[birds chirping]
[announcer] Remain seated, please.
[in Spanish] Please remain seated.
[♪ theme music]
[indistinct chattering]
[narrator] Just as it's always been, since Disneyland first opened in 1955,
a day in a Disney park is one of endless possibilities,
- thrills... - [roaring]
- ...adventure, discovery. - [train horn honks]
Everything under the sun can be found in these magical lands,
and everything not under the sun as well,
because when night falls, that's when it's time for...
- Fireworks. - [fireworks crackling]
[narrator] But, of course, it doesn't end there.
Don't forget the lights, lasers, and parades.
These are the nighttime spectaculars...
It really changed your perception of what nighttime entertainment can be.
...that transform the Disney park of the daytime into a whole new world.
But there's a reason for this radiant ritual,
a guiding philosophy, if you will,
that dates back to the earliest days of Disneyland.
There's a great story with the Sherman Brothers.
♪ Shining at the end of every day ♪
When they were with Walt Disney on Main Street
and there was a firework show that started.
[fireworks crackling]
And Walt turned around and said to Richard Sherman,
"This is our kiss goodnight."
[narrator] Literally and figuratively, sparks were flying.
Did Walt say the kiss goodnight?
Did he actually say that?
There is the rumor.
I don't know that that is true. I think it's kind of apocryphal.
[narrator] Well, one shouldn't kiss and tell.
But it's... it's a good urban legend.
[narrator] Oh, well, in any case...
Walt thought that we really needed a way to bring everyone together
at the end of the night and kind of encapsulate the day.
[narrator] Hm, almost like a...
Like a moment that kisses you goodnight before you leave at the end of the day.
[narrator] Thank you.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves, we've only just begun our evening.
In fact, the story of fireworks in the park,
the very first nighttime spectacular, started before the first park even opened.
Before Disneyland opened, Walt Disney started telling folks
about it on television.
[Rebecca] He created a show called...
[announcer] Walt Disney's Disneyland!
...and started doing, uh, reports on how the construction
and how the development was going
to get people excited about coming to see the new park.
Now we want you to share with us our latest and greatest dream.
And he opened that show with Tinkerbell flying in and waving her wand
and making fireworks explode.
And so when people came to the park,
they expected to see Tinkerbell and the fireworks...
[guest 1] Can't wait to see the fireworks.
- ...and there weren't any. - [crickets chirping]
[guest 2] I guess they're not doing any fireworks.
We didn't have the wherewithal
to do a big firework show or anything at that time.
[narrator] But all of that was about to change,
thanks to Mickey.
No, not that Mickey!
Mickey Aronson was the first full-time pyrotechnician at Disneyland
that was hired by Walt Disney.
[narrator] Yes, Mickey Aronson, who, in 1957,
would begin overseeing Disneyland's first fireworks spectacular,
which, later that year, would be formally titled...
Fantasy in the Sky.
[crowd cheering]
When it started, it was literally about five minutes long,
and it was cast members shooting the fireworks themselves
up in the sky behind the castle.
They would take a music track...
[♪ fanfare music playing]
...and then the pyrotechnicians would light a flare
and you would hear, "Two, three, fire one!
Fire two!
- Three! Four! Five!" - [fireworks crackling]
[crowd cheering]
And they knew how long the timers were on each of the shells,
and then by doing that, they would create a show in the sky,
but it was all done by hand with a flare.
[narrator] But while Mickey and his flare, along with his team,
were handling the magic behind the scenes,
there was only room out front in the spotlight
for one minute master of ceremonies.
Walt knew that the fans wanted to see Tinkerbell starting the fireworks,
and he wasn't able to do that
until after the Matterhorn was built in 1959.
Then, he had a place where he could have Tinkerbell fly down behind the castle.
[announcer] Here comes Tinkerbell now over the happiest land of all!
[narrator] Naturally, the Tinkerbell role
would require someone both acrobatic and tiny,
which is quite literally what Walt found.
