Paint the Night time is a nighttime parade that debuted throughout Disneyland’s Diamond Celebration virtually a decade in the past and final appeared throughout Pixar Fest at Disney California Journey a number of years in the past. This put up covers the return of the fan-favorite leisure after a hiatus of over 5 years!
The large information is that Paint the Night time is lastly coming again! That is really-for-real information, and NOT a rumor. We make this distinction as a result of there have been a number of false begins over the previous few years, with credible rumors suggesting that Paint the Night time was coming again, just for that to not occur. Or for Primary Road Electrical Parade to return as an alternative.
Disneyland Resort has formally confirmed through social media that Paint the Night time parade will return (see video under). That’s just about all we all know at this level, because the video is solely a teaser that includes the Mack truck float from the Automobiles unit, with Owl Metropolis’s iconic theme track from the parade, “When Can I See You Once more?” enjoying over the video. With that stated, there are another issues we all know…
The primary is that subsequent 12 months is that Disneyland is celebrating a serious milestone. In Disneyland seventieth Anniversary Celebration: Every thing We Know & Want Checklist, we speculated that this is able to be an enormous promotional occasion revolving round Paint the Night time Parade, new or returning fireworks, a reimagined Fantasmic, and extra. Effectively, it seems to be like we’ve already gotten a part of that appropriate.
The following query is when will Paint the Night time return and can it coincide with the beginning of the Disneyland seventieth Anniversary celebration. For no matter it’s value, the fiftieth and sixtieth Anniversaries each started near Memorial Day. Nonetheless, the rather more latest Disney100 did begin in January, which made sense as a means to attract individuals to the parks throughout the low season.
With that stated, there’s nothing to say that Paint the Night time should return at first of the Disneyland seventieth Anniversary. There’s loads of precedent for parades beginning earlier. Primary Road Electrical Parade has returned a couple of instances in January as a means to attract crowds to the park throughout what would in any other case be the winter low season.
In different phrases, it’s fully attainable that Paint the Night time returns in mid-to-late January 2025 and the Disneyland seventieth Anniversary begins over Memorial Day weekend. This might give Disneyland Resort a option to stagger demand, and hold attendance elevated over the course of a number of months.
One factor we do know, or at the least may be fairly assured in saying, is that Paint the Night time won’t return this 12 months. Not solely is it too late for that to occur, however Halloween and Christmas are extremely busy and have their very own seasonal leisure. There’s zero incentive by any means for Disney to hurry the return of Paint the Night time. It’ll come again someday in 2025.
The opposite large query is the place will Paint the Night time return–Disneyland or Disney California Journey?
Our wager is Disney California Journey, which is the place it final ran throughout Pixar Fest a number of years in the past. DCA has an extended parade route than Disneyland, and DCA attracts decrease attendance. Paint the Night time goes to be immensely in style after such a protracted hiatus, and it’ll make rather more sense to place it within the park that’s higher suited to accommodate it with out buckling beneath crowds.
Then once more, the previous few instances that Primary Road Electrical Parade has returned, it’s been in Disneyland. And all of these situations have been since Paint the Night time final ran. So who is aware of–possibly Disney will desire a jam-packed Disneyland for the anniversary celebration. That simply looks like a recipe for catastrophe, although, particularly with Disneyland’s present crowd ranges being a lot worse than they had been again when Paint the Night time first ran for the Diamond Celebration. Having Paint the Night time at DCA makes a lot extra sense–and we count on that’s the place Disney will put it.
One other query is whether or not Paint the Night time might be a ‘pure’ addition or come on the expense of one thing else. Our guess is the latter, however we’d like to be incorrect. Magic Occurs ended its annual run previous to the beginning of the Halloween and Christmas seasons, and we wouldn’t be shocked if Paint the Night time is its subsequent oblique substitute.
The ultimate query is whether or not there might be any new floats. Final time the parade ran, there was a brand new Incredibles float (pictured above), which changed the Frozen float that was within the parade. Sadly, there have been some ‘hurdles’ to shifting the parade to DCA, and modifications needed to be made to the parade to allow it to carry out in DCA as a result of Purple Automotive Trolley cables. The Frozen float was just too tall. (The Purple Automotive Trolley is closing in early 2025, so maybe this gained’t be a problem going ahead?)
Anyway, plenty of questions in regards to the return of Paint the Night time Parade in 2025 and, unsurprisingly, Disneyland’s transient teaser doesn’t actually reply any of them. Talking of which, right here’s the video when you’d like to look at:
Goosebumps.
