Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Street Party

Originally Posted By leemac

Due to being at DHS all day on Thursday I missed the sneak peek of the new Celebrate Today calvacade. However I managed to make it over to MK the next day for the last performance of the day (it was being performed three times on Friday).

The parade is absolutely horrific - a car crash of a product. The parade features five floats (four of which are virtually identical as "present" floats) which proceed up Main Street, circle Central Plaza before the lead float stops in front of Cinderella Castle. The lead-out music is catchy enough (the song is a re-purposed Hannah Montana track called Pumping Up The Party that all the kids knew and immediately engages with them) but then we are forced by an overly enthusiastic emcee to acknowledge what we are all celebrating (with no shout-out for those of us with nothing to celebrate that day!) prior to a ridiculous hodge-podge of music that is along similar lines to the show mode music for Block Party Bash but without the acrobatics and choreography. And then everyone - and I mean everyone - is encouraged out into Central Plaza to dance. It must be a nightmare for Ops. There were literally more people in the performance corridor than on the curbs.

Then the floats circle once more - to a jazzier version of Time of Your Life (the Celebrate Today theme song) which is fine.

It really feels like an inferior version of BPB. The costumes are like something pre-Mickey Mania (all primary colors and hideous) and the present floats with their "surprises" (which are also stolen from BPB) are jarring in their execution despite being designed by a respected parade designer. There is very little to like in this parade at all. There is no originality or sophisication to this mess - no story line, no true production values and a musical loop that is very amateurish.

Lindsay took some photos:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/talesfromthelaughingplace/" target="_blank">http://www.flickr.com/photos/t...ngplace/</a>

 

Originally Posted By dshyates

Man, if Lee says its bad, then it must truely be something to avoid.

 

Originally Posted By MPierce

So you're saying you don't care for it Lee?

 

Originally Posted By MPierce

Whose dream child was this?

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<So you're saying you don't care for it Lee? >>

Couldn't you tell?

It is a WDW Entertainment product. Frankly I'd rather watch HSM3: Right Here, Right Now than this trash ever again. A truly ghastly product that can't decide if it is a parade or a show and ended up doing neither successfully.

 

Originally Posted By MPierce

Is this just a little parade/show to pump up the crowd in the Park or is it just for the sake of tying in the What Will You Celebrate campaign? I will have to say I don't much care for those costumes either.

 

Originally Posted By u k fan

Gosh darn it now you've spoiled it for everyone. I thought the Brits were supposed to love this sort of thing.

I've never cared for this kind of parade/show hybrid. It looks to have the same feel as the Carnival at DLP and I was never sure about that.

Slightly off topic, I do miss Alphabet-You-Are.

And I hate Lindsay for taking such great photos!!!

 

Originally Posted By leemac

<<It looks to have the same feel as the Carnival at DLP and I was never sure about that.>>

Good spot, Kieran. The same oddball that had responsibility for entertainment at DLRP now has the same role at WDW - and it shows.

 

Originally Posted By -em

Geez and I liked it...

I MUCH preferred it to BPB (which I dislike), and the whatever they call it now MK parade.

I was pleasantly surprised how it caught and held my attention- Its makes for very colorful and vibrant photos and it doesnt last forever like BPB...

Will I purposely go to MK to see it- Prob not but Ill more than likely see it when Im already there...

 

Originally Posted By Disneymom443

It looks like a lot of fun, but the way leemac decribs it well, not so. And on the other side -em really likes it.
Everyone is different, no one can please everyone. I'll just have to see for myself in about 6 months.

 

Originally Posted By Tink34

I don't like the idea of street party type thing. It just doesn't seem very Disney. I know that Disney's done party themed parades but they were still parades! They had lots of characters and dancers, on and off floats, I miss those days!

One thing I do like are the t-shirts that some dancers are wearing in the pics with the outline of Mickey's head! I hope they're selling them!!!

 

Originally Posted By jmuboy

Wow, I'm totally shocked. This half-hearted parade designed around a marketing ploy is no good?!? Seriously, I'm shocked! Not at WDW!?!? <evil I told you so grin>

 

Originally Posted By MPierce

I hav concernes that this BPB thing is starting to carry over to other Parks. I can hardly wait until the dancers come out on the double decker buses at Epcot.

 

Originally Posted By MPierce

>> Geez and I liked it... <<

That's OK -em, I understand. Some people like liver and onions too.

 

Originally Posted By bobbelee9

I didn't see any double decker busses last summer, I thought they were gone?

 

Originally Posted By MPierce

I know they have at least one green one at the MK. I bet they still have a couple of the red ones somewhere.

 

Originally Posted By -em

>>Some people like liver and onions too. <<

 

Originally Posted By Spirit of 74

<<The same oddball that had responsibility for entertainment at DLRP now has the same role at WDW - and it shows.>>

Is that Francois?

And wasn't he behind those wonderful Lion King and Tarzan stage shows that have been killed at DLP (with nothing of note replacing them)?

 

Originally Posted By LindsayC

<<Is that Francois?

And wasn't he behind those wonderful Lion King and Tarzan stage shows that have been killed at DLP (with nothing of note replacing them)?>>

It is Francois Laroux - and he wasn't responsible for Lion King which was a WDI Creative Entertainment product. I honestly can't remember if Tarzan was conceived in Glendale too as it was so long ago.

Francois effectively holds the same role at WDW as he did at DLRP - basically all non-marquee and synergistic entertainment is his area of responsibility.

 

Originally Posted By SoThisIsLove

Seems like something similiar will be debuting on the 27th at DL: Celebrate! A Street Party, set for 3:30 and 6:30 pm

From the LA Times Travel Blog, quoted in Disneyland News Today (<a href="http://disneylandnewstoday.com/archives/tag/celebrate-a-street-party" target="_blank">http://disneylandnewstoday.com...et-party</a>):


"Although Disneyland isn’t calling it a parade, the new “interactive street party” debuting March 27 will travel along the parade route, replace the outgoing parade and essentially serve as the daily parade.

In typical punctuation-challenged Disney fashion, Celebrate! A Street Party will feature seven floats and 90 performers in a “celebratory song and dance party.”

Banners and ribbons will connect the floats as if in a long chain, according to Screamscape, with periodic high points punctuated by confetti-cannon fodder. Cue the street sweepers.

The anti-parade will make at least two show stops — on Main Street U.S.A. and in front of It’s a Small World — where singers, dancers, stilt-walkers and Disney characters will shake and shimmy to party songs.

Similar in scale to the Parade of Dreams, which the new whatever-you-do-don’t-call-it-a-parade replaces, Celebrate! A Street Party will typically run twice on busy days and once on slower days."