Fun Facts about Disney’s World of Color and Holiday Winter Dreams

“World of Color − Winter Dreams,” the new version of the after-dark spectacular, adds humor, inspirational music and merriment to Holidays at the Disneyland Resort. Presented on Paradise Bay in Disney California Adventure Park, the show features a new story, new characters from the Walt Disney Pictures animated motion picture “Frozen,” and new, advanced technology.

Musical Wonderland 

“World of Color-Winter Dreams” unfolds in seven sequences, each one a dreamlike adventure:

• The Pre-Show: