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slaakker
11-04-2001, 06:19 PM
For those of you who saw Light Magic, what was so terrible about it? I love fiber optic lighting and always thought that if they redid the MSELP that it would be really cool using fiber optics. I also think that a new track by Chip Davis of Manhiem Steamroller would be cool.

I never saw it. Could you share some thoughts? Know where I can see some video of it?

zapppop
11-04-2001, 06:58 PM
Imagine Riverdance being performed by a bunch of ugly pixies on 4 tacky ( and identical ) floats and you've got Light Magic. It was canceled in November after a painful 6 month run.

If you wanna see what the MSEP would look and sound like if it were to be updated, visit the official Tokyo Disneyland site. They have a new version called Dream Lights.

Morrigoon
11-04-2001, 07:24 PM
pretty fair assessment of Light Tragic. It was prettyish, but... BORING. The only thing I actually liked in that show was the tribute to MSEP, when they played baroque hoedown. VERY ugly pixies. Way too cliche with the Riverdance thing. And the characters in their pj's what was that about? It had some good elements, but.... blah. If you're going to do a "show", where they don't parade past you, you NEED to have a storyline, or what's the point?

zapppop
11-04-2001, 07:56 PM
Ya know, I never did figure out how these pixies were telling a story that dreams come true.

I just can't get over the comparison:

Main Street Electrical Parade - 24 year run ( 1972 - 1996 )
Light Magic - 24 week run ( May 1997- November 1997)

MammaSilva
11-04-2001, 09:08 PM
to add to the preceeding posts, not only was there little to the storyline that made sense it was a crowd control NIGHTMARE! there were only four or five spots that you could actually "see" the floats with the screens in full view and the crowds at the hub and Plaza areas were so intense that one night we got stuck and I was actually afraid for the safety of the special needs kids we had with us, we had three wheelchairs and were gridlocked and slowly getting seperated, finally a group of football players actually picked up all 3 wheelchairs then a group of the team got in front and physically cleared a path to get our group thru and out of the mess, it was the ONLY time I have ever been in Disneyland and actually felt fear! The confetti was a slippery mess and the overall show was just DUMB

zapppop
11-04-2001, 09:11 PM
Originally posted by mammasilva
...... the overall show was just DUMB


I think that sums it up nicely :D

slaakker
11-04-2001, 09:15 PM
Just checked out the Toyko ELP. It looks wonderful. The floats look fantastic! I might actually support a refubished DELP if it looked as good as this! Wow...

DisneyFreak2000
11-04-2001, 09:54 PM
I previously made a thread about called "Light Magic- Positive Aspects." There are lots of opinions and reviews in there...


Light Magic was not very well thought out, it wasn't completely horrible but it wasn't as good as it could be. First they used it to replace the Electrical Parade. Guests expected something sililar to the MSEP but better, this was completely different so therefore change isn't always good. There was no plot to begin with, and the way the parade was run was horrible. It wasn't a parade, it was a "street show" and only people in the most cramped areas of the park could see it which made some who thought it was a parade ****ed that there werew a) so many people and b) they were in a spot with no view of the show. The sets were nice looking, but all four were identical making the show seem to stationary. The costumes and pixies were scary looking, like meltingh clowns on my part but still it was okjay. The dancing was great, and I liked the riverdance part just because it was fun to watch and new. The music and lighting was also great, but not enough to salavage the show. If they had Light Magic a parade, or maybe the opening ten minutes to MSEP it could have worked out but because of the lack of plot, street spectacular scene, etc. It didn't last.

zapppop
11-04-2001, 10:13 PM
Where exactly do people get the word LIGHT from the name
MAIN STREET ELECTRICAL PARADE ?

mrfantasmic
11-05-2001, 08:53 PM
All I've seen or heard of Light Magic is the soundtrack.
I wouldn't mind if they gave it a second chance, with some rethinking involved.

zapppop
11-05-2001, 08:56 PM
As long as they send it back to the Tokyo Disney Resort, it's okay by me.

slaakker
11-05-2001, 09:10 PM
I have been looking for video of it with no luck. If anyone can help, it would be appreciated.

zapppop
11-05-2001, 10:05 PM
You might find a bootleg copy for sale on ebay.

Nigel2
11-05-2001, 10:50 PM
I thought that it got cancelled before november, it truly was so bad that they ended it before a full season.

innerSpaceman
11-06-2001, 06:23 AM
I believe all video copies of Light Magic were systematically destroyed by covert Disney Co. operatives as it was the single most embarrasing thing ever foisted on Disneyland guests.

The posts above pretty much cover it, but no one has yet mentioned the cloying, sacharine, children-are-the-real-stars video that stopped the "show" dead in its tracks for several truly awful minutes (just when you thought the thing couldn't get worse).

