Aerial drone shows that have wowed Disneyland Paris audiences during the French theme park’s 30th anniversary celebration could someday soon make appearances in the night skies above Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland.
Disney Live Entertainment show director and writer Wendy Ruth marveled at the “gorgeous” use of drones in the Disneyland Paris nighttime spectacular and discussed what technological innovations could be deployed next at the Disneyland resort during a round table media panel about the Anaheim theme park’s returning nighttime spectaculars.
“We are looking at it and curious about how to do it,” Ruth said of the Disneyland Paris drone show. “There are definitely experiments to be done with a variety of drones — in size, in what they do and their programmability.”
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The new “Disney D-Light” drone show that debuted in March at Disneyland Paris marked the first time a Disney theme park used autonomous aerial technology as part of a daily outdoor show.
Disneyland brought back the “World of Color” and “Fantasmic” water shows, Main Street Electrical Parade and the “Disneyland Forever” fireworks this spring as part of an entertainment package of nighttime spectaculars following a two-year pandemic pause.
The potential use of drones by the Disneyland entertainment department remains very much in the “blue sky” phase of development.
“We’re experimenting. We’re exploring,” Ruth said. “But it’s really hard to say, ‘Yeah, it’s coming,’ because so much of it is an experiment.”
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Walt Disney Imagineering’s research and development department is always on the lookout for the next technological advancement that can be introduced at Disneyland, Walt Disney World and other Disney theme parks around the world.
“We send Imagineers around the world to go discover — to learn more about drones, to learn more about invisible LEDs,” Ruth said. “Those are things we’re super interested in finding the right show to make that happen.”
The level of innovation deployed at each Disney theme park around the world varies based on location and visitor expectations, according to Ruth.
“Here at Disneyland our guests don’t like to see a lot of change. They want what they know,” Ruth said. “But when we can do something like a ‘World of Color’ and surprise them and say, ‘You didn’t know that you wanted this. You’re still seeing those characters you like. You’re still hearing the music that you love. We’re just presenting it in a brand new way.’”
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Any Disneyland drone show would need to take into consideration Federal Aviation Administration rules as well as the impact the performance would have on nearby neighborhoods and freeways.
“It’s exciting to see what people are doing,” Ruth said of drone shows. “But when they do it, they go out to the desert to do these shows. We just have different parameters.”