Water, Wishes, and a Carnaval: What I learned from D23's Magic After Dark Livestream
D23 Gold Members recently got to log into the D23 Gold Theater for a live stream featuring a replay of a panel from the recent D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event in Anaheim. During the panel, called “Magic After Dark," we got to hear about some of the legendary (and forgotten) Nighttime Spectaculars in the long history of this type of entertainment at the Disney Parks. From Fantasy in the Sky to World of Color and even newer things like Disney Dreams that Soar or Disneyland Paris’ Electrical Sky Parade. And to better guide us through this panel, led by an author of Holiday Magic at the Disney Parks, Graham Allan, we have some Disney Parks entertainment legends in their own right, Don Dorsey, Steven Davison, and Jennifer Magill. It was one of those kinds of panels that even the most versed Disney Parks fan would easily learn something new, but referenced so many things that someone who is not fully submerged in the culture would likely not understand why people are cheering at the mere mention of the show title. We even learned a few new things, and what projects are apparently never to be spoken of again in an official context. Considering that this was a replay of an earlier panel, none of this is breaking news - but just fun tidbits that were rounded up from the panel. Let’s dive in.
Story in the Sky
While many might immediately think of the first fireworks show that told a story from Disney might immediately think that Disneyland’s Believe… There’s Magic in the Stars was the first to do so, our panel will seemingly tell them that they’re wrong.
What show was the first? According to them, we need to go to Walt Disney World’s then-named Disney-MGM Studios. Long before the park guests clamored to get into the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater well in advance of their showing of Fantasmic! At that park, they would crowd around the Chinese Theater at the end of Hollywood Boulevard. At night, well before Fantasmic! Opened at the park in 1998, Sorcery in the Sky would light up the night sky above the park since 1990. The show had a story that celebrated all of cinema, including classics like The Wizard of Oz, Singin’ in the Rain, Mary Poppins, and more. Each with the classic scores performed by an orchestra backed by the fireworks and lights. As a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Fantasia, a large portion of the show was dedicated to the music of that classic animated film, eventually seeing a giant inflatable Sorcerer Mickey Mouse rise on top of the theater, with sparks shooting from his fingertip as part of the grand finale. It was the next evolution from park shows like Fantasy in the Sky, and all because (as Don Dorsey put it) they had a huge inflatable Mickey and didn’t know what to do with it. In a little bit of further trivia from Dorsey, it was also Jim Henson who was going to provide the narration for the show, guiding us through the moments in cinema, but his death led to recasting which led to Vincent Price providing the original narration of the show.
Wishes Upon A Star
While Sorcery in the Sky took fun and iconic music from classic cinema, it was an iconic tune from the Disney pantheon that provided most of the context for a long-running Magic Kingdom favorite. According to Davison, Wishes: A Magical Gathering of Disney Dreams was built largely around the lyrics of “When You Wish Upon A Star." Yeah, duh. That song is in the show, we’re aware. Right? Kinda.
Davison elaborates, adding that the actual lyrics sparked the inspiration for what would be in each segment - specifically citing a fan-favorite moment as an example - saying “Like a bolt out of the blue" led to a blue character. No, not the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio, but instead - the Genie from Aladdin, who is the center of one portion of the show. The show was a massive hit from when it debuted in 2003, and part of it even carried into another show, Remember: Dreams Come True at the Disneyland Resort, which itself spawned a popular trend that would carry over into nearly every nighttime spectacular following it.
Project: Projections
A portion of the panel stayed firmly rooted in 2005, as Magill and Davison talked about (arguably) the single greatest fireworks show that Disneyland has ever put on - Remember: Dreams Come True. While they mentioned some significant firsts and fun facts about the show - like Tinker Bell’s flight, which for the first time saw her fly multiple times and go back and forth instead of just “sliding down into a trampoline" per Davison, and dropping the performer off the Matterhorn at a rate of 80 feet per second on what was (at the time) the world’s largest flying rig - we also learned that you can thank “Remember" for the rampant use of projection technology at the park’s nighttime shows. Something that Davison called “a blessing and a curse."
But why? On 05/05/05 when that show debuted, there were no projections on Sleeping Beauty Castle. What happened? Well… if you remember the show, with fireworks surrounding Main Street USA and gobo lights off Sleeping Beauty Castle, showing ghosts and other fun effects throughout the Hub and Central Plaza of the park, there was clearly only one really good spot to watch the show.