[Rebecca] Tiny Kline was a fairly famous circus acrobat
and she was famous for her iron jaw act,
where she would slide down a wire holding on to a bit in her teeth.
[♪ fanfare music stings]
And so, at 70 years old, she's living in Southern California
and Walt met her and said, "Will you come and be Tinkerbell for me at the park?"
[narrator] And so Tiny took to the sky, hanging by her teeth and...
Not with her teeth. She slid with, you know, with a harness.
[narrator] Probably sensible!
Fantasy in the Sky was a huge success,
making Walt's dreams of a lively park after dark a reality.
And as the parade of time marched onward,
ultimately making its way to early 1970s Florida,
the firework spectacular would light the skies of the Magic Kingdom
at Walt Disney World as well.
But all of the excitement wasn't just confined to the park.
The nearby contemporary and Polynesian hotels
were destinations of their own,
and when guests visited those places...
There needed to be some kind of nighttime entertainment,
something special for them.
[narrator] And with both hotels
sitting on the sprawling lagoon at Magic Kingdom,
it seemed only natural for the folks at Disney World to test the waters!
So the Electrical Water Pageant was created.
[narrator] A parade of literal actual floats, literally, actually floating!
[Rebecca] They used these wire frames
with thousands of twinkling lights and music.
The music and the lights would synchronize
and form different types of whimsical characters,
dragons and water creatures, and things like that.
[narrator] Hugely popular, these twinkling lights dazzled the eyes
of more than just the guests, namely...
Card Walker.
[narrator] Who, at the time, was the executive VP
and COO of the Walt Disney company.
Card Walker saw and loved the Electrical Water Pageant
and said, "We need something like this for Disneyland."
Just because a show works in one park,
does not necessarily mean it's gonna work in another park.
[narrator] And so, out in California,
Disneyland chose to go a slightly different route.
You know, Disney's just all about innovation, right?
So there's this pageant on the water.
We come to Disneyland
and the idea is to translate that into a nighttime parade.
That, naturally, would march down Main Street.
[narrator] Which would make it a Main Street...
Yes.
- ...Electrical Parade? - Yes.
[narrator] Yes!
[♪ epic music]
[crowd cheering]
And to design this luminous cavalcade,
Card Walker turned to Disney Director of Entertainment, Bob Jani,
who, with the advanced technology of Disney R and D at his disposal,
began prototyping the show with...
his Christmas tree.
He basically was in his living room and took the Christmas lights off the tree
and had them on the floor, and his wife goes, "What are you doing?"
- [glass shatters] - And he goes, "What do you think
if we did this in three-dimensions and sent it down the street?"
And it's like, "Are you crazy?"
[narrator] As it turns out, no, thanks to batteries!
And there were these switches that would go...
[imitates electricity crackling]
[imitates electricity powering up] ...and turn on!
[narrator] Like the many lights themselves,
the many floats came together to create a dazzling spectacle.
So it was developed to be a series of individual segments
that had lots of little twinkling lights on them.
There was a giant drum
manned by Mickey Mouse with the logo on it.
Certain float sections were inspired by Disney animated classics,
such as Alice in Wonderland,
the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio,
and Pete's Dragon, another very popular one added in 1977.
[narrator] But there was more to the Main Street Electrical Parade
than meets the eye.
The ears got their fair share too.
♪ The Main Street Electrical Parade! ♪
[♪ lively parade music playing]
It's a very interesting song that is played
during the Main Street Electrical Parade called "Baroque Hoedown."
[narrator] Definitely a catchy tune. But as unique as the song itself was,
so, too, was the way in which park guests were hearing it.
Was our first parade that had tracking show control.
[narrator] That's right, tracking show control!
- [music stops] - Um, what is tracking show control?
The technicians at Disney had figured out a way of moving the sound
down the street with speakers
so that it was always synchronized to the floats.
So no matter which float was in front of you,
you were hearing the portion of the song that was designed for that float.
Say it was Alice in Wonderland,
as the float went by you would hear the Alice in Wonderland music
incorporated into the main song.
And then when it passed you and went to the next zone,
the music would start for the people in the next zone.
