Getting Waved In

Imagine you’ve just spent an exhausting day at Disneyland, and now you’ve staked out a place on the curb waiting for the final event of your day--the Disney parade.

Suddenly, someone taps you on the back and asks if you’d like to be part of the procession. How would you like to march down the middle of the street, among colorful floats and costumed dancers, possibly rubbing shoulders with Sneezy, Roger Rabbit, the Big Bad Wolf or other classic Disney characters?

It’s an offer that hardly any park visitor--kids or adults--will be able to refuse, no matter how tired they may be.

Debuting Friday and continuing indefinitely, Disneyland’s new parade, “45 Years of Magic,” will offer patrons plenty of surprises, including--for the first time in the park’s history--visitor participation.

“The parade is a festive party, a big celebration,” says Jean Luc Choplin, the Disneyland creative director who spent 1 1/2 years designing the parade, “and now our guests can really be a part of it. They will get to wear special hats that depict various animals, like giraffes, hippos and rabbits. During the parade, they will have the chance to be those animals.”

Among the 70-plus paid performers and costumed characters, each parade will include about 50 park-goers who will be picked from anywhere along the parade route. Whisked away for pre-parade preparations, they will receive their animal hats as well as instructions for a simple routine to do during the parade. After the parade, the visitors will get to keep their animal hats as a souvenir.

Floats to Showcase Characters in Settings

The new parade is a showcase of classic Disney characters with eight floats designed as carriages in a regal procession. For example: Simba the Lion King’s elaborate throne will be adorned with actual gold leaf. Belle from “Beauty and the Beast” will be seated atop a gigantic velvet rose. Ariel, the Little Mermaid, will be presented inside a huge water drop, giving the carriage float a “snow dome” effect.

From the Blue Fairy from “Pinocchio” to the dancing whales from “Fantasia 2000”; from “Tarzan” to “Sleeping Beauty,” the floats feature old and new Disney characters. In addition, more than 47 other Disney characters--such as Alice and Baloo the Bear--will make the daily trek on foot between It’s a Small World and Main Street, U.S.A.

Parade producers were still making alterations to the music and choreography this week after a preview Sunday drew what sources described as a lackluster response from some park officials and patrons. Previews on Monday and Tuesday were scrapped.

Disney characters are spilling out all over Disneyland, not just in the new parade. The park is beefing up its exposure of walk-around characters, reducing the potential disappointment that families sometimes have when they don’t get to see their favorite character.

“Let’s face it, meeting the characters is a big reason why people come to Disneyland,” says Dave Goodman, vice president of entertainment. “Our major effort has been to put more characters out in the park walking around, mingling with our guests. There’ll be some planned activities with the characters as well as surprises and spontaneous interaction.”

Fireworks Show to Be Visible From Any Point

And when the sun goes down, Disneyland will be introducing another surprise: a new fireworks display designed to light up the sky in ways never seen before. The show will weave story, music and a new arrangement of fireworks colors, shapes and sounds.

“With new fireworks technology, we are able to launch from places around the park we have never used before,” Goodman says. Consequently, visitors should be able to see the display from any spot in the park.

One of the bigger challenges of the sky show, according to Goodman, was acquiring enough fireworks, especially since many overseas companies were picked clean with recent millennium celebrations. “They were hard to get for a while, but it’s getting better,” he says.

All in all, Disneyland officials hope that the parade, increasedcharacter interaction and high-tech fireworks show will be fresh experiences for frequent park-goers.

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BE THERE

The “45 Years of Magic” parade initially will be presented twice on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays (usually at 4:30 p.m. and 8:15 p.m.), and once a day Mondays through Thursdays (usually at 7 p.m.). The fireworks show will be presented Fridays and Saturdays at 9:30 p.m. Both the parade and the fireworks display will have additional show times later in the year. Disneyland is located at 1313 S. Harbor Blvd., off the 5 Freeway at the Harbor Boulevard exit in Anaheim. All-day tickets to Disneyland are $41 for adults, $31 for children age 3-11, children under 3 free. For more information, call Disneyland at (714) 781-4565.