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furbE95
03-21-2003, 10:24 PM
Someone included this link (http://www.pca-netstar.com/MckyFotoWeb/MckyFoto/MediaEvents/Disneyland40.html) in the thread about the gold castle.
Does anyone else find it ironic that if you click on the link at the top about Light Magic you get an error? It looks like everyone is trying to forget it.

I had a little chuckle :) :)


[Moderator's note: vB code fixed in post. -- Lani]

Christiii
03-22-2003, 08:41 AM
I always wanted to see that parade and never got a chance...I would love to hear more about it!!:D

DisneyFan25863
03-22-2003, 08:44 AM
Originally posted by Christiii
I always wanted to see that parade and never got a chance...I would love to hear more about it!!:D

I REALLY hope that you are joking.
:D

Christiii
03-22-2003, 08:53 AM
No!! I heard it was eith fiber optics, which could be really neat!! it was before I was going to Disneyland so often, and I missed it totally..I know it was a disaster, but I would love to learn more about it!! I love Disneyland..even its disasters...hated SSL, but glad I rode it, so I knw what people are talking a bout!!

Darkbeer
03-22-2003, 12:10 PM
JIm Hill is currently writing one chapter a week in his "Remembering Light Magic: Version 2.0" series at

http://www.jimhillmedia.com/main/index.htm

A very good detailed look at Light Magic.

Christiii
03-22-2003, 01:42 PM
thank you so much!!
:-)

Christiii
03-22-2003, 02:19 PM
really really great article!! but no pictures:( I sure wish they had a virtual tour of this somehwere...so fat, tinkerbell, fairies, pixie dust and fiber optic sound pretty cool to me!!:~D

wdtv
03-22-2003, 04:51 PM
The "only" good part about LM was the song (Just one of those good-corny Disney tunes!). If Disneyland were to recycle that for one of their parades or other shows, it'd be great.

Believe me ... you would "not" wanna see LIGHT MAGIC. I felt "very" cheated after that 2 hour special on UPN.

hbquikcomjamesl
03-22-2003, 04:58 PM
Actually, it was a very cute idea (and I have been known, on certain occasions, to wear my pin from the passholder soft-open). It had problems, though.

To begin with, Disney management had become convinced that, because of the popularity of the Lion King parade, which was designed to stop dead in its tracks periodically, and put on a show, they ought to take that concept to its extreme, and have a "streetacular" that would do practically nothing while moving, but would put on a show in a few selected locations along the parade route. It was also decided that for certain characters, it would make use of theatrical prosthetic makeup, of the sort used in Fantasmic, rather than conventional character headpieces, and that it would use every possible technological advance at its disposal. It was also decided that the show would feature Celtic dancing, because of the popularity of Riverdance &c.

They decided that they'd have only two performance stops along the route: Small World Mall (a good choice, since one can still get in and out of Toontown, the former Videopolis, and Small World by train, no matter how bottlenecked the street is), and Main Street (a very bad choice, since it bottlenecks the entire park, and the only ways in or out of the ENTIRE PARK become the train, the monorail, and the backstage passageway between Adventureland and Main Street, and leaves it in that bottlenecked condition right about the time an awful lot of people, including those who saw the Small World Mall performance if it was a Southbound run, want to leave.) They ignored the Plaza Hub and Town Square, despite the fact that both have a great deal more crowd capacity than Main Street.

Then the real problems began. They found that some of the fiber optic runs had been entirely too short to actually use. The show was plagued by one technical glitch after another. Lots of guests never got the idea that very few of the prime MSEP viewing locations offered much of a view of LM. Then there was the guest hostility. Between the fact that the show had been heavily over-hyped, and the glitches, and the lack of viewing area, and the fact that The Parade was gone, it faced a level of guest-hostility that had never been seen before in Disneyland, and that would not be seen again until DCA failed to live up to its hype.

