July 20, 2025, 9:01 PM ·
For much of my life, night time was story time. When the sun set and bedtime came, my parents would read me a story to entice me to sleep. Later, I would read books for myself at bedtime, with a flashlight (that never seemed to run out of batteries) stashed in the nightstand to allow me to keep reading after lights out. Most recently, I would read stories to my children after wrangling them into bed.But you do not need books to tell stories. Long before the Phoenicians put pen to papyrus, human beings looked to the stars for inspiration to tell stories. Points of light in the sky formed constellations, engaged in battles and journeys that built the foundation for our mythology and literature.Today, Disney has looked to the stars again for the theme of its first new parade in years at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Disney Starlight officially debuted tonight. [A full show video is at the bottom of this post.]
Moana float in Disney Starlight. Photos courtesy Disney“A lot of it was based on stories that happen within the magic of starlight,” Disney Live Entertainment Show Director Tara Anderson said during an online press conference last week. “How could we these capture moments where someone was putting their wish out into the world, or going after it, or celebrating it come true?”Disney Starlight begins and ends with callbacks to the studio’s original film about wishing upon a star, 1940’s “Pinocchio.” The Blue Fairy leads the parade, which concludes with an animated Jiminy Cricket. Those beats also call back to Walt Disney World’s previous nighttime parades. The Blue Fairy originally led the Main Street Electrical Parade, while Jiminy Cricket provided the “kiss goodnight” for SpectroMagic.
Blue Fairy float in Disney Starlight
An animated Jiminy Cricket, on screen at the end of the paradeDisney’s use of the starlight motif in this production is helped by advancements in lighting technology that allows these ubiquitous points of light to look like star in the sky rather than the rolling lightbulbs that decorated SpectroMagic and the Main Street Electrical Parade. “We wanted these [floats] to look like they were floating down the street,” Anderson said. “We wanted them to feel like they’re in the stars with us.”
Peter Pan and Wendy, among the stars“What do we want our guests to see, but also, what do we want them to not see, that needs to kind of fade away into the background, so that we can create these really ethereal and star-like infused bases for each of these floats?,” Disney Live Entertainment Producer Katie Marks said. “We worked very hard with all of our scenic shops that helped us to create these – to make sure that that element was consistent throughout the entire parade, so that you really did see that that through-line happening.”As one might expect from something composed of points of light and color, Disney Starlight feels like theme park Impressionism. The parade’s subtitle is “Dream the Night Away,” and this production truly feels more ethereal than the “let’s hit the dance floor” party that is Paint the Night. But the 21st century tech lends it dignity that distinguishes Disney Starlight from the now-kitsch of the Main Street Electrical Parade. Like Paint the Night, Starlight acknowledges their predecessor with the opening notes of Baroque Hoedown, before settling into its bedtime story groove. Animated details lurk in embedded screens on several floats, for those willing to look closely, perhaps on repeated viewings. And I am sure that devoted Disney fans will return for those. Disney Starlight is dream that I would welcome having over and over again. The parade order for Disney Starlight is: Blue Fairy, Wish, Encanto, Frozen II, Disney Princesses, Coco, Moana, Peter Pan, the new locomotive character Whimsy, carrying Mickey and Friends, and finally, a “Disney Starlight” logo with Jiminy Cricket.Planning a Disney visit?For assistance in planning a Walt Disney World vacation, please contact our travel agent for a free, no-obligation vacation quote.To see what is available at the Walt Disney World theme parks, please check out our one-page visitors guides, which include our reader rankings as well as on-ride videos and links to reviews:Remember that whenever you buy tickets or book vacations through our partners, a small portion of that goes to support Theme Park Insider. So you can support independent media while getting a great deal at the same time.Finally, to keep up with more Disney and theme park news, please sign up for Theme Park Insider’s weekly newsletter.
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