Disney's televised christmas parade....ugh!

[riverbend]

I'll add my vote for it sucked worse than normal. BUT, there is the thing that may account for the lack of the parade this year = the Hub is all torn up for it's expansion. We were there right before Thanksgiving and there were massive construction walls hiding the big holes in front of the Crystal Palace and the Tomorrowland Terrace. My guess is they could not do the parade down Main Street because they could not hide the construction.

If that was their thinking, then they really missed out on a great marketing opportunity to highlight the rest of the park.

 

[morethananyonex]

I'll add my vote for it sucked worse than normal. BUT, there is the thing that may account for the lack of the parade this year = the Hub is all torn up for it's expansion. We were there right before Thanksgiving and there were massive construction walls hiding the big holes in front of the Crystal Palace and the Tomorrowland Terrace. My guess is they could not do the parade down Main Street because they could not hide the construction.

It's Disney Parks though, not just WDW.

They normally cut back and forth between WDW and DL, if the hub was really the issue they could have done creative filming in WDW (like how they had some footage from Frontierland/Liberty Square) and had most of the Main Street stuff done in DL.

 

[mom2rtk]

It's Disney Parks though, not just WDW.

They normally cut back and forth between WDW and DL, if the hub was really the issue they could have done creative filming in WDW (like how they had some footage from Frontierland/Liberty Square) and had most of the Main Street stuff done in DL.

Or they could have cut between shots in DL and shots in the MK right around the train station.

 

[freediverdude]

Sigh... Ok I just sat through the whole thing on YouTube. Some observations:

-the Tebow parts were really stilted and fakey, bad choice there.

- some of the performances just plain were not appropriate for the event. In particular Trisha Yearwood's new single, and all of Train's performances. Some of them seemed very out of place, and others seemed just OK.

- the moment where Robin and Tebow were standing there talking about football, with floats going by behind them, including Santa Stitch right above them being ignored, almost had me screaming at the screen. At least point out significant events happening right next to you! Totally out of place and inappropriate.

- the reunion scenes, while nice, seemed overdone to produce emotion like a reality show type of thing.

- way too many musical performances trying to be crammed in. They needed some other types of segments, like parade or showcasing the resorts.

-the ending with Elsa freezing the walkway and castle was very cheesy, when they already had a wonderful magical way to produce the same effect located right there in the park- by just showing the end of the castle lighting ceremony. I actually thought that's what they were leading up to, and then was treated to that rather mediocre looking animated effect.

 

[ditsypixie]

Very disappointed...we always watch as a family and this was the first year that ALL of us got up and left the room

We will have to start a new tradition if this is how they are going to broadcast the "parade." don't want to sit through one long commercial of Aulani.

 

[Shaden]

Terrible ... truly terrible. In just about every way. Not only was this terrible at showcasing the parks and disney magic and holiday cheer, which it was. It was also terrible at even being entertaining ... Tebow was horrid, stiff, uncomfortable, corny. The audiences didn't even really look like they were genuinely enjoying themselves. The performances were just ok ... and a few (Train) were bad and odd to have in the show.

Just an all around miss ... wonder if we will even turn it on next year.

 

[mlnbabies]

Anyone know how the families were picked for the reunion part of the show?

 

[dmband]

The whole shows sucked IMO even my kids didn't want to watch it and anyone who says it wasn't a commercial for Hawaii didn t actually watch any of it

 

[WishingMom]

We were extremely disappointed as well. It's a tradition for us to watch the parade top, but this year we hardly even watched. Was there even a parade...I guess that's why it was called a Frozen Celebration!

 

[profdsny]

I am ok with the show being a two hour commercial for Disney, I am ok with lots of "Frozen" (I like the movie and the songs). The final performance of "Let it Go" was done well and the girl has talent!

That girl was at best a middle-school talent show winner. She couldn't sing in tune, and while it could have been possible to forgive her had this been a one take live performance, I know from being at previous tapings other years that they do the song more than once. I won't go as far as saying she was terrible, but she certainly wasn't anywhere good enough to be the final act in a two hour show. She may be able to sing loud, but she certainly didn't show any talent. Sorry.

