2025 is here! Since one of my New Year’s resolutions is to make more magic, it feels like a great time to share some exciting details on the upcoming experiences Disney Live Entertainment is dreaming up for Walt Disney World this summer.
Let’s start with Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where work is well underway on “Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After” – an all-new show starring your favorite Disney Villains.
If you asked them, our villains would probably try to convince you that they’ve been treated pretty unfairly over the years. In this show, the Magic Mirror has summoned us to hear them out. Never ones to let a dramatic performance pass them by, fiendish foes Cruella de Vil, Captain Hook, and Maleficent will break through the glass and take the stage to prove once and for all why they are the most misunderstood. In the end, it will be on you to make the final call in a delightfully wicked finale filled with dozens of the most infamous evildoers awaiting your decision from within the Mirror’s realm.
A dedicated team has spent nearly two years developing the cutting-edge stage design, thrilling effects, and catchy live musical numbers that will celebrate the villains we love to hate. There will be drama, there will be laughs, there will be something for everyone when the show opens this summer alongside “The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure” – another spectacular new production sure to make waves at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Switching gears to Magic Kingdom Park, “a nod to the past with our eyes firmly set on the future” has become a bit of a motto for the creative team bringing “Disney Starlight: Dream the Night Away” to life. As they prepare this all-new nighttime parade for its debut this summer, the team is drawing inspiration from not only the rich history of nighttime parades at Magic Kingdom (trust me fellow parade lovers, there are more than a few easter eggs), but also some of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ earliest animated features.
This reverence for the past will be on full display in the parade’s recently revealed princess unit, which pays homage to Disney Legend and artist Mary Blair’s original concept artwork for Disney Animation’s “Cinderella.” Anchored by a gleaming fountain of light that overflows to illuminate a cosmic ballroom, the float is just one piece of the constellation of classic and contemporary stories that make up this new parade. Moments from Disney Animation’s “Moana,” “Peter Pan,” “Frozen,” “Encanto” and more will unfold on a bed of starlight as the cavalcade floods Main Street, U.S.A. with some of your favorite tales.
Anyone who’s seen a good parade knows the floats are just one piece of the magic. That’s why members of the Disney Live Entertainment Costuming team have been hard at work designing a whole fleet of glimmering garments for “Disney Starlight.”
Using a blend of innovative lighting techniques and whimsical custom-fabrics, the team is constructing each look to be “kissed by starlight.” When you look at the photo below of one of the prototype costume pieces for the parade, try to imagine it swirling down the parade route, layers of shimmering fabric picking up the glow of the surrounding floats, each light twinkling in perfect synchronization with the music.
Speaking of music… You know what? It’s only January. I don’t want to reveal too much just yet! Keep an eye on the Disney Live Entertainment Instagram and right here on the Disney Parks Blog as we share more exciting first looks in the coming months.