Other shows, like the earlier Fantasy in the Sky, and predecessors like Believe…There’s Magic in the Stars, didn’t have that main focal point, and can be viewed from anywhere in the park without missing much. Sure the castle backdrop is great, but you didn’t NEED it. Here with “Remember," now you have the stretching room from The Haunted Mansion pyrotechnically recreated in the hub, so all the guests there get that same effect when the fireworks blast into the sky from all around. Lasers off the castle play into the Star Tours and Tomorrowland moments. There were so many things to be seen from inside the Hub, why would you want to view anywhere else?
Wouldn’t you know it, around that same time, the flat facades of “it’s a small world" at Disneyland had been painted from a pastel palette to mostly white and gold - a classic look that would come in handy as Disneyland tried to figure out how to disperse the “Remember" crowd in the hub. After all, with fireworks launching from Mickey’s Toontown, crowds can still see them and the “it’s a small world" facade, in a similar angle. And that’s where the projections come in - using that flat surface, they can now project vintage Disneyland icons, footage, and more that will play well with the show. Something that is now designed during a new show’s inception, like Wondrous Journeys, and has also grown to include the Fantasmic! Infrastructure at the Rivers of America as well.
Davison seems to enjoy the storytelling capabilities of the technology, which continues to evolve in amazing ways, but pointed out how problematic the use of it in parks can be because the park is not a flat white screen - there are textures, colors, and architecture that must be accounted for. While you can easily project an image onto a flat white surface, you now have to make sure a yellow character appears correctly on red brick, or a pink, angled castle turret.
EPCOT Carnaval
There have been a number of highly touted nighttime spectaculars that didn’t last very long in the long history of Disney Parks. But what is the shortest? Light Magic? No. The Jungle Book: Alive with Magic? Also no. EPCOT, known for some of the longest running nighttime spectaculars, read: Illuminations 2000: Reflections of Earth, but it is also home to the shortest running nighttime spectacular that they have ever done. According to Don Dorsey, the park’s original Carnaval de Lumiere clocks in at a whopping two weeks before it was shut down for redevelopment at the park, eventually transforming rapidly into the New World Fantasy, using the same rear-projection barges. The show later became Laserphonic Fantasy, This leads us into even more EPCOT shows, maybe even some that we don’t talk about.
Don’t Say “Harmonious"
A lot can be said about what is not said in a panel like this, and it wasn’t until someone on stage said (while referring to EPCOT’s Luminous - The Symphony of Us), “the show that preceded this one," that it was evident that there are some forbidden shows to discuss in the ever-growing pantheon of Disney Nighttime Spectaculars. The show in question is of course, Harmonious, a highly touted new nighttime spectacular that was a key piece of the EPCOT transformation before being relegated and remarketed to a new offering as part of Walt Disney World’s 50th anniversary celebration. The infrastructure alone, consisting of five “permanently" (read: not floated out each day into World Showcase Lagoon) installed barges, suggested that this was meant to stick around for a lot longer than an 18-month resort-wide celebration. The barges, substantially large LED screens that were arched in shape and looked more like a taco surrounded a center unit that was a giant ring, housing lighting equipment and a unique rainscreen that could be projected on. The ambition was great, the scale was larger. There was even a daytime mode for the barges that was announced that would disguise them under a massive fountain that would turn into a centerpiece for World Showcase Lagoon.
Tragically, that didn’t work as well in practice as it looked in the art. More feedback came in about the barges sitting like an industrial mess during that than regarding the actual content of the show. It was quickly announced that Harmonious would be closing alongside the conclusion of the 50th anniversary celebration. Calling attention to it, yet not mentioning it subtly drew attention to other significant projects (some of which also were alluded to but not mentioned by name) that were left out entirely. These include Rivers of Light, which would help usher in a new era for Disney’s Animal Kingdom, keeping it open into the night before a year-long delay and poor critical response to a cutback spectacular would curse that show as well. The ill-fated Light Magic at Disneyland Park, the successor to the long-running Main Street Electrical Parade that had numerous issues - namely that it wasn’t the Main Street Electrical Parade - and even Disney’s California Adventure’s Luminaria, the first nighttime spectacular at that park, brought in for one holiday season and shoehorned into Paradise Bay - an area known, according to Davison, for an early edict that stated there would be no nighttime spectaculars held there - now with an Illuminations-style show on the water, without the infrastructure for an Illuminations-style show on the water.
