Lights, Camera... Parade!

You're invited to watch a Disney cinema classic in production, from the first spark of imagination to the glitzy cinema premiere. Your favourite Disney characters are all a part of the magic-making process, as they take you through the making of a movie masterpiece with a parade of colourful floats, eccentric costumes and magical music.

We begin with the movie camera itself, with Tinkerbell perching on top, before saying hello to Minnie Mouse in her glamorous costuming department. Next, we check over the script with the Lion King characters and see a mini dress rehearsal fit for a king (of the jungle, naturally).

It's all blending together perfectly! Now it's time for the action to begin, as the characters from Pinocchio arrive with their giant Disney clapperboard. Next, the 101 Dalmatians are checking the movie reel before it goes into the movie can, though not without some aggravation from Cruella DeVil first. Once they're done, the movie reel goes into the can with a musical twist from Mary Poppins and her collection of colourful carousel horses!

Watch out crew, the director is here! If something isn't perfect he'll soon let you know about it! Donald Duck shouts the instructions to his cast down his huge megaphone while the characters from Toy Story literally burst out of the movie print to create a magical movie scene of their own. Finally, the film is ready! And now, it's off to the movie theatre to watch the premiere... But wait - the cinema has come to you, with some special guests and Mickey Mouse himself!

That's the magic of Cinema!

The Parade

Medames et messieurs et vous les enfants - Meine damen und herren, liebe kinder - Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls - Walt Disney Studios est heureux de vous presenter - ist stolz Ihnen zu präsentieren - proudly presents... Disney Cinema Parade!

Studio Starmobile featuring the newest Disney characters

The movie stars production van brings the newest Disney stars out into the spotlight of the parade to meet their fans.

1. Camera featuring Tinkerbell

When there's a smile in your heat, there's no better time to start... Lights! Camera! Action! The parade begins with Tinkerbell perched on top of the huge old-fashioned movie camera as she sprinkles her magical pixiedust over the production. Captain Hook, the classic villain, follows closely behind along with various eccentric members of the crew and cinema ushers, whilst Peter Pan himself hovers inside the camera, making sure all the magic is caught on film!

2. Costuming featuring Minnie Mouse

It's the beautiful Minnie Mouse, and she's got the costuming department with her! A wall of endless glittering mirrors and a collection of gorgeous outfits are all she needs to get the cast into their starring roles. She might even find a costume that's just perfect for you!

3. Script featuring The Lion King

Members of the crew with a touch of the Savannah on their costumes arrive on set with Timon and Rafiki and the giant script book, and begin some impromptu dress rehearsals of their favourite scenes. It's the Circle of Life, and it moves us all - a powerful script can create all kinds of magic!

4. Clapperboard featuring Pinocchio

It's time to get this production started - but not before Pinocchio, Jiminy and Gepetto get the clapperboard sorted out. Are there enough letters? Will the title fit? How do you spell "Pinocchio" again? And where's Jiminy got to? He had better not just be hanging around!

5. Movie Reel featuring 101 Dalmations

The production is coming together nicely, but there's a lot of film to edit before it can go in the can! Don't worry, they've got the best in the business, and 101 of them! A scene where Cruella DeVil comes across well?! It's got to go! She won't be happy though, so be prepared for a classic movie star strop!

6. Movie Can featuring Mary Poppins

The movie is nearly complete! Time to get it into the can with the help of the ever-joyful Mary Poppins and Bert with their enchanted carousel horses. They'll take you into their Jolly Holiday and tell you about the magic that happens when you forget about your worries and simply say "Supercalifragilicexpialidocious"!

7. Director featuring Donald Duck

Look busy, everyone - the director is here and has a tendency to get rather annoyed if things aren't going exactly how he wants them. He proudly sits atop his giant directors chair and shouts instructions through a massive megaphone - maybe we'll actually be able to understand him now? Who could it be? No one but Donald Duck!

8. Filmstrip featuring Toy Story

Strange things are happening... The characters from Toy Story burst out of the film strip and take over the parade route with a colourful assortment of larger-than-life toys as Woody and Buzz come to life to the rhythm of "You've Got A Friend In Me". Quick, it's nearly time for the big cinema premiere! Back into the filmstrip!

