More than half of parade's performers return
More than half of the nearly 100 performers in the Magic Happens parade returning to Disneyland this week after a three-year hiatus were part of the original troupe that launched the pandemic-shortened production in 2020.
“It feels new and the same,” said parade performer Jenn Acevedo. “It's a weird feeling. It doesn't feel like it was three years ago.”
The Magic Happens parade that ran for only a couple weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered the Anaheim theme park for more than a year will make a long-awaited return engagement today.
Magic Happens includes parade floats featuring characters from “Moana,” “Coco,” “Frozen,” “Cinderella,” “Sword in the Stone,” “The Princess and the Frog” and “Sleeping Beauty” all led by Mickey Mouse.
Acevedo always believed that Magic Happens would eventually return, but she never thought it would take this long.
“It feels like a dream,” said Acevedo, 23, of Anaheim. “I get to come back and relive the opening again.”
Acevedo taught dance classes via Zoom during the pandemic while Disneyland was closed before returning in 2022 to work on the Main
Street Electrical Parade and “Fantasmic.”
Acevedo says the relaunch of Magic Happens feels like a reunion of the team that launched the parade in 2020.
“There's a lot of returning people that still want to do it, loved it the first time and really want to live it again,” Acevedo said via a video call.
Acevedo is once again an ocean dancer leading Moana's
float along the parade route.
“I do the same exact thing in the same exact spot, which I'm really happy about,” Acevedo said.
The innovative 32-footlong Moana float features the title character on a flower-covered sailboat riding a sweeping blue wave filled with LED screens that offer glimpses of animated images of familiar oceanbased Disney and Pixar characters.
The demigod Maui follows on his own island float along with fan-favorite Heihei the rooster.
The nearly new parade returns to Disneyland essentially unchanged from its original run. It only took Acevedo a few rehearsals to shake off the rust and remember the original choreography.
“All of it came back,” Acevedo said. “It was just like getting the gears moving again, but it was muscle memory as well.”