[narrator] Well, that's cool, but how?
When they recorded it,
there was a two-inch piece of tape that had 24 tracks,
and one of it was the bass track
that went around to all the wayside speakers,
then every single other track was transmitted to the float,
that would then pick up a radio signal and then play it back.
I mean, that was nuts back then!
[narrator] And it's been that way since it opened in 1972.
Although, not a permanent lighting fixture at Disneyland,
the Main Street Electrical Parade has returned for limited time runs,
and when it does, it's plain to see
that there are some fancy new frills on display.
For guests to be able to see Raya and Moana, and Hercules,
you know, a character representation that they may not have seen
in the Electrical Parade before.
[narrator] And that's not all!
As the finale float comes down Main Street,
it enchants all of the buildings around it with projection mapping.
[narrator] Yes, projection ma...
Actually, we're gonna need an explanation on that one too.
Projection mapping, basically,
is instead of projecting on a flat screen like a movie,
you're projecting it on a dimensional surface
and marrying that surface with what you are projecting on it,
which gives you so much latitude in creating illusions.
[narrator] But projection mapping is nothing new to the Disney parks.
In fact, it goes back further than you might think.
The first instance of it is Madame Leota in The Haunted Mansion back in the '60s.
Awaken the spirits with your tambourine!
And that was done in a very rudimentary way
at the time with a film projector.
[KC] These days, it's all done with video.
And I love that we're continually growing and changing things like our parades
and to be able to... to keep that fresh for guests.
[narrator] And that's no small feat after more than 50 years.
And when it comes to Tokyo Disneyland's Electrical Parade,
there's no small anything, with this one clocking in at 45 minutes,
over double the length of the original.
It's a giant version of the Electrical Parade
called Dreamlights,
and Dreamlights has been running since 2001.
[in Japanese] Welcome, everyone, to the world of light and fantasy!
[narrator] But unlike Main Street Electrical Parade,
Dreamlights has left the nostalgia of those holiday bulbs behind
in favor of some sparkly new tech.
What was wonderful when Dreamlights came on in Tokyo
is it really took kind of light technology to a whole different level.
LED technology has been incorporated over the years.
It has really evolved from the Christmas light
that we know and love
from the original Main Street Electrical Parade.
And it really started to transform how you can do lights.
[Steve] Like with the Genie,
the whole Genie can change and morph in front of you.
Just a beautiful nighttime display
that will just bring you back to your childhood like that.
[in Japanese] In each and every float we feel a story,
and the characters seem to shine brighter than usual
in the many lights that illuminate them.
[crowd cheering]
[narrator] With guests mouths agape
at the spectacle of fireworks and parades,
nighttime's have become the highlight of many people's day.
But back in 1984,
when Michael Eisner joined the Disney company,
where others saw a spectacular array of dazzlement,
Eisner saw a spectacular opportunity specifically for Disneyland.
Not content with just the nightly fireworks
and Main Street Electrical Parade,
Eisner set his sights on adding a third event, but where?
Well, let's see.
[narrator] It's not like Disneyland had a spare lagoon laying around,
or did it?
So of course, where better than the Rivers of America.
[narrator] Of course, the Rivers of America,
there since opening day in Frontierland, surrounding Tom Sawyer Island,
which they figured could be used to stage this brand-new nighttime spectacular,
whatever it would end up being.
They wanted to create something that would attract a lot of people,
you know, kind of like the fireworks, tell a definite story,
and the name of the show was "Imagination!"
[narrator] The concept being that the entire show
takes place in Mickey's mind, or rather Mickey's...
Imagination!
[narrator] Exactly!
- Okay! - [narrator] Yep.
- Good name! - [narrator] Um...
Is it, though?
Imagination is kind of a generic term.
What was needed was a Disney term,
something that would more fantastically show the imagination of the show.
[narrator] Which was Mickey's imagination.
Oh, boy!
[narrator] And taking a cue from the 1940 film Fantasia,
one word came to mind.
"Phantasmagoria," and that was felt to be a little too much of a mouthful.
