Behind the Attraction: Nighttime Spectaculars

You may not believe this, but Disney park visits didn’t always end with fireworks.

During the park’s first year, guests visited Disneyland during the day, but then they left before dark.

As a successful businessperson, Walt Disney hated this reality and fought against it.

His idea revolutionized the Disney experience and became a staple of Disney after dark.

In the final Behind the Attraction episode of season two, we learn about Disney’s nighttime spectaculars.

This one’s accidentally funny because Disney delayed the season, which caused one show to close before the episode aired!

The Early Days of Disney

At the start of the episode, various Disney historians discuss Walt’s desire for what we now call the kiss goodnight.

The explanation stems from a problem of Walt’s own creation.

On his ABC program, Walt Disney’s Disneyland, Tinker Bell’s animation included her shooting fireworks.

The episode airs a rare video in which you can hear an early Disneyland guest expressing frustration at the lack of fireworks.

In 1957, Disney asked Mickey Aronson to oversee Disney’s first nighttime presentation, Fantasy in the Sky.

How high-tech was this presentation? A bunch of Cast Members lit flares and then detonated the fireworks themselves.

The original Fantasy in the Sky lasted barely five minutes, and it’s a miracle nobody got seriously injured.

Even worse, Tinker Bell didn’t appear during this fireworks display. So, guests remained disappointed.

In 1959, an opportunity presented itself thanks to the arrival of the artificial mountain for Matterhorn Bobsleds.

Disney officials plotted a way for someone dressed as Tinker Bell to glide from the mountain and seemingly trigger the fireworks.

Two years later, Disney hired a well-known circus performer, Tiny Kline, to perform the death-defying stunt.

Kline was – no joke – 70 years old at the time, but she was also someone capable of doing this.

While Kline would die three years later, she’d established a new standard for Disney nighttime presentations.

At Disney, you get more than mere fireworks. Tinker Bell defies gravity for your amusement.

Ouroboros

If you’ve watched season two of Loki, you know that ouroboros is a term for a snake eating its own tail.

Somehow, that thought process applies to Disney’s nightly exhibitions.

When Walt Disney World opened ten years after Tinker Bell’s first appearance, park officials wanted fireworks.

Yes, Magic Kingdom wanted to be more like Disneyland, but then the reverse happened, too.

Disney created a new water-based presentation called the Electrical Water Pageant, which still runs to this day.

My family jokingly calls them the Noisy Boats as their tunes sound loud from a hotel room at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort.

Card Walker loved the Electrical Water Pageant due to its visual splendor and sought something similar for Disneyland.

Alas, the park couldn’t mimic the waterfront experience at Walt Disney World.

Instead, Disney created something similar on land, and that’s how we got the Main Street Electrical Parade.

So, Walt Disney World copied Disneyland, but then Disneyland copied Walt Disney World. Ouroboros.

The creation of the Main Street Electrical Parade will delight holiday fans, but it also makes sense.

Robert Jani was enjoying a night sitting by the Christmas tree when inspiration struck.

He disassembled his Christmas decorations and then recreated them in 3D.

When his wife asked him what in the world he was doing, he explained his idea…and it worked!

The Ouroboros element doesn’t end there, either.

Tokyo Disney Resort added its own version of the Main Street Electrical Parade. Fans adore this performance due to its length. 

The Japanese parade lasts for 45 minutes, more than twice as long as the American original version!

Introducing Phantasmagoria?

When Michael Eisner joined Disney, he recognized the brilliance of the current nighttime presentations.

Eisner desired a third one, and he knew where it should go.

Cast Members could redesign elements of Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island to hide the requisite components of a show.

Disney used Fantasia for inspiration for this presentation, which presents Sorcerer Mickey in a bold fight against a fire-breathing dragon.

Yes, Disney fans have Michael Eisner to thank for the show named Phantasmagoria.

Okay, that’s not quite right. At one point, Disney considered that name before settling on a better one, Fantasmic!

The episode details the pre-presentation setup for Fantasmic!, as well as the decision to add Maleficent.

That’s the first way this episode already appears a bit dated.

Before the episode aired, Fantasmic! at Disneyland suffered a fire caused by the dragon. The show hasn’t run since then.

World of Color Debuts

We have a different Disney CEO to thank for other nighttime presentations. Actually, we have two of them.

As the episode recounts, Bob Iger wanted to reinvigorate Disney California Adventure.

Cast Members sold him on the concept of World of Color, brightly colored water fountains.

Nobody thought Iger would go for such an expensive project. Instead, his primary concern was how soon it could debut.

As with Fantasmic!, Disneyland Resort officials designed the ride in a way that it’s not visible throughout the day.

At night, the platforms ascend and tell the story via mist screens. It’s a truly magical presentation.

Disney has since updated the presentation into World of Color: One, thereby perfecting the gorgeous presentation.

The Harmonious Oopsie

Alas, here’s where the episode takes a turn for the embarrassing.

Do you remember the outcry against Harmonious, former CEO Bob Chapek’s baby?

Some would argue it’s Walt Disney World’s least successful presentation.

Most shortlists would narrow the conversation to Rivers of Light and Harmonious.

Well, Disney+ greenlighted season two of Behind the Attraction in December 2021.

Harmonious had debuted two months before then and seemed like the permanent nighttime presentation at EPCOT.

We all know that everything didn’t go according to plan. Disney closed Harmonious in April 2023.

This episode streamed for the first time on November 1^st, 2023, and it included gushing praise for Harmonious.

Frankly, I’m shocked that they left the footage in the episode, just like with Fantasmic!’s Maleficent segment.

You could lift out both and still have a 30-minute episode.

Instead, Behind the Attraction includes the undue optimism for Harmonious. Oops!

A Momentous Ending

Thankfully, the episode (and season) doesn’t end there.

Instead, we get a behind-the-scenes look at how Disney uses computers to program nighttime presentations today.

This insight into the process is fascinating, and it directly leads to the introduction of Momentous at Hong Kong Disneyland.

That nighttime spectacular hints at the future of Disney digital presentations, but it also celebrates the past.

Here’s a video:

Doesn’t that look like a stunning combination of World of Color and Happily Ever After?

Part of the reason this fireworks show looks so pretty is that Hong Kong Disneyland recently rebuilt its castle.

Also, the story celebrates generations of Disney movies and even adopts a bittersweet approach.

Momentous addresses the Disney concept of loss in a profound way. It’s a daring approach that Walt Disney himself would have loved.

More importantly, Disney now offers a kiss goodnight at all its theme parks, thereby persuading guests to stay later.

That’s all Walt Disney ever really wanted! 

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Feature Photo: Disney