from Walt Disney Animation Studios and Disney Pixar movies, some for the primary time in a Disney nighttime parade.
One of many issues that struck me when watching the current leisure episode of We Name It Imagineering is simply what number of creatives on Starlight are roughly my age, and likewise spent their childhood visiting Walt Disney World, seeing SpectroMagic. Some even cited that parade, particularly, as what bought them into the business.
The inspiration from Essential Avenue Electrical Parade and SpectroMagic is evident when watching Starlight. Not solely within the float design, however within the music, choreography, and delicate stylistic touches. Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away remembers the nostalgia of nighttime spectaculars with innovation lighting the way in which for a magical expertise like by no means earlier than. One foot prior to now, and the opposite within the current and future is cliche, however apt.
We’re going to arrange this evaluate of Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away first by float after which music, adopted by strengths and weaknesses of the parade as a complete. Let’s dig in!
Blue Fairy
The very first float units the tone for Starlight’s star-kissed constellation of Disney goals, all delivered to life by the magic of the Blue Fairy’s wand. Visitors are invited to want upon this very brilliant star to kick off the parade in becoming style.
Relying upon your body of reference, it both feels impressed by Tokyo Disneyland’s Dreamlights, an evening parade that additionally begins with the Blue Fairy unit, or a throwback to the Needs fireworks at Magic Kingdom.
I like that Starlight begins with the Blue Fairy as a result of, whether or not it’s a nod to these nighttime spectaculars or not, it jogs my memory of each. And I like each. I additionally simply suppose it’s an objectively sturdy strategy to begin this parade, and it affords a free thematic throughline to Starlight that makes it a bit extra cohesive than different nighttime leisure we’ve seen.
One minor quibble with the Blue Fairy float is that the bottom is very large and boxy, making the performer’s higher physique undersized by comparability; ditto the wings. I’m undecided if “the float is simply too massive” is a grievance I actually wish to make, and that is truthfully one thing I didn’t discover in particular person on my first and even second viewing. Pinocchio and Geppetto can be higher as a part of a floor unit, too.
Want
Primarily based on the Disney a hundredth Anniversary movie, this float options Asha gathering across the wishing tree alongside Valentino the goat as a small determine, and Star by way of LED screens contained in the tree.
Many followers had been initially stunned to see Want getting its personal float, because the film was a field workplace flop and hasn’t actually gained any momentum by way of streaming. Greater than something, this speaks to how excessive expectations had been internally for this movie (it’s an understatement to say Want’s underperformance caught the corporate abruptly) and simply how way back improvement on Starlight began. I’m nonetheless considerably stunned they didn’t pivot and repurpose this float into one thing else.
Setting the recognition of Want apart, this can be a nicely-done minor float. It’s additionally good to get selection in leisure, and it’s one movie that isn’t represented a lot elsewhere.
Encanto
On the Encanto float in Starlight, Isabela makes her Magic Kingdom debut alongside her fellow Madrigal relations. In true Isabela style, she swings on floral vines similar to she does within the movie. Mirabel seems alongside her on the entrance with Bruno on the bottom of the float.
The centerpiece of the Encanto float is the Magic Candle that’s all the time lit and comprises the miracle that blessed the Madrigal household and their home with magic. This 360-degree display is admittedly spectacular, but it surely’s the way in which that it’s blended into the float as a complete that stands out to me. Or slightly, that the candle does not stand out, a minimum of not in a means that’s distracting or is at odds with the remainder of the parade.
Frozen
The Kingdom of Arendelle is represented with its personal float, as Frozen Fever extends into its second decade. That is technically the Frozen 2 float, given the costuming of Elsa in entrance of frozen fractals and ice towers that home screens exhibiting Anna, Olaf, and different characters and parts from the movie.
The Frozen float might be going to be among the many extra divisive of the parade (save for Want’s mere existence). The choice to make this one of many parade’s smaller scale floats versus Elsa’s towering ice palace was an fascinating one. Personally, I like this. Whereas I’d’ve beloved to see this identical convincing expertise in grander scale, I believe that is superior to the Frozen float in Paint the Night time.
Princesses & Princes
The royalty unit options the affect of Disney Legend and artist Mary Blair on the unit’s design. This float options beloved princes and princesses: Aurora and Prince Phillip, Tiana and Prince Naveen, Belle and the Beast, and Cinderella and Prince Charming. The royal court docket dancers who bookend this princess section are one among many references to the traditional Essential Avenue Electrical Parade.
That is one among Starlight’s two very prolonged and really grand floats. It’s harking back to different princess or ballroom floats from previous parades, and it’s beautiful. From the swooping curvature of the design to the lighting results, it’s nice. Deceptively easy and chic in look, however completely mesmerizing in particular person.
Coco
The sounds of Mariachi music announce the arrival of a larger-than-life Pepita, wings unfold above the parade route. Beneath, Miguel strums his guitar on the foot of a marigold bridge to the Land of the Useless with Dante close by, towards the backdrop of sugar cranium fireworks.
This Coco float seems unbelievable. Coco having a presence in Disney Starlight is unsurprising, because it’s been a staple of nighttime spectaculars for the final a number of years. And for good purpose. The music of Coco is energetic and emotional, so even when there aren’t any accompanying visuals, it’s all the time an asset to the nighttime spectaculars. Coco was nearly sufficient to redeem Harmonious. Virtually.
Starlight clearly does have visuals, and the vibrance of Coco plus its music is pitch good for an evening parade. This is likely one of the greatest floats within the parade, because it was destined to be. My solely slight quibble with this one is that it might’ve been even greater and higher. I’m wonderful with Frozen having a smaller scale float, however would’ve beloved to see this be one of many parade’s flagship floats. Nonetheless, laborious to complain when it’s this good.
Moana
Essential Avenue, U.S.A. additionally “makes means” for a Moana float, full with luminescent waves. Whereas Moana takes heart stage, you’ll additionally discover Pua, HeiHei, and even a manta ray representing Gramma Tala becoming a member of her journey.
The Moana float is likely one of the extra grandiose ones, the Gramma Tala launching (do manta rays launch?) out of the water in entrance of Moana alongside the parade route. That is one among many “no notes” floats, with all the things about this being good. The best way sensible parade lighting is married with trendy results is a triumph all through Starlight, however particularly so right here.
Peter Pan
Peter Pan and Wendy grace the London skyline in a float that evokes each the long-lasting scene of Peter Pan’s Flight (the unique soarin’ over… attraction) and the Dreaming Up daytime parade at Tokyo Disneyland. As with the latter, its our understanding that Peter Pan and Wendy will fly over London ultimately, swirling across the starlit sky by way of overhead helps.
Even with out that wow second, this can be a float that wows. The design of the float is spectacular, from the Large Ben to the rooftops of London to the large crescent moon. The lighting results are what actually impress, with the transformative sparkles of starlight as soon as once more being mesmerizing. That is yet one more “no notes” float, and that’s even with Peter Pan and Wendy solely strolling throughout the London sky!
Whimsy the Practice
All the enjoyment, surprise, and magic culminates within the parade’s finale, the place a whimsical practice (named Whimsy the Practice), impressed by the long-lasting Essential Avenue Electrical Parade float, emerges to take dreamers of all ages on a experience by way of the celebs.
Swirling ribbons of starlight reveal Goofy, Pluto, Donald Duck, and Daisy Duck main a procession that features Snow White and Dopey in a twinkling mine automobile, Rapunzel and Flynn Rider floating towards a gleaming lantern on their boat, and Aladdin and Jasmine taking a magic carpet experience. Closing out the celebration are Minnie and Mickey Mouse, draped in glowing new seems. The duo sends us off, reminding us to imagine within the energy of wishing upon a star.
Whimsy the Practice is the most effective finale parade unit to ever seem within the home parks. No less than, I can’t consider something higher. It’s actually spectacular in measurement and scale, and the color-changing lighting results are, once more, nothing wanting mesmerizing. I like this float, and am actually happy to see Starlight find yourself a excessive observe slightly than an anticlimactic one.
Parade Music
SpectroMagic, Essential Avenue Electrical Parade, Dreamlights, and Paint the Night time all have completely different soundtrack types. From my perspective, SpectroMagic has the most effective music. The rating is what I’d name a triumphant waltz, with regal trumpet fanfare, dreamlike melodies, joyous lyrics, and lifting orchestral rating.
Essential Avenue Electrical Parade is legendary for the “Baroque Hoedown” and its electro-synthe-magnetic sound; it’s each of its period and by some means transcended that to turn into timeless. Dreamlights is like that, however modernized. Paint the Night time additionally attracts inspiration from what got here earlier than, however has way more of a high-energy pop sound.
An important parade can take an only-okay soundtrack and make you fall in love with it. Or maybe uplifting and memorable music can overcome in any other case unexceptional floats? At their greatest, Disney nighttime parades are a symphony of sights and sounds, with each working in tandem to raise each other.
Starlight has a brand new authentic theme that blends an impressive musical rating with traditional melodies from beloved animated movies. The concept with Starlight was to meld Essential Avenue Electrical Parade and SpectroMagic, bringing the digital and orchestral collectively. The inventive workforce needed to deliver collectively one thing acquainted and nostalgic, whereas additionally being new.
They nailed it. Starlight’s authentic theme is traditional and fashionable, with a sound that’s catchy and memorable. I don’t actually know how one can articulate musical ideas, however I’d describe Starlight’s sound as “celestial.” The distinct notes within the theme evoke factors of sunshine, like stars, I suppose. If Area Mountain had been extra whimsical and didn’t have already got probably the most iconic queue music of all time, I might see the Starlight theme becoming completely there. Like I mentioned, I’m not the most effective at explaining music in phrases.
For me, the unique theme in Starlight encapsulates the essence of sitting on Essential Avenue or within the hub gazing up at Cinderella Fort because the lights dim, and you may start to see the floats approaching within the distance. It’s a fantastical feeling, and this rating has an otherworldly high quality that simply works. No less than, for me.
The music is probably the most polarizing a part of Starlight. In speaking to different visitors who watched one of many performances of Starlight, there was no clear consensus. Some discovered it to be slightly too understated and low vitality, with one even likening it to elevator music (oof).
I couldn’t disagree extra. The soundtrack to Starlight is elegant and complex, a classical and timeless type that appeals to me way more than Paint the Night time. It positively is extra on the mellow facet; it’s not the kind of ‘celestial’ rating that includes pew pew laser blasts or massive battles with aliens.
It’ll be fascinating to see how common visitors react to Starlight’s rating, as a result of I might simply see my perspective changing into the minority viewpoint among the many common public. There are a number of cases of music from nighttime spectaculars that I’ve beloved (Rivers of Gentle, Reflections of Earth) not providing sufficient pizzazz for the tastes of standard visitors.
At the moment, folks appear to wish fixed stimulation and in-your-face pleasure, and I might see Starlight’s rating falling brief on that entrance. However I’d hope the floats with the fan-favorite characters and thousands and thousands of factors of sunshine can be sufficiently frenetic to captivate restricted consideration spans.
Parade Performers & Floats
Paint the Night time isn’t my favourite parade. Though it’s positively grown on me during the last decade plus, it’s nonetheless my least favourite nighttime parade (see my Paint the Night time Evaluate, which has already been ‘softened’ from its authentic stance after seeing the HKDL model).
Paint the Night time is simply too hip and flashy for my tastes, nearly just like the parade model of a dance occasion. (Sarah calls it “a rave on wheels” and she or he’s not fallacious.) There’s numerous expertise that seemingly exists for its personal sake; it’s entrancing and spectacular, however to what finish? There’s a wonderful line between excessive vitality and rambunctious, and there are factors when Paint the Night time isn’t on the correct facet of that. As a complete, the parade is simply very modern and discordant. Right here’s this; there’s that.
I point out all of this right here as a result of Paint the Night time and Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away are just about polar opposites. If Paint the Night time is your ideally suited model of a nighttime parade–and it’s for a lot of followers, as I recall my evaluate of it being fairly the ‘scorching take’ on the time–then there’s a superb probability that Starlight gained’t be to your tastes. It’s way more understated and relaxed.
This also needs to assist emphasize why I like Starlight a lot already. It’s not simply the elegant, orchestral, and extra timeless rating–though that’s a really massive half. It’s additionally the floats.
Even with above minor criticisms, I like the floats as a complete. I actually hate when Imagineering or Disney Reside Leisure lets the technological tail wag the canine, which is one thing that appears to occur too usually. Harmonious is an efficient instance of this, the place we bought an enormous Stargate and water tacos for no actual purpose apart from, I assume, somebody thought they seemed cool.
Expertise that fades into the background and doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb is good for me. It’s not that I don’t need Disney to push the envelope. It’s that I don’t wish to be fixated on the expertise itself, to the detriment of the larger image expertise. To every their very own, however Paint the Night time suffers from this in locations for me.
Starlight doesn’t. The wedding of contemporary expertise with conventional factors of sunshine type is seamless. Not one of the floats and their options really feel misplaced or discordant with the parade as a complete. Starlight is cohesive, pushed by its thematic throughline.
To make certain, I do produce other little quibbles in regards to the floats. For one, I want there have been extra of them. Tangled having its personal float appears pretty apparent, and the identical might be mentioned for Snow White (though I’m probably not positive they match the theme of the parade within the first place). Aladdin be one other apparent selection, and would supply a bit extra illustration to the Disney Renaissance period.
With that mentioned, that is about on par with the size of up to date parades, and I think that Disney would clarify the choice as pushed by visitor survey information and never wanting the parade to be overly lengthy and outstay its welcome. Whereas I’m skeptical of that rationalization (cash is undoubtedly the actual purpose), having a couple of ‘filler’ floats, just like the smaller spinners from Spectro or the puppets from Paint the Night time, can be an incredible enhancement.
My way more vital grievance about Starlight is that its floor sport is weak.
There are usually not sufficient dancers between the floats. The choreography isn’t nice. The dancers which might be current have extremely weak costumes, throughout the board, with minimal lighting. That is true even of the royal court docket, which I suppose are the most effective of the bunch, but it surely’s not precisely a excessive bar.
The remainder of the dancers all have darkened costumes, with the thought being that the performer fades away and the sunshine results that they show take the highlight. This isn’t essentially a nasty thought–different evening parades do the identical–however Starlight is sort of a one-trick pony with this method, and not one of the gentle results are sturdy sufficient to justify this.
That is all actually underwhelming, and makes the parade really feel incomplete. I’m not in the least stunned that Walt Disney World would low cost out on performers, as they’ve demonstrated an aversion to this during the last decade-plus. However I’m nonetheless stunned by simply how unhealthy it’s. That is one regard wherein Paint the Night time handily surpasses Starlight.
On condition that Walt Disney World nonetheless hasn’t introduced again all the toy troopers within the Christmas parade or absolutely restored Pageant of Fantasy, I don’t have excessive hopes that this shall be mounted. However I actually, actually would like to be fallacious about this. I do know Starlight was a race towards the clock and there have been considerations that not all the things can be prepared in time. Hopefully costuming and dancers are a part of that.
It’s heartening, a minimum of, that Disney Reside Leisure nailed the “bones” of Starlight, and the one drawback factors are these issues that, theoretically, might be swapped out or supplemented pretty simply. However that requires Walt Disney World recovering from its allergy to spending cash on performers, and it already seems like a small miracle that we bought Starlight within the first place.
Starlight Verdict
They are saying you possibly can’t go dwelling once more. Through the years, I’ve realized simply how true that is with adjustments at Walt Disney World. Partially as a result of each extinct attraction and leisure providing is inextricably intertwined with nostalgia, making it not possible to look again with out rose-colored glasses or assess new additions objectively.
It’s additionally as a result of visitor preferences and Disney’s emphasis have shifted considerably within the intervening years. We’re by no means getting one other old skool EPCOT Heart attraction; the most effective we are able to hope for is one infused with its ‘edutainment’ spirit. Prolonged, slow-moving darkish rides or authentic sights divorced of mental property are unlikely. At this time’s generations of children will fall in love with Walt Disney World for completely completely different causes than I did again within the Eighties and Nineties.
When it got here to a non secular successor to SpectroMagic, this was made clear by Paint the Night time a decade in the past. Disney went in a very completely different path with that parade, and if that’s what they did for the sixtieth anniversary of Walt Disney’s authentic magic kingdom, what probability did the tourist-driven citadel park in Florida have? Was a nasty thought to get my hopes up an excessive amount of a couple of evening parade that ‘spoke to me,’ personally, as a child who grew up on and fell in love with SpectroMagic?!
Properly, I’m glad to report that after in a uncommon whereas, you possibly can return dwelling once more.
Starlight isn’t good, neither is it SpectroMagic 2.0, but it surely’s a lot nearer to each than I anticipated from a Disney Reside Leisure evening parade debuting within the yr 2025. I can not imagine simply how nicely they threaded the needle, making a parade that seems like the right melding of Essential Avenue Electrical Parade and SpectroMagic, whereas additionally advancing the medium by way of non-intrusive expertise and by way of new characters.
Starlight is without delay previous and new, in the most effective methods doable. The bottom items are an enormous disappointment and there are minor quibbles available, however Starlight nails the basics, delivering such a lovely and emotional nighttime parade that it’s simple to miss particular person parts that fall brief.
Equally as vital, Starlight brings again a nighttime vitality to Magic Kingdom that’s been absent for a decade. Everybody I talked to within the park, even those that didn’t love Starlight as a lot as I did, felt this.
It was like going again in time, however with out staying caught prior to now. There was a cloth vibe shift, and the temper in Magic Kingdom was one thing I hadn’t felt outdoors of laborious ticket occasions in years. (Now, we simply want the Kiss Goodnight to return to essentially punctuate the top of a satisfying night at MK.)
All of this is the reason Starlight jogs my memory of old skool Disney. As a result of it not solely brings that lacking magic again to evenings in Magic Kingdom that has been absent for a decade. But additionally, as a result of it does so with a parade that feels prefer it’s of one other period.
Starlight is concurrently whimsical and chic. It doesn’t attempt too laborious to be fashionable and funky, and trusts its viewers to have the eye span to understand one thing that isn’t a nonstop assault on the senses. It’s the right mixture of many various issues that come collectively and work harmoniously, versus being one other case of contemporary Disney loss of life by committee.
Starlight strikes me as one thing that would’ve been made by inventive time vacationers from the Nineties, working with the ethos of the time however the expertise of at the moment. About the one means it jogs my memory of contemporary Disney is the Want mandate, however even that could be a far cry from Disney+ sizzle reel that was Enchantment. Briefly, Starlight is an prompt traditional.
The 1-2-3 punch of Starlight-Fortunately Ever After-Starlight is highly effective. These are two items of leisure which might be worthy successors to what they changed and can (or have) type the inspiration of nostalgia and sentimentality for a brand new era of Walt Disney World followers.
Finally, I’d love nothing greater than to look again on July 2025 as the beginning of a brand new “Golden Age” at Walt Disney World. One heralded in by Starlight, bridged and increase by a slew of experience reimaginings, after which kicked into excessive gear (turbocharged, you may say) by Piston Peak, Tropical Americas, Monstropolis, Villains Land, and extra.
Maybe we’re getting forward of ourselves. The closures of the Rivers of America and Muppets Courtyard are nonetheless contemporary, as are the botched EPCOT overhaul that birthed CommuniCore Corridor and World Celebration. However it’s beginning to appear that Walt Disney World is getting again on observe, getting smaller-scale tasks proper and heading down the correct path with attraction enhancements. And I positively felt a renewed sense of optimism as I made one final nighttime stroll alongside the Frontierland boardwalk and exited Essential Avenue after midnight.
Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away is the most effective exemplar of this course-correction in motion. Not solely is it exceedingly nicely carried out and an important train in restraint with none of Disney’s worst impulses, however there’s additionally the truth that it exists, interval. This can be a evening parade in Magic Kingdom for the primary time in a decade, and it’s a new evening parade. The final couple of golden ages at Walt Disney World didn’t have evening parades in any respect, and the one earlier than that solely had Disneyland’s hand-me-downs.
That is the primary time in my grownup life that Magic Kingdom has gotten a brand-new evening parade. Between its mere existence and gorgeous high quality, I can’t consider any higher signal of a paradigm shift. I’m not saying we should always get carried away with unbridled optimism in regards to the upcoming tasks. However maybe Starlight is an indication that issues are altering for the higher, and it’s lastly time to provide Disney’s inventive groups the advantage of the doubt.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you excited for Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away? Trying ahead to Walt Disney World’s first brand-new evening parade in many years? What are you anticipating with Starlight? In case you’ve already seen the brand new evening parade, what did you consider it? Agree or disagree with our assessments? Another questions or remark? Listening to suggestions about your experiences is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
“I want there was a strategy to know you’re within the good previous days earlier than you’ve truly left them.” This assertion from one of many nice minds of our time is profoundly easy, but merely profound. It’s very true on the subject of Walt Disney World.
There are a variety of instances that I’d contemplate to be the great ole days at Walt Disney World. September by way of December 2019, November and December 2016, and Summer season 2014 all come to thoughts. Even what’s routinely considered as an period of stagnation, 2007 by way of 2011, holds lots of nostalgia for us. How I want we might’ve savored these seasons extra on the time, however to cite one other good and adventurous American, “the golden age by no means was the current age.”
With the advantage of hindsight, I might give examples of why every of these years had been particular: Cinderella Fort Dream Lights/Osborne Lights/Lights of Winter, 12 months of a Million Goals, Summer season Nightastic, Additional Magic Hours till 3 am, Star Wars Weekends, and a lot extra. One of many largest examples is heat summer time evenings in Magic Kingdom.
I nonetheless can vividly recall numerous nights, anxiously awaiting SpectroMagic whereas sitting on Essential Avenue by Casey’s Nook, scarfing down corn canine nuggets and plastic cheese after a protracted day of commando touring. The anticipation that constructed within the crowd when Jiminy Cricket’s voice began coming over the loudspeakers, letting us understand it was nearly showtime.
For Walt Disney World followers of a sure age, the one-two punch of SpectroMagic and Needs fashioned the inspiration of so many core recollections in Magic Kingdom. All of us had our particular rituals that give distinctive persona to the nostalgia, whether or not that be the accompanying meals, particular seats, and even what we did afterwards. However the commonality for my fellow millennials was SpectroMagic and Needs.
For this reason it was such a devastating blow when SpectroMagic didn’t return after Summer season Nightastic. Destroyed with no alternative attributable to poor storage, we hoped for the longest time that Magic Kingdom would get a correct new nighttime parade. Through the years, followers went by way of the levels of grief, ultimately accepting that SpectroMagic 2.0 was not coming. The perfect we might hope for was importing Paint the Night time or Essential Avenue Electrical Parade (but once more) from Disneyland. However even that didn’t occur.
