During the winter months, the Magic Happens parade at Disneyland is sometimes performed at night due to shorter daylight hours and longer nighttime hours in the Northern Hemisphere. Recently, I was able to watch a performance of Magic Happens at 5:30pm PT and capture the parade on video and in photos during one of these nighttime performances. Unfortunately, the Frozen float was having technical difficulties during this performance so the entire Frozen segment is not present in my video no photos.
The parade begins each performance either at Small World Mall or at Town Square. The parade starts with an entourage of dancers performing to upbeat music composed by singer-songwriter Todrick Hall. These dancers lead the way for Sorcerer Mickey who rides atop a giant sorcerer hat float. Mickey and his float is followed by Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and more.
The parade is divided into several segments including a Moana, Coco and Frozen segment. Then, the parade has a huge grand finale with Cinderella, Arthur and Merlin, Princess Tiana, Sleeping Beauty and more.
The Moana segment follows Mickey & Friends and his entourage of dancers. The segment begins with Ocean Wave Dancers dressed in neon blue costumes representing water which is a key component of Disney’s animated film Moana. The dancers lead Moana who is riding on her wayfinding boat which is illuminated with ocean scenes.
Moana is then followed by a group of fun dancers representing the Kakamora from the Disney film. These dancers are dressed in Polynesian style attire carrying the Kakamora coconuts on their hands. Also, Hei Hei rolls along with the Kakamora group in a barrel. He is hiding from the Kakamora who are looking for a chicken.
The Coco segment follows the Moana segment lead by Marigold dancers. In the Disney-Pixar film Coco as well as Día de Los Muertos, marigolds play a huge role in guiding the spirit of loved ones home. These dancers represent those marigolds and the representation is even further portrayed on the float with Miguel showing the marigold bridge between the living world and the Land of the Dead.
Alebrijes dancers as well as the main Alebrijes from the film, Pepita, follow behind Miguel’s float.
The next segment of the film normally represents Disney’s Frozen and Frozen 2. Unfortunately due to technical difficulties on this particular night, the float and dancers from the Frozen segment were not present in the parade. However, Elsa, Anna, Olaf, Kristoff and Sven are normally a part of the Magic Happens parade as well as a group of dancers representing the The Enchanted Forest from Frozen 2.
When viewing the Magic Happens parade, guests will notice a different tune to the parade music for this next segment of the parade which is basically a huge grand finale to the parade featuring Disney characters, floats and parade performers. This segment starts with a group of Disney characters: Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Pinocchio, Blue Fairy, Aladdin, Genie and Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother.
This group of characters is followed by flag bearers, three small parade floats and one huge castle float. The flag bearers lead each of the three small parade floats that carry Cinderella, Arthur and Merlin from the Sword in the Stone and Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen on a bayou float.
Cinderella rides inside of her pumpkin carriage during it’s transition from a pumpkin to a horse drawn carriage. The float is detailed with pumpkin swirling vines and a transforming pumpkin revealing Cinderella inside.
Arthur and Merlin follow Cinderella on a float where Arthur actually pulls the sword from the stone during the parade. Then Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen are going down the bayou, dancing all the way.
The parade concludes with magical flag swirlers leading the huge castle float carrying Disneyland royalty.
Riding atop the castle float are the three fairies from the Disney animated classic Sleeping Beauty along with Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip.
Watch this entire parade performance in this unedited video recorded during the same parade performance as these photos were captured from.
Have you seen the Magic Happens parade at Disneyland? It is a must do for me during each visit to Disneyland Park. Let me know your thoughts about this parade. Do you prefer to watch the parade during the day or at night. I would love to hear from you!
As always, I’ll “see ya real soon” Mouseketeers!
