Forever Magical
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LuminAria

Note: For much more on LuminAria, see our November 13th detailed report.

LuminAria is an experience that doesn’t begin at the showtime listed in your Disney’s California Adventure guide map. It begins earlier in the day when you step into the “LuminAria Card Making Station” and create your holiday card.

I guess I should begin by telling my history with LuminAria. During the 2001 Official Disneyana Convention Steven Davison gave a presentation showcasing the Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay that he was the Creative Director on. His presentation ended with a brief look at LuminAria. Steven shared the music, the story and the concept art. I must admit that very few of the details of his presentation have stuck in my head. But what did stick there was his passion and the show’s heart. Steven’s description of the show accompanied by a demo score and simple concept art had several people in the audience shedding tears. It was simply beautiful. So as you can imagine I awaited LuminAria’s opening with great anticipation.

I’ll admit that I spent hours hanging around the Disneyland Resort after Disney’s California Adventure’s park close hoping to catch LuminAria testing. I did see it testing once and watched its first performance Friday evening from the Grand Californian Hotel following dinner at the Storyteller’s Café. But finally I was able to see it from inside the berm on Saturday night and Sunday night. My focus on Saturday night was capturing it on video but Sunday was my day to enjoy it (although I still ended up videotaping it).

On Sunday, although I was too late to add my LuminAria card to the collection of hopefuls for the evening’s performance, I went ahead with my young friend, Alice, and created a card. I’m not an artist and must admit I am little intimidated to express myself through drawings but with her help I decided I’d give it a try. And since I can just bring it back for the performance some other night I figured there’s no time like the present. Stepping into the room you’re surrounded by oversized images of snowmen, presents, Christmas trees and other holiday images. There are child-sized tables and chairs with crayons, markers and color pencils. Alice picked up our cards and picked out our table. I noticed that adults and children were creating cards. They were chatting about them as they created. The cast members told us to draw whatever we thought expressed the holidays - wishes, dreams, memories.

So I chose to draw the little red table and chairs from Coke Corner. I met Doobie there just before Thanksgiving and so as Disneyland begins to get decorated for the holidays I think of that chance meeting and all the joy it has brought to my life. Alice chose to draw a red and green checkerboard pattern, a tree and dove. In hopes of adding some colors to my picture I drew multi-colored musical notes to identify the table’s location, which is beside the piano player on Main Street. Alice chimed in, “Well if you met Doobie there you should add hearts.” How sweet! I must admit that I would’ve never thought of that. So I added some multi-colored hearts and sparked by the creativity I decided I should add some little Mickeys, too since we met at Disneyland. A Cast Member sat down at our table and chatted with us about our drawings.

Betsy

Once we had decided that they were completed we took them over to the Magical Machine “Betsy” so Alice could show me how the machine worked so when I bring it back next time I’ll know what to do. In front of the machine is a big red button that the children get to press to begin the transformation of their image for LuminAria. Their card appears to be magnified and transformed by the amazing machine composed of the various toys. However the guests get to keep their cards, which have been created in a way that they can be easily mailed to family or friends. Alice is planning on sending her card to a friend. I think I’ll hold onto mine this time but I know I'll make many more throughout the rest of the season.