It wasn’t only a parade we misplaced. It was the top of an period. The collective neighborhood misplaced a communal expertise that outlined evenings in Magic Kingdom, and we’ve been lacking that for a decade. It’s downright prison that a complete era has by no means had a correct parade counterpart for the unimaginable Fortunately Ever After!
Suffice to say, there was a purpose why Starlight was our #1 announcement of a jam-packed D23 Expo final yr (given how we’ve been anxiously awaiting this for the final decade, the evaluate is lengthy; if all you care about is the takeaway, scroll right down to “Starlight Verdict”). In spite of everything this ready, it was thrilling to lastly say good day once more to a nighttime parade in Magic Kingdom.
Because the lights dance from float to drift by way of the facility of Blue Fairy’s magic, visitors see favourite traditional and modern characters from Walt Disney Animation Studios and Disney Pixar movies, some for the primary time in a Disney nighttime parade.
One of many issues that struck me when watching the current leisure episode of We Name It Imagineering is simply what number of creatives on Starlight are roughly my age, and likewise spent their childhood visiting Walt Disney World, seeing SpectroMagic. Some even cited that parade, particularly, as what bought them into the business.
The inspiration from Essential Avenue Electrical Parade and SpectroMagic is evident when watching Starlight. Not solely within the float design, however within the music, choreography, and delicate stylistic touches. Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away remembers the nostalgia of nighttime spectaculars with innovation lighting the way in which for a magical expertise like by no means earlier than. One foot prior to now, and the opposite within the current and future is cliche, however apt.
We’re going to arrange this evaluate of Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away first by float after which music, adopted by strengths and weaknesses of the parade as a complete. Let’s dig in!
Blue Fairy
The very first float units the tone for Starlight’s star-kissed constellation of Disney goals, all delivered to life by the magic of the Blue Fairy’s wand. Visitors are invited to want upon this very brilliant star to kick off the parade in becoming style.
Relying upon your body of reference, it both feels impressed by Tokyo Disneyland’s Dreamlights, an evening parade that additionally begins with the Blue Fairy unit, or a throwback to the Needs fireworks at Magic Kingdom.
I like that Starlight begins with the Blue Fairy as a result of, whether or not it’s a nod to these nighttime spectaculars or not, it jogs my memory of each. And I like each. I additionally simply suppose it’s an objectively sturdy strategy to begin this parade, and it affords a free thematic throughline to Starlight that makes it a bit extra cohesive than different nighttime leisure we’ve seen.
One minor quibble with the Blue Fairy float is that the bottom is very large and boxy, making the performer’s higher physique undersized by comparability; ditto the wings. I’m undecided if “the float is simply too massive” is a grievance I actually wish to make, and that is truthfully one thing I didn’t discover in particular person on my first and even second viewing. Pinocchio and Geppetto can be higher as a part of a floor unit, too.
Want
Primarily based on the Disney a hundredth Anniversary movie, this float options Asha gathering across the wishing tree alongside Valentino the goat as a small determine, and Star by way of LED screens contained in the tree.
Many followers had been initially stunned to see Want getting its personal float, because the film was a field workplace flop and hasn’t actually gained any momentum by way of streaming. Greater than something, this speaks to how excessive expectations had been internally for this movie (it’s an understatement to say Want’s underperformance caught the corporate abruptly) and simply how way back improvement on Starlight began. I’m nonetheless considerably stunned they didn’t pivot and repurpose this float into one thing else.
Setting the recognition of Want apart, this can be a nicely-done minor float. It’s additionally good to get selection in leisure, and it’s one movie that isn’t represented a lot elsewhere.
Encanto
On the Encanto float in Starlight, Isabela makes her Magic Kingdom debut alongside her fellow Madrigal relations. In true Isabela style, she swings on floral vines similar to she does within the movie. Mirabel seems alongside her on the entrance with Bruno on the bottom of the float.
The centerpiece of the Encanto float is the Magic Candle that’s all the time lit and comprises the miracle that blessed the Madrigal household and their home with magic. This 360-degree display is admittedly spectacular, but it surely’s the way in which that it’s blended into the float as a complete that stands out to me. Or slightly, that the candle does not stand out, a minimum of not in a means that’s distracting or is at odds with the remainder of the parade.
Frozen
The Kingdom of Arendelle is represented with its personal float, as Frozen Fever extends into its second decade. That is technically the Frozen 2 float, given the costuming of Elsa in entrance of frozen fractals and ice towers that home screens exhibiting Anna, Olaf, and different characters and parts from the movie.
The Frozen float might be going to be among the many extra divisive of the parade (save for Want’s mere existence). The choice to make this one of many parade’s smaller scale floats versus Elsa’s towering ice palace was an fascinating one. Personally, I like this. Whereas I’d’ve beloved to see this identical convincing expertise in grander scale, I believe that is superior to the Frozen float in Paint the Night time.
Princesses & Princes
The royalty unit options the affect of Disney Legend and artist Mary Blair on the unit’s design. This float options beloved princes and princesses: Aurora and Prince Phillip, Tiana and Prince Naveen, Belle and the Beast, and Cinderella and Prince Charming. The royal court docket dancers who bookend this princess section are one among many references to the traditional Essential Avenue Electrical Parade.
That is one among Starlight’s two very prolonged and really grand floats. It’s harking back to different princess or ballroom floats from previous parades, and it’s beautiful. From the swooping curvature of the design to the lighting results, it’s nice. Deceptively easy and chic in look, however completely mesmerizing in particular person.
Coco
The sounds of Mariachi music announce the arrival of a larger-than-life Pepita, wings unfold above the parade route. Beneath, Miguel strums his guitar on the foot of a marigold bridge to the Land of the Useless with Dante close by, towards the backdrop of sugar cranium fireworks.
This Coco float seems unbelievable. Coco having a presence in Disney Starlight is unsurprising, because it’s been a staple of nighttime spectaculars for the final a number of years. And for good purpose. The music of Coco is energetic and emotional, so even when there aren’t any accompanying visuals, it’s all the time an asset to the nighttime spectaculars. Coco was nearly sufficient to redeem Harmonious. Virtually.
Starlight clearly does have visuals, and the vibrance of Coco plus its music is pitch good for an evening parade. This is likely one of the greatest floats within the parade, because it was destined to be. My solely slight quibble with this one is that it might’ve been even greater and higher. I’m wonderful with Frozen having a smaller scale float, however would’ve beloved to see this be one of many parade’s flagship floats. Nonetheless, laborious to complain when it’s this good.
Moana
Essential Avenue, U.S.A. additionally “makes means” for a Moana float, full with luminescent waves. Whereas Moana takes heart stage, you’ll additionally discover Pua, HeiHei, and even a manta ray representing Gramma Tala becoming a member of her journey.
The Moana float is likely one of the extra grandiose ones, the Gramma Tala launching (do manta rays launch?) out of the water in entrance of Moana alongside the parade route. That is one among many “no notes” floats, with all the things about this being good. The best way sensible parade lighting is married with trendy results is a triumph all through Starlight, however particularly so right here.
Peter Pan
Peter Pan and Wendy grace the London skyline in a float that evokes each the long-lasting scene of Peter Pan’s Flight (the unique soarin’ over… attraction) and the Dreaming Up daytime parade at Tokyo Disneyland. As with the latter, its our understanding that Peter Pan and Wendy will fly over London ultimately, swirling across the starlit sky by way of overhead helps.
Even with out that wow second, this can be a float that wows. The design of the float is spectacular, from the Large Ben to the rooftops of London to the large crescent moon. The lighting results are what actually impress, with the transformative sparkles of starlight as soon as once more being mesmerizing. That is yet one more “no notes” float, and that’s even with Peter Pan and Wendy solely strolling throughout the London sky!
Whimsy the Practice
All the enjoyment, surprise, and magic culminates within the parade’s finale, the place a whimsical practice (named Whimsy the Practice), impressed by the long-lasting Essential Avenue Electrical Parade float, emerges to take dreamers of all ages on a experience by way of the celebs.
Swirling ribbons of starlight reveal Goofy, Pluto, Donald Duck, and Daisy Duck main a procession that features Snow White and Dopey in a twinkling mine automobile, Rapunzel and Flynn Rider floating towards a gleaming lantern on their boat, and Aladdin and Jasmine taking a magic carpet experience. Closing out the celebration are Minnie and Mickey Mouse, draped in glowing new seems. The duo sends us off, reminding us to imagine within the energy of wishing upon a star.
Whimsy the Practice is the most effective finale parade unit to ever seem within the home parks. No less than, I can’t consider something higher. It’s actually spectacular in measurement and scale, and the color-changing lighting results are, once more, nothing wanting mesmerizing. I like this float, and am actually happy to see Starlight find yourself a excessive observe slightly than an anticlimactic one.
Parade Music
SpectroMagic, Essential Avenue Electrical Parade, Dreamlights, and Paint the Night time all have completely different soundtrack types. From my perspective, SpectroMagic has the most effective music. The rating is what I’d name a triumphant waltz, with regal trumpet fanfare, dreamlike melodies, joyous lyrics, and lifting orchestral rating.
Essential Avenue Electrical Parade is legendary for the “Baroque Hoedown” and its electro-synthe-magnetic sound; it’s each of its period and by some means transcended that to turn into timeless. Dreamlights is like that, however modernized. Paint the Night time additionally attracts inspiration from what got here earlier than, however has way more of a high-energy pop sound.
An important parade can take an only-okay soundtrack and make you fall in love with it. Or maybe uplifting and memorable music can overcome in any other case unexceptional floats? At their greatest, Disney nighttime parades are a symphony of sights and sounds, with each working in tandem to raise each other.
Starlight has a brand new authentic theme that blends an impressive musical rating with traditional melodies from beloved animated movies. The concept with Starlight was to meld Essential Avenue Electrical Parade and SpectroMagic, bringing the digital and orchestral collectively. The inventive workforce needed to deliver collectively one thing acquainted and nostalgic, whereas additionally being new.
They nailed it. Starlight’s authentic theme is traditional and fashionable, with a sound that’s catchy and memorable. I don’t actually know how one can articulate musical ideas, however I’d describe Starlight’s sound as “celestial.” The distinct notes within the theme evoke factors of sunshine, like stars, I suppose. If Area Mountain had been extra whimsical and didn’t have already got probably the most iconic queue music of all time, I might see the Starlight theme becoming completely there. Like I mentioned, I’m not the most effective at explaining music in phrases.
For me, the unique theme in Starlight encapsulates the essence of sitting on Essential Avenue or within the hub gazing up at Cinderella Fort because the lights dim, and you may start to see the floats approaching within the distance. It’s a fantastical feeling, and this rating has an otherworldly high quality that simply works. No less than, for me.
The music is probably the most polarizing a part of Starlight. In speaking to different visitors who watched one of many performances of Starlight, there was no clear consensus. Some discovered it to be slightly too understated and low vitality, with one even likening it to elevator music (oof).
I couldn’t disagree extra. The soundtrack to Starlight is elegant and complex, a classical and timeless type that appeals to me way more than Paint the Night time. It positively is extra on the mellow facet; it’s not the kind of ‘celestial’ rating that includes pew pew laser blasts or massive battles with aliens.
It’ll be fascinating to see how common visitors react to Starlight’s rating, as a result of I might simply see my perspective changing into the minority viewpoint among the many common public. There are a number of cases of music from nighttime spectaculars that I’ve beloved (Rivers of Gentle, Reflections of Earth) not providing sufficient pizzazz for the tastes of standard visitors.
