The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (198 page)

The fountains
are entertaining in and of themselves, but they and the massive, multi-layered mist screens serve as fluid canvases for so much more.  Because each fountain nozzle contains an LED light, each water jet can be suffused with rich colors.  The lighting has been composed and programmed to complement the fountains.  The kinetics and saturated, liquid colors match the musical score and vignettes that were composed specifically for
World of Color
.

S
cenes from
Disney
and
Disney-Pixar
animated features (mostly from the last 30 years) are projected onto the shifting walls of water.  (Although appearing only briefly and cut from the final show, local artist
Megan Brain
’s hand-cut paper animation pieces impressed, true to the spirit of the original drawings but adding a new look and dimension to
Disney
characters.)

Guests on the shore of
Paradise Bay
on June 11, 2010 saw the result of more than five years of work, the fruit of the labor of hundreds of
Disney
’s artists, writers, composers, musicians, engineers, technicians, carpenters and electricians–it seems every discipline and department touched this ambitious project.

Holding a beat of darkness
and silence before the show begins,
Paradise Bay
then stirs like it’s drawing breath and coming to life before Guests’ eyes.  Drums roll, the
Fun Wheel
begins a scintillating light show that punctuates the performance at key moments for the next 26 minutes, and the
Sherman Brothers
’
World of Color
song washes over the lagoon.  Harp notes quiver; it
sounds
like
Tinker Bell
is opening the show as she once opened the TV program.

Hesitantly at first, then with progressive force, the
luminous fountains begin to dance, often leaping toward Guests, including them in the performance.  (If you’re standing close to the water, particularly in
Wet Zones
, invest in an inexpensive poncho.)  Flames flare.  Mist screens shimmer.  Titanic images of beloved
Disney
characters appear above the water, moving, shifting, all in perfect synch with the music and narration.  The sound, pouring from 100 high-tech speakers, is perfect, as enveloping and as crisp as if it is being performed live, in the moment, for your benefit.  The high-definition colors dazzle with their purity.

T
he
World of Color
segments originally unfolded in this order: 
World of Color
,
Little Mermaid
,
Finding Nemo
,
Fantasia 2000
(
Pines of Rome
),
Wall-E
,
Toy Story
,
Up
,
Aladdin
,
Fantasia 2000
(
Firebird Suite
),
Pocahontas
,
A Bug’s Life
,
Bambi
,
Pirates of the Caribbean
,
Fantasia 2000
(
Firebird
again),
Fantasia
(
Night on Bald Mountain
with menacing
Chernabog
),
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
(
Hellfire
),
Lion King
(the stampede),
Enchanted
,
Beauty and the Beast
, and a dramatic, uplifting reprise of
World of Color
for the finale.  To keep things fresh,
Imagineers
tinker with the order and content of the show; for example, a
Brave
segment was added in 2012, and holiday season 2013 welcomes the new show
World of Color—Winter Dreams
.

Words can
’t fully impart the beauty of this
Disney
stunner.  Jets of water and curtains of mist literally paint the dark night over the
Bay
with uncannily lovely strands of color, at times forming graceful shapes and patterns 200 feet high.  Guests see images of
Disney
heroes, sidekicks, and villains.  There are moments of romance and family, humor and peril.  The
Imagineers
hit every artistic and emotional note with impeccable timing.  At several moments during the performance, Guests erupt into spontaneous gasps and applause. 
World of Color
takes you by surprise and gets to you, in the best possible way.

World of Color
was a hit from the start, even with traditionally demanding
Annual Passholders
and
Disniacs
.  Guest boards at
Disney
fan sites like
www.mouseplanet.com
and
www.micechat.com
were overflowing with praise for early performances and the public premiere.  Consensus on best seating?  The bridge (in the Orange zone), the Blue section, and the Yellow sections.  The Red section has an outstanding view of
Mickey’s Fun Wheel
but for the most part the projected images are blurry.  Whichever preferred section you end up in, be sure to stand on the highest point of the area, so you can see over other Guests’ heads (and the heads of the children carried on their shoulders).

Given how popular
World of Color
has already proven to be, I had fully expected that even with the terraced
Paradise Park Plaza
that extends into the bay, and Cast Members moving “looky-loos” along, traffic on the western shore would be congested before and immediately after performances.  I was prepared to endure the same elbow-to-elbow, slow-as-molasses crowds that disrupt
New Orleans Square
before and after
Fantasmic!
and
Main Street
before and after the fireworks.  However, I was pleasantly surprised by how orderly and organized
WOC
crowd control was—and still is—and how well-behaved Guests were, even on premiere night.  Is it worth braving this orderly throng to see
World of Color
?  Decidedly, yes!  This is perhaps the most exciting thing ever to happen to
DCA
, an extravagant, warm
Disney
show that engages Guests. 
Walt
would’ve loved it.

In summer 2012,
Imagineers
unveiled a new enhancement to
WOC
–
Ear Hats
with glowing ears.  Called
Glow with the Show
Ear Hats
, they were given free to Guests like the author who attended
Annual Passholder
sneak previews.  Lines were long as we queued for our complimentary
Ear Hats
prior to the preview.  The hats were heavy and pressed down rather uncomfortably on one’s head, weighed down by the batteries and works hidden inside.  When a switch on the hat’s underside was switched on, the clear plastic ears lit up.

Neat.  But was that all?  Not hardly.  I attended a couple of these previews, and in each case, Guests thronged the viewing terraces of
Paradise Bay
.  Almost everyone had switched on their hats, so all the ears were glowing, a strangely beautiful sight against the dark of the bay.  That was pretty neat.  And when the show began, the concept of
Glow with the Show
became crystal clear.

