ORLANDO, Fla. — Walt Disney World has shared more details about how it will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its opening. Plans include the debuts of nighttime spectaculars at Magic Kingdom and Epcot, plus a new daytime show at Animal Kingdom and 50 golden character statues placed into its four theme parks.
The 18-month celebration officially begins Oct. 1, precisely 50 years after the resort opened to the public. In 2021, that will be the birth date of “Disney Enchantment,” a nighttime show at Magic Kingdom featuring fireworks and projection effects “that extended from Cinderella Castle down Main Street USA” for the first time, Disney says.
It will also be the first night for “Harmonious,” the previously announced show on Epcot’s World Showcase Lagoon. It will feature fireworks, fountains and “new interpretations of classic Disney songs,” the company said Tuesday morning. Disney already had announced that Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, a dark ride added to the park’s France pavilion, will open Oct. 1 alongside the adjacent La Creperie de Paris restaurant.
At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, “Disney KiteTails” will be presented multiple times daily inside the Discovery River Amphitheater. The daytime production will include performers armed with windcatchers on land and elaborate kites depicting characters such as Simba, Zazu and King Louie on the water. It debuts Oct. 1 also.
A more stationary 50th-anniversary offering will be a collection of golden statues of 50 characters spread across Disney World’s four theme parks. Visitors will interact with the figures “in surprising ways,” the company said.
“Two of them — the statues of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse — will be dedicated to our cast members, past, present and future,” Jeff Vahle, president of Walt Disney World, posted on his Instagram account.
Walk-around characters including Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, Chip and Dale will get sparkling new costumes for the occasion — they’ll match Mickey and Minnie’s previously released shimmering duds — and Magic Kingdom visitors will see them in Mickey’s Celebration Cavalcade as of Oct. 1.
The two new nighttime shows may slide into time slots held by “Happily Ever After” at Magic Kingdom and “Epcot Forever” at Epcot. Those fireworks-heavy productions are scheduled to return to the parks’ nightly lineup July 1. They have not been seen since March 2020 and the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic shutdown of Disney World.
