Mickey’s Soundsational Parade

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Photo courtesy Disney Parks. All rights reserved.

As I mentioned to you, I was invited to Disneyland to enjoy all the new attractions that will make this summer soundsational!  I'll start with Mickey's Sundsational Parade.

Parades are one of my favorite things in Disneyland, I cry with them, I think the reason behind this is because I can see most of my favorite Disney characters all in one place.  Everything in a parade is magical, the music, the Disney characters, the dancers, the happy feeling in the air, the kids smiling.  And Mickey's Soundsational is not the exception.  It is truly an amazing experience.

I was there for the Grand Inauguration and it was a lot of fun, I will show you some videos at the end, but first some fun facts:

  • Nine themed floats carry the characters down Main Street, U.S.A.
  • The cymbal dancers in the Aladdin sequence create rhythm using hand cymbals.
  • The Three Caballeros sequence features Piñata dancers in folkloric-style costumes, and flower dancers costumed to look like traditional Mexican paper flowers.
  • “The Princess and the Frog” unit includes New Orleans-inspired jazz, and Tiana’s riverboat is made of musical instruments including a clarinet smokestack and tambourine paddle wheel.
  • Tinker Bell plays the mushrooms of Pixie Hollow, part of the Never Land unit, using her wand as a drumstick.
  • The grand finale Mary Poppins drum unit is pulled, in part, by a giant huntsman (from the movie’s Jolly Holiday sequence) pedaling a large bicycle.
Photo Courtesy Disney Parks. All rights reserved.

After the event I had a little chat with John Addis, Senior Show Director, Disney Entertainment Productions and Steve Davison, vice President, Parades and Spectaculars, Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment.  They share some facts you won't find anywhere else!:

  • Because highlighting music is one of the purposes of the parade, the live drum line, followed by Mickey playing the drums and then the floats designed as beautiful music instruments seemed like a good fit.
  • The feeling of a hometown parade comes with the drums, but before them, they thought it would be fun to start the parade with the original recording of the Mickey Mouse song.
  • 180 people were casted for the parade, 97 of them perform at one time.
  • Audition for the parade was in January with over 1,000 performers.
  • The final rehearsals were at night with just John and Steve as espectators.
  • Get ready to see Jose, and Panchito in the park.

And one last piece of trivia:

  • In the middle of Tiana's float there is a little paper sculpture of a character from another movie.

I don't know who it is, I need to watch the parade again, but if you watch it, please come and let me know!

Ready to watch the video? here it is, enjoy!

Disclosure:  I was invited to the Disneyland Resort to preview the new summer attractions. Hotel accomodations and tickets to the park were provided to me.  All opinions and comments are solely my own.

 

Silvia Martinez
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