Originally Posted By TDLFAN Ok...One hr into this show and where is the "actual" WDW Xmas Parade?? I mean.. We have only seen ONE actual float that appears on the regular parade!!! The rest of the show has been a big fat lie of a parade. They should rename this show the "WDW Very Merry Promotional Hour". I also find it daring, if a bit deceiving, that most of what goes on on this tv show is NOT featured on the actual parade, and what little we see of the "supposedly" parade at the MK, is so so so so heavily enhanced by other material.. It's downright a disgusting promo disguised as a Xmas special. In fact, the only enjoyable segents of this show so far are the parade portions from DL, which as you know, it's a true Disney park we don't get to see much of, and I find it refreshing that most of the parade footage from CA is not all that augmented with extra silly stuffing, making their offerings THAT GOOD, as opposed to the very lacking decades old parade at WDW. Furthermore...they have said "this is the year of a million dreams" just about a million times!! Enough already!! We get it!!! we get it!! You have a lousy promotional effort to sell. But only the uncommonly infrequent visitor is biting. Then insult me further with the CMs segent talking about their jobs... with CM Chuck being the first one to come on and telling us... "There is something special about working at... DISNEYLAND!!" Yup! DL. NOT WDW. Still.. how many CMs are quitting that resort on a daily basis?? Now Chuck, tell us exactly how much you get paid on a weekly basis please. As for us here in Orlando.. the only thing that has made this show watchable are the constant interruptions about severe weather and tornado watches that are in effect for most of Central Florida as this show progresses.. Funny, the weather looks great on TV... sunny and beautiful, yet I'm 15 mins away from WDW and looking out my window...I see stormy skies, windy conditions and overall bad outdoors conditions. Not all is lost, at 1hr 34 mins into this 2-hr Disney promo, we are treated to a quick visit to DLParis. Pay attention kiddies so you can see how much nicer this park is over our host the MK park. Of course... the idea of going to Paris comes courtesy of DVC.. in yet another promotional clip. To recap.. the highlights of this silly show have been the segments from DL's parades and DLP. I will even forgive they substituded the real Santa at DL for Stitch, just so that the little boys and girls at home do not have to see there really are TWO Santas under employment at Disney...(at MK and DL). Three Santas in fact if you count the faux one that got kicked out of the MK this past week, in what looks suspiciously as a press stunt to increase awareness of the resort. One more thing...two actually! Whoever is in charge of Andrea Bocelli... please shave his face!! He looks like... (shush your mouth TDLFAN!) ..and please, to the powers that be.. SAVE of from Regis and Kelly next year! Overexposed and undertalented. They need to go!!! Merry Xmas everyone!!
Originally Posted By TDLFAN OMG!!! Just when it couldn't get worst.. Here comes Beyonce with one of the worst renditions of "Silent Night" ever attempted. This woman is so so so over rated. Furthermore... what is she doing here? Is Disney releasing "Dreamgirls"??? Must be the case since Eddie Murphy is on that movie...
Originally Posted By TDLFAN FINALLY!!! With 10 mins to go into this 2-hr spectacle, we finally get to see a little bit of the real WDW Xmas parade at the MK!! Please note the gal playing Mrs Santa Claus... She used to be the former MK Snow White and one of the very best there was. This particular performer was well known for remembering the names of kids she had met during the day, and would call them out by their names when she parade as Sow White in the daily parade. Definitely one of the very best CMs ever to grace the MK stage. Too bad she has allowed herself to get a bit...chubby in the waist since her good old days as Snow, and is now reduced to playing the older female characters on the parade. Still, she is a little beam of sunshine at WDW's parades. Can you tell I am a fan of hers???
Originally Posted By Doobie It's the same thing every year - a big promo for all of Disney. This isn't a surprise. Doobie.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 ^^Thanks for saying everything I was thinking! The parade has always been a commercial, but it used to be charming and REAL because it was live and the people along the parade route were real guests, not folks who signed up with the producer and were CAST because of how they looked and what Disney products of the moment (princesses, pirates, High School Musical, Nemo etc ...) the company wanted to shill. Oh gotta go ... MIchael Bolton's coming on! Big talent there!
