Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away will be debuting at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World Resort on July 20, 2025. Ahead of the arrival of this new nighttime parade, the fourth episode of We Call It Imagineering gives a first look at what guests will get to see and experience. Along the way, it also shows how this new parade came to life with some of the Disney magic and a lot of hard work from Disney Live Entertainment.
David Lightbody, Senior Vice President of Disney Live Entertainment, shared about the episode, saying, “You will see some of the incredible floats lighting up for the first time as the team works through programming and rehearsals, and you’ll meet Whimsy, an original character created just for Disney Starlight. We can’t wait for you to see the finished parade in the park. It’s an impressive theatrical spectacle!”
For the portion of the episode on Disney Starlight, David Lightbody is joined by Tara Anderson, Show Director at Disney Live Entertainment, who shares about this new parade. Anderson says, “I am so excited about this constellation of Disney dreams that we are bringing to life.” She shares the different elements of the parade. This includes the grand finale, which has a new character named Whimsy, who also happens to be a train.
After giving a big picture look at this parade coming to life, the focus of the episode pivots to Bryan Chess, Senior Lighting Designer, Disney Live Entertainment, and Danny Dillon, Senior Art Director, Disney Live Entertainment, who talk about designing the floats. This starts with pencil sketches, then goes to color rendering, consult with lighting, take them to model, engineering, and then programming. This leads to being able to see the actual floats after two and a half years of work. They also talk about the way they create movement in the parade through design, lights, and how it connects with the music.
Roger Butterley, Senior Music Producer, Disney Live Entertainment, and Clint Clarke, Manager – Audio Systems Design, Disney Live Entertainment, then discuss bringing the music to life for Disney Starlight. Butterley shared how, with this new parade, they wanted to bring the electronic and orchestral elements of the Main Street Electrical Parade and the Spectromagic parade together. Clarke also shares how GPS is utilized to sync up the music. Butterley then adds how each unit has authentic music to each story while also connecting them through the music of the parade. Clarke then goes into the efforts that go into making sure there are the right speakers. Butterley then adds how much work is put into creating an incredible experience for guests who watch this parade at Magic Kingdom. Clarke adds that he recognizes that future parade makers could be seeing this parade decades ahead.
Next up is costuming for the parade. Maggie Muller, Area Manager, Production & Sustainment Costuming, Disney Live Entertainment, explains the costuming department and process. This includes designing custom prints for the costumes. There is also documentation, laundry processes, placements of rhinestones, photo documentation, photo editing, rendering, and then bringing the costumes to life! Tracy Provo, Senior Costumer, Disney Live Entertainment, then shares about the sourcing and purchasing for all the elements of a costume. As Muller shares about the costumes, she reveals a nod to Mary Blair as well. It is also revealed how the starlight works in the costumes. These lights even sync with the music and floats.
The episode then pivots to the visual media production for the parade. Dana Carlson, Senior Visual Media Creative Producer, Disney Live Entertainment, starts this segment off. She shares how they are going to share some of the animated content created for the parade. A highlight of this is Jiminy Cricket, made of starlight. Evan Peltier, Visual Effects Designer, Disney Live Entertainment, explains, “Jiminy Cricket is going to be prominently displayed at the end of our Disney Starlight parade at Magic Kingdom and its going to be a wink back to Spectromagic where he was also waving goodbye to our guests at the end of the parade.” Peltier shared how legendary Disney animator Eric Goldberg also helped with this process. Carlson also shared how they looked at the different times magic came to life in Disney’s history to help showcase it throughout this parade.
Javier Beltran, Principal Visual Effects Designer, Disney Live Entertainment, then shared how he illuminated Jiminy Cricket with the starlight going around and how it was challenging. This meant adding visual effects to every element of Jiminy Cricket. Beltran’s daughter Anna also got to help design the look of the Starlight Magic.
The brand new character, Whimsy, is the finale float. It is also a train. “He is a childlike, whimsical character, so we wanted to keep him youthful, happy, playful,” explains Stefanie Mullen, Senior Visual Effects Designer, Disney Live Entertainment. Old Silly Symphony shorts were referenced in creating this character.
The episode then turns back to David Lightbody and Tara Anderson. “I’m hoping that they walk away from this understanding and feeling the power of what it means to put your dream out there in the world and go after it, and eventually, celebrate it coming true,” Anderson said. She also shared her history with Walt Disney World parades, dating back to being a part of the Tencennial parade. She wraps up her thoughts by sharing how blessed and grateful she is to be a part of creating this new parade.
The episode ends with a look back at how the traditional and legacy of creativity continues at Disney Live Entertainment. The work of Disney Live Entertainment is built on the foundation that Walt Disney built decades ago. Everything that happens today at Disney is because Walt Disney had a vision. That, just like a rock dropped into water, has had ripple effects that continue today.
The full fourth episode of We Call It Imagineering can be viewed here:
What do you think of what you are seeing of Disney Starlight? Are you excited to see this parade when it debuts at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom on July 20th? What are you most excited about with this parade? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