[retches]
[narrator] So after tapping out of and then into their imagination,
they conjured up "Fantasmic."
And, of course, also that sort of brings in Mickey Mouse
at the end of it too, Fantasmic.
- [narrator] And on May 13th, 1992... - Fantasmic!
[narrator] Yes, Fantasmic became the newest way to punctuate your day.
Let's not forget the exclamation point.
That's the most important part!
- [chimes] - [narrator] Right!
Well, there are other contenders for most important part.
[announcer] Welcome to Fantasmic!
From pyrotechnics. The water effects.
The first mist screens that ever appeared were here on Fantasmic.
[Jessica] The projections.
The barges as they were coming by.
[♪ epic music]
Mickey on top of the mill with the fireworks going off around him.
[narrator] But the really impressive part of Fantasmic
is the show before the show.
One of the most amazing things is that you'd never know it was there
when you walk by the park during the day.
It's really quite unbelievable that this is pulled off night after night.
[narrator] In the afternoon, before a Fantasmic show,
Tom Sawyer Island is fully transformed into the stage for Fantasmic.
It's an amazing system that all works together,
these huge towers that have lighting, projection, audio.
They have to be brought out in time for the show.
[narrator] And as the sun casts its shadow over the lagoon,
it's not just the guests that gather.
[Jessica] It takes a casting crew of over a hundred people
to bring this show to life.
[David] Stage technicians that are working on the Columbia and Mark Twain
getting it all set up for the show.
[narrator] As crew members and characters prepare to light up the lagoon,
there's one character in particular that truly brings the heat.
[roaring]
Any show that has a huge, fire-breathing dragon is okay by me.
[fire crackles]
[narrator] The Maleficent Dragon!
Our Maleficent Dragon stands at 45 feet tall, 35 feet wide,
and can fire an isopar dragon's breath flame.
[roaring]
She's breathing fire, real fire,
and all of the Rivers of America are set aflame.
[narrator] But not all of this spectacular is hidden away by day.
The Mark Twain Riverboat and the sailing ship, Columbia,
both make a spectacular appearance.
We sneak a giant pirate ship up in the darkness,
and all of a sudden, Jack Sparrow's up there
swinging through the ratlines.
[narrator] From a boat load of effects to a boat load of Disney characters,
Fantasmic set the standard and pushed the boundaries far beyond
where live shows had been in the Disney parks.
[David] This is the one that started it all
when it comes to spectaculars we show around the world.
[Jessica] Fantasmic was the show that made me wanna work for Disney.
It was something unlike anything I'd seen before.
[fireworks crackling]
[♪ epic music]
[narrator] The dazzlement of Fantasmic wows park guests at Disneyland
and now at Disney's Hollywood Studios too.
But Fantasmic isn't the only show to have graced Anaheim.
Right next-door to Disneyland, at Disney California Adventure Park,
something new was lurking in the depths.
In 2010, Walt Disney's vision of bringing a film-like experience
to Disney park nightlife reached a new height,
where a groundbreaking 380-foot wide water screen
immersed viewers in Disney's cinematic history.
[crowd cheering]
And it was all thanks to this guy.
No, wait, hang on, that guy!
In 2005, when Bob Iger became the new CEO,
Disney made a number of exciting acquisitions,
like Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm.
But Bob wasn't only focused on movie studios.
In 2007, he ordered a major overhaul of Disney California Adventure Park.
Disney California Adventure had traditionally been a park
that closed around 7:00 o'clock in the evening.
[crickets chirping]
[owl hoots]
So, the desire was to also give those guests a kiss goodnight as well.
[narrator] And who better to do that than fireworks expert Steve Davison?
We had fireworks at Disneyland and the park wanted to do
something in the lagoon.
[narrator] But this time,
Steve would have to be a little more fluid with his plans.
"Why don't we do a fountain show?"
So I'm like, "Okay." Know nothing about fountains.
So we just go out and we start to research it.
[narrator] And as ideas flowed...
We decided to do the world's biggest color fountain.
