With the recent improvements to the show barges for Fantasmic!, it would seem our friends at Imagineering and Creative Entertainment are progressing in their experiments with LEDs.
What better use for this dynamic technology than in our classic, but somewhat tired, Electrical Parade?
Would you like to see what they could come up with?
The reason why they won't do it for Electrical is they don't want to put the money into it, and their claim of "Its a classic." I'm sure we will see the parades demise before this even comes to play. Their not even sure if it will return for christmas this year and its last date is September 3rd, but will most likly return.
Jeff Wayne
They did that at Tokyo Disneyland with LEDs IIRC. Maybe they could bring that over there.
It's amazing how many just everyday guests are still under the impression that the parade is still at Disneyland. Hopefully it's the Wonderful World of Color, it might open it up for the parade to return to Disneyland (since the parade route covers a lot of viewing area for the show.
The "jewels" in the Seven Dwarfs' mine train are LEDs. I read somewhere that if the MSEP were to come back they may replace the Christmas lights with LEDs, but that's if it comes back.
The Right Honorable Count Boogie Bonz of Random, at your service.
On Track for Weight Loss!
The concept of the ELP is really timeless. And it's something that people enjoy. There is something amazing about seeing all those colored lights as well. Upgrading the parade, or "plussing" it, seems like a great way to go. Disney could avoid the humiliation of another horribly expensive "Light Tragic" parade debacle, and save money by freshening a proven concept instead of starting from scratch with designers of dubious world view.
Since LED's use less electricity than incandescant bulbs, some really amazing effects could be done that would astound a whole new generation of Disney fans.
Just my two cents worth.
Ever hear of Light Tragic?
"Happiness is a Low Water Level"
"Creating magical memories and making Managers cry since 1955!"
Light Magic would have been awesome if:Originally Posted by techskip
1) It ever worked right.
2) They cut the riverdancers
3) Disney could have gotten around the built-in resentment of trying to replace a classic beloved parade.
The Right Honorable Count Boogie Bonz of Random, at your service.
On Track for Weight Loss!
Light Tragic would've worked if.... it had been a completely different parade.
I could easily see Disney replacing LEDs on a float-by-float basis, because in the long run it would save them money and make the floats (and costumes!) much safer.
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe...
I know... posted a thread on that... point is they already have the tech but playing with a "classic" can be dangerous.
"Happiness is a Low Water Level"
"Creating magical memories and making Managers cry since 1955!"
Though I agree with your first three reasons why the Light Tragic parade failed, I'd like to add a couple items to your list:
4) The make-up on the "fairies" or whatever they were made them look like burn victims from a Freddie Crugar film. They terrified the children who saw them. Even after the makeup was toned down quite a bit, they still looked ugly and deformed.
5) To actually experience the parade in full glory you had to be by IASW or on Mainstreet... and two other locations where the other two of four identical floats stopped. Showing a pre-recorded crowd scene on the big screen displays was boring. This grouping around where the floats stopped caused massive traffic jams and people jammed in like sardines. I saw many people have panic attacks. One man began screaming because he couldn't move - bodies pressing him from all sides. The whole parade thing was doomed.
6) People reacted badly to the subliminal sound track that ran under the music. I was there for the show's premiere to Annual Passholders. The music was cut for a while during the time repairs to the floats were being made. When the crowd heard the subliminal track (you are having a wonderful time... isn't this magical... blah blah. or words to that effect) they were outraged and stormed City Hall. It was near riot conditions. Thousands of enraged AP holders on a rampage.
7) The parade was banal, repetitive, uncreative and definitly un-Disney. Why not have a progression of floats that each tells a part of the story... oh no, but that would actually require creativity. BTW, the Light Tragic parade was outsourced and was not done by actual Disney Imagineers.
The only fix for the parade is the one Disney chose: strip the floats of anything useful, crush them flat and bury them underground. I believe they are now under the parking lot next to the Michael Eisner parking structure. (That should have trams inside it by the way.)
The Tokyo version BTW is called "DreamLights", so maybe it'll be retitled "Disney's Main Street Electrical Parade: DreamLights". It also includes Toy Story, Winnie The Pooh, it's a small world, Finding Nemo and other stuff, such as Alice in Wonderland riding a ginormous Cheshire Cat. I'll post links to the event from YouTube soon.
I totaly agree. I would love to see the "New" MELP. Have the newer movie charactors in the parade as well. We could have Aladdin, Belle, Arial, and many more. Change the music to an updated form, with the same under lying themes as the original. This would be so awesome!!!!
Jeff
Those Fantasmic barges are fabulous!
Sounds nice, but why can't they just fund an ALL- NEW nighttime parade for either park using this new technology?
Something that is proven to work and still feels classic, but is absolutely BRAND NEW and with 21st Century technology? Take their inspiration and cue from Tokyo for crying out loud!!!
This sounds nice, but it just worries me that this means they will continue to run that tired (yet classic) parade for years to come...WHY?... STOP being CHEAP and fund a new parade damnit!!!!
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