More characters to be seen at Magic Kingdom Parade

[eeyoreguy]

The Orlando sentinel reports that:

Hallelujah! Someone has seen the light at Disney World's Magic Kingdom and boosted the number of characters in the Celebrate a Dream Come True snoozefest of a parade. I counted almost two dozen additional characters in the daily parade.

The additional characters -- who are walking the route so they can actually interact with guests (imagine that!) -- are interspersed throughout the Magic Kingdom parade, leading each unit.

Strangely, the additional characters come with a cost: The villains float has been removed. That's a shame, as Cruella, Maleficent and the Evil Queen from "Snow White" always entertained. But for those who have to have some evil in their parade, some of the new characters are villainous.

Among the character additions are some faces not as frequently seen in the Magic Kingdom parades. Here's a run-down of what I noticed:

* Chip, Dale and Pluto have moved to the front of the parade in front of Mickey and Minnie.

* Gepetto, Gideon and Foulfellow are in front of the Pinocchio/Snow White float.

* Jafar, Genie, and the rarely seen Abu character lead Aladdin, Mary Poppins and Bert.

* Captain Hook, Mr. Smee and Tweedle Dee and Dum process in front of Peter Pan, Wendy, Alice and Mad Hatter.

* Cinderella's mice, Suzy and Perla, kick off the princess procession, along with her evil stepmother, Lady Tremaine and her ugly stepsisters, who provide some fun comic relief.

* Lilo & Stitch, Woody and Jessie are in front of the finale float, which now includes Baloo and King Louie.

Other changes after the jump:

* In an effort to let the characters interact more with the crowd, they dismount their floats during the show stop and dance closer to the audience. Dancers run up on the floats to take their place.

* It seems an effort has been made to jazz up the show stop. Along with the men waving flags, it looked as though there was increased ribbon action from the women.

Overall, the improvements were needed and they improve the ambience of the parade, but it still is a pretty weak effort by Disney. I still wonder who thought it was a good idea to OK a parade full of generic dancing Disney kids and minimal characters. At least these changes seem like an effort to add some charm and magic into what should be the daytime centerpiece of Disney's entertainment.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/fea...ome-true-.html

[Mari]

sounds nice...

Ill miss the evil characters... however, they might be a bit scary for the kids....