At the moment, folks appear to wish fixed stimulation and in-your-face pleasure, and I might see Starlight’s rating falling brief on that entrance. However I’d hope the floats with the fan-favorite characters and thousands and thousands of factors of sunshine can be sufficiently frenetic to captivate restricted consideration spans.
Parade Performers & Floats
Paint the Night time isn’t my favourite parade. Though it’s positively grown on me during the last decade plus, it’s nonetheless my least favourite nighttime parade (see my Paint the Night time Evaluate, which has already been ‘softened’ from its authentic stance after seeing the HKDL model).
Paint the Night time is simply too hip and flashy for my tastes, nearly just like the parade model of a dance occasion. (Sarah calls it “a rave on wheels” and she or he’s not fallacious.) There’s numerous expertise that seemingly exists for its personal sake; it’s entrancing and spectacular, however to what finish? There’s a wonderful line between excessive vitality and rambunctious, and there are factors when Paint the Night time isn’t on the correct facet of that. As a complete, the parade is simply very modern and discordant. Right here’s this; there’s that.
I point out all of this right here as a result of Paint the Night time and Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away are just about polar opposites. If Paint the Night time is your ideally suited model of a nighttime parade–and it’s for a lot of followers, as I recall my evaluate of it being fairly the ‘scorching take’ on the time–then there’s a superb probability that Starlight gained’t be to your tastes. It’s way more understated and relaxed.
This also needs to assist emphasize why I like Starlight a lot already. It’s not simply the elegant, orchestral, and extra timeless rating–though that’s a really massive half. It’s additionally the floats.
Even with above minor criticisms, I like the floats as a complete. I actually hate when Imagineering or Disney Reside Leisure lets the technological tail wag the canine, which is one thing that appears to occur too usually. Harmonious is an efficient instance of this, the place we bought an enormous Stargate and water tacos for no actual purpose apart from, I assume, somebody thought they seemed cool.
Expertise that fades into the background and doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb is good for me. It’s not that I don’t need Disney to push the envelope. It’s that I don’t wish to be fixated on the expertise itself, to the detriment of the larger image expertise. To every their very own, however Paint the Night time suffers from this in locations for me.
Starlight doesn’t. The wedding of contemporary expertise with conventional factors of sunshine type is seamless. Not one of the floats and their options really feel misplaced or discordant with the parade as a complete. Starlight is cohesive, pushed by its thematic throughline.
To make certain, I do produce other little quibbles in regards to the floats. For one, I want there have been extra of them. Tangled having its personal float appears pretty apparent, and the identical might be mentioned for Snow White (though I’m probably not positive they match the theme of the parade within the first place). Aladdin be one other apparent selection, and would supply a bit extra illustration to the Disney Renaissance period.
With that mentioned, that is about on par with the size of up to date parades, and I think that Disney would clarify the choice as pushed by visitor survey information and never wanting the parade to be overly lengthy and outstay its welcome. Whereas I’m skeptical of that rationalization (cash is undoubtedly the actual purpose), having a couple of ‘filler’ floats, just like the smaller spinners from Spectro or the puppets from Paint the Night time, can be an incredible enhancement.
My way more vital grievance about Starlight is that its floor sport is weak.
There are usually not sufficient dancers between the floats. The choreography isn’t nice. The dancers which might be current have extremely weak costumes, throughout the board, with minimal lighting. That is true even of the royal court docket, which I suppose are the most effective of the bunch, but it surely’s not precisely a excessive bar.
The remainder of the dancers all have darkened costumes, with the thought being that the performer fades away and the sunshine results that they show take the highlight. This isn’t essentially a nasty thought–different evening parades do the identical–however Starlight is sort of a one-trick pony with this method, and not one of the gentle results are sturdy sufficient to justify this.
That is all actually underwhelming, and makes the parade really feel incomplete. I’m not in the least stunned that Walt Disney World would low cost out on performers, as they’ve demonstrated an aversion to this during the last decade-plus. However I’m nonetheless stunned by simply how unhealthy it’s. That is one regard wherein Paint the Night time handily surpasses Starlight.
On condition that Walt Disney World nonetheless hasn’t introduced again all the toy troopers within the Christmas parade or absolutely restored Pageant of Fantasy, I don’t have excessive hopes that this shall be mounted. However I actually, actually would like to be fallacious about this. I do know Starlight was a race towards the clock and there have been considerations that not all the things can be prepared in time. Hopefully costuming and dancers are a part of that.
It’s heartening, a minimum of, that Disney Reside Leisure nailed the “bones” of Starlight, and the one drawback factors are these issues that, theoretically, might be swapped out or supplemented pretty simply. However that requires Walt Disney World recovering from its allergy to spending cash on performers, and it already seems like a small miracle that we bought Starlight within the first place.
Starlight Verdict
They are saying you possibly can’t go dwelling once more. Through the years, I’ve realized simply how true that is with adjustments at Walt Disney World. Partially as a result of each extinct attraction and leisure providing is inextricably intertwined with nostalgia, making it not possible to look again with out rose-colored glasses or assess new additions objectively.
It’s additionally as a result of visitor preferences and Disney’s emphasis have shifted considerably within the intervening years. We’re by no means getting one other old skool EPCOT Heart attraction; the most effective we are able to hope for is one infused with its ‘edutainment’ spirit. Prolonged, slow-moving darkish rides or authentic sights divorced of mental property are unlikely. At this time’s generations of children will fall in love with Walt Disney World for completely completely different causes than I did again within the Eighties and Nineties.
When it got here to a non secular successor to SpectroMagic, this was made clear by Paint the Night time a decade in the past. Disney went in a very completely different path with that parade, and if that’s what they did for the sixtieth anniversary of Walt Disney’s authentic magic kingdom, what probability did the tourist-driven citadel park in Florida have? Was a nasty thought to get my hopes up an excessive amount of a couple of evening parade that ‘spoke to me,’ personally, as a child who grew up on and fell in love with SpectroMagic?!
Properly, I’m glad to report that after in a uncommon whereas, you possibly can return dwelling once more.
Starlight isn’t good, neither is it SpectroMagic 2.0, but it surely’s a lot nearer to each than I anticipated from a Disney Reside Leisure evening parade debuting within the yr 2025. I can not imagine simply how nicely they threaded the needle, making a parade that seems like the right melding of Essential Avenue Electrical Parade and SpectroMagic, whereas additionally advancing the medium by way of non-intrusive expertise and by way of new characters.
Starlight is without delay previous and new, in the most effective methods doable. The bottom items are an enormous disappointment and there are minor quibbles available, however Starlight nails the basics, delivering such a lovely and emotional nighttime parade that it’s simple to miss particular person parts that fall brief.
Equally as vital, Starlight brings again a nighttime vitality to Magic Kingdom that’s been absent for a decade. Everybody I talked to within the park, even those that didn’t love Starlight as a lot as I did, felt this.
It was like going again in time, however with out staying caught prior to now. There was a cloth vibe shift, and the temper in Magic Kingdom was one thing I hadn’t felt outdoors of laborious ticket occasions in years. (Now, we simply want the Kiss Goodnight to return to essentially punctuate the top of a satisfying night at MK.)
All of this is the reason Starlight jogs my memory of old skool Disney. As a result of it not solely brings that lacking magic again to evenings in Magic Kingdom that has been absent for a decade. But additionally, as a result of it does so with a parade that feels prefer it’s of one other period.
Starlight is concurrently whimsical and chic. It doesn’t attempt too laborious to be fashionable and funky, and trusts its viewers to have the eye span to understand one thing that isn’t a nonstop assault on the senses. It’s the right mixture of many various issues that come collectively and work harmoniously, versus being one other case of contemporary Disney loss of life by committee.
Starlight strikes me as one thing that would’ve been made by inventive time vacationers from the Nineties, working with the ethos of the time however the expertise of at the moment. About the one means it jogs my memory of contemporary Disney is the Want mandate, however even that could be a far cry from Disney+ sizzle reel that was Enchantment. Briefly, Starlight is an prompt traditional.
The 1-2-3 punch of Starlight-Fortunately Ever After-Starlight is highly effective. These are two items of leisure which might be worthy successors to what they changed and can (or have) type the inspiration of nostalgia and sentimentality for a brand new era of Walt Disney World followers.
Finally, I’d love nothing greater than to look again on July 2025 as the beginning of a brand new “Golden Age” at Walt Disney World. One heralded in by Starlight, bridged and increase by a slew of experience reimaginings, after which kicked into excessive gear (turbocharged, you may say) by Piston Peak, Tropical Americas, Monstropolis, Villains Land, and extra.
Maybe we’re getting forward of ourselves. The closures of the Rivers of America and Muppets Courtyard are nonetheless contemporary, as are the botched EPCOT overhaul that birthed CommuniCore Corridor and World Celebration. However it’s beginning to appear that Walt Disney World is getting again on observe, getting smaller-scale tasks proper and heading down the correct path with attraction enhancements. And I positively felt a renewed sense of optimism as I made one final nighttime stroll alongside the Frontierland boardwalk and exited Essential Avenue after midnight.
Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away is the most effective exemplar of this course-correction in motion. Not solely is it exceedingly nicely carried out and an important train in restraint with none of Disney’s worst impulses, however there’s additionally the truth that it exists, interval. This can be a evening parade in Magic Kingdom for the primary time in a decade, and it’s a new evening parade. The final couple of golden ages at Walt Disney World didn’t have evening parades in any respect, and the one earlier than that solely had Disneyland’s hand-me-downs.
That is the primary time in my grownup life that Magic Kingdom has gotten a brand-new evening parade. Between its mere existence and gorgeous high quality, I can’t consider any higher signal of a paradigm shift. I’m not saying we should always get carried away with unbridled optimism in regards to the upcoming tasks. However maybe Starlight is an indication that issues are altering for the higher, and it’s lastly time to provide Disney’s inventive groups the advantage of the doubt.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you excited for Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away? Trying ahead to Walt Disney World’s first brand-new evening parade in many years? What are you anticipating with Starlight? In case you’ve already seen the brand new evening parade, what did you consider it? Agree or disagree with our assessments? Another questions or remark? Listening to suggestions about your experiences is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
“I want there was a strategy to know you’re within the good previous days earlier than you’ve truly left them.” This assertion from one of many nice minds of our time is profoundly easy, but merely profound. It’s very true on the subject of Walt Disney World.
There are a variety of instances that I’d contemplate to be the great ole days at Walt Disney World. September by way of December 2019, November and December 2016, and Summer season 2014 all come to thoughts. Even what’s routinely considered as an period of stagnation, 2007 by way of 2011, holds lots of nostalgia for us. How I want we might’ve savored these seasons extra on the time, however to cite one other good and adventurous American, “the golden age by no means was the current age.”
With the advantage of hindsight, I might give examples of why every of these years had been particular: Cinderella Fort Dream Lights/Osborne Lights/Lights of Winter, 12 months of a Million Goals, Summer season Nightastic, Additional Magic Hours till 3 am, Star Wars Weekends, and a lot extra. One of many largest examples is heat summer time evenings in Magic Kingdom.
I nonetheless can vividly recall numerous nights, anxiously awaiting SpectroMagic whereas sitting on Essential Avenue by Casey’s Nook, scarfing down corn canine nuggets and plastic cheese after a protracted day of commando touring. The anticipation that constructed within the crowd when Jiminy Cricket’s voice began coming over the loudspeakers, letting us understand it was nearly showtime.