[narrator] Steve and his team put together the pitch
for the Wonderful World of Color,
which was not to be confused with...
the Disney television program from the 1960s,
that took its name from the newfangled fact
that television had begun broadcasting in color.
A bit of color magic will fix it.
[Walt] Bippity, boppity, blue.
[narrator] So, why not call the new colorful lagoon show World of Color?
And so we ran with that.
[narrator] Straight to Bob Iger's office, where, of all the colors,
- Steve was most concerned about... - [cash machine dings]
...green.
I never thought it was gonna sell.
It's too expensive.
[narrator] But after showing Bob the plans...
The big question from him was, "When," so then the real work starts.
[narrator] Water work.
The team tested fountains, just like this one, and this one,
oh, and don't forget about these bad boys,
and devised a way to hide them in the lagoon, all 1,200 of them.
Basically, if you drain Paradise Bay, it goes to 14 feet at the base.
[narrator] Where they set some massive tables.
Three platforms that are built on man lifts that go up and down.
These are the platforms by which we attach all of our equipment.
[David] Our power, our data. We have projectors.
This is where they live.
[narrator] And these platforms are more than just surface level.
Under every single table is a giant warehouse of electronics.
[narrator] All of which can be raised and lowered!
During the day, you wouldn't even know there's a show here.
[narrator] But, of course, there is a show here.
A show known for dazzling audiences and puzzling its creators.
When we were looking to design the fountains,
there was no road map for this.
[Steve] You start to learn things very quickly,
like if you turn on all the fountains you're gonna sink the platform.
[narrator] And even when it's just some of the fountains...
The distribution of weight, sometimes it has them a little off-kilter.
So suddenly, we're adding weights to certain parts.
[David] We're talking about weights you lift,
weights you might find in a theater.
[narrator] The team also had to deal with currents.
Electrical, that is.
[Steve] Oh, look, we only have so much power.
We can't run the entire system at once.
[narrator] But of all the challenges there are
to running one of the world's largest fountain shows,
the biggest one might come as a shock!
We love the way the water looks, but water gets into everything,
so one way we protect our equipment is by using things like silica packets.
[David] These are the packets you find in shoes.
These are the packets that you'll find in certain food products.
[narrator] And the water truly did go everywhere,
because wider than a football field, and taller than a four-story building,
the World of Color mist screen sprayed a backdrop
for some of Disney's most famous imagery.
But when the team planned on limiting the projections
to animated characters only...
His live action figures don't read well in water.
You know you can't read.
[narrator] This made one character particularly animated,
so he took his grievance up with Shelby Jiggetts-Tivony, who is...
The vice president of creative and advanced development
for Disney Live Entertainment.
[narrator] Right! So, what did Bob say?
He said something like, "What about pirates?
Why isn't pirates in the show?" [chuckles]
- Oh, bugger. - [narrator] But instead of jumping ship,
Steve had a plan.
The entire piece shows Jack Sparrow in two places,
but the rest of it is all water and fire.
[♪ dramatic music]
[Steve] And it was taking that theme that was so powerful
and just creating kind of this pirates battle with it.
That exuberant, orchestral score just took everything up to 11.
[narrator] And when Bob Iger saw it for the first time...
[crowd cheering]
[Steve] He loved it! He cheered.
He's like, "Wow, see?"
[narrator] In the days before its public premiere in June 2010,
many in the extended park's family
got to see the finished World of Color for the first time.
[Steve] We had a imagineering night
for the imagineering families to come and see it,
and one of the original imagineers, Bob Gurr, came up to me,
and I'd never met him before,
and he goes, "Are you Steve Davison?"
I said, yes.
He goes, "I'm Bob Gurr,
and I just wanna tell you, Walt Disney would be proud of you."
He said, "Walt would love this.
You have taken a medium and transformed it.
He would be so excited to see this today."
I think out of anything that anyone's ever told me,
I think that's probably been one of the most beautiful,
because, I mean, he worked with Walt Disney all the time,
and to get that comment from him really meant a lot to me.
