Extinct Attractions - Ignite the Dream: A Nighttime Spectacular of Magic and Light

Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, I took a look back at one of the few extinct attractions from Disney’s newest park.

Next week, Toy Story 5 will hit movie theaters everywhere with what looks to be a huge debut. Pixar’s biggest box office franchise (though not its biggest in total as Cars amazingly holds that crown), is also its first, with Toy Story 2 the company’s third film in total.Toy Story is represented at every Disney resort in the world, with four of them including entire lands dedicated to the franchise, including Shanghai Disneyland’s first expansion.

Shanghai Disneyland’s Toy Story Land opened a couple of years after the opening of the park on June 16, 2016. The park’s success from the beginning helped justify the speedy addition, with one of the top draws of the early park being the show Ignite the Dream: A Nighttime Spectacular of Magic and Light.

Via Disney Wiki 

Shanghai Disneyland knew they needed to go big with their first nighttime show at the park, so big they did. The show featured fireworks, water fountains, fire, lasers, projection mapping, searchlights and even 45 water jets. Anything that they could throw into the show they did, and even just watching it on YouTube, we are better off for it.

Right from the jump, Ignite the Dream had fantastic projections, basically taking over the entire castle. It basically came to life with Mickey flying all over the place. Just a couple of minutes into the show, one could tell it was truly a show, not just a run-of-the-mill fireworks presentation.

The Lion King was the first film included in the show, with the fireworks and fountains going crazy to the tune of “Circle of Life.” “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” was next, which was really fun to hear in Mandarin, as was “Hakuna Matata” especially when Mickey crossed the log in the woods like the rest of the gang at the end of the segment.

It was time to head under the sea next with a montage from The Little Mermaid to the tune of “Part of Your World” that particularly highlighted the relationship between Ariel and Eric. The segment then transitioned over to Finding Nemo leading off with some jellyfish before moving into an instrumental as the camera wound its way through scenes from the movies before culminating with Mickey doing some surfing.

Via Wikpedia 

Pirates of the Caribbean was the next franchise to step up to the plate with Mickey practically swimming into a coin. The entire section was full of fire and ships and the Kraken and helped provide a ton of energy to the show. At one point, the castle even appeared to have people sword-fighting on it with Jack Sparrow running around like crazy.

Mickey tried to rub the lamp from Aladdin next, which of course helped launch a little “Friend Like Me” into the mix, surprisingly in English this time. There was a quick time jump to the late 1990s next with some appearances from Mulan and friends, including some huge drums on the castle.

Speaking of quick, the balloons from Up joined the show next with not much to do other than reveal the sequence from Star Wars as the Millenium Falcon flew onto castle. The action moved right into a space battle that coincided with some scenes and characters from The Force Awakens. 

Via D23 

There was a bit of a rough transition afterwards as Star Wars shifted over to Frozen with the action starting with Elsa singing “Let It Go” in English before continuing right along with “For the First Time in Forever.” Things then took a turn for the worse with the scene of Anna freezing from a frozen heart, but luckily Elsa was there to save the date.

After Frozen, it was time for the bold finale with Mickey appearing all over the castle along with a huge swath of characters. All of the facets of the show were on display, helping make everything exciting and fresh.

Overall, Ignite the Dream was a super impressive show that helped Shanghai Disneyland special right from the start. The show had so much happening with some amazing projection mapping that it was a surprise when it closed on April 7, 2021 to be replaced by Illuminate! A Nighttime Celebration. In hindsight, it shouldn’t have been too shocking since post-COVID the Star Wars segment was removed, while the Frozen bit was also trimmed down.

The attraction did live on a bit longer in Disneyland Paris with a version called Disney Illuminations that eventually also closed a few years later. It’s fitting that such a thrilling show had more than one life, but I’m glad such a grand vision can live on forever online.

Via Buzzfeed 

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!