We can not wait to see Paint the Night time parade once more and are completely over the moon that each Disneyland and Walt Disney World will concurrently have evening parades in 2025 as soon as Disney Starlight Night time Parade debuts at Magic Kingdom. It’ll be the primary time in virtually a decade–since Primary Road Electrical Parade final returned to Florida and Paint the Night time’s authentic run in California!
What follows is our authentic Paint the Night time parade assessment, which additionally consists of some fundamental information in regards to the parade, and photographs of the floats. That is from means again in 2014 when the parade debuted at Hong Kong Disneyland. It’s fairly harsh–my opinion on Paint the Night time has developed loads since then…
Along with Disneyland Resort’s model of Paint the Night time parade, there’s one other copy of the parade at Hong Kong Disneyland. A number of of the photographs on this put up are of the HKDL model of Paint the Night time.
Right here we’ll supply information about Paint the Night time, our assessment of this nighttime parade, and our perspective on the place it ranks as in comparison with different Disney evening parades. For starters, what is Paint the Night time?
Consider it as Primary Road Electrical Parade for the brand new era, in that the core idea of the sunshine parade is similar, however the execution has been technically modernized, as has the soundtrack and the Disney characters represented.
Paint the Night time parade has seven models: Tinker Bell Opening Unit, Monsters Inc. Unit, Automobiles Unit, The Little Mermaid Unit, Belle Candlelight Unit, Toy Story Unit, Mickey & Pals Finale Unit and options Owl Metropolis’s “When Can I See You Once more?” as its theme track.
Aside from that, I’m not going to bore you with a bunch of fundamental information that you can examine on its Wikipedia web page. If you wish to know that stuff, click on these hyperlinks. As an alternative, I believed I’d share my ideas on this parade…
First, the great. Paint the Night time is one other technical innovation on the sunshine parade entrance, and extra nighttime parades can solely be a great factor. I’m an enormous fan of those parades, with Magic Kingdom’s SpectroMagic and Tokyo Disneyland’s Dreamlights being my two favourite parades ever.
A number of of the floats listed below are actually formidable, showcasing superior applied sciences which might be extremely spectacular. The truth is, nearly each float does one thing that hasn’t been completed in a nighttime parade earlier than, so Paint the Night time actually pushes the envelope in that regard.
The Mickey Mouse float is mesmerizing, because of this twisty-thingy (that’s the technical time period) that type of was like an infinite loop. It was completely mesmerizing. (Watch the parade on YouTube if my wonderful clarification left you saying “huh?”)
Technical ambition is nothing if it’s not on a float that’s well-designed, and most of those floats are exceptionally nicely completed. Though I might say that some are a little bit too flashy, leaning away from the normal gentle parade fashion, it’s simple that a whole lot of effort went into designing them.
My favourite parade unit, by a rustic mile, is the Belle Candlelight Unit, which seems to be precisely the way it sounds. It’s extremely elegant, and along with Belle and tons of candles round right here, there are a whole lot of nice thrives and performers.
Talking of the performers, costuming can be very strong. The dancers between floats virtually all have actually intelligent and well-done costumes, from the fiber-optic stringy-arm performers earlier than Tinker Bell to the motor-men to the candle-head ballroom dancers. These usually are not merely performers strapped with battery packs and haphazardly coated with lights. Critical thought should have gone into the costuming.
My criticisms to the parade are extra private to me, and never precisely be goal. (Honest warning: I’m going to sound just like the previous fart who needs issues like they had been “again in my day!”)
The general really feel I obtained from the parade was that it was attempting too laborious to be cool. Disney’s finest evening parades–and this consists of the extra trendy Dreamlights at Tokyo Disneyland–lean closely on nostalgia and sentimentality.
Paint the Night time is hip and flashy, virtually just like the parade model of a dance get together. I believe there’s a high quality line between excessive vitality and rambunctious, and I choose my excessive vitality parades to be grounded in a traditional, timeless core.
I’m additionally not wild in regards to the music. It is rather modern, with Owl Metropolis’s “When Can I See You Once more?” being the theme track. I like this track, however I query whether or not it’s proper for a parade that may in all probability have a long term.
My choice would have been for a theme track that’s timeless, with the modern stuff included into the parade for particular models. I utterly get that Disney needs to go for a youthful viewers right here and the synthesizer beats of Baroque Hoedown don’t accomplish that, however shouldn’t the lesson to be realized from the usage of these synthesizer tracks that “modern” music is fleeting?