For Walt Disney World followers of a sure age, the one-two punch of SpectroMagic and Needs fashioned the inspiration of so many core recollections in Magic Kingdom. All of us had our particular rituals that give distinctive persona to the nostalgia, whether or not that be the accompanying meals, particular seats, and even what we did afterwards. However the commonality for my fellow millennials was SpectroMagic and Needs.
For this reason it was such a devastating blow when SpectroMagic didn’t return after Summer season Nightastic. Destroyed with no alternative attributable to poor storage, we hoped for the longest time that Magic Kingdom would get a correct new nighttime parade. Through the years, followers went by way of the levels of grief, ultimately accepting that SpectroMagic 2.0 was not coming. The perfect we might hope for was importing Paint the Night time or Essential Avenue Electrical Parade (but once more) from Disneyland. However even that didn’t occur.
It wasn’t only a parade we misplaced. It was the top of an period. The collective neighborhood misplaced a communal expertise that outlined evenings in Magic Kingdom, and we’ve been lacking that for a decade. It’s downright prison that a complete era has by no means had a correct parade counterpart for the unimaginable Fortunately Ever After!
Suffice to say, there was a purpose why Starlight was our #1 announcement of a jam-packed D23 Expo final yr (given how we’ve been anxiously awaiting this for the final decade, the evaluate is lengthy; if all you care about is the takeaway, scroll right down to “Starlight Verdict”). In spite of everything this ready, it was thrilling to lastly say good day once more to a nighttime parade in Magic Kingdom.
Because the lights dance from float to drift by way of the facility of Blue Fairy’s magic, visitors see favourite traditional and modern characters from Walt Disney Animation Studios and Disney Pixar movies, some for the primary time in a Disney nighttime parade.
One of many issues that struck me when watching the current leisure episode of We Name It Imagineering is simply what number of creatives on Starlight are roughly my age, and likewise spent their childhood visiting Walt Disney World, seeing SpectroMagic. Some even cited that parade, particularly, as what bought them into the business.
The inspiration from Essential Avenue Electrical Parade and SpectroMagic is evident when watching Starlight. Not solely within the float design, however within the music, choreography, and delicate stylistic touches. Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away remembers the nostalgia of nighttime spectaculars with innovation lighting the way in which for a magical expertise like by no means earlier than. One foot prior to now, and the opposite within the current and future is cliche, however apt.
We’re going to arrange this evaluate of Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away first by float after which music, adopted by strengths and weaknesses of the parade as a complete. Let’s dig in!
Blue Fairy
The very first float units the tone for Starlight’s star-kissed constellation of Disney goals, all delivered to life by the magic of the Blue Fairy’s wand. Visitors are invited to want upon this very brilliant star to kick off the parade in becoming style.
Relying upon your body of reference, it both feels impressed by Tokyo Disneyland’s Dreamlights, an evening parade that additionally begins with the Blue Fairy unit, or a throwback to the Needs fireworks at Magic Kingdom.
I like that Starlight begins with the Blue Fairy as a result of, whether or not it’s a nod to these nighttime spectaculars or not, it jogs my memory of each. And I like each. I additionally simply suppose it’s an objectively sturdy strategy to begin this parade, and it affords a free thematic throughline to Starlight that makes it a bit extra cohesive than different nighttime leisure we’ve seen.
One minor quibble with the Blue Fairy float is that the bottom is very large and boxy, making the performer’s higher physique undersized by comparability; ditto the wings. I’m undecided if “the float is simply too massive” is a grievance I actually wish to make, and that is truthfully one thing I didn’t discover in particular person on my first and even second viewing. Pinocchio and Geppetto can be higher as a part of a floor unit, too.
Want
Primarily based on the Disney a hundredth Anniversary movie, this float options Asha gathering across the wishing tree alongside Valentino the goat as a small determine, and Star by way of LED screens contained in the tree.
Many followers had been initially stunned to see Want getting its personal float, because the film was a field workplace flop and hasn’t actually gained any momentum by way of streaming. Greater than something, this speaks to how excessive expectations had been internally for this movie (it’s an understatement to say Want’s underperformance caught the corporate abruptly) and simply how way back improvement on Starlight began. I’m nonetheless considerably stunned they didn’t pivot and repurpose this float into one thing else.
Setting the recognition of Want apart, this can be a nicely-done minor float. It’s additionally good to get selection in leisure, and it’s one movie that isn’t represented a lot elsewhere.
Encanto
On the Encanto float in Starlight, Isabela makes her Magic Kingdom debut alongside her fellow Madrigal relations. In true Isabela style, she swings on floral vines similar to she does within the movie. Mirabel seems alongside her on the entrance with Bruno on the bottom of the float.
The centerpiece of the Encanto float is the Magic Candle that’s all the time lit and comprises the miracle that blessed the Madrigal household and their home with magic. This 360-degree display is admittedly spectacular, but it surely’s the way in which that it’s blended into the float as a complete that stands out to me. Or slightly, that the candle does not stand out, a minimum of not in a means that’s distracting or is at odds with the remainder of the parade.
Frozen
The Kingdom of Arendelle is represented with its personal float, as Frozen Fever extends into its second decade. That is technically the Frozen 2 float, given the costuming of Elsa in entrance of frozen fractals and ice towers that home screens exhibiting Anna, Olaf, and different characters and parts from the movie.
The Frozen float might be going to be among the many extra divisive of the parade (save for Want’s mere existence). The choice to make this one of many parade’s smaller scale floats versus Elsa’s towering ice palace was an fascinating one. Personally, I like this. Whereas I’d’ve beloved to see this identical convincing expertise in grander scale, I believe that is superior to the Frozen float in Paint the Night time.
Princesses & Princes
The royalty unit options the affect of Disney Legend and artist Mary Blair on the unit’s design. This float options beloved princes and princesses: Aurora and Prince Phillip, Tiana and Prince Naveen, Belle and the Beast, and Cinderella and Prince Charming. The royal court docket dancers who bookend this princess section are one among many references to the traditional Essential Avenue Electrical Parade.
That is one among Starlight’s two very prolonged and really grand floats. It’s harking back to different princess or ballroom floats from previous parades, and it’s beautiful. From the swooping curvature of the design to the lighting results, it’s nice. Deceptively easy and chic in look, however completely mesmerizing in particular person.
Coco
The sounds of Mariachi music announce the arrival of a larger-than-life Pepita, wings unfold above the parade route. Beneath, Miguel strums his guitar on the foot of a marigold bridge to the Land of the Useless with Dante close by, towards the backdrop of sugar cranium fireworks.
This Coco float seems unbelievable. Coco having a presence in Disney Starlight is unsurprising, because it’s been a staple of nighttime spectaculars for the final a number of years. And for good purpose. The music of Coco is energetic and emotional, so even when there aren’t any accompanying visuals, it’s all the time an asset to the nighttime spectaculars. Coco was nearly sufficient to redeem Harmonious. Virtually.
Starlight clearly does have visuals, and the vibrance of Coco plus its music is pitch good for an evening parade. This is likely one of the greatest floats within the parade, because it was destined to be. My solely slight quibble with this one is that it might’ve been even greater and higher. I’m wonderful with Frozen having a smaller scale float, however would’ve beloved to see this be one of many parade’s flagship floats. Nonetheless, laborious to complain when it’s this good.
Moana
Essential Avenue, U.S.A. additionally “makes means” for a Moana float, full with luminescent waves. Whereas Moana takes heart stage, you’ll additionally discover Pua, HeiHei, and even a manta ray representing Gramma Tala becoming a member of her journey.
The Moana float is likely one of the extra grandiose ones, the Gramma Tala launching (do manta rays launch?) out of the water in entrance of Moana alongside the parade route. That is one among many “no notes” floats, with all the things about this being good. The best way sensible parade lighting is married with trendy results is a triumph all through Starlight, however particularly so right here.
Peter Pan
Peter Pan and Wendy grace the London skyline in a float that evokes each the long-lasting scene of Peter Pan’s Flight (the unique soarin’ over… attraction) and the Dreaming Up daytime parade at Tokyo Disneyland. As with the latter, its our understanding that Peter Pan and Wendy will fly over London ultimately, swirling across the starlit sky by way of overhead helps.
Even with out that wow second, this can be a float that wows. The design of the float is spectacular, from the Large Ben to the rooftops of London to the large crescent moon. The lighting results are what actually impress, with the transformative sparkles of starlight as soon as once more being mesmerizing. That is yet one more “no notes” float, and that’s even with Peter Pan and Wendy solely strolling throughout the London sky!
Whimsy the Practice
All the enjoyment, surprise, and magic culminates within the parade’s finale, the place a whimsical practice (named Whimsy the Practice), impressed by the long-lasting Essential Avenue Electrical Parade float, emerges to take dreamers of all ages on a experience by way of the celebs.
Swirling ribbons of starlight reveal Goofy, Pluto, Donald Duck, and Daisy Duck main a procession that features Snow White and Dopey in a twinkling mine automobile, Rapunzel and Flynn Rider floating towards a gleaming lantern on their boat, and Aladdin and Jasmine taking a magic carpet experience. Closing out the celebration are Minnie and Mickey Mouse, draped in glowing new seems. The duo sends us off, reminding us to imagine within the energy of wishing upon a star.
Whimsy the Practice is the most effective finale parade unit to ever seem within the home parks. No less than, I can’t consider something higher. It’s actually spectacular in measurement and scale, and the color-changing lighting results are, once more, nothing wanting mesmerizing. I like this float, and am actually happy to see Starlight find yourself a excessive observe slightly than an anticlimactic one.
Parade Music
SpectroMagic, Essential Avenue Electrical Parade, Dreamlights, and Paint the Night time all have completely different soundtrack types. From my perspective, SpectroMagic has the most effective music. The rating is what I’d name a triumphant waltz, with regal trumpet fanfare, dreamlike melodies, joyous lyrics, and lifting orchestral rating.
Essential Avenue Electrical Parade is legendary for the “Baroque Hoedown” and its electro-synthe-magnetic sound; it’s each of its period and by some means transcended that to turn into timeless. Dreamlights is like that, however modernized. Paint the Night time additionally attracts inspiration from what got here earlier than, however has way more of a high-energy pop sound.
An important parade can take an only-okay soundtrack and make you fall in love with it. Or maybe uplifting and memorable music can overcome in any other case unexceptional floats? At their greatest, Disney nighttime parades are a symphony of sights and sounds, with each working in tandem to raise each other.
Starlight has a brand new authentic theme that blends an impressive musical rating with traditional melodies from beloved animated movies. The concept with Starlight was to meld Essential Avenue Electrical Parade and SpectroMagic, bringing the digital and orchestral collectively. The inventive workforce needed to deliver collectively one thing acquainted and nostalgic, whereas additionally being new.
They nailed it. Starlight’s authentic theme is traditional and fashionable, with a sound that’s catchy and memorable. I don’t actually know how one can articulate musical ideas, however I’d describe Starlight’s sound as “celestial.” The distinct notes within the theme evoke factors of sunshine, like stars, I suppose. If Area Mountain had been extra whimsical and didn’t have already got probably the most iconic queue music of all time, I might see the Starlight theme becoming completely there. Like I mentioned, I’m not the most effective at explaining music in phrases.
For me, the unique theme in Starlight encapsulates the essence of sitting on Essential Avenue or within the hub gazing up at Cinderella Fort because the lights dim, and you may start to see the floats approaching within the distance. It’s a fantastical feeling, and this rating has an otherworldly high quality that simply works. No less than, for me.
The music is probably the most polarizing a part of Starlight. In speaking to different visitors who watched one of many performances of Starlight, there was no clear consensus. Some discovered it to be slightly too understated and low vitality, with one even likening it to elevator music (oof).
