VIDEO - 'Mickey's Most Merriest Celebration' opens at the Magic Kingdom

Jedi14Nov 25, 2016

Just realized that besides the live singers the only people who speak in the show are the Mickey and Friends characters.

jrhwdwNov 20, 2016

It did, Magic Of Christmas was DL's Sparkling without the kids cast.It played in Tomorrowland and Fantasyland in the 80's

kap91Nov 20, 2016

I honestly don't know....I'm sure budget played a role, but I think it's more than that, I think the vision must have changed along the way - through one reorganization or another, the people responsible for spectacle and majestic came to have different ideas about what it was that people wanted, who the audience was, etc. The biggest root cause had to be he elimination of the kids of the kingdom and the live pit during the daytime shows. I don't know the reasoning behind that move but it resulted in a fundamental change to the size, content, and style of show - probably the most obvious thing being much less of a focus on dance, and to a lesser extent singing, which basically was the bread and butter of kids of the kingdom shows instead towards characters. You can see this in Cinderellas surprise celebration (which I believe was the first show after the change and also around when Celebrate the season debuted). Both these shows were still rather large and interesting - but it's very clear in both the focus was much more on the characters themselves rather than the numbers If that makes sense. This is also where the trend towards shorter shows starts (with someone presumably realizing that guests standing for 30-40 minutes in one location is somewhat miserable for them and not good at all for business). From there on I think It's just been a little change here and there to result in more intimate, more I guess you could say branded shows, with a target audience skewing younger and younger. The reconfiguration of the stage and hub for Cinderellabration in 2005 really put some things into stone too. The removal of the hub trees around that time suddenly made the shows much more visible and louder, and the addition of the set of a thousand stairs was a giant change to what was even possible to do on that stage - previously being mostly a flat stage with a small center staircase, and for a brief time a slight variant on that and predecessor to the Curey setup with one staircase/elevated platform on each side (with a high speed lift in one that i wish would have been kept/not disabled). Anyway as can be seen currently in the new Christmas show - it's hard to fit a large cast in an attractive way in a space like that. Disney in general has moved away from large shows and just fewer shows over the last 20 years. They killed ''twas and replaced it with the drastically inferior totally tomorrowland. Jolly Holiday went away around the same time as Sparkling Christmas. Hell there used to be a show in the contemporary concourse at Christmas. And it's hard to say they're all just Disney become tighter with its purse strings. Jolly Holiday was enormously successful and it was a quite expensive separate ticket event. It just seems to be an attitude change within the people in charge and I suspect that maybe (and I don't have evidence to support this) that the creatives in the company might have used to have more power to direct not only shows themselves but direct the overall direction of entertainment and development within the resort and I suspect that that latter bit has gradually been handed over to the business people

brb1006Nov 20, 2016

And Scrooge Mcduck is even featured.

brb1006Nov 20, 2016

What ever happened to Disney shows like this?

kap91Nov 20, 2016

Ugh the set design, use of props, special effects, basic illusions, the use of the castle balcony, goofy appearing all over the castle, a huge variety of lesser-known Christmas songs, fanfare trumpeters, action happening in every corner of the stage, just an overall sense of grandness, not beating you over the head with characters, and just freaking hell look at the finale - it gives me goose bumps every single time even all these years later on a crappy video. You can even hear a guy say "damn that's worth the price of admission alone" and it really was. I know the cost of a show that enormous had to be astronomical and I have no idea how they made the finances work (on cheaper relative ticket prices too) but damn I want stuff like this back. The magic kingdom in Florida was designed to be a grand park, Disneyland is charming, and intimate and something like this doesn't fit there, but in a park like the magic kingdom large scale grand entertainment is needed, (grand trees too). The park is designed with massive open space and something is needed to take up that space and make it alive. You have a stage that's 40 feet across in front of a 200 ft tall castle in the middle of a viewing area that spans acres. The size of the show itself does not only need to be grand but the mood of the show needs to be appropriate to the atmosphere (something that's been lacking in more recent years). I will say that it does seem the show writing has gotten much better in the extreme recent past - though I still get the feeling that the shows are being written with in much too intimate a way and instead relying on the set of a thousand stairs (I just came up with that lol) to take up the physical and emotional space. You have shows with very small primary casts, and smaller moods playing on a theater that's even larger than the hub ever was back in 1994 (before the multiple expansions and deforestations took place). I don't necessarily think all the castle shows have to be this majestic (though I wouldn't complain about he special event shows) but I do think more thought should be put into the overall feel and vibe.

Jedi14Nov 20, 2016

Has anyone mentioned that Goofy roasted Donald at the end of the bell song?

kap91Nov 20, 2016

You don't really see it in the video either but the cast was huge - performers were on both ramps up to the castle too. And notice how little the characters are used. I wish I could be in charge and have a return to the grandness that really used to pervade the magic kingdom.

kap91Nov 20, 2016

I loved sparkling Christmas spectacular as a kid! Live music, somewhat of a plot, and I've been silently campaigning for a return to that simple set design for ages - it was so much more well suited.

jrhwdwNov 20, 2016

Most Merriest is wonderful and is far better than CTS was on the current stage. But, Oh My Goodness!! Look where MK was in 1994!: Just found it today on YT! EASILY the BEST Christmas Show in MK's History! Amazing what MK did with only one set of stairs on the stage! Maybe they should try that again sometime! :)

kap91Nov 11, 2016

It is really nice to see a new show. Gonna have to say I like Celebrate and Sparkling Christmas spectacular more for their variety of songs and medleys, performance, and the fact I literally grew up with them (and I really happen to like that old school magic kingdom music arranging style - has a bit more drama and sparkle) but this show is solid! The texting song is slightly cringe worthy, but not too much so lol. I was really happy to see live hosts back, that was great, that's a trend that's going in the right direction, and I loved that everything seemed just very fresh and upbeat. This is the only use of projected sets I've ever loved. it's just perfect for the setting. And I give them kudos for the sheer number and variety of characters on stage. Always nice to see a huge cast on a stage that large. Well done, and the way the show is structured it functions better as general area ambience and entertainment too for those not standing directly in front of the stage - with given the crowds I think is a plus.

mm52200Nov 11, 2016

The first show the lights don't come back on during the finale because there's another Frozen Holiday Wish right after it. The other three shows the lights come back on during the finale.

DisoneNov 11, 2016

I smiled through the entire show. The texting song.... kind of cringed at first but by the end of the song I was smiling again. I love the show is a Christmas show, and while not religious, it is solid Christmas and not a happy holidays diversity show. One one thing, I notice in the finale the two different angles at two different effects on the Castle. One with the castle lights on, the other with projection mapping imagery on the Castle. So must of been video tapped over two different showings, and was just wondering what they settled on to use.

Goofnut1980Nov 09, 2016

How did they get the new iPhone 8 MegaPlus?? that screen is sooo big! I thought it was only in prototype??? that text song was a bit odd.