Christmas Day Parade on TV now from “Disney Parks”
Celebrities, Matt Palm — By Matt Palm on December 25, 2009 at 8:44 pm 
Random thoughts on the newly styled “Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade.”
* That Nick Cannon is no Regis Philbin, although I didn’t particularly miss Reege, what with all the frantic jumping back and forth between Orlando and Anaheim.
* Stevie Wonder was fun to watch, and I was very pleasantly surprised by Yanni (!) and his singers. The castle stage was beautifully decorated to accommodate the group and they sounded great.
* It was nice to see familiar faces, both in the actual parade segments — I know some of those elves! — and the Encore cast choir got a lot of nice airtime, taped with Celine Dion, weirdly not in the Magic Kingdom but at the Grand Floridian.
* I said it before but lip-syncing seemed more noticeable than in years past.
* In case you didn’t hear, Disney wants you to volunteer a day of your time to a worthy cause. In return you get one day free park admission. How many times was this new program for 2010 mentioned?
* I was very surprised that Princess Tiana got rather short shrift. Very un-Disneylike not to push something new (see blurb above about volunteerism). She was briefly seen in a parade float, but Anika Noni Rose’s musical number was quite short with just the quickest glimpses of the dancers who perform in the parks’ special “Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee” show. I was hoping for more!
Tags: Christmas, Disney Parks Christmas Day parade, Matt Palm
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5 Comments
Celine Dion was indoors because of the inclement weather on Friday. A lot of taping was moved to a Sunday afternoon, but Celine was simply moved to indoors. Considering the limited space, I was impressed how quickly they improvised the move and made it look good.
I thought Nick Cannon was an odd choice (considering he’s the host of rival network NBC’s America’s Got Talent). However, from what I heard from several people who have been involved with filming the parade, Regis’s absence was far from missed.
I was also surprised the Princess and the Frog promoting was kept limited, but what was shown was good. I wish our coast had a New Orleans Square!
I knew it was just a matter of time before it moved from the Disney World Parade to Disney Parks. It’s more inclusive and the airtime is pretty much divided evenly. As long as they NEVER do the night time version ever again, I’m okay with whatever they call it. =)
We love the parade.I have it on VHS film going back 17 years.Always fun to watch again over the holidays to compare how times have changed. So much fun we are heading to see it again this morning as the parade is running twice today. Crowds? Sure but it is all fun.That’s one of the perks of having annual passes.