The gradual demise of the promotional parade
Image: Loren Javier, Flickr (license)
It wasn’t on a whim that Disney decided to craft such ostentatious, albeit short-lived processions for their theme parks. Long before the heyday of movie tie-in parades, then-CEO Michael Eisner championed the idea of synergy—finding ways for different departments to help boost the visibility and popularity of each other’s projects, from feature films to attractions to entertainment. As Lorraine Santoli, author of Inside the Disney Marketing Machine, explained, this philosophy spawned some truly awe-inspiring integrated marketing attempts.
Take Aladdin, for example. Aladdin’s Royal Caravan Parade was just the tip of the iceberg, considering the film also inspired two TV segments on The Best of Disney Music, numerous shop displays and animated windows on Main Street, U.S.A., Aladdin-related sweepstakes and theater contests, comic books, feature articles in Disney Adventures Magazine, and an entire Adventureland-based restaurant, the now-defunct Aladdin’s Oasis.
Similar measures flanked each Renaissance-era film in turn, and even when Disney stopped coming up with new promotional parades every summer, they found other ways to pay homage to their new movies. A week after the US release of Tarzan in June 1999, Disneyland’s Swiss Family Treehouse was permanently refurbished as Tarzan’s treetop home. The following spring, Dinosaur was the latest film on Disney’s docket, and its debut was celebrated by a re-theming of Animal Kingdom’s Countdown to Extinction attraction, later renamed “Dinosaur” in honor of the $349-million-dollar success.
It wasn’t that Disney no longer had the vision or budget to roll out new parades for each movie. On the contrary, park attendance was on the upswing (Disneyland alone saw an increase from 128.3 million park guests in the 1990s to 139.6 million in the 2000s) and the company had clearly found other ways of promoting their films. But there were a number of other things to promote as well, including the 45th and 50th anniversaries of Disneyland, the 25th anniversary of the Magic Kingdom, the opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and the redesign of Disney California Adventure.
In 200, the Mulan Parade was supplanted by the 45 Years of Magic Parade, a grandiose golden parade designed to commemorate the 45th anniversary of Disneyland’s inauguration. Over a dozen other parades were developed in the decades that followed, from the guest-marshaled Year of a Million Dreams Cavalcade in 2007 to Disney Hollywood Studios’ Pixar Pals: Countdown to Fun! in 2011.
Is there a place in today’s Disney Parks for more movie-based parades?
Image: Disney
Although we’re unlikely to see another decade filled with as many over-the-top movie tie-ins as we did in the mid-90s, both the pre-parades of the 1980s and the promotional parades of the 1990s have resurfaced in recent years. In May 2009, a single float preceded the Pixar Play Parade in order to introduce guests to Russell, Carl, and Dug from Up.
In May 2009, Disney California Adventure introduced park guests to Russell, Carl, and Dug from Up with a single float that rolled along the parade route just before the Pixar Play Parade. The pre-parade predated the release of the animated film by about two weeks or so and was mainly used to familiarize Disney fans with a new cast of characters that would soon be roaming the park. Unlike those of the 80s, however, this pre-parade float was custom-built as an homage to the film’s aesthetic rather than the generic marquee-and-stage setup, as was seen with the Oliver and Company and The Little Mermaid floats in 1988 and 1989.
Several months later, in October, Tiana, Naveen, Dr. Facilier, and Louis caroused through New Orleans Square and Liberty Square for Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee!—despite the fact that The Princess and the Frog was a month or two away from its initial release. Part musical revue, part cavalcade, the celebration introduced Tiana as the parks’ newest up-and-coming princess and culminated with a rousing singalong aboard the Mark Twain Riverboat and Liberty Belle Riverboat, respectively.
In 2014, another princess movie staged a virtual takeover of the Disney Parks. Frozen, featuring the über-popular Arendelle sisters Anna and Elsa, generated no end of cross-promotion in the parks with multiple stage shows, meet-and-greets, singalongs, merchandise, fireworks segments, and floats in Disneyland’s Paint the Night Parade and A Christmas Fantasy Parade. The film was also given its own parade, the Frozen Royal Welcome Parade, which swept through Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 2014 and featured an ornate horse-drawn sleigh, choreographed roller blade routines, Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post, an ice pick-wielding Kristoff, and a crowd-accompanied rendition of “Let It Go” led by Elsa from the balcony of her ice palace.
The parade was retired in 2015 to make way for the Studios’ new Pixar parade, which mirrored the one that had already exited in California for some time. Speaking of California’s parks, they received yet another pre-parade when Inside Out arrived in the fall of 2015. Sculpted to look like the headquarters of Riley’s brain, this float featured all five Emotions: Joy and Sadness at the front, Disgust and Fear in the back, and Anger’s explosive temper sitting up top. The Disney Parks haven’t seen another full-scale, single-movie parade since the demise of Frozen, however, and it’s not clear whether or not that particular format will be resurrected for future films. Still, as the company continues to evolve and expand their theme parks with new shows, attractions, and entertainment offerings based on newcomers like Big Hero 6, Inside Out, and Incredibles 2, there’s no telling what else they might be cooking up behind the scenes.
Comments
A minor correction to your Hercules float in NYC as.my wife and I were there. The parade in NYC was actually Disneys Main Street Electrical Parade. It was being moved from Fla to Ca ( this could be the other way around ...that part I am not sure of ) for refurb as the parade had been around forever and they were bouncing it between Fla and Ca parks. Well back then you got invites from Disney if you had a Gold Card Membership to special things. Anyway it was all set. We along a street in NY. All of a sudden all the lights went out which in NY if it was not a.black out was amazing. The intro like any Disney Parade started. "....Ladies and gentleman. Boys and Girls....." . The music started and.......NOTHING....NADA. its was like every float blew a.fuse. not a.light on any of the Main Street Electrical Parade floats came on but the movie and vocal tracts were there but in pitch black NYC street tou could not see a thing... except in the distance..... a light... and then some more. Turns out the entire Main Street Electrical Parade float system may have been dark but since Hercules was coni g out they had added a new float for the movie. That one was lit. If was hysterical, amazing, funny and something you will always remember. Only thing I regret was not trying to film it. There was a reason the MSEP was heading back for repair. This proved it was needed.