Nancy
03-22-2003, 05:06 PM
Christi, This is not a parade, it was more like a traveling gypsy show. It went down the street and stopped just past ISW and proformed, then went down to Main Street (I think) and did another show. Unless you were seated in front of the float the pixies traveled on ,you couldn't see much. The only time we actually sat and waited for the show, they were 1 hour behind schedual and I had a small child who was less than patient. We were also too far away to see the show, yet we were seated there by cast members. The show would probably work better on a stage except I can't see how they could make it long enough to keep the intrest of an audience. It was a bunch of caracters in their PJs ,you didn't miss much.

slaakker
03-22-2003, 09:13 PM
I have looked high and low for some pictures to no avail. Anyone have any? Would love to see them.

Polar33
03-23-2003, 02:55 AM
Here's some. (http://disneyfans.com/photos/DisneylandResort/DisneylandPark/Disneyland1996-1998/Parades/LightMagic/TOC.html)

I too am part of the small minority who enjoyed Light Magic. It was a great idea that could have been executed a lot better. The technology involved alone was amazing, but it was never really given a chance to be fully tested before opening to guests.

I truely hope that for the 50th we get some new form of nigt-time entertainment utilizing what Light Magic has left behind.

cujosr
03-23-2003, 07:47 PM
Originally posted by Polar33
Here's some. (http://disneyfans.com/photos/DisneylandResort/DisneylandPark/Disneyland1996-1998/Parades/LightMagic/TOC.html)

I too am part of the small minority who enjoyed Light Magic. It was a great idea that could have been executed a lot better. The technology involved alone was amazing, but it was never really given a chance to be fully tested before opening to guests.

I truely hope that for the 50th we get some new form of nigt-time entertainment utilizing what Light Magic has left behind. Whoa!! no wonder no one liked it those Pixies are SCARY!!!:eek:

slaakker
03-23-2003, 08:15 PM
Some of the stuff looked cool. I thought (By looking at the pics) that the costumes were a bit much and the colors were way over the top.

Thanks for the pics!

furbE95
03-23-2003, 08:59 PM
has anybody here actually seen the parade and disliked it? If so, what are your reasons. All i know is that the public didint like it so they stopped it.

I, for one, loved the parade. The innovative technology was breathtaking. The colors were so vivid and really made the whole show beautiful. the surprises such as the blast of confetti were really cool the first time.

I'm just curious to here what eveyone's beef was.

Darkbeer
03-24-2003, 01:02 AM
I think the major issue that it WASN'T a parade, but a stage show with two stops.... if you didn't sit in the exact area, you got almost nothing..

And the fact that it played HAVOC with trying to walk down Main Street (due to it stopping near the Plaza Inn).... BAD traffic planning!:(

Pan Flyer
03-31-2003, 10:04 PM
Light Magic was kind of frustrating to watch. But d@mn, it was the best show you ever could have asked to work on. Nonstop hand-to-hand combat all day, every day. If you didn't put in the blood and sweat, you CAN'T say anything because you DON'T know.

Tigertail777
03-31-2003, 11:03 PM
I thought LightMagic was supposed to have fiber optics embedded in the main st buildings that lit up? was this cut from the budget or was it actually there in hte final product?

Germboy
03-31-2003, 11:44 PM
It did have fiberoptics on Main St.

I've forgotten many aspects of the show it has been so many years.

IMO, the music paled in comparison to MSEP. The parade itself was trying too hard to be innovative. The confetti was a horrible mess--poor cast members night after night having to clean that up. They tried to weave story lines into it and it just didn't make sense. The fact that it stopped meant that you could only see it properly from a limited area. They paid tribute to the Electric Parade song and it just made you remember how much you missed that parade and how horrible this experience was in comparison.

The biggest mistake the park made, is that they they marketed it as a "replacement" to MSEP. While MSEP was bright, upbeat, and showcased Disney songs, movies, etc., Light Magic was darker and more sinister looking (think Cirque du Soleil). For some reason, someone in the music department at Disney favored Celtic music at that time. That's about as Disney as Bach or Mozart. It just did not fit.

Many people are still upset that MSEP was removed, and made moreso by its "return", slightly changed, to help legitimize the drowning park across the way. Perhaps this also plays into the hatred for LM.