I couldn’t disagree extra. The soundtrack to Starlight is elegant and complex, a classical and timeless type that appeals to me way more than Paint the Night time. It positively is extra on the mellow facet; it’s not the kind of ‘celestial’ rating that includes pew pew laser blasts or massive battles with aliens.
It’ll be fascinating to see how common visitors react to Starlight’s rating, as a result of I might simply see my perspective changing into the minority viewpoint among the many common public. There are a number of cases of music from nighttime spectaculars that I’ve beloved (Rivers of Gentle, Reflections of Earth) not providing sufficient pizzazz for the tastes of standard visitors.
At the moment, folks appear to wish fixed stimulation and in-your-face pleasure, and I might see Starlight’s rating falling brief on that entrance. However I’d hope the floats with the fan-favorite characters and thousands and thousands of factors of sunshine can be sufficiently frenetic to captivate restricted consideration spans.
Parade Performers & Floats
Paint the Night time isn’t my favourite parade. Though it’s positively grown on me during the last decade plus, it’s nonetheless my least favourite nighttime parade (see my Paint the Night time Evaluate, which has already been ‘softened’ from its authentic stance after seeing the HKDL model).
Paint the Night time is simply too hip and flashy for my tastes, nearly just like the parade model of a dance occasion. (Sarah calls it “a rave on wheels” and she or he’s not fallacious.) There’s numerous expertise that seemingly exists for its personal sake; it’s entrancing and spectacular, however to what finish? There’s a wonderful line between excessive vitality and rambunctious, and there are factors when Paint the Night time isn’t on the correct facet of that. As a complete, the parade is simply very modern and discordant. Right here’s this; there’s that.
I point out all of this right here as a result of Paint the Night time and Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away are just about polar opposites. If Paint the Night time is your ideally suited model of a nighttime parade–and it’s for a lot of followers, as I recall my evaluate of it being fairly the ‘scorching take’ on the time–then there’s a superb probability that Starlight gained’t be to your tastes. It’s way more understated and relaxed.
This also needs to assist emphasize why I like Starlight a lot already. It’s not simply the elegant, orchestral, and extra timeless rating–though that’s a really massive half. It’s additionally the floats.
Even with above minor criticisms, I like the floats as a complete. I actually hate when Imagineering or Disney Reside Leisure lets the technological tail wag the canine, which is one thing that appears to occur too usually. Harmonious is an efficient instance of this, the place we bought an enormous Stargate and water tacos for no actual purpose apart from, I assume, somebody thought they seemed cool.
Expertise that fades into the background and doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb is good for me. It’s not that I don’t need Disney to push the envelope. It’s that I don’t wish to be fixated on the expertise itself, to the detriment of the larger image expertise. To every their very own, however Paint the Night time suffers from this in locations for me.
Starlight doesn’t. The wedding of contemporary expertise with conventional factors of sunshine type is seamless. Not one of the floats and their options really feel misplaced or discordant with the parade as a complete. Starlight is cohesive, pushed by its thematic throughline.
To make certain, I do produce other little quibbles in regards to the floats. For one, I want there have been extra of them. Tangled having its personal float appears pretty apparent, and the identical might be mentioned for Snow White (though I’m probably not positive they match the theme of the parade within the first place). Aladdin be one other apparent selection, and would supply a bit extra illustration to the Disney Renaissance period.
With that mentioned, that is about on par with the size of up to date parades, and I think that Disney would clarify the choice as pushed by visitor survey information and never wanting the parade to be overly lengthy and outstay its welcome. Whereas I’m skeptical of that rationalization (cash is undoubtedly the actual purpose), having a couple of ‘filler’ floats, just like the smaller spinners from Spectro or the puppets from Paint the Night time, can be an incredible enhancement.
My way more vital grievance about Starlight is that its floor sport is weak.
There are usually not sufficient dancers between the floats. The choreography isn’t nice. The dancers which might be current have extremely weak costumes, throughout the board, with minimal lighting. That is true even of the royal court docket, which I suppose are the most effective of the bunch, but it surely’s not precisely a excessive bar.
The remainder of the dancers all have darkened costumes, with the thought being that the performer fades away and the sunshine results that they show take the highlight. This isn’t essentially a nasty thought–different evening parades do the identical–however Starlight is sort of a one-trick pony with this method, and not one of the gentle results are sturdy sufficient to justify this.
That is all actually underwhelming, and makes the parade really feel incomplete. I’m not in the least stunned that Walt Disney World would low cost out on performers, as they’ve demonstrated an aversion to this during the last decade-plus. However I’m nonetheless stunned by simply how unhealthy it’s. That is one regard wherein Paint the Night time handily surpasses Starlight.
On condition that Walt Disney World nonetheless hasn’t introduced again all the toy troopers within the Christmas parade or absolutely restored Pageant of Fantasy, I don’t have excessive hopes that this shall be mounted. However I actually, actually would like to be fallacious about this. I do know Starlight was a race towards the clock and there have been considerations that not all the things can be prepared in time. Hopefully costuming and dancers are a part of that.
It’s heartening, a minimum of, that Disney Reside Leisure nailed the “bones” of Starlight, and the one drawback factors are these issues that, theoretically, might be swapped out or supplemented pretty simply. However that requires Walt Disney World recovering from its allergy to spending cash on performers, and it already seems like a small miracle that we bought Starlight within the first place.
Starlight Verdict
They are saying you possibly can’t go dwelling once more. Through the years, I’ve realized simply how true that is with adjustments at Walt Disney World. Partially as a result of each extinct attraction and leisure providing is inextricably intertwined with nostalgia, making it not possible to look again with out rose-colored glasses or assess new additions objectively.
It’s additionally as a result of visitor preferences and Disney’s emphasis have shifted considerably within the intervening years. We’re by no means getting one other old skool EPCOT Heart attraction; the most effective we are able to hope for is one infused with its ‘edutainment’ spirit. Prolonged, slow-moving darkish rides or authentic sights divorced of mental property are unlikely. At this time’s generations of children will fall in love with Walt Disney World for completely completely different causes than I did again within the Eighties and Nineties.
When it got here to a non secular successor to SpectroMagic, this was made clear by Paint the Night time a decade in the past. Disney went in a very completely different path with that parade, and if that’s what they did for the sixtieth anniversary of Walt Disney’s authentic magic kingdom, what probability did the tourist-driven citadel park in Florida have? Was a nasty thought to get my hopes up an excessive amount of a couple of evening parade that ‘spoke to me,’ personally, as a child who grew up on and fell in love with SpectroMagic?!
Properly, I’m glad to report that after in a uncommon whereas, you possibly can return dwelling once more.
Starlight isn’t good, neither is it SpectroMagic 2.0, but it surely’s a lot nearer to each than I anticipated from a Disney Reside Leisure evening parade debuting within the yr 2025. I can not imagine simply how nicely they threaded the needle, making a parade that seems like the right melding of Essential Avenue Electrical Parade and SpectroMagic, whereas additionally advancing the medium by way of non-intrusive expertise and by way of new characters.
Starlight is without delay previous and new, in the most effective methods doable. The bottom items are an enormous disappointment and there are minor quibbles available, however Starlight nails the basics, delivering such a lovely and emotional nighttime parade that it’s simple to miss particular person parts that fall brief.
Equally as vital, Starlight brings again a nighttime vitality to Magic Kingdom that’s been absent for a decade. Everybody I talked to within the park, even those that didn’t love Starlight as a lot as I did, felt this.
It was like going again in time, however with out staying caught prior to now. There was a cloth vibe shift, and the temper in Magic Kingdom was one thing I hadn’t felt outdoors of laborious ticket occasions in years. (Now, we simply want the Kiss Goodnight to return to essentially punctuate the top of a satisfying night at MK.)
All of this is the reason Starlight jogs my memory of old skool Disney. As a result of it not solely brings that lacking magic again to evenings in Magic Kingdom that has been absent for a decade. But additionally, as a result of it does so with a parade that feels prefer it’s of one other period.
Starlight is concurrently whimsical and chic. It doesn’t attempt too laborious to be fashionable and funky, and trusts its viewers to have the eye span to understand one thing that isn’t a nonstop assault on the senses. It’s the right mixture of many various issues that come collectively and work harmoniously, versus being one other case of contemporary Disney loss of life by committee.
Starlight strikes me as one thing that would’ve been made by inventive time vacationers from the Nineties, working with the ethos of the time however the expertise of at the moment. About the one means it jogs my memory of contemporary Disney is the Want mandate, however even that could be a far cry from Disney+ sizzle reel that was Enchantment. Briefly, Starlight is an prompt traditional.
The 1-2-3 punch of Starlight-Fortunately Ever After-Starlight is highly effective. These are two items of leisure which might be worthy successors to what they changed and can (or have) type the inspiration of nostalgia and sentimentality for a brand new era of Walt Disney World followers.
Finally, I’d love nothing greater than to look again on July 2025 as the beginning of a brand new “Golden Age” at Walt Disney World. One heralded in by Starlight, bridged and increase by a slew of experience reimaginings, after which kicked into excessive gear (turbocharged, you may say) by Piston Peak, Tropical Americas, Monstropolis, Villains Land, and extra.
Maybe we’re getting forward of ourselves. The closures of the Rivers of America and Muppets Courtyard are nonetheless contemporary, as are the botched EPCOT overhaul that birthed CommuniCore Corridor and World Celebration. However it’s beginning to appear that Walt Disney World is getting again on observe, getting smaller-scale tasks proper and heading down the correct path with attraction enhancements. And I positively felt a renewed sense of optimism as I made one final nighttime stroll alongside the Frontierland boardwalk and exited Essential Avenue after midnight.
Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away is the most effective exemplar of this course-correction in motion. Not solely is it exceedingly nicely carried out and an important train in restraint with none of Disney’s worst impulses, however there’s additionally the truth that it exists, interval. This can be a evening parade in Magic Kingdom for the primary time in a decade, and it’s a new evening parade. The final couple of golden ages at Walt Disney World didn’t have evening parades in any respect, and the one earlier than that solely had Disneyland’s hand-me-downs.
That is the primary time in my grownup life that Magic Kingdom has gotten a brand-new evening parade. Between its mere existence and gorgeous high quality, I can’t consider any higher signal of a paradigm shift. I’m not saying we should always get carried away with unbridled optimism in regards to the upcoming tasks. However maybe Starlight is an indication that issues are altering for the higher, and it’s lastly time to provide Disney’s inventive groups the advantage of the doubt.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you excited for Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away? Trying ahead to Walt Disney World’s first brand-new evening parade in many years? What are you anticipating with Starlight? In case you’ve already seen the brand new evening parade, what did you consider it? Agree or disagree with our assessments? Another questions or remark? Listening to suggestions about your experiences is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
“I want there was a strategy to know you’re within the good previous days earlier than you’ve truly left them.” This assertion from one of many nice minds of our time is profoundly easy, but merely profound. It’s very true on the subject of Walt Disney World.
There are a variety of instances that I’d contemplate to be the great ole days at Walt Disney World. September by way of December 2019, November and December 2016, and Summer season 2014 all come to thoughts. Even what’s routinely considered as an period of stagnation, 2007 by way of 2011, holds lots of nostalgia for us. How I want we might’ve savored these seasons extra on the time, however to cite one other good and adventurous American, “the golden age by no means was the current age.”
