Light Magic was a

parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of s ...

/street show that ran at

Disneyland Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envisi ...

from May–September 1997. It was billed as a replacement for the

Main Street Electrical Parade The ''Main Street Electrical Parade'' is a nighttime parade, created by Robert Jani and project director Ron Miziker. It features floats and live performers covered in over 600,000 electronically controlled LED lights, and uses a synchronized ...

. At the time of Light Magic's closure, Disney officially stated that it would return in 2000, but it ultimately did not return. Infrastructure improvements made specifically for Light Magic – particularly in Fantasyland – are still used today. The show utilized over 4500 miles of fiber optic cables, and 1520 strobe lights.

Synopsis

Light Magic was a "streetacular" (a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsFantasyland, and the other on Main Street. Upon reaching the performance zones, the floats stopped and the pixie characters, who were the focus of the show, awakened and performed step-dancing routines for the audience, and were then joined by Disney characters. During the performance segment, a portion of each of the floats revealed a screen upon which images were projected from equipment hidden in the surrounding buildings. As part of the grand finale, the fairies used their 'magic' to throw pixie dust, confetti falls from the sky and the buildings light up with a shower of twinkling lights provided by

fiber optic An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparency and translucency, transparent fiber made by Drawing (manufacturing), drawing glass (silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a Hair ...

s embedded in the structures. Light Magic's music was Celtic-influenced. The songs in the show were: * "Dream Our Dream", the Light Magic Theme * "Little April Shower" from ''

Bambi ''Bambi'' is a 1942 American animated drama film directed by David Hand (supervising a team of sequence directors), produced by Walt Disney and based on the 1923 book '' Bambi, a Life in the Woods'' by Austrian author and hunter Felix Sal ...

'' * " Be Our Guest" from ''

Beauty and the Beast ''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' (''The Young American and Marine T ...

'' * " Topsy Turvy (song)" from ''

The Hunchback of Notre Dame ''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'' (french: Notre-Dame de Paris, translation=''Our Lady of Paris'', originally titled ''Notre-Dame de Paris. 1482'') is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. It focuses on the unfortunate story of ...

'' * "

Step in Time "Step In Time" is a song and dance number from Walt Disney's 1964 film ''Mary Poppins'' which was composed by the Sherman Brothers. The choreography for this song was provided by Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood. It is sung by Bert, the chimney sweep (D ...

" from '' Mary Poppins'' * " When You Wish upon a Star" from ''

Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel ''The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan vil ...

'' * "

A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes" is a song written and composed by Mack David, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston for the Walt Disney film ''Cinderella'' (1950). In the song, Cinderella (voiced by Ilene Woods) encourages her animal friends to n ...

" from ''

Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...

'' * "

Part of Your World "Part of Your World" is a song written by lyricist Howard Ashman and composer Alan Menken for Disney's animated feature film '' The Little Mermaid'' (1989). Performed by American actress and singer Jodi Benson in the titular role as Ariel, a me ...

" from ''

The Little Mermaid "The Little Mermaid" ( da, Den lille havfrue) is a literary fairy tale written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The story follows the journey of a young mermaid who is willing to give up her life in the sea as a mermaid to gain a ...

'' * "

" from ''Beauty and the Beast'' * "

Baroque Hoedown "Baroque Hoedown" is a song by the duet Perrey and Kingsley (formed by the French Jean-Jacques Perrey and the German-American Gershon Kingsley). Original from 1967 album ''Kaleidoscopic Vibrations'' a follow-up to their previous 1966 album, ''Th ...

" from the

Reception

Annual Passholder premiere

Light Magic made its debut on May 13, 1997 at a private event for Disneyland Annual Passholders. The premiere night did not go well as technical problems came up with aligning the floats with the projectors, various cues were missed, and sound equipment failed, as well as the fiber-optic lighting not yet being functional. The initial show was prefaced by then-Disneyland President

Paul Pressler Paul Pressler is the chair of the board of directors of eBay. He was previously CEO of Gap, Inc., chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts and a partner at the private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. Early life and career Pressler rece ...

announcing to the crowd that the show was to be a dress rehearsal and not the show in its finished form. The passholders' response to Light Magic was negative, with long lines extending from Guest Relations at City Hall on Main Street demanding refunds, as passholders had paid $25 each to attend the special event under the impression, based on all of the information that had been distributed, that they would be the first to see the official premiere, not a dress rehearsal.

General public response

Light Magic debuted to the general public on May 23, 1997 and played until September 1 of that year, with the majority of the response from the public ranging from lackluster to dislike.

Legacy

Much of the infrastructure built for Light Magic – especially in the Fantasyland area – is still used for Disneyland's parades today. These infrastructure improvements included: * Painted asphalt along the parade route was replaced with concrete to accommodate the large, heavy show platforms "Disney describes the 55,000-pound, -long behemoths as 'rolling stages,'") - Source OC Register May 23, 1997 * The plaza area in front of

It's a Small World "It's a Small World" is a water-based boat ride located in the Fantasyland area at various Disney theme parks worldwide, including Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California; Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida; Tokyo ...

was widened and terraced to allow more guests a better view of the parade route, similar to the way some areas of New Orleans Square were terraced for '' Fantasmic!''. * A walkway was added parallel to the parade route between Storybook Land Canal Boats and It's A Small World – landscaped to block the view of the parade route from the walkway – in order to allow guests to move in and out of the It's A Small World area during parades. This was added in response to crowded conditions for guests during the final months of the Main Street Electrical Parade's run. * Lighting towers constructed for Light Magic on Small World Mall and atop the Main Street, U.S.A. buildings allowed Disneyland to run the same parade in the afternoon and in the evening, rather than running separate afternoon and evening parades as was done for several years of the Main Street Electrical Parade's run, such as '' The Lion King Celebration''. Three towers constructed on Small World Mall for sound and lighting technician use in Light Magic are still standing. Two currently serve no explicit purpose, but their exterior facades are maintained. One has been returned to service as a projection tower for the park's fireworks shows. In March 17th, 2013. Light Magic Music is also use in ''

Disneyland Paris Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Chessy, France, east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, resort hotels, Disney Nature Resorts, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, and a golf course. Disneyland Park is the origi ...

'' Saint Patrick's Fireworks. Another spiritual successor to the Main Street Electrical Parade, the Paint the Night Parade, which also makes use of "Baroque Hoedown", premiered at Disneyland on May 22, 2015, as part of the park's 60th anniversary celebration.

Soundtrack

was incorporated into the finale of Light Magic. A partial soundtrack for the show can be found on: *Disneyland/Walt Disney World Music Vacation *Disneyland/Walt Disney World: The Official Album (1997 CD) The Light Magic theme song "Dream Our Dream" was later used in 2002 in a show called "Minnie's Birthday Surprise" at Videopolis theater in the Disneyland Park in Paris.

Production

*Produced by Bruce Healey *Engineered and Mixed by Paul Freeman *Announcer: Randy Crenshaw *Dream Our Dreams Opening Play On (Vocals by Ellis Hall) *Dream Our Dreams (Vocals by Richard Page)

References

External links

Light Magic at Yesterland
{{Disney nighttime shows Former Walt Disney Parks and Resorts attractions Walt Disney Parks and Resorts parades Amusement park attractions introduced in 1997 Amusement park attractions that closed in 1997 1997 in California