September 3, 2009: 45 Years of Magic Parade

[Werner Weiss]

What will you celebrate? Celebrate the park’s 45th anniversary with the 45 Years of Magic Parade.

Link to 45 Years of Magic Parade

Please discuss it here.

[Petchaurus]

I actually really liked this parade at the time. I thought the Blue fairy at the beginning was awesome. The whole cloud theme seemed much more cohesive in person than this picture portrayal offers us. I don't remember the gold being so annoying but I can see one's point.

[danyoung]

The first time I saw this parade was with the Pomp soundtrack. I knew they were using it, and was expecting to hear it, but it still was just so NOT right. And the crowd was murmuring all around, trying to figger out why they were using graduation music for the parade. This was a major bad call from Eisner, but fortunately was fixed within a couple months.

Nice feature, as always, Werner!

[Disneykin Kid]

Werner, you outlined the main problem with the Eisner era. You have a guy at the top who's so into forcing his vision, and unfortunately was somewhat out of touch with what the public liked. He tried to make up for it by bringing in high brow creme de la creme talent, but these people wanted to 'improve' Disney and didn't get what makes Disney so special. Don't hire people who think Disney's corny and want to improve it, you have to hire people who love Disney, and know why it's so special, like John Lasseter.

[Athlonacon]

Originally Posted by Michael Eisner

It was after hearing “Pomp and Circumstance” at Eric’s graduation from high school four years earlier that I went to Roy Disney and set out to convince him that few musical pieces are more powerful reminders of emotional moments in people’s lives. I suggested we use it in our new Fantasia.

Does anyone else find it hard to believe that Michael Eisner would delicately "suggest" something to Roy Disney? I have no doubts he set out to convince Roy, I'm just wondering how many expletives and hurtful things were included in said convincing. Eisner is a very extroverted and pompous person who is not afraid to say what's on his mind (as is well-documented in the Katzenberg case), Roy is an introverted and reserved individual who gains the respect of the people he works with. When it comes down to Roy's word against Eisner's, it's clear which one you can believe as far as suggesting and convincing goes.

Eisner, with all his private colleges, probably didn't realize that 75% of the country does not hold a college degree. You could associate the song with high school graduation, but that teenage period is a hellish one that most people are happy to put behind them. There are just some songs that are glued to their respective purposes. You wouldn't play "Taps" unless someone died or it was the end of the day or something. The song itself isn't inherently final, but the emotional attachment to it just can't be transferred to any other purpose.

Personally, I don't find Bob Iger a suitable replacement for Eisner. The classic elements of Disney have vanished and the company is turning into a generic conglomerate with every Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers wannabe act. They are going after tiny individual demographic segments, and at the same time ripping apart the "entire family" aspect of Disney that separated the company from everyone else.

[mmeleota]

I actually really like this parade. I may be biased since I was lucky enough to be in it twice...once during the 45th and one other time. I always really liked the Ariel sequence and the Princess float.

Thanks for posting this info Werner. I have always loved Yesterland and only recently have I started posting. Keep up the great work!