Originally Posted By TDLFAN >>It's the same thing every year - a big promo for all of Disney. This isn't a surprise.<< Your correct Doobie, but it didn't used to be that way.. Things went downhill since they stopped broadcasting the show live from the MK several years ago.
Originally Posted By TDLFAN Well.. Spirit beat me to it. Great minds think alive, especially when they know WDW's history. And yes... Michael Bolton. Hoop-dee-doo. Maybe there is hope for DONNA SUMMER to appear next year.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 ^^Hey TDLFAN, you've got 25 minutes to get over to the MK and see the REAL Christmas Parade on the REAL Christmas Day!
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 AND you could get a great Christmas pictorial about the reality vs. the commercial.
Originally Posted By Mr X Not with tornado watches in effect. I'm surprised they don't close the parks in those circumstances. I was living in Kissimmee when the F4 hit..truly scary what those things can do!
Originally Posted By mrichmondj Yeah, we all know how Walt Disney would never stoop to promoting his products on national TV -- it was all about the entertainment, right? ;-)
Originally Posted By Roger55 Watching now. I find it interesting how they have changed even the pardes to make sure the same characters don't show up in both parks. For DL, Cinderella was missing from the Christmas ball. Playhouse Disney characters were also placed in the parade as replacements for I believe Pluto and others. And Santa was replaced with STITCH! For you WDW regulars, what was modified in the MK parade?
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Originally Posted By TDLFAN DLP uses real life reindeers (see my pictorial and report in the DLP section). HKDL does not have a Xmas parade but does have a lighting ceremony for the tree in Town square, feat. sexy girldeers (check my pictorial in the HKDL section). As for the actual parade at MK, about 90% of what they showed was altered or not really a part of the parade. Only the last few moments of the broadcast and the beginning, where you see Mickey and Minnie on the float are true moments from the parade. Everything else was hogwash promo efforts to sell the parks and dvds.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder We were there the week after Thanksgiving when this was taped. What a frickin' joke. Beyonce Knowles was there on a Monday, Bolton on a Thursday, Boccelli on another day (Tuesday we're guessing) and Philbin and Ripa were there Friday and Saturday and of course, were never even in the same state as the guests. We saw Bolton's bit taped seven or eight times, and they must have used clips from three or four different takes to make that one piece that ends the show. Philbin and Ripa sat where the tree would normally be, and the parade never at any point passed by them in a regular order. During the tapings, they would just have segments of the parade go by. And apparently, continuity wasn't a real concern as the sky during Bolton's slot would be cloudy, then sunny, then partial, just like it was during the many takes they taped. As for the DL segment, they'd have some cheesy act play in front of the castle, then cut to Seacrest just off to the side of it, and within a matter of nanoseconds, the stage was gone! I'm waiting to hear about some people who really think this parade happens on Christmas Day, goes to one of the parks expecting to find Seacrest or Philbin, and finding nothing but maddening crowds.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy Movie spoiler ahead -- Did you know that movies are not filmed in the order in which they are shown? Scenes are filmed to best accomodate costs and schedules. Then the editor cuts, edits, and assembles the final product into the fine presentation that we all see in the theaters. So they do the WDW parade the same way. So what? Now if in your opinion the final product is "overdone" artistically, or is shameless promotion, fine. I can grant you that. But don't argue about being present for the filming and then being upset that you only got to see 2 floats from the whole parade. Big deal. And as far as everyone in the parade audience being a CM ringer -- again, so what? I'd rather see a fine final product with an overly enthusiastic audience and the sun shining any day instead of taking a chance on a live feed of some guest not looking their best in the rain.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy Did you know that the film you see on the news everynight is edited before it's broadcast? And that there just might be an editorial slant to the story tacked on beyond what really happened if you'd been at the actual event? Shameless! It's the world we live in.
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy It's funny how people react to things. I caught some of the WDW parade on ABC in one of the break rooms while I was working at Epcot on Monday morning. I saw the sunny skies on TV, and looked out at the drizzly overcast skies we actually had. I thought it was funny. It didn't tick me off. Hey, it might even be considered "magical?"
