In 2014, I was extremely fortunate to get to see the infamous Main Street Electrical Parade on my first visit to Walt Disney World. While you're reading this post, here's the necessary music to get you in the mood:
This version of the MSEP was created for Disneyland in 1972, where it played until 1996. After a brief trip to the Magic Kingdom, the parade played for a stint at Disney's California Adventure to try and bring awareness to that under-performing park, but it left for the East Coast once again in 2011. However, the parade famously returned to Disneyland for a limited time in 2017, and it again played there in 2019.
Opening the show is both Casey Jr. and the famous "drum," which at this time still read "Disney's Electrical Parade," as DCA doesn't have a Main Street! Interestingly, the proper name was restored when the parade conducted its return at Disneyland in 2017.
Here are two of the memorable spinning creatures from the Alice in Wonderland unit...
...along with the Caterpillar and his mushroom:
Next up are Cinderella and the clock tower striking twelve.
Peter Pan's pirate ship is one of the highlights.
The variation on "Heigh-Ho" that accompanies Seven Dwarfs is quite the earworm and like the rest of the parade, pairs very well with the main theme, Baroque Hoedown.
I remember seeing a picture of this giant, smiling face leading the Pinocchio Pleasure Island floats as my first exposure to the parade. I was quite intrigued, to say the least!
I would warrant to say that most people can agree on Pete's Dragon, Elliot, being the most famous unit of the MSEP.
A remnant of the show's 1970s heritage is the awesome "To Honor America" flag float, complete with fireworks and an eagle at the end.
I especially love the little details, like the lights in the performers' hats!
Both before and after the Electrical Parade's first short engagement in Florida, SpectroMagic, a very unique version of the nighttime parade, ran. Of course, I never got to view it, but it looked to be a superior show to the MSEP, so it's a shame that it will likely never have any "limited time returns." The Main Street Electrical Parade has played scores of thousands of shows over the past 45+ years, but the truth is that while charming, it can't hold a candle to the impressiveness of Disney's latest "nighttime pageant of magic and imagination," Paint the Night, which is also not currently performing at any stateside Disney park. One has to wonder if the MSEP will ever return to an American Disney park, or if it will truly now "glow away" forever. My vote is with the latter, but the memories that the parade has created for millions will never fade away.
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| To round out this post, here's a shot of the Electrical Water Pageant on the Seven Seas Lagoon at Walt Disney World, which was the inspiration for the MSEP and is still chugging along today. |
6 comments:
Andrew, all your Disney-fan readers will LOVE this post!
I've seen both the Main Street Electrical Parade (in Disneyland) and SpectroMagic (in WDW). I like the MSEP more. No comparison, in my opinion (and probably because The MSEP was around for years and is part of my childhood). My parents and friends loved it, too.
In 1972 I also saw the Electrical Water Pageant in WDW, from our room by the water, at the Contemporary Resort (our room was at the end of one of the adjacent hotel building "wings" - not in the main A-frame building). That Pageant went right past our windows. That Pageant was new and unique - quite exciting to see, at the time. I was at WDW last November and saw it again, out on the lake, while leaving the Magic Kingdom - and was thrilled to see it again (as it brought back wonderful memories)!
Great pictures and great job on this post, Andrew! Thank you!
Sue
Thanks for sharing your memories, Sue! It's great that you have WDW memories from your childhood. I do agree that the charm of the Main Street Electrical Parade seems to be unsurpassed, but I would've liked to see SpectroMagic at least once just for the sheer wackiness of it. And the Water Pageant is something that I hope they never get rid of - it's a great remnant from the earliest years of Walt Disney World. Thanks again for reading!
Gee, this post brings back wonderful memories! I was a kid when I first saw the MSEP. I remember that it went on hiatus in the summer of 1976, because Disneyland's bicentennial parade, "America On Parade," ran both during the day and at night. I remember when the MSEP returned in 1977, that it had quite a few new floats, including Elliot from the film, "Pete's Dragon," which was going to be released, later that year.
After 1977, the parade didn't change much. They had temporary floats for the films, "The Fox and the Hound" and "Return to Oz," but they never added anything in the later years, for their huge blockbuster hits such as, "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin," and "The Lion King." I always wondered why they didn't update the parade at some point. Maybe because it was still a big hit with guests, year after year, they just felt like they didn't have to spend any additional money on it? When the parade was supposedly "glowing away forever" in 1996, it was basically the same parade that it had been, for the previous 19 years, minus the "It's A Small World" unit (and a couple other minor differences).
That is why I was blown away, when I finally got to see "Tokyo Disneyland's Electrical Parade Dreamlights." They had gotten rid of their Electrical Parade, in exchange for another nighttime light parade, "Fantillusion." But when that parade went away, they brought back their Electrical Parade, with all newly-designed floats. And to this day, they continue to update the parade with new floats, reflecting the more recent Disney film releases. I wish Disney had done this with Disneyland's MSEP, instead of doing basically two more light parades (Light Magic and Paint the Night), but without the MSEP name or the classic MSEP soundtrack!
Well anyway, the MSEP is a classic. I'm so glad that you were able to see it, Andrew! I wonder where it is today and if they will ever bring it back to DL or WDW, again?
TokyoMagic, I greatly appreciate all of the historical information about the MSEP and how it relates to Disney's other electrical parades. I've been doing some research about the show recently, and it sounds like most of the floats were 2-D before the 1977 hiatus. I do find it interesting how you bring up the point that the MSEP remained basically unchanged for its entire run. It's weird that they updated it considerably five years after its debut, then left it alone for twenty years.
Additionally, it is too bad that we never got a modern, updated adaptation of the original MSEP - WITH the classic soundtrack! I've watched videos online of both Fantillusion and Dreamlights, and the latter looks absolutely incredible; that's awesome that you got to see it! It appears to be the perfect modern version of an electrical parade that doesn't try too hard to be "high-energy" like Paint the Night seems to be. Thanks for commenting, TokyoMagic!
My favorite part of the MSEP has always been the spinning snails and the cute little blorping noise they make.
Melissa, you're not alone!! It's a shame they didn't replicate that for "Paint the Night!"
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