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Main Street Electrical Parade Coming Back To Disneyland For A Brief Run
The parade at Disney World. (Photo by Theme Park Tourist via the Creative Commons on Flickr)
Here's a slice of Disneyland nostalgia for you. The Main Street Electrical Parade is coming back to the resort for a limited run, according to the Disney Parks Blog.
The parade is a nighttime procession of floats speckled with twinkling lights. Led by the effervescent Tinkerbell, the parade takes cues from old Disney favorites like Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland. There's the infamous clock tower that signaled Cinderella's pending doom, as well as appearances from Peter Pan and the Seven Dwarfs. The show, which originated at Disneyland in 1972, was such a smash that it was replicated across the other Disney resorts, from Disney World to Tokyo Disneyland and even Disney Paris (magnifique!). In Anaheim, the parade left Disneyland in 1996 and later set up shop at Disney's California Adventure, but the festivities were put to a halt in 2010.
Now, the parade is coming back to Disneyland for a farewell tour. According to the blog, the parade is ending its run at Disney Wold on October 9, and will then trek back to Disneyland for a "limited-time encore engagement." In a release, Disney said that the show will be coming to Disneyland in early 2017, though there is currently no word on when, exactly, it will start, or how long this limited engagement will last. After this brief run, the parade is possibly gone forever; it's not running at any of the other Disney parks anymore, not even the new Shanghai Disney, which has a daytime parade called "Mickey's Storybook Express."
As noted by one commenter on the blog, one of the (perceived) shortcomings of the parade is that it feels dated:
The parade is 44 years old. Is it classic? Yes. Is it innovative? Yes. It';s it beautiful? Yes. However, it's most current movie reference (not counting live action remakes) is Pete's Dragon. I fear it's becoming irrelevant to the target audience.
Considering that Disney is on a mission to capitalize on all the latest entertainment properties, it's almost surprising that the parade hadn't gotten the axe earlier. It's perhaps a testament to the parade's awesomeness that the it is still running in the 21st century.
Here are some videos of the Main Street Electrical Parade in Disneyland. All from the 90s!
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