Disney Live Entertainment has pulled back the curtain on Starlight, the new night parade coming to Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in less than 10 days (we’re into the single digits!). This shares the top 10 things we learned about Starlight: Dream the Night Away in the brand-new episode of We Call It Imagineering.
This fourth episode of the WDI spotlight series is titled “On With the Show” and offers an inside look at Disney Live Entertainment, with a spotlight on the team’s global scale, creative process, and legacy of innovation. It culminates in a first look at “Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away,” debuting in just ten days at Walt Disney World. The footage features key moments from rehearsals, as well as a peek behind-the-scenes at the creation of the parade.
Also featured are recent projects such as the “Disney Tales of Magic” nighttime spectacular at Disneyland Paris, “Friendtastic!” parade at Hong Kong Disneyland, and the “World of Color: Happiness!” lagoon show at Disney California Adventure. The episode highlights the DLE team’s creative reach across multiple regions and celebrations. It also underscores the theatrical lens Disney Live Entertainment brings to every production, blending artistry, and technology to deliver experiences that surprise and emotionally resonate with guests.
The “On With the Show” episode of We Call It Imagineering is hosted by David Lightbody, Senior Vice President of Disney Live Entertainment and Steve Davison, Executive Creative Director of Disney Live Entertainment. For many fans, it’ll be the first introduction to Lightbody, who spent several years leading entertainment teams in Hong Kong and Shanghai before heading to California. On the other hand, Davison is well-known as “Mr. Spectacular” among fans and has a prolific career of helming nighttime productions in the domestic parks and beyond.
Also featured in the Disneyland Paris portion of the episode is Bruce Vaughn, the head of Imagineering as a whole. All in all, it’s a strong episode that covers a lot of ground around the world–and makes us really want to get back to France and Hong Kong. The highlight among highlights is the last segment, showcasing Starlight, and revealing several new details about the parade.
Here’s what we learned about Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away…
Over 2.5 Years in Development – This wasn’t really a “reveal” of the episode. Rather, one of the creatives mentioned that he began sketching out one of the floats over two and a half years ago, and finally came to fruition now.
Given what we’ve heard recently about development timeframes, Starlight has probably been in the works for a lot longer than 2.5 years. My guess is closer to 4 or 5. There have been some unconfirmed rumblings that a night parade was once on the table for the 50th, so Starlight’s genesis could’ve been back then.
New UV Technology – For the first time ever in a Disney nighttime parade, a new UV technology is used in the Moana float on the manta ray representing Gramma Tala and the sail of the boat. No specifics about the UV tech were shared, save that they’re very elegant but “musical” when they need to be.
Light Sparkle Speed – Similarly, the team revealed that they have fine-tuned control over the speed of the sparkles of light. The team again used the Moana float as an example, discussing how the waves will have kinetic energy thanks to the density of lighting and the ‘flow’ of the synchronization.
The lighting will be synched to the music of the float to deliver a harmonious audio and visual experience. This was to be expected since even consumer technology for Christmas lights has evolved by leaps and bounds since SpectroMagic–but it was nevertheless nice to hear and see confirmation of this. It looks fantastic and, unlike Paint the Night, like the technology is utilized in an elegant and classy way, as opposed to Disney Night Parade: Rave Edition.
Infused with Moments & Memories from SpectroMagic – Speaking of SpectroMagic, it was a subject that came up several times during this episode of We Call It Imagineering, and has been mentioned in past press releases about Starlight. There was some fear for me that this would be hollow–that Disney was invoking Spectro because they knew fans love it.
While we’re not going to get the iconic SpectroMickey or creepy SpectroMen (RIP), it’s now pretty clear that all of the references to SpectroMagic are because a lot of the creatives working on the project appear to be roughly my age, and similarly grew up on SpectroMagic.
It’s what inspired some of them to get into entertainment, their love for SpectroMagic is genuine, and has resulted in the influence of that permeating this new parade. It’s evident in a holistic sense, as opposed to little Easter eggs and fan service here and there (although it’ll have that, too).
Music is MSEP Meets Spectro – Main Street Electrical Parade was one of the first entirely electronic pieces of music, whereas SpectroMagic brought in an orchestral element to Disney night parades. The idea with Starlight was to marry those concepts, bringing the electronic and orchestral together.
The creative team wanted to bring together something familiar and nostalgic, while also being new. If what we’ve heard so far is representative of Starlight as a whole, they’ve nailed it. The original theme is classic and classy, with a fantastical sound that is catchy and memorable. Here’s hoping for that iconic SpectroMagic trumpet fanfare to be woven into it!