9. Cinema featuring Mickey Mouse

The time has finally come - the grand cinema premiere with Mickey Mouse! How did Donald do? As the curtains open the magic begins and the tension grows. Then, a stunning round of applause from the special VIP audience! A new Disney cinema classic has just been made, right before your eyes.

Cut! That's a wrap!

Disney Cinema Symphony

The music for Disney Cinema Parade features one clear underlying main theme that follows through all the music. Each float has its own music - a melody of memorable pieces of music from the featured film, mixed into the main Disney Cinema Parade theme. The opening "Camera featuring Tinkerbell" float, for example, features "You Can Fly! You Can Fly! You Can Fly!" and "Second Star To The Right", whereas the "Filmstrip featuring Toy Story" float features "Strange Things" and "You've Got A Friend In Me".

The parade music uses the popular Disney concept of the "Underliner", a system previously used in parades such as 'Main Street Electrical Parade', this allows the audience to see the parade with one consistent piece of music but with changing themes depending on the float which is passing. This is thanks to highly sophisticated synchronised audio, made possible by sensors in the floats and on the metal light poles along the parade route. These then map out the exact position of each float so that the music from speakers can be lined up accordingly.

Each float has it's own piece of music, featuring the underliner and other overlying themes, that are all linked together in perfect synchronisation. Music for all the floats begins at exactly the same time and finishes at the same time, so that as the parade passes you get the main underliner from the nearby speakers plus the extra float-specific themes as the various floats pass by. The audience usually doesn't even notice the music changing and this system allows for a large amount of flexibility whilst still having specific music for each float that passes.

Making Disney Cinema Magic

This unique parade was designed entirely from scratch by the stage production design company DRAGONE, created by Art Director Franco Dragone, whose past accomplishments include the direction of the world famous Cirque du Soleil.

With Production Direction by Luke Petit and Artistic Direction by Danielle Roy, the idea was to combine the avant-garde aesthetics of Franco Dragone with the great entertainment legacy of Disney, creating a parade full of recognisable Disney characters but with a continuity and an abstract artistic quality that had never been seen in a Disney parade before.

To create a sense of continuity throughout a parade which features so many different characters and themes, the universal character of the Cinema Usher was chosen for all of the parade's dancers. Their luxurious deep red costumes link together the different themes and floats of the parade to create a continuous and involving experience between floats, whilst clever individual touches on every single costume (such as savannah grass on hats for The Lion King or traffic cone overlays for Toy Story 2) still allow a variety of themes and ideas to be featured.

In total, three workshops, situated in the Netherlands, Belgium and in the north of France, worked on the creation of the parade floats, while the colourful parade costumes were hand-made in the Belgian town of Beniche, the site of one of Europe's popular carnivals.

History

Following months of speculation surrounding the introduction of a park parade for the new Walt Disney Studios Park, a brand new parade was confirmed in the Annual Passport Brochure with a premiere of June 1st 2002.

Disney Cinema Parade began without fanfareor a great deal of publicity, but has gone on to gain recognition as one of the resort's most memorable parades, specifically for its artistic quality and continuous theme.  The parade was developed by the same people who have worked for Cirque du Soleil, and so boats an impressive abstract visual quality that gives it a beautiful sense of continuity and theme throughout the various costumes and floats.

2003 brought the introduction of the Walt Disney Studios Van, which allows the latest Disney stars to be a part of the parade. Nemo was also added to the start of the parade in October 2003.

Until early 2004, the parade had a "Pre-Parade" featuring Goofy driving down the parade route and interacting with the guests, but this was cut from the parade and replaced with the park's CinéFolies "movie stars" walking down the parade route, posing for photos and greeting the guests. Part of the reasoning behind Goofy's departure was likely the fact that his speech was totally in English, and so could not be enjoyed as much by guests speaking other languages.

In late Summer 2004 another change was made when the lively "Lights! Camera! Action!" parade stops were cut.  These later returned in 2006 to the delight of the parade's fans, and are now performed almost every day.

During the construction and placemaking project of Toon Studio, the parade was re-routed several times and was performed for most of the 2006/07 Winter/Spring season from Disney Studio 1 to Backlot, entirely missing the old Animation Courtyard, then surrounded with construction walls. Upon the official inauguration of Toon Studio, it returned once again to its original 2002 route.