[narrator] World of Color continues to light up both skies and eyes
at Disney California Adventure Park,
where, in 2023, a brand-new fountain show
debuted for Disney's 100-year anniversary.
And in 2021, Walt Disney World in Florida had a milestone of its own
as it prepared for its 50th anniversary.
To celebrate the occasion,
it was decided that a new nighttime spectacular was in order.
But what would it be?
What if we did a Disney concert?
[narrator] Ah, yes, of course, a concert,
because Disney and music go hand in hand, or voice in ear,
and being lead on the project,
it was up to Steve Davison to decide what kind of concert it would be.
What if we did a Disney concert,
but we did it through the eyes of World Showcase?
[narrator] Epcot's World Showcase, a vast promenade
highlighting 11 different nations from around the world
all encircling a 40-acre lagoon.
We could then go back and have those cultures now,
bring that music back to us from their point of view.
[narrator] Of course. A stirring ode to global oneness
through the unifying language of music.
Steve's show was already shaping up to be something--
No, it's not my show, it's not their show, it's our show.
That, for it to work, we all need to work in harmony together.
[narrator] Harmony!
Fitting, considering that when the Disney creative team
had to pick a name for the show...
We came up with Harmonious!
When you think about harmony, it's about music coming together
and intertwining it together, and it's us, right, so harmony us.
Harmony us.
Us coming together, celebrating our different cultures,
but also respecting that we are all one.
[narrator] And although it may be a small World Showcase, after all...
Harmonious was a big undertaking.
...in every way, starting with the venue.
World Showcase Lagoon is not an insignificant body of water,
let's say that.
[Gary] The Epcot lagoon is the largest body of water
for any of our theme parks across the world,
so we had to make the show in that same scale.
[narrator] After all, with over a mile of coastline...
uh, lagoon line,
that's a whole lot of front row seats for a center stage of sorts.
And so our team's invented, uh, a barge technology.
[narrator] Uh, barge is putting it mildly.
Each one of these massive vessels
is a fully-loaded multimedia complex unto itself.
[♪ quirky music]
Take this one, for example.
This has 360-degree video going around it. It has a wall that moves.
[Steve] It has scenery that comes out.
It has fountains. It has moving lights. Pyro.
[narrator] Let me guess, there are moving arms too?
There are moving arms in the show.
[narrator] Of course there are.
They're over 55 feet in length,
and that's what Steven uses as our dancers, right,
they're our live components in the show.
They were able to, in one situation,
they may be emulating the lamp from Aladdin,
to, uh, a palm tree that's in, uh, Jungle Book.
So we're able to use those
through lighting and fountains, and lasers here.
Was used them as our moving cast, if you will.
[narrator] After years of preparation,
Harmonious made its premiere in September 2021,
just in time for the Walt Disney World Resort's 50th anniversary.
Everyone gather around World Showcase.
[♪ whimsical music]
You start to hear the chants of our different films.
The opening of the Lion King, the mermaids singing, um, Moana,
all started to come together as one, big, uh, beautiful piece
being sung by all these different pavilions
from around the world,
and we start to bring the songs
that were inspired by those places around the world
back to us from their point of view.
[narrator] And while the ending of the Walt Disney World Resort's
50th anniversary celebration has since brought Harmonious to a close,
the message of this epic spectacular still rings just as true.
It's really about giving you a sense that the world is connected culturally,
we're all people, and we care about each other.
[narrator] Be it Harmonious
or any nighttime spectacular that came before,
it's clear that with every passing year,
the nighttime spectaculars of the Disney parks
are getting more and more spectacular all over the world,
including Disneyland Paris,
where they've taken nighttime spectacular technology
to brand-new heights.
The Disney Illuminations show is a wonderful show
that takes place projected on the castle.
[narrator] Before the show each night,
guests are treated to Disney D-Light, a state of the art drone show.
Where the number 30, for our 30th anniversary,
appears in the sky.
[narrator] And it's spelled out by more than 150 independent drones.
Each drone is individually programmed.