Mary Blair Inspired Costumes with ‘Galaxy’ Print – Royal court dancer costumes are inspired by dancing through the stars, along with a nod to Mary Blair and the airy way to her design. These also feature Starlight’s custom ‘galaxy’ print within multiple layers of fabric. The creative costuming team also noted that in the finished product, you can’t even see the lights–and the performer cannot feel the lights or wires at all.
Here’s hoping that a lot of thought went into this and technology has evolved a lot in the last decade, as one of the infamous issues with Paint the Night was the toll the costumes took on performers. That’s become the stuff of legend, and is probably both (part of) the reason why we never saw Paint the Night at Walt Disney World and why much of the costuming has been redone for that parade’s return during the Disneyland 70th Anniversary.
Each Float is Own Stage – Each float has its own unique music, with the parade using GPS to determine locations on the route; once each float hits a certain point, the music fades out and pauses to start the new unit. Each has its own essence, with authentic music and instruments befitting of the films–while keeping a throughline to the music so Starlight is cohesive as a singular parade.
The creative team went all over the world recording a wide variety of musicians for the various units. Part of rehearsals is to ensure the sound in the park matches the creative vision from in the studio recordings.
Jiminy Cricket is BACK! – Back during the heyday of SpectroMagic, there was something special about the anticipation that built when Jiminy Cricket’s voice started coming over the loudspeakers. He was the voice for a generation of nighttime entertainment, like the Tom Brokaw of Walt Disney World.
Jiminy made those evenings exciting as we anxiously awaited and watched Wishes and SpectroMagic. I can still hear those announcements in my head, which is precisely why Jiminy Cricket’s inclusion made my Starlight wishlist shortly after D23 Expo.
In what was the biggest news of the video for me, the creative team shared that Jiminy Cricket is returning to Starlight. It’s going to be as a “wink back” to SpectroMagic, with Jiminy Cricket made of starlight waving goodbye to guests at the end of the final float. This is a beautiful and thoughtful touch; it’ll be interesting to hear whether Jiminy Cricket is also a host or delivers pre- and post-parade announcements.
There’s a Title Float – Walt Disney World had already slowly revealed the entirety of the parade floats. Here’s those in order, as a reminder:
- Blue Fairy
- Peter Pan & Wendy
- Asha
- La Familia Madrigal (Mirabel, Isabela, Bruno)
- Elsa
- Aurora and Prince Phillip, Tiana and Prince Naveen, Belle and the Beast, and Cinderella and Prince Charming
- Miguel and Pepita
- Moana, Pua, HeiHei, and a manta ray representing Gramma Tala joining the journey
- Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy, Pluto, Donald, Daisy, Snow White, Dopey, Rapunzel & Flynn, Aladdin & Jasmine
There will also be a title float that will likely wrap up the parade. The end as opposed to beginning because it appears that the Jiminy Cricket starlight animation is on the back of that title float, waving goodbye to guests. (The shape and framing of the title float mirrors what’s around Jiminy–so either they’ve used that same visual language in both places, or they’re opposite sides of the same float.)
New Whimsy Character – There’s a brand new character in the parade called Whimsy, who is the train leading the finale float. Like Jiminy Cricket, Whimsy is made of Starlight, and is a child-like whimsical character who is happy, youthful and dances with the music to maintain the energy of the parade. The creatives revealed that they studied vintage animation, including the Silly Symphonies for his inspiration.
Honestly, I’m not sure about this one. Whimsy looks cute and fun–don’t get me wrong. He also has the most personality of any train float we’ve seen in night parades. But this character is traditionally Casey Jr. I know this version of the train float is very different from its predecessors, but I’m not sure it was necessary to deviate from that. Or if there’s enough there there to justify calling this an original character.
I do think that Walt Disney World badly wants to create another fan-favorite original character, which explains the continued push of Ollie the gingerbread man at Jollywood Nights. I’d remind them that there are a lot of great original Walt Disney World theme park characters that already exist and are criminally underused, from Lagoona Gator to Sonny Eclipse to even Figment.
On the other hand, if Whimsy being an original character means he and the rest of the train float receive a big merchandising push, I’m there for it. I absolutely adore the look of the finale float, and whether it’s named Whimsy or Casey Jr. doesn’t really matter much to me in the grand scheme of things. It’s already iconic. That is what we should be talking about. If they make a Whimsy plush, it’s an instant purchase for me–for our daughter, of course.
Watch the full “On With the Show” episode of We Call It Imagineering below:
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you excited for Starlight? What was your favorite (or least favorite) reveal about the new night parade coming to Walt Disney World? Will you be in Magic Kingdom on July 20, 2025 for opening night? Looking forward to Walt Disney World’s first brand-new night parade in decades? What else do you want to know about the upcoming night parade? Any other questions or comments? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
