Disneyland and Disney California Adventure have been without a drone light show as Disney World and Disneyland Paris have added the flying robots to nighttime spectaculars over the past decade — but that could soon change.
Walt Disney Imagineering Vice President for Parades and Spectaculars Steven Davison spoke about Imagineering’s pioneering work creating drone light shows during a D23 panel at the Anaheim Convention Center.
“You’ll see a lot of this coming and in very clever new ways,” Davison said during the Magic After Dark panel at D23. “I’ve seen the newest versions of drones and where they’re headed. It’s beautiful. It’s spectacular. They’re really jumping into this. We’ve just hit the beginning of it and where it could go.”
The new “Disney D-Light” drone show that debuted in March at Disneyland Paris marked the first time a Disney theme park used autonomous aerial technology as part of a daily outdoor show. (Courtesy of Disney) Disney
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The Disney Springs outdoor shopping mall — Disney World’s version of Downtown Disney — hosted the “Starbright Holidays” drone show in 2016 that employed 300 Intel drones.
Disneyland Paris has been pushing the envelope with the nighttime drone shows like “Disney D-Light” and “Disney Electrical Sky Parade.”
“It has a magical quality about it,” Davison said during the D23 panel in August. “So you’ll see more of this in the future with integration. The big thing about technology is it should feel integrated. It should feel like it’s all one.”
Drone light shows work as a great alternative to fireworks for telling stories during nighttime spectaculars, according to Davison.
“It’s one of those things where you start to look at a technology like fountains or fireworks or lights and you say, ‘Oh, what if we did this with it?’,” Davison said at D23. “And out of nowhere, you transform something into something that no one had ever seen before.”
Marvel Entertainment hosted a “Deadpool and Wolverine” aerial drone show in July during Comic-Con 2024 in the skies above San Diego.
“Dark Arts at Hogwarts Castle” premiered at Universal Studios Hollywood in April 2019. (Photo by David Sprague, Universal Studios Hollywood)
Disney has filed patents for cutting-edge drone concepts, including drone-controlled puppets and 3D drone displays that mimic fireworks shows.
Where could Disneyland and Disney California Adventure add a nighttime drone show? The nightly fireworks shows, “Fantasmic,” “World of Color” or even over Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Avengers Campus.
Universal Studios Hollywood, SeaWorld San Diego and Six Flags Magic Mountain have all hosted nighttime drone shows.