Paradise Nay
While going into the development of the landmark Nighttime Spectacular of Disney’s/Disney California Adventure, the panel revealed that the location of World of Color was never meant for a nighttime show. According to them, Paradise Bay at Disney’s California Adventure was not intended or thought of as the location for a potential “kiss goodnight," if the park was even or ever meant to have one.
As such, there was no infrastructure, no show control, nothing installed in the location for any nighttime spectacular of any kind. This explains why the bulk of World of Color’s technicians and show controls are located in a backstage area, and not right there at the lagoon (save for the Stage Manager and some techs, who are located under the Pixar Pier bridge).
This alleged rule of no nighttime spectaculars on Paradise Bay was quickly abandoned though, with the park opening in 2001 and that holiday season of the same year, debuting Luminaria - a holiday fireworks show. Elsewhere in the park, as attendance at Disney’s California Adventure was less than projected - the recently retired Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyland returned from a run at Walt Disney World, debuting in the park as Disney’s Electrical Parade, and now making its way through the park’s performance corridor. After that initial holiday season (2001-2002), Luminaria never returned to the park, nor did any fireworks or nighttime spectacular until the arrival of World of Color in June of 2010. Given the show’s low-level fireworks, which notably created a smoke cloud that permeated this section of the park, perhaps this is why the “rule" was made. However, fireworks are used in Paradise Bay with World of Color’s New Year’s Eve and Lunar New Year add-ons.
This also begs the question, if DCA were to ever have a nighttime spectacular (pre-World of Color plans), where were they thinking that it would go? And speaking of World of Color plans…
World of Drones
It’s hard to call any news out of a video replay of a live panel from last summer a bombshell, but for someone who wasn’t in the room that day last year - there was quite the bombshell that happened with one passive and playful quote from Davison. While talking about the presence of Drone technology in nighttime spectaculars at the parks, namely while viewing footage of some of the shows in Paris that include them - including the Electrical Sky Parade, and Avengers: Power the Night - Davison mentioned Disney’s history with Intel.
Then, he said, “we originally worked with Intel when they first brought the drones out…they were supposed to premiere at this water thing across the street we won’t talk about." The original panel this “live stream" is based on took place at the Anaheim Convention Center, directly across Katella Ave. from Disney California Adventure, home of World of Color. Which is - in its most simple terms - a “water show."
Without getting too deep into a rabbit hole (which might also happen one day in the future, who knows with me and this show), simple searches on the internet reveal that this was stopped largely due government regulations and restrictions on nighttime spectaculars using drone technology ... at the time. In the years since, these have been loosened to some degree, with drones becoming a staple in some nighttime shows at parks stateside.
But it begs the question, were they meant for the original World of Color’s debut in 2010? Or one of the variant shows that have come since. Well, let’s look back at what Davison said - “we originally worked with Intel when they first brought the drones out." Looking at Intel’s company history, they launched drones in entertainment uses, setting a Guinness World Record in 2015 in Germany for “most unmanned aerial vehicles airborne simultaneously" flying 100 at a single time.
However, a deeper dive reveals that Intel’s involvement with drones began in 2014 with the “Nixie" drone. This drone became the winner in Intel’s “Make it Wearable" challenge, and has been cited as “the first visible sign of Intel’s interest in drones."
The original World of Color debuted at Disney California Adventure in June of 2010, well before the Nixie drone. But if you look at the evolution and variants of that show, 2014/2015 would put us right in line with the development and debut of World of Color - Celebrate! The Wonderful World of Walt Disney, a special version of the show that was created for the 60th anniversary Diamond Celebration of the Disneyland Resort, which debuted in May of 2015. Though, the original show returned in September of 2016, and could theoretically have debuted the drones with the return. This timeline also fits in with the first appearance of Intel powered drones at a Disney Destination - when Disney Springs got 300 Intel powered drones for “Starbright Holidays" later that same year.
World of Color also has a lengthy history of special pre and post-shows, and easily could have debuted the drones in one of those. Davison’s joke has opened a pantheon of options, but the timeline and history of Intel definitely suggest that it was not for the original show’s debut in 2010.
This panel is very much a reason why so many people love these D23 events. Sure, being in the room when all the huge announcements are made, but the fandom gets richer with panels like these as the fans can gather in a room and look back at their favorite shows and learn a bit more about them. Either on their next visit, or when looking back at them through fond memories. I would always suggest sitting in one of these panels before I would go hear about a new Avatar ride or upcoming Marvel film. There, all I learn is what’s coming. Here, I’ll learn even more about something I already enjoy.