If something, Disney obtained fortunate with Baroque Hoedown in that it has someway turn into iconic with Disney followers, regardless of sounding prefer it got here from a time capsule. The distinction between Baroque Hoedown and Owl Metropolis is that the latter is a High 40 hit that’s recognizably from a sure period. Think about if, in 1972, Disney opted to make use of the hit track “Nights in White Satin” by The Moody Blues because the theme track for Primary Road Electrical Parade.
Wouldn’t that be odd if it had been nonetheless working at present…and even 10 years later? (Scratch that, it might be superior past perception. “Nights in White Satin” might be a poor instance anyway in that it’s now a traditional, whereas I can’t recall the final time I heard “When Can I See You Once more?” on the radio.) So, whereas I believe the soundtrack is catchy and enjoyable, it simply doesn’t fairly really feel proper, and I choose parades to go for one thing extra timeless.
Replace: the above ‘take’ about Owl Metropolis’s “When Can I See You Once more?” was written after seeing Paint the Night time solely a handful of instances. We’ve since watched it dozens extra over the course of a number of years. I take all of it again. That track is an earworm, and has grown on us significantly. I assume the lesson there’s that nostalgia works in mysterious methods, and I now have it for this foolish track.
I’m additionally not wild in regards to the character choice. Apart from Tinker Bell–who’s principally a brand new character given the way in which she has been repackaged within the new tales–and the Fab 5, there aren’t any characters that pre-date 1989’s The Little Mermaid.
The truth is, Pixar has extra illustration that Walt Disney Animation Studios. I don’t dislike Pixar–removed from it–however I definitely suppose that extra steadiness within the character decisions can be good.
Whereas I believe it’s nice that Disney has chosen to signify newer movies right here, I believe going completely for newer movies is a mistake. I don’t even take particular problem with the Automobiles unit. I’m not a fan of the film, however I’ve to confess that the unit right here is fairly cool.
I believe this might pretty simply be remedied by only one extra unit, possibly earlier than or after the gorgeous Magnificence and the Beast candlelight unit. Like I stated above, this unit is way and away the spotlight of the parade for me, and one other unit on this traditional fashion, that includes some traditional characters (possibly from Cinderella or Sleeping Magnificence?) would go alongside option to give the parade steadiness, and make it really feel much less like a random assortment of “Disney Issues That Are Completely Rad.”
Like I stated, I’m like an previous fart. I do know precisely how the final a number of paragraphs learn. Simply think about me shaking my fist on the floats as they cross, yelling at these younger whippersnappers to show down their music and get off my garden Primary Road! 😉 In occupied with the parade with a bit extra deference, I notice that most of the issues I’m criticizing are issues younger children will completely love.
The factor is, children love something with shiny lights and Disney characters, so getting them to “completely love” a Disney nighttime parade isn’t any troublesome process. It might have been good for Disney to mix some timeless parts with the rad ones to throw a bone to previous farts like me, too.
I’ve already watched the parade a dozen-plus instances at Disneyland Resort, and I’ll admit that it has grown on me with every viewing. I’m nonetheless not wild about the truth that it doesn’t strike a greater steadiness between previous and new, however on the finish of the day high quality issues greater than whether or not it comports with how Disneyland is marketed.
I can perceive why so many individuals love this parade: the music is catchy, the floats are spectacular, and there’s a palpable, downright enjoyable vitality to it. It’s the type of parade that hypes you up and places a smile in your face. Whereas I may quibble over a number of the decisions in execution, I can not low cost the truth that it’s a ton of enjoyable, and on the finish of the day, isn’t that what Disneyland is all about?
General, Paint the Night time continues to be a very strong parade and shifting it to Disney California Journey was a strong transfer. I’ve rambled on with some private grievances about it, and whereas I do view these as legitimate criticism of the parade, I nonetheless actually loved it. Whereas it’s not the parade that I might create if I had been tasked with designing parades, I perceive that not every little thing within the Disney parks is squarely aimed toward me, and I do admire the parade’s many shiny spots. On the finish of the day, it doesn’t contact Dreamlights for me as Disney’s finest nighttime parade, but it surely’s definitely a step up from the Primary Road Electrical AARPade.
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Your Ideas?
Does the Disney Paint the Night time parade look interesting to you? Are you additionally an “previous fart” in relation to Disney choices, or do you like extra trendy stuff? Would you prefer to see this parade make its option to Disneyland or Walt Disney World? Share any ideas or questions you may have within the feedback under!