Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, we’ll be getting in the Halloween spirit by looking at a couple of Halloween firework shows.
It’s October 19, so we are in the full swing of the Halloween spirit with less than two weeks until the spookiest day of the year. But at Walt Disney World, it has already been over two months since the start of the Halloween season, with Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Parties beginning at the Magic Kingdom in the middle of August.
When Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party began in 1995, it was a one night only event on Halloween itself. With its popularity, the event slowly grew in scope, moving to two nights in 1997 and expanding from there with two to three nights added every year. At first, there were not a ton of added activities to the show iin terms of shows and parades, with the most notable being that they would bring back Fantasy in the Sky and add a villains related tag to it. But on September 30, 2005, with the event moving up to 15 nights, Disney decided to up the ante and create a special parade and fireworks show for the party and thus the Boo to You Halloween Parade and HalloWishes were born. Boo to You is still running today, so for this article, we’ll be diving into HalloWishes.
WIth the new fireworks show, Disney wanted to bring in the best of the best, so they called on Steven Davison and Eric Tucker who were responsible for Remember … Dreams Come True and IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth, two of the most beloved fireworks shows in Disney Parks’ history. But the primary reason that they brought the duo in was because of their work on Wishes, Magic Kingdom’s primary fireworks show. Officially known as Happy HalloWishes: A Grim Grinning Ghosts Spooktacular in the Sky, HalloWishes helped continue the story of Wishes, but this time looking at the perspective of the villains instead of the heroes. To serve as the master of scaremonies, the Ghost Host was brought in to narrate, which was especially fitting with a good portion of the show decided to the Haunted Mansion.
HalloWishes started out with Leota summoning some Grim Grinning Ghosts to sing around the park before the Ghost Host hopped in to introduce the show. He then moved things right along to “This is Halloween” from A Nightmare Before Christmas because how could the perfect Halloween song not be played. It should be noted that those songs, along with all of the others, were all remixed to have a more modern flair to them that actually fit the event pretty perfectly.
The next item on the agenda was a round of scaryoke, where the whole crowd was encouraged to sing along to a medley of villain songs that encapsulated so many different films. The songs included: “Poor Unfortunate Souls”, “Cruella De Vil”, “Trust in Me”, “Heffalumps and Woozles”, “Pink Elephants on Parade” and “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” I loved that they threw some deeper cuts in there to really help balance out the experience.
Via Disney Wiki
With the sing-a-longs over, some of the bigger villains got to speak as well and interact with their songs to help them feel a bit more special than a traditional show. It just doesn’t get any better than Scar and Oogie Boogie bashing the crowd a bit before the final scream-a-long to end with a big finale shebang. HalloWishes was just a ton of fun with the only thing missing being the projections that have become so prevalent in today’s fireworks shows. It was 2005, so the technology was not really in use at that point, but the show was such fun that it didn’t really “need” the projections to plus it.
Via Pinterest
In fact, the show was such a success that Disneyland adapted it into its own show called Halloween Screams in 2009, though we won’t be diving much deeper there since that show is still around today. However, that wasn’t the only adaptation of the show as Hong Kong Disneyland decided to use it as the basis for their show, Disney’s Nightmare in the Sky.
During Halloween Time at Hong Kong Disneyland, they used to create a theme for different events throughout the park, with the theme starting September 15, 2010 and revolving around Maleficent never being invited to celebrate Halloween at the parks. Unlike the domestic parks, there is no Halloween party at Hong Kong Disneyland, so every guest could experience the show, whereas only Not-So-Scary guests could see HalloWishes.
Disney’s Nightmare in the Sky featured a lot of similarities to its American counterparts, but it was about half the length, so stuff like the scaryoke needed to hit the cutting room floor. However, the biggest difference was the substitution of the Ghost Host for Maleficent, who was brilliantly brought to life through projections on the castle. A live-action actor was cast speaking Cantonese, and I’m not going to lie, she was pretty scary. The Asian parks have generally not shied away from being a bit scarier than the domestic parks and this show was no exception.
As cool as the show was, it was only designed to be around for the season, closing on Halloween 2010, leaving just the domestic versions around. Both managed to last for quite a while until Magic Kingdom decided to shake things up with HalloWishes final show on October 31, 2018 before being replaced the next year by Disney’s Not-So-Spooktacular. But a version still lives on in Halloween Screams, so if YouTube isn’t enough for you, you can always pop over to Disneyland to check it out, though you have to be ready for Jack Skellington to host instead.
On the whole, I love that there are full-fledged fireworks shows for the Halloween season, especially for the Halloween parties. For the prices that they cost, it’s vital to have exclusive experiences that make it feel worth the money that you spent to attend and I think HalloWishes really nailed it in that regard.
Via WDW Magazine
As always, don’t forget to check out my interactive maps of the Disney Parks throughout the years where you can watch or learn more about all the attractions from every Disney park around the world.
Thanks for reading and have a magical day!