Because the
Glow with the Show
Ear Hats
are “smart” hats. 
Disney
has done it again–taken new technology and applied it to entertainment.  The smart technology we associate with cell phones and credit cards has been adapted to these
Ear Hats
.

Implanted within the hats are receivers that can be wirelessly instructed to turn the ear lights blue, green, red, and so forth, to flicker or pulse or hold steady.
  And if one Guest stands in close proximity to another, their smart hats will synch up.  (“No way!”  “Way!”)

As the
WOC
show (otherwise a standard performance) progresses, Guests’ hats luminesce, changing color and pattern in synchronization with the show, now a shimmering sea of blue, now red, now blinking, now steady.  The Guests become part of the show!  Guests’ individual hats are being manipulated like pixels, and the
Imagineers
are the artists controlling the electronic “paintbrush”.

So, super-cool–right?  Right
!  Even if you don’t purchase your own
Glow with the Show
Ear Hat
(they’re on sale at the resort for about $25; “smart” technology isn’t cheap), I strongly recommend that you catch the next
WOC
show when you’re at
DCA
, and enjoy the spectacle of hundreds of colorfully glowing, synchronized hats.  As always,
Disney
has taken interactive entertainment to the next level.  And you’ll notice that Guests wearing the special ear hats in other sections of the parks glow in synch with other lands, like
Cars Land
, and shows like the
Mad T Party
.

All the same, there is a slightly unnerving aspect to
Glow with the Show
, an unintentional Orwellian undertaste.  Baldly stated,
Disney
is hacking into your hat–with your permission, of course–and controlling it.  Hacking is, perhaps, too strong a word. 
Imagineers
explain that infrared zones send signals that your hats receive and to which they respond, a much more passive interaction than “hacking”.  All the same, something is controlling your hat.  Watching thousands of illuminated ears pulsing in synch under the
Fun Wheel
’s massive
Mickey
face will give
Disney
critics and conspiracy theorists pause!

As long as you don’t believe the
Glow with the Show
Ear Hats
are programming you to buy more
Disney
merchandise, go for it and buy one of the hats if you can swing the $25. 
WOC
was always a stunner, and now you can be part of this award-winning show. 
Did You Know?
 
Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color
continued to air on NBC even after
Walt
’s death in 1966.  In 1969 the program was re-titled
The Wonderful World of Disney
.  Over the years it would undergo retooling and update its theme music to stay fresh, and in 1979 it changed its name again, this time to
Disney’s Wonderful World
.  These were merely cosmetic changes, though; the series ran in basically the same format until NBC cancelled it in 1981 due to low ratings.  CBS picked it up for a couple of years, re-titling it
Walt Disney
. 
Disney CEO Card Walker
pulled the plug on the show in 1983. 
Disney
was launching its own channel, and
Walker
wanted to present all of its programs on a single new channel.  But in 1986,
ABC
began airing the program as the
Disney Sunday Movie
, and another confusing series of name and network changes ensued.  In 1988 the show moved back to NBC as
The Magical World of Disney
, which was cancelled in 1990.  The
Disney Channel
used the title
The Magical World of Disney
for its Sunday movies until 1996.  In 1997
Disney
purchased
ABC
, and ran the show as
The Wonderful World of Disney
on Sunday and then Saturday evenings until its last broadcast in 2008.  That’s a lot of moving around and re-naming for one show, but it just goes to prove that wherever it landed, and whatever it was called, the program had a loyal core audience that wanted to watch it.  Although it aired on different channels over the years and in different timeslots, the
Disneyland
program created by
Walt
back in 1954 was broadcast in some form from 1954 to 2008.  Not a bad run!
Holiday Vision:
  During Christmas season 2013,
Paradise Pier
introduced
World of Color—Winter Dreams
, with elements of
Disney
’s
Frozen
included in the show, and a chorale accompaniment.  Images of Guests’ “season’s greeting” cards, and even audio tracks of Guests’ singing voices (Guests were selected from audition clips submitted in the early autumn) are also featured in
Winter Dreams
, lending Guests an even greater sense of participation in the holiday extravaganza. 
Winter Dreams
is sure to become a
DCA
holiday tradition.
Night Vision:
World of Color
is a nighttime show, like
Disneyland
’s
Fantasmic!
 
FastPass:
  Yes.  Although
World of Color
is a scheduled show, which usually doesn’t lend itself to the
FastPass
format, access to
World of Color
’s tiered viewing terrace on the northwest side of
Paradise Bay
is provided, in part, via the
FastPass
system.  Guests arriving at
DCA
when it opens can proceed to the
Grizzly River Run
FastPass
dispensers and obtain
FastPasses
which will allow you to stand on the terrace for one of the two nightly shows.  Once
FastPasses
for the first show run out,
FastPasses
for the second show are automatically dispensed.  Once all
World of Color
FastPasses
have been issued, the dispensers begin generating
Grizzly River Run
FastPasses
.  What if you won’t be arriving at the park until afternoon or evening, well after
World of Color
FastPasses
will have been disbursed?  Plan ahead and order a
prix fixe
meal at the
Carthay Circle Restaurant
or the
Wine Country Trattoria
, or dine at
Ariel’s Grotto
.  Guests without a
FastPass
or
Viewing Ticket
can stake out territory in
Paradise Bay
’s non-preferred viewing areas for decent (if imperfect) glimpses of the show.