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[Ice101]

Forgive me for being what I would call truthful but....

I believe that Fantillusion is one of the best nighttime spectaculars Disney has ever built.  It uses an amazing soundtrack and features story telling beyond belief, however, Disneyland Paris basically drove the parade into the ground when it came in 2003 compared to it's Tokyo form.

And lets face, Paris will never be able to run a parade on that caliber.  Tokyo Disneyland's nighttime parade runs every day of the year, weekdays and week nights, and is well suited for this.  Disneyland Paris however is not exactly the best fit because of its shorter parade route and late sunset times.

As a result, truth be told, Disneyland Paris should get a the least of the nighttime parades.  And in my opinion that is Spectromagic.  Not only is Spectromagic a consistently moving parade allowing for more floats, but it allows Fantillusion a better parade to have a true home in it's proper form at either Hong Kong Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom.

[pussinboots]

I agree. Fantillusion doesn't work in Paris, because it's essentially a moving stage show, and Euro Disney can't/won't hire nearly enough performers to make it work. You're watching the sets without the actors. The very least they could do is eliminate those dreadful stops.

And I also love SpectroMagic, even though it doesn't seem to be very popular. People don't like waltzes, it seems. I think there's a very special atmosphere about it, something very strange yet wonderful, almost like an acid trip. Like Fantasia on wheels.

It's from an age in which they dared to try new and unexpected things — rather than go for that same "believe in magic"-wish-upon-a-Tinkerbell shtick over and over and over as we're seeing today.* They will never again make a SpectroMagic, so I hope the existing one makes its way over to Paris someday soon!


*I do have high hopes for World of Color, though. I hope it will be incredibly weird.

[The Butlin Boy]

I have to agree here about Fantillusion in Paris. It was very exciting when it first arrived, but thanks to cut backs, and just general aging, I think that it's time to see it go soon. Idealy, I'd love for the resort to get a brand new night-time parade that doesn't rely mainly on show stops (like the Main Street Electrical Parade) for the 20th Anniversary

I'd also like to see World of Colour in the Studios too (it looks sensational in the consept arts), but not rushed in, brought in with some major Hollywood Boulevard expansion that also incorporates a lake (I can dream can't I? :wink: ). WDS needs some nightlife

[pussinboots]

World of Color is spectacularly expensive to build, though, even though it might pay for itself on the long run since it involves no pyrotechnics or performers. (Right?) Once built, it's a matter of switching it on, so to speak.

But realistically, isn't Spectro the most likely candidate for Fantillusion's successor? I don't see Tokyo's pimped-up Electrical Parade being shipped over there any time soon, and a revival of the original would only work in Anaheim, where the general population has a sort of bond with it. So that seems to leave two options; build a new parade* or buy Spectro whenever Florida is done playing with it.

*Euro Disney does have a little experience building nighttime floats, though, if I'm not mistaken? Wasn't it them who built that swan float back in the late '90s?

[Anthony]

*Euro Disney does have a little experience building nighttime floats, though, if I'm not mistaken? Wasn't it them who built that swan float back in the late '90s?

And don't forget Once Upon a Dream Parade, built entirely in France and featuring lots of embedded LEDs. If they mixed the kind of creativity in that parade with state-of-the-art lighting they could produce something really, really special for nighttime. Even this year we've had the thing on the castle encrusted with LEDs along with Mickey's costume, plus the candles and banners of the 15th...

Spectromagic would make a nice change, something to bridge the gap between a new event, but I'd be disappointed to see it arrive for a full 10 years.

I seem to ask this every few months but no one ever knows: What did happen to our MSEP? Scrapped? In storage? Sent to Hong Kong? Used for parts? Where is it?!

[pussinboots]

Good question; wasn't Hong Kong supposed to get it? Perhaps they're still waiting for attendance to rise over there?

As for a new parade, it would be an expensive gamble. A huge part of the continuing appeal of the Main Street Electrial Parade lies in its simplicity — simple tune, lots of twinkle lights. All successors have attempted to incorporate all kinds of gimmicks as well as the latest technologies, to varying degrees of success. (Nothing is more telling than the boredom that overcomes crowds when Ursula rises from her float in Fantillusion.) SpectroMagic was conceived at a time when fiber-optics and "light-spreading thermoplastics" were the height of sophistication, which may have spared it the fate of the later Light Magic, which took things about a thousand steps in the wrong direction and bombed.

Ten years on, we're outlawing tungsten bulbs and doing a million things with LED and plasma, and oh how exciting we all find it when a TV lights up the wall behind it or when they fit a TV screen in the fabric of a T-shirt. I imagine any new nighttime parade at this point is bound to be a self-powered display of Philips ingenuity, and that could either be a great thing or a really awful thing in the manner of "now with even more realistic looking water"-type 3D movies.

Spectro would be the safe bet, I suppose.

(Come to think of it, though, a LED float could probably be powered by the sort of battery that comes with an iPod. There's a selling point...)