Now, I agree with slaakker that some modern fiber optic technology and newly designed floats would be cool. But even Florida's SpectroMagic, which certainly has those elements, just does not have the same ooomph as the Electrical Parade. I don't think the Electrical Parade should be frozen in time, mind you. Maybe some re-designed floats, some modern lighting mixed in with the charming Xmaslights, but the classic b.hoedown music must stay.

(By the way, Zapppop, it's those same careless people who refer to the Haunted Mansion as the 'Haunted House' who have been calling the MSEP the 'Electric Light Parade' for decades)

zapppop
11-06-2001, 06:47 AM
Originally posted by Nigel2
I thought that it got cancelled before november, it truly was so bad that they ended it before a full season.

I believe it was cancelled around November 17th. It was just have way through November and I was at home watching the 7 news report at 4PM and just after the weather report, they were talking about some stories coming up in the next half hour and there was a video clip of light magic and a woman reporter speaking over the video clip said " ...and Disney is pulling the plug on Light Magic. We'll have the details. "

It stuck out in my mind because it was just days, at the most 1 week before Thanksgiving, so I thought to myself ' wow ! they're cancelling it just before the christmas season. that's bad '.

Anyway, that's how I remember.

So yes, it was cancelled in November.

hbquikcomjamesl
11-06-2001, 08:27 AM
As I see it, it was a nice concept, and considering as how it was an extension of the street-show aspects that had been part of the very successful Lion King parade, it probably looked like a sure-fire hit with management (though I really wasn't that thrilled with the Lion King parade).

LM had quite a few strikes against it.

1. Every southbound performance was guaranteed to completely bottleneck the Park, and since Disneyland (unlike DCA and WDW-MK) isn't set up to only run parades in only one direction, they were more-or-less stuck, even after they started storing the floats in the layover area, with every other performance being a southbound run.

2. I'm not sure about the performance area in front of Small World, but the performance area on Main Street was one that minimized the viewing area while maximizing the bottlenecking. There was plenty of room for spectators in the Plaza Hub and in Town Square, but not much to see in those locations.

3. It depended on too many things that were too new to be reliable. While fiber optics are pretty foolproof (as long as nobody damages the fibers), what was driving them wasn't, and neither were a lot of the other aspects of the show.

4. It was so heavily hyped that practically nothing could have lived up to the hype.

5. The makeup would have looked fine from typical Fantasmic viewing distances, maybe even for typical fantasyland Theatre viewing distances; it simply didn't work well close up.

6. It had the misfortune of having to follow an impossible-to-follow act: The Parade

MonorailMan
11-06-2001, 09:58 AM
Here's An Link About It On Yesterland:

Yesterland Display (http://www.yesterland.com/lightmagic.html)

Nigel2
11-06-2001, 10:18 AM
I was right it didn't stop in november it stoped on Labor day which is much earlier than November 17th.

Hades
11-06-2001, 04:38 PM
There was one good thing that came out of "Slight Magic":D

In order to have the "street show" work in the Small World area of the park, a performance corridor had to be constructed. This corridor was set up in order to allow guest traffic flow from Toontown and the Fantasyland Theater to Fantasyland during the performances. The resulting corridor makes the Small World Mall area more dramatic. And the lights! The first time the Christmas lights for the first "it's a Small World Christmas" was nothing short of breathtaking.

Sometimes, out of the worse things, comes a diamond in the rough!;)

Morrigoon
11-06-2001, 05:08 PM
Good point!

I'd gladly give up a chunk of the raised viewing area on the other side as queue for reopening the motor boats though! (Or something in that area that uses the canals...)

Gemini Cricket
11-06-2001, 05:13 PM
My good friend Emily bought me a Light Magic shirt a long time ago. I was thinking of wearing it to DL a couple of days ago to see what the CM's would say about it. But I forgot about the idea when I got really excited about just seeing DL again.

innerSpaceman
11-06-2001, 07:34 PM
DisneyLad, I often wear my Light Magic CM name tag when I go to the park, and CMs mostly get a big kick out of it.

Actually, Light Magic holds such an infamous place in Disneyland history that the nametag is one of my favorite Disney possessions.

zapppop
11-06-2001, 08:49 PM
Originally posted by Nigel2
I was right it didn't stop in november it stoped on Labor day which is much earlier than November 17th.

I too noticed that Yesterland said it ran until Labor Day but that's incorrect.
My family went in October 1997 and Light Magic was still there.

zapppop
11-06-2001, 09:02 PM
I'm looking at their website again.

there are so many things in Yesterland I wish I could bring back to Disneyland...... ( not light magic though)