[Ben] It doesn't know what the other drones are doing.
[narrator] And it takes a team of four to keep these bots buoyant.
[in French] We verify that they are turned on, in working order, and fully charged.
[narrator] And so, with guests' hearts full of wonder
and the drones' batteries full of charge,
the sky comes alive.
[Stephane in French] All of a sudden, the sky behind the castle lights up.
And the reaction from the guests once it's underway
is "Wow," every single time.
[Stephane] It's beautiful and their eyes go wide.
It has that effect on the guests every time.
You know, drones is kind of the new frontier,
in terms of the... the technological live entertainment toolkit.
[narrator] Disney drones might be the new kids on the block,
but the good news is, there's plenty of space in the skies
to share with their more fiery neighbors.
What's a Disney spectacular without fireworks?
[narrator] Exactly!
No matter what new technology is developed,
something about the classic firework show seems to capture our hearts.
But even for fireworks, there's always room to grow.
[Rebecca] Over the years, from the very earliest fireworks
up to the present,
the science of fireworks has changed so dramatically.
[narrator] Mickey's flare has been outshone
because now computers run the show!
Now, fireworks are done in a very sophisticated way.
We use electronic systems that basically go to each and every shell,
and we can now launch a shell and probably have it hit
within, uh, 10 frames of a second.
In the early shows, we would basically go and draw them.
[Steve] So they'd come in and they would just take markers
and they'd say, "Oh, this a mine and it would go to a gold glitter,
but we want it to be red and blue to a sparkle."
Now, all that has accelerated to the point where we're now doing full CGI.
We can now go and take a shell, we recreate it in CGI,
and now I can actually do an entire show
and show it to you before we ever shoot one shell,
and it'll be probably 90 percent accurate.
[narrator] And now, the classic air show has a lot more air in it.
A researcher in the development group came up with the idea
of launching the fireworks with compressed air,
like a big potato cannon.
[Ric] Each shell is in its own tube and it can be fired up
exactly at the moment you need it to go.
The amount of pressure can tell exactly how to go
and you can aim the tube to do exactly what you want.
I can now take shells and position them where I want them in the sky.
[Ric] This is the technology that allowed a big Mickey shape
to show up in our firework shows.
[KC] First of all, it's a safer way to launch the pyro,
and it's also a quieter way to launch the pyro
because you don't have the, uh, concussion mortar.
Which suddenly transformed everything because suddenly we had no ground smoke.
[narrator] Well, there's usually no smoke without fire,
but now there's fireworks without smoke?
One of the things about ground smoke is that if you don't have any wind
your whole show just starts to disappear
because you just have this swell of smoke surrounding everything you're at.
[narrator] Today's fireworks aren't just clearer, they're also cleaner.
A new technology we have called nitrocellulose.
Nitrocellulose is a new way to make colors of the different comets
and the different colors that you're seeing in the sky,
but it's done with a product also that doesn't use black powder.
It changes the formula,
so you're getting rid of a lot of the smoke
that used to be in, uh, traditional fireworks.
[narrator] From fireworks to waterworks,
Disney's nighttime spectaculars have always found new ways
to tell their stories.
But one show in particular has truly risen to the moment.
On June 18th, 2022, a brand-new nighttime spectacular
illuminated the Hong Kong sky for the first time.
And to call it "Momentous" would be accurate!
Momentous is a nighttime spectacular in Hong Kong Disneyland
unlike any other show we've put into any of our castle parks.
[narrator] Over five years in the making,
this nighttime spectacular is the prodigious product
of Disney Live Entertainment and imagineering teams
in both the United States and Hong Kong.
But just like any of Disney's most memorable spectaculars,
it all began with an idea.
When you first set out to create a spectacular,
what you really need is a mission statement.
For Momentous, it was "Live the moment, love the memory,"
and what resonated with us most was paying homage to the mentors,
those who guided you along your journey.
[narrator] The story presented by Momentous
draws upon decades of Disney lore,
and in telling that story, the Momentous team drew
from the dazzling history of nighttime spectaculars,
combining all the most popular features into one magnificent show.