Mukta
04-01-2003, 08:57 AM
Light Magic is a touchy subject with me because I belong to the minority who love the show. I think it was a great show. I only saw it twice becuase I didn't have an AP in those days.
The fiber optics were amazing. I could have watched them all day. The music was beautiful. It ws a medley of instrumental music from different Disney movies. When the music changed to the theme of the Electric Parade (which Light Magic had replaced), the crowd would go wild. Then the middle of the stage would have a screen and they had a segment about wishing on a star and dreams coming true. It was very touching.
The finale was the best finale ever. Those boxes that you still see in front of It's a Small World would explode open and pink square confetti would go flying. It was so great. Man I miss that show.

scaeagles
04-01-2003, 10:05 AM
I also really liked it, but can see why others didn't....it does all come down to where you were sitting when the floats (or whatever you call them) stopped.

My daughter was 4 or so when we saw it, and was one selected by some fairy to go out and dance with them. She still remembers it now that she is 9, and in fact has some of the confetti in a scrap book.

We saw it twice on the same trip - one time with a great view when she got pulled up, and once not being able to see anything. Waiting in a spot for a couple hours really sucked when you couldn't see anything. If they would have doubled the number of staged perhaps they still would have it today.

innerSpaceman
04-01-2003, 03:03 PM
It is NOT simply a matter of where you saw it from. Light Magic was Lame Lame and simply Lame.

Riverdance was already a dead fad by the time this disaster hit the streets of Disneyland, so a bunch of really scary pixies and characters inexplicably in their pajamas doing celtic dancing to completely gay celtic music was absolutely retarded. But they didn't do it just once. No, there was number after numbing number of celtic highjinks and jigs. This was momentarily broken up by a way-too-long film about how children are the real stars, which was cloying and saccarine and sickening.

The fiber optics were cool. The show itself sucked. The end of the purported "streetacular" was greeted night after night by tepid applause from the confused crowd.

I understand and respect that some people liked it, but the posts to this thread make it seem as if Light Magic was merely a misunderstood sleeper hit. Nothing could be further from the truth. It was the biggest bomb in Disneyland entertainment history, and the fact that it closed after one embarrassing season bears that out.

Germboy
04-01-2003, 03:47 PM
Bingo Spaceman. That's what I meant, but didn't want to say. I've never been too big on Celtic Music and hearing it virtually everywhere (it seemed) at the time, from the Spectrum in Irvine, to the Festival of Fools behind Big Thunder, to the LM parade...geesh enough already.

Also dare I say it... to me, it suffered from the same mentality that bothers me about Believe fireworks (and you hint at it)-- children are the centerpiece of the entire presentation. "Let's believe in the magic of believing", "let's follow a little boy's dreams", " or some such nonsense. What is the line that's like nails on a chalkboard to me from Believe--"release the child in you"? Boy do I start drooling now--will they burp me and change my diapers? Makes me want to say "waaahhhhh! Mommy!!" lol

Don't take my money and then talk down to me. I enjoy Disneyland as an adult. All the company demonstrates is they are unable to deal with more than one demographic at a time...and the demographic they focus on has been children lately, because adults seem to be turned off by their lack of vision. (RE: Fliks FF, Pooh, Believe, etc). Light Magic was the first parade where I actually stopped and said "Huh? What on earth are they doing?" Then came Believe (timed fireworks distract you from how poor the soundtrack is--they were saved). Then came the Parade of the Stars with the graduation song. Oh my...

scaeagles
04-01-2003, 04:09 PM
I guess I just look at DL different than some people....I grew up in CA and went to DL ALL the time in the early 80s when I was in HS. I grew very tired of it and went over ten years from when I left CA to when I had a 3 year old. Having a kid completely returned the joy of DL to me. So, I pretty much like what my kids like. Waiting in line for Princesses. Parades you call lame. Dumbo. And now as my daughter is a bit older (9 now), I really enjoy some of the stuff aimed at the older crowd again.

I go to DL for my kids - can't imagine going without them, and I see things through their eyes. I like what they like simply because I go to watch them have fun.