We are less than a week away from the return of the Main Street Electrical Parade to Disneyland. Today, Disney is sharing first look photos of the new Grand Finale float that will debut with the parade's return.
The new 118-foot unit replaces the Bicentennial-inspired "To Honor America" unit. (America's 200th birthday was 46 years ago, BTW. Hey, it almost made it to the Semiquincentennial in 2026!) The new float features characters from a dozen Disney and Pixar animated films, as well as Disneyland's It's a Small World ride.
Here's a closer look at the final element in the unit, which leans into the Mary Blair design inspiration for entire unit.
The Main Street Electrical Parade is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, so Disney chose this production for the return of parades to the Walt's original theme park. The parade officially returns Friday, along with the Disneyland Forever fireworks and World of Color over at Disney California Adventure. Stay tuned later this week for coverage of the parade's return.
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*sigh*
FFS, Keith, it's literal fairy at the start of that float. Are you even paying attention? Sheesh. /s
Robert, fairies are not inherently gay. They can be straight, gay or bi like any unicorn, faun or centaur. To label a random fairy as gay is a sad underrepresentation of the gay and transgender community. Now trolls, on the other hand, are obviously straight. They’re vile, disgusting creatures!
I just can't believe that Disney is bringing this parade back, but won't give Magic Happens the proper run it deserved.
Disney latched on to the promo angle of the 50th anniversary for the MSEP to try to get an easy win with a nostalgia play on a property that everyone in SoCal already knows, rather than trying to reintroduce what's basically a new parade to the market. Maybe people will tire of the MSEP nostalgia quickly, and Disneyland will see its way to giving Magic Happens another go. I hope so. It was a good show.
Or, if we are truly blessed, maybe we might even get to see Paint the Night again.
(And thank you for allowing me to bail out of what was about to mutate into a Fantastic Beasts parody comment thread.)
Keith is clearly trolling hard.
Looking forward to this, but would be way more excited for Magic Happens and PTN though.
On one hand, I really enjoy Disneyland doing a rerun of the this parade for a summer every couple years. On the other, it is fifty years old, and if you're going to be the premium theme park, you can't be running the same show repeatedly for decade after decade. As much as I still consider MSEP among the best parades Disney has ever done, I really think this run needs to be it's last for a while, with the parade perhaps returning once more later in the 2020s for the true "final farewell." Perhaps that could be in 2026, thirty years after the parade originally "glowed away forever." It is a nostalgia thing for those who grew up during the original run, but as the years go by fewer and fewer in that group are still visiting the parks, so the nostalgia is fading slowly but surely.
That said, I'm really looking forward to seeing it on Friday.
I get AJ's point, but I'm still a big fan. I walked the parade route (the infamous "ODV parade" where we sold stuff before the parade arrived) on the last day in 1996, and it was an amazing experience, seeing the energy, the signs, and the tears as the parade "glowed away for the last time." But every time it comes back, I get chills of excitement.
To AJ's point, perhaps they can't do it forever. But I'll love it for as long as I am allowed to.
Now if we can only bring back Light Magic for a limited run (that's partly tongue-in-cheek, but I actually liked that show -- they had me at thunder and bagpipes). I think the APs who lined up for refunds after the AP preview, which was unwisely billed as a dress rehearsal (for which APs had to buy a ticket) were mad that it wasn't the Main Street Electrical Parade, though Disney did continue its tradition of paying homage to the past by having one part of the show feature the Baroque Hoedown.
I mean, sure, I can find Light Magic (aka at the time: Light Tragic) on YouTube, but the video is 1997 camcorder quality. I wanna see it live (or at least in HD) again.
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This is shameful on Disney’s part!
The new Grand Finale float doesn’t have any representatives of the LGBTQIA+ community, not one! Do better Disney or lose my business.