Lights, lasers, projections, animation, pyro effects, and water effects.
[narrator] And to serve as the backdrop for this symphony of the senses,
the team chose the iconic Castle of Magical Dreams.
It's a fascinating thing to be designing a spectacular
around an icon that has not yet been built.
[narrator] Well, there was a castle, but it was due for some sprucing up.
And both those projects were kind of moving simultaneously.
[narrator] Which presented the Momentous team
with a unique opportunity.
We were able to custom craft the castle and the effects.
[Tom Williams] That gave us the opportunity
to really incorporate the elements to the show
in that amazing castle that you see out there.
[narrator] And for Momentous,
the key element would be projection mapping.
[James] There was a lot of communication between us and the design team
who was working on the castle
about how the projections may work upon their structure.
[♪ whimsical music]
[imagineer] We were helping to make sure
that our textures of the castle were really refined,
so that when we projected the Momentous show,
we were getting, uh, a clean and... and good projection.
[creative executive] So not only were we able to create
this beautiful new structure that had, you know, locations for pyro,
for lasers, for lighting,
but we also added water elements.
Some of the best fountains that we have
in any of our theme parks around the world.
In addition to that we had mist screens, that are more of a fountain nozzle effect,
that allowed kind of a softer,
more out of focused thing in front of that.
[narrator] And when it came to the waterworks,
the Momentous team didn't just build their show around the castle,
they also built the show on it.
[Michael] We were able to install big water jets
actually on the castle itself.
[pops]
And the combination of those different elements add,
not only this level of depth that give us different types of services,
to light, to project on, or to tell story with.
[narrator] The story of creating Momentous
was written with the pen of technology and the ink of innovation.
As the sun sets each night on Hong Kong Disneyland,
park guests gather to witness a brand-new story
that tells a tale as old as time.
Momentous is about a life's journey.
[James] You're born, you grow, you get old,
and along the way, you make all these wonderful memories.
But something that we represent in this show,
which is unusual, I think, for a lot of Disney shows,
is the idea of loss.
[♪ dramatic music]
[Michael] It's a theme in Disney movies for loved ones to pass away
and how we persevere and come over that.
We've all lost somebody important in our lives.
We've all going on this journey together through our lives.
[music director] This show packs a lot of heart.
It reminds us to love and cherish the memories
that we have with our families and friends.
And that's the beauty of the show,
is that it encourages you to embrace emotions.
[♪ solemn music]
[narrator] On a dark night in 1957, a single fuse was lit at Disneyland.
[fireworks crackling]
The ensuing fireworks display lasted only about five minutes,
but it sparked an idea that's lasted a bit longer.
[Bob Weis] There's an uplifting optimism
that Disney has been able to sustain since Walt's time,
and I think these nighttime spectaculars are the cap on that.
[narrator] For 65 years, Disney's nighttime spectaculars
have illuminated both skies and imaginations,
adding a new chapter to the spectacular saga
with each passing decade.
And while new ideas and advances in technology
have provided unique ways to tell the Disney story...
Whether it's a parade or a firework show, or a water spectacular.
[narrator] The goal has always been the same.
[Jeanette] What we wanna do is give you that one last opportunity
at the end of your day for perfection.
[Michael] Coming together and standing shoulder to shoulder
with people and experiencing this profound moment of pyrotechnics
and storytelling, and music.
[narrator] But it's so much more than that.
The nighttime spectaculars are a celebration of jubilation.
A time to reflect on a day like no other.
[Jeanette] It leaves you feeling that sense of wonder.
That's what we want our guests to leave with.
[narrator] As the skies come alive
with the bittersweet feeling that the end is nigh,
you can almost hear Walt's words echo across the night sky.
[Steve] "This is our kiss goodnight."
Did he actually say that?
[narrator] Uh, yeah, okay. In any case, the sentiment is clear.
We wanna tell you we love you on the way out.
[narrator] Leaving just one thing left to say, good night!
[♪ closing theme music]