Extinct Attractions - Magic, Music, and Mayhem

Welcome to Extinct Attractions.This week, I looked back at an attraction that started as an after-hours party exclusive before making it big time.

This year, Disney heard the feedback that August 9th was simply too early to get into the Halloween spirit, so they decided to push back the first day of Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party all the way until August 15th. The after-hours does so much business that CEO Bob Iger even mentioned it at the last earnings call.

Via eBay 

The Disney Parks have been hosting these after-hours events for years, with Mickey’s Pirate and Princess Party actually serving as an offshoot of the Halloween party. Starting in January of 2007, the Pirate and Princess Party was inspired by many guests coming to Not-So-Scary dressed as pirates and princesses. So of course, what better way was there to enhance the guest experience than to host an entire party themed around them?

Events like these ones wouldn’t be complete without some fireworks, so Disney Entertainment created Magic, Music, and Mayhem to debut along with the show and help bring some pomp to the entire experience.

The show began with some musical interludes featuring some musical themes from across the Disney pantheon. It was fun to pick up on some of the songs with the fireworks behind them.

Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother then popped into the picture (well, through audio) to introduce the show, leading right into an instrumental version of “Bibiddi-Boddidi-Boo." Some more melodies from the princesses proceeded in the background with some fun fireworks popping up all around in a whimsical, fairylike way.

The Fairy Godmother then connected with her friends, the Good Fairies, for another instrumental - this time of “Once Upon a Dream." The princessy stuff continued for a bit to hit that key half of the show.

Via YouTube 

At the conclusion of the segment, King Triton and Sebastian lent their voices to the show, saying that they were around to help showcase the romance and adventure of the experience. While the music from The Little Mermaid was playing, Captain Hook and some other pirates decided to invade the scene and take over the party for themselves. While we didn’t hear Jack Sparrow, the music from Pirates of the Caribbean lent itself to the soundtrack with some really intense fireworks.

Eventually, the pirates were thwarted so we could get a concluding show finale of “A Dream is Wish Your Heart Makes." Pirates and princesses both have big dreams, helping make it the perfect closing number to a fun little show.

Via Disney Wiki 

The show was a bit too early to feature any projection mapping, but it definitely could have used it. Magic, Music, and Mayhem was so story heavy that getting to see the characters who were talking would have been a ton of fun. I really appreciate that a fireworks show like this had such an interesting story in terms of tying together the pirates and princesses, but fireworks really just hit differently with projection mapping.

The show stuck around for the three years of Mickey’s Pirate and Princess Party, seemingly coming to end with the party in 2009. But its journey had one more leg, this time being available to any guest as a brief replacement for Wishes as a part of the Summer Nightastic celebration that hit Walt Disney World in June 2010. Rebranded as the Summer Nightastic Fireworks Spectacular, the show remained the same until its permanent closure on August 14, 2010. Not many shows get a second life, especially under a completely different name, so it was pretty cool to see Magic, Music, and Mayhem get the white glove treatment.

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As always, don’t forget to check out my interactive maps of the Disney Parks throughout the years where you can watch or learn more about all the attractions from every Disney park around the world.

Thanks for reading and have a magical day!