With the advantage of hindsight, I might give examples of why every of these years had been particular: Cinderella Fort Dream Lights/Osborne Lights/Lights of Winter, 12 months of a Million Goals, Summer season Nightastic, Additional Magic Hours till 3 am, Star Wars Weekends, and a lot extra. One of many largest examples is heat summer time evenings in Magic Kingdom.
I nonetheless can vividly recall numerous nights, anxiously awaiting SpectroMagic whereas sitting on Essential Avenue by Casey’s Nook, scarfing down corn canine nuggets and plastic cheese after a protracted day of commando touring. The anticipation that constructed within the crowd when Jiminy Cricket’s voice began coming over the loudspeakers, letting us understand it was nearly showtime.
For Walt Disney World followers of a sure age, the one-two punch of SpectroMagic and Needs fashioned the inspiration of so many core recollections in Magic Kingdom. All of us had our particular rituals that give distinctive persona to the nostalgia, whether or not that be the accompanying meals, particular seats, and even what we did afterwards. However the commonality for my fellow millennials was SpectroMagic and Needs.
For this reason it was such a devastating blow when SpectroMagic didn’t return after Summer season Nightastic. Destroyed with no alternative attributable to poor storage, we hoped for the longest time that Magic Kingdom would get a correct new nighttime parade. Through the years, followers went by way of the levels of grief, ultimately accepting that SpectroMagic 2.0 was not coming. The perfect we might hope for was importing Paint the Night time or Essential Avenue Electrical Parade (but once more) from Disneyland. However even that didn’t occur.
It wasn’t only a parade we misplaced. It was the top of an period. The collective neighborhood misplaced a communal expertise that outlined evenings in Magic Kingdom, and we’ve been lacking that for a decade. It’s downright prison that a complete era has by no means had a correct parade counterpart for the unimaginable Fortunately Ever After!
Suffice to say, there was a purpose why Starlight was our #1 announcement of a jam-packed D23 Expo final yr (given how we’ve been anxiously awaiting this for the final decade, the evaluate is lengthy; if all you care about is the takeaway, scroll right down to “Starlight Verdict”). In spite of everything this ready, it was thrilling to lastly say good day once more to a nighttime parade in Magic Kingdom.
Because the lights dance from float to drift by way of the facility of Blue Fairy’s magic, visitors see favourite traditional and modern characters from Walt Disney Animation Studios and Disney Pixar movies, some for the primary time in a Disney nighttime parade.
One of many issues that struck me when watching the current leisure episode of We Name It Imagineering is simply what number of creatives on Starlight are roughly my age, and likewise spent their childhood visiting Walt Disney World, seeing SpectroMagic. Some even cited that parade, particularly, as what bought them into the business.
The inspiration from Essential Avenue Electrical Parade and SpectroMagic is evident when watching Starlight. Not solely within the float design, however within the music, choreography, and delicate stylistic touches. Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away remembers the nostalgia of nighttime spectaculars with innovation lighting the way in which for a magical expertise like by no means earlier than. One foot prior to now, and the opposite within the current and future is cliche, however apt.
We’re going to arrange this evaluate of Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away first by float after which music, adopted by strengths and weaknesses of the parade as a complete. Let’s dig in!
Blue Fairy
The very first float units the tone for Starlight’s star-kissed constellation of Disney goals, all delivered to life by the magic of the Blue Fairy’s wand. Visitors are invited to want upon this very brilliant star to kick off the parade in becoming style.
Relying upon your body of reference, it both feels impressed by Tokyo Disneyland’s Dreamlights, an evening parade that additionally begins with the Blue Fairy unit, or a throwback to the Needs fireworks at Magic Kingdom.
I like that Starlight begins with the Blue Fairy as a result of, whether or not it’s a nod to these nighttime spectaculars or not, it jogs my memory of each. And I like each. I additionally simply suppose it’s an objectively sturdy strategy to begin this parade, and it affords a free thematic throughline to Starlight that makes it a bit extra cohesive than different nighttime leisure we’ve seen.
One minor quibble with the Blue Fairy float is that the bottom is very large and boxy, making the performer’s higher physique undersized by comparability; ditto the wings. I’m undecided if “the float is simply too massive” is a grievance I actually wish to make, and that is truthfully one thing I didn’t discover in particular person on my first and even second viewing. Pinocchio and Geppetto can be higher as a part of a floor unit, too.
Want
Primarily based on the Disney a hundredth Anniversary movie, this float options Asha gathering across the wishing tree alongside Valentino the goat as a small determine, and Star by way of LED screens contained in the tree.
Many followers had been initially stunned to see Want getting its personal float, because the film was a field workplace flop and hasn’t actually gained any momentum by way of streaming. Greater than something, this speaks to how excessive expectations had been internally for this movie (it’s an understatement to say Want’s underperformance caught the corporate abruptly) and simply how way back improvement on Starlight began. I’m nonetheless considerably stunned they didn’t pivot and repurpose this float into one thing else.
Setting the recognition of Want apart, this can be a nicely-done minor float. It’s additionally good to get selection in leisure, and it’s one movie that isn’t represented a lot elsewhere.
Encanto
On the Encanto float in Starlight, Isabela makes her Magic Kingdom debut alongside her fellow Madrigal relations. In true Isabela style, she swings on floral vines similar to she does within the movie. Mirabel seems alongside her on the entrance with Bruno on the bottom of the float.
The centerpiece of the Encanto float is the Magic Candle that’s all the time lit and comprises the miracle that blessed the Madrigal household and their home with magic. This 360-degree display is admittedly spectacular, but it surely’s the way in which that it’s blended into the float as a complete that stands out to me. Or slightly, that the candle does not stand out, a minimum of not in a means that’s distracting or is at odds with the remainder of the parade.
Frozen
The Kingdom of Arendelle is represented with its personal float, as Frozen Fever extends into its second decade. That is technically the Frozen 2 float, given the costuming of Elsa in entrance of frozen fractals and ice towers that home screens exhibiting Anna, Olaf, and different characters and parts from the movie.
The Frozen float might be going to be among the many extra divisive of the parade (save for Want’s mere existence). The choice to make this one of many parade’s smaller scale floats versus Elsa’s towering ice palace was an fascinating one. Personally, I like this. Whereas I’d’ve beloved to see this identical convincing expertise in grander scale, I believe that is superior to the Frozen float in Paint the Night time.
Princesses & Princes
The royalty unit options the affect of Disney Legend and artist Mary Blair on the unit’s design. This float options beloved princes and princesses: Aurora and Prince Phillip, Tiana and Prince Naveen, Belle and the Beast, and Cinderella and Prince Charming. The royal court docket dancers who bookend this princess section are one among many references to the traditional Essential Avenue Electrical Parade.
That is one among Starlight’s two very prolonged and really grand floats. It’s harking back to different princess or ballroom floats from previous parades, and it’s beautiful. From the swooping curvature of the design to the lighting results, it’s nice. Deceptively easy and chic in look, however completely mesmerizing in particular person.
Coco
The sounds of Mariachi music announce the arrival of a larger-than-life Pepita, wings unfold above the parade route. Beneath, Miguel strums his guitar on the foot of a marigold bridge to the Land of the Useless with Dante close by, towards the backdrop of sugar cranium fireworks.
This Coco float seems unbelievable. Coco having a presence in Disney Starlight is unsurprising, because it’s been a staple of nighttime spectaculars for the final a number of years. And for good purpose. The music of Coco is energetic and emotional, so even when there aren’t any accompanying visuals, it’s all the time an asset to the nighttime spectaculars. Coco was nearly sufficient to redeem Harmonious. Virtually.
Starlight clearly does have visuals, and the vibrance of Coco plus its music is pitch good for an evening parade. This is likely one of the greatest floats within the parade, because it was destined to be. My solely slight quibble with this one is that it might’ve been even greater and higher. I’m wonderful with Frozen having a smaller scale float, however would’ve beloved to see this be one of many parade’s flagship floats. Nonetheless, laborious to complain when it’s this good.
Moana
Essential Avenue, U.S.A. additionally “makes means” for a Moana float, full with luminescent waves. Whereas Moana takes heart stage, you’ll additionally discover Pua, HeiHei, and even a manta ray representing Gramma Tala becoming a member of her journey.
The Moana float is likely one of the extra grandiose ones, the Gramma Tala launching (do manta rays launch?) out of the water in entrance of Moana alongside the parade route. That is one among many “no notes” floats, with all the things about this being good. The best way sensible parade lighting is married with trendy results is a triumph all through Starlight, however particularly so right here.
Peter Pan
Peter Pan and Wendy grace the London skyline in a float that evokes each the long-lasting scene of Peter Pan’s Flight (the unique soarin’ over… attraction) and the Dreaming Up daytime parade at Tokyo Disneyland. As with the latter, its our understanding that Peter Pan and Wendy will fly over London ultimately, swirling across the starlit sky by way of overhead helps.
Even with out that wow second, this can be a float that wows. The design of the float is spectacular, from the Large Ben to the rooftops of London to the large crescent moon. The lighting results are what actually impress, with the transformative sparkles of starlight as soon as once more being mesmerizing. That is yet one more “no notes” float, and that’s even with Peter Pan and Wendy solely strolling throughout the London sky!
Whimsy the Practice
All the enjoyment, surprise, and magic culminates within the parade’s finale, the place a whimsical practice (named Whimsy the Practice), impressed by the long-lasting Essential Avenue Electrical Parade float, emerges to take dreamers of all ages on a experience by way of the celebs.
Swirling ribbons of starlight reveal Goofy, Pluto, Donald Duck, and Daisy Duck main a procession that features Snow White and Dopey in a twinkling mine automobile, Rapunzel and Flynn Rider floating towards a gleaming lantern on their boat, and Aladdin and Jasmine taking a magic carpet experience. Closing out the celebration are Minnie and Mickey Mouse, draped in glowing new seems. The duo sends us off, reminding us to imagine within the energy of wishing upon a star.
Whimsy the Practice is the most effective finale parade unit to ever seem within the home parks. No less than, I can’t consider something higher. It’s actually spectacular in measurement and scale, and the color-changing lighting results are, once more, nothing wanting mesmerizing. I like this float, and am actually happy to see Starlight find yourself a excessive observe slightly than an anticlimactic one.
Parade Music
SpectroMagic, Essential Avenue Electrical Parade, Dreamlights, and Paint the Night time all have completely different soundtrack types. From my perspective, SpectroMagic has the most effective music. The rating is what I’d name a triumphant waltz, with regal trumpet fanfare, dreamlike melodies, joyous lyrics, and lifting orchestral rating.
Essential Avenue Electrical Parade is legendary for the “Baroque Hoedown” and its electro-synthe-magnetic sound; it’s each of its period and by some means transcended that to turn into timeless. Dreamlights is like that, however modernized. Paint the Night time additionally attracts inspiration from what got here earlier than, however has way more of a high-energy pop sound.
An important parade can take an only-okay soundtrack and make you fall in love with it. Or maybe uplifting and memorable music can overcome in any other case unexceptional floats? At their greatest, Disney nighttime parades are a symphony of sights and sounds, with each working in tandem to raise each other.
Starlight has a brand new authentic theme that blends an impressive musical rating with traditional melodies from beloved animated movies. The concept with Starlight was to meld Essential Avenue Electrical Parade and SpectroMagic, bringing the digital and orchestral collectively. The inventive workforce needed to deliver collectively one thing acquainted and nostalgic, whereas additionally being new.
They nailed it. Starlight’s authentic theme is traditional and fashionable, with a sound that’s catchy and memorable. I don’t actually know how one can articulate musical ideas, however I’d describe Starlight’s sound as “celestial.” The distinct notes within the theme evoke factors of sunshine, like stars, I suppose. If Area Mountain had been extra whimsical and didn’t have already got probably the most iconic queue music of all time, I might see the Starlight theme becoming completely there. Like I mentioned, I’m not the most effective at explaining music in phrases.
For me, the unique theme in Starlight encapsulates the essence of sitting on Essential Avenue or within the hub gazing up at Cinderella Fort because the lights dim, and you may start to see the floats approaching within the distance. It’s a fantastical feeling, and this rating has an otherworldly high quality that simply works. No less than, for me.
The music is probably the most polarizing a part of Starlight. In speaking to different visitors who watched one of many performances of Starlight, there was no clear consensus. Some discovered it to be slightly too understated and low vitality, with one even likening it to elevator music (oof).
I couldn’t disagree extra. The soundtrack to Starlight is elegant and complex, a classical and timeless type that appeals to me way more than Paint the Night time. It positively is extra on the mellow facet; it’s not the kind of ‘celestial’ rating that includes pew pew laser blasts or massive battles with aliens.
It’ll be fascinating to see how common visitors react to Starlight’s rating, as a result of I might simply see my perspective changing into the minority viewpoint among the many common public. There are a number of cases of music from nighttime spectaculars that I’ve beloved (Rivers of Gentle, Reflections of Earth) not providing sufficient pizzazz for the tastes of standard visitors.
At the moment, folks appear to wish fixed stimulation and in-your-face pleasure, and I might see Starlight’s rating falling brief on that entrance. However I’d hope the floats with the fan-favorite characters and thousands and thousands of factors of sunshine can be sufficiently frenetic to captivate restricted consideration spans.
Parade Performers & Floats
Paint the Night time isn’t my favourite parade. Though it’s positively grown on me during the last decade plus, it’s nonetheless my least favourite nighttime parade (see my Paint the Night time Evaluate, which has already been ‘softened’ from its authentic stance after seeing the HKDL model).
Paint the Night time is simply too hip and flashy for my tastes, nearly just like the parade model of a dance occasion. (Sarah calls it “a rave on wheels” and she or he’s not fallacious.) There’s numerous expertise that seemingly exists for its personal sake; it’s entrancing and spectacular, however to what finish? There’s a wonderful line between excessive vitality and rambunctious, and there are factors when Paint the Night time isn’t on the correct facet of that. As a complete, the parade is simply very modern and discordant. Right here’s this; there’s that.
I point out all of this right here as a result of Paint the Night time and Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away are just about polar opposites. If Paint the Night time is your ideally suited model of a nighttime parade–and it’s for a lot of followers, as I recall my evaluate of it being fairly the ‘scorching take’ on the time–then there’s a superb probability that Starlight gained’t be to your tastes. It’s way more understated and relaxed.
This also needs to assist emphasize why I like Starlight a lot already. It’s not simply the elegant, orchestral, and extra timeless rating–though that’s a really massive half. It’s additionally the floats.
Even with above minor criticisms, I like the floats as a complete. I actually hate when Imagineering or Disney Reside Leisure lets the technological tail wag the canine, which is one thing that appears to occur too usually. Harmonious is an efficient instance of this, the place we bought an enormous Stargate and water tacos for no actual purpose apart from, I assume, somebody thought they seemed cool.
Expertise that fades into the background and doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb is good for me. It’s not that I don’t need Disney to push the envelope. It’s that I don’t wish to be fixated on the expertise itself, to the detriment of the larger image expertise. To every their very own, however Paint the Night time suffers from this in locations for me.
Starlight doesn’t. The wedding of contemporary expertise with conventional factors of sunshine type is seamless. Not one of the floats and their options really feel misplaced or discordant with the parade as a complete. Starlight is cohesive, pushed by its thematic throughline.
To make certain, I do produce other little quibbles in regards to the floats. For one, I want there have been extra of them. Tangled having its personal float appears pretty apparent, and the identical might be mentioned for Snow White (though I’m probably not positive they match the theme of the parade within the first place). Aladdin be one other apparent selection, and would supply a bit extra illustration to the Disney Renaissance period.
With that mentioned, that is about on par with the size of up to date parades, and I think that Disney would clarify the choice as pushed by visitor survey information and never wanting the parade to be overly lengthy and outstay its welcome. Whereas I’m skeptical of that rationalization (cash is undoubtedly the actual purpose), having a couple of ‘filler’ floats, just like the smaller spinners from Spectro or the puppets from Paint the Night time, can be an incredible enhancement.
My way more vital grievance about Starlight is that its floor sport is weak.
There are usually not sufficient dancers between the floats. The choreography isn’t nice. The dancers which might be current have extremely weak costumes, throughout the board, with minimal lighting. That is true even of the royal court docket, which I suppose are the most effective of the bunch, but it surely’s not precisely a excessive bar.
The remainder of the dancers all have darkened costumes, with the thought being that the performer fades away and the sunshine results that they show take the highlight. This isn’t essentially a nasty thought–different evening parades do the identical–however Starlight is sort of a one-trick pony with this method, and not one of the gentle results are sturdy sufficient to justify this.
That is all actually underwhelming, and makes the parade really feel incomplete. I’m not in the least stunned that Walt Disney World would low cost out on performers, as they’ve demonstrated an aversion to this during the last decade-plus. However I’m nonetheless stunned by simply how unhealthy it’s. That is one regard wherein Paint the Night time handily surpasses Starlight.
On condition that Walt Disney World nonetheless hasn’t introduced again all the toy troopers within the Christmas parade or absolutely restored Pageant of Fantasy, I don’t have excessive hopes that this shall be mounted. However I actually, actually would like to be fallacious about this. I do know Starlight was a race towards the clock and there have been considerations that not all the things can be prepared in time. Hopefully costuming and dancers are a part of that.
It’s heartening, a minimum of, that Disney Reside Leisure nailed the “bones” of Starlight, and the one drawback factors are these issues that, theoretically, might be swapped out or supplemented pretty simply. However that requires Walt Disney World recovering from its allergy to spending cash on performers, and it already seems like a small miracle that we bought Starlight within the first place.
Starlight Verdict
They are saying you possibly can’t go dwelling once more. Through the years, I’ve realized simply how true that is with adjustments at Walt Disney World. Partially as a result of each extinct attraction and leisure providing is inextricably intertwined with nostalgia, making it not possible to look again with out rose-colored glasses or assess new additions objectively.
It’s additionally as a result of visitor preferences and Disney’s emphasis have shifted considerably within the intervening years. We’re by no means getting one other old skool EPCOT Heart attraction; the most effective we are able to hope for is one infused with its ‘edutainment’ spirit. Prolonged, slow-moving darkish rides or authentic sights divorced of mental property are unlikely. At this time’s generations of children will fall in love with Walt Disney World for completely completely different causes than I did again within the Eighties and Nineties.
When it got here to a non secular successor to SpectroMagic, this was made clear by Paint the Night time a decade in the past. Disney went in a very completely different path with that parade, and if that’s what they did for the sixtieth anniversary of Walt Disney’s authentic magic kingdom, what probability did the tourist-driven citadel park in Florida have? Was a nasty thought to get my hopes up an excessive amount of a couple of evening parade that ‘spoke to me,’ personally, as a child who grew up on and fell in love with SpectroMagic?!
Properly, I’m glad to report that after in a uncommon whereas, you possibly can return dwelling once more.
Starlight isn’t good, neither is it SpectroMagic 2.0, but it surely’s a lot nearer to each than I anticipated from a Disney Reside Leisure evening parade debuting within the yr 2025. I can not imagine simply how nicely they threaded the needle, making a parade that seems like the right melding of Essential Avenue Electrical Parade and SpectroMagic, whereas additionally advancing the medium by way of non-intrusive expertise and by way of new characters.
Starlight is without delay previous and new, in the most effective methods doable. The bottom items are an enormous disappointment and there are minor quibbles available, however Starlight nails the basics, delivering such a lovely and emotional nighttime parade that it’s simple to miss particular person parts that fall brief.
Equally as vital, Starlight brings again a nighttime vitality to Magic Kingdom that’s been absent for a decade. Everybody I talked to within the park, even those that didn’t love Starlight as a lot as I did, felt this.
It was like going again in time, however with out staying caught prior to now. There was a cloth vibe shift, and the temper in Magic Kingdom was one thing I hadn’t felt outdoors of laborious ticket occasions in years. (Now, we simply want the Kiss Goodnight to return to essentially punctuate the top of a satisfying night at MK.)
All of this is the reason Starlight jogs my memory of old skool Disney. As a result of it not solely brings that lacking magic again to evenings in Magic Kingdom that has been absent for a decade. But additionally, as a result of it does so with a parade that feels prefer it’s of one other period.
Starlight is concurrently whimsical and chic. It doesn’t attempt too laborious to be fashionable and funky, and trusts its viewers to have the eye span to understand one thing that isn’t a nonstop assault on the senses. It’s the right mixture of many various issues that come collectively and work harmoniously, versus being one other case of contemporary Disney loss of life by committee.
Starlight strikes me as one thing that would’ve been made by inventive time vacationers from the Nineties, working with the ethos of the time however the expertise of at the moment. About the one means it jogs my memory of contemporary Disney is the Want mandate, however even that could be a far cry from Disney+ sizzle reel that was Enchantment. Briefly, Starlight is an prompt traditional.
The 1-2-3 punch of Starlight-Fortunately Ever After-Starlight is highly effective. These are two items of leisure which might be worthy successors to what they changed and can (or have) type the inspiration of nostalgia and sentimentality for a brand new era of Walt Disney World followers.
Finally, I’d love nothing greater than to look again on July 2025 as the beginning of a brand new “Golden Age” at Walt Disney World. One heralded in by Starlight, bridged and increase by a slew of experience reimaginings, after which kicked into excessive gear (turbocharged, you may say) by Piston Peak, Tropical Americas, Monstropolis, Villains Land, and extra.
Maybe we’re getting forward of ourselves. The closures of the Rivers of America and Muppets Courtyard are nonetheless contemporary, as are the botched EPCOT overhaul that birthed CommuniCore Corridor and World Celebration. However it’s beginning to appear that Walt Disney World is getting again on observe, getting smaller-scale tasks proper and heading down the correct path with attraction enhancements. And I positively felt a renewed sense of optimism as I made one final nighttime stroll alongside the Frontierland boardwalk and exited Essential Avenue after midnight.
Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away is the most effective exemplar of this course-correction in motion. Not solely is it exceedingly nicely carried out and an important train in restraint with none of Disney’s worst impulses, however there’s additionally the truth that it exists, interval. This can be a evening parade in Magic Kingdom for the primary time in a decade, and it’s a new evening parade. The final couple of golden ages at Walt Disney World didn’t have evening parades in any respect, and the one earlier than that solely had Disneyland’s hand-me-downs.
That is the primary time in my grownup life that Magic Kingdom has gotten a brand-new evening parade. Between its mere existence and gorgeous high quality, I can’t consider any higher signal of a paradigm shift. I’m not saying we should always get carried away with unbridled optimism in regards to the upcoming tasks. However maybe Starlight is an indication that issues are altering for the higher, and it’s lastly time to provide Disney’s inventive groups the advantage of the doubt.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you excited for Disney Starlight: Dream the Night time Away? Trying ahead to Walt Disney World’s first brand-new evening parade in many years? What are you anticipating with Starlight? In case you’ve already seen the brand new evening parade, what did you consider it? Agree or disagree with our assessments? Another questions or remark? Listening to suggestions about your experiences is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