 

[Shanan]

I was also very disappointed in the show. I wanted to see more parade and less bad talent singing

 

[nugov2]

That girl was at best a middle-school talent show winner. She couldn't sing in tune, and while it could have been possible to forgive her had this been a one take live performance, I know from being at previous tapings other years that they do the song more than once. I won't go as far as saying she was terrible, but she certainly wasn't anywhere good enough to be the final act in a two hour show. She may be able to sing loud, but she certainly didn't show any talent. Sorry.

I agree, it was pretty bad. I wouldn't say terrible either, but she didn't belong anywhere near something as big as that. I'll give a free pass to the kids dancing out of sync in the Olaf performance. The whole thing just seemed weird. It just didn't belong on tv(the local High School has better performers).

While I like Frozen and think it is cute, I also don't get the mega hype. It is actually a really poorly written movie with lots of holes in the storyline. It is a cartoon so I take it for what it is worth, but there are IMO a lot better cartoon stories out there, or they certainly could have done a lot better with this movie.

 

[riverbend]

-the ending with Elsa freezing the walkway and castle was very cheesy, when they already had a wonderful magical way to produce the same effect located right there in the park- by just showing the end of the castle lighting ceremony. I actually thought that's what they were leading up to, and then was treated to that rather mediocre looking animated effect.

I had to look up the finale on YouTube (since I had tuned out by that point) and you are completely right -- the freezing effect was really cheesy and it was only made worse by the green-screened actors they cut to for facial reactions.

Here's the clip.

 

[michelleiada]

I had to look up the finale on YouTube (since I had tuned out by that point) and you are completely right -- the freezing effect was really cheesy and it was only made worse by the green-screened actors they cut to for facial reactions. Here's the clip.

Awful!

 

[cleverclovers]

Took me only about 15 minutes to fast forward through it, stopping to view only interesting things (actual parade). Sadly, the commercial for Galliant (or was it Valliant) was the most interesting part of the two hours.

 

[nugov2]

I had to look up the finale on YouTube (since I had tuned out by that point) and you are completely right -- the freezing effect was really cheesy and it was only made worse by the green-screened actors they cut to for facial reactions.

Here's the clip.

It was very cheesey. I also think the Elsa was bad too. My dd even said something. Ana was great, but she looked nothing like Elsa.

 

[scott1961]

We voted with our clicker and shut it off after 15 minutes. It was pathetic as a Christmas parade. Nothing to do with Christmas. We put Pandora on and listened to real Christmas music instead. I have never written to anyone to complain in over 40 years but I have written to WDW a few times in the last 2-3 years telling them they are losing touch with many of their fans. I agree with a previous poster that it was an Ad and that Walt wouldn't be happy. Too bad they didn't show a re-run of many years back instead.

 

[Angel Ariel]

1) It was my best excuse for watching cable reruns!
2) Of course, management will not change it for next year.
3) They use this as a 2-hr ad for the parks - which are making Big Bucks.
4) Down right pitiful !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It wasn't even a 2 hr ad for the parks this year, though! There really wasn't much they showed in the parks outside of those family reunions. IMO, it was more of a commercial for Aulani than anything else.

 

[Angel Ariel]

That girl was at best a middle-school talent show winner. She couldn't sing in tune, and while it could have been possible to forgive her had this been a one take live performance, I know from being at previous tapings other years that they do the song more than once. I won't go as far as saying she was terrible, but she certainly wasn't anywhere good enough to be the final act in a two hour show. She may be able to sing loud, but she certainly didn't show any talent. Sorry.

I want to preface this by saying I have no issues with little girls singing the song. But they should be singing in with their little girl voices. It is not natural for little girls to sing like Idina Menzel. Belting and singing incorrectly at that age can do a LOT of damage to a person's voice (Charlotte Church is a great example of this). Most *adults* can't belt in Idina Menzel's range healthily - we shouldn't be encouraging little girls to. Girls aren't *supposed* to sound like grown adults.

Sorry..this is a personal pet peeve as a music teacher/voice major. The little girl who sang Let it Go obviously has talent. I don't want to see her stop singing, but to sing healthily (which at times it was easy to tell she wasn't), so that she *maintains* that talent as she gets older.

 

[hallie]

I had to look up the finale on YouTube (since I had tuned out by that point) and you are completely right -- the freezing effect was really cheesy and it was only made worse by the green-screened actors they cut to for facial reactions.

Here's the clip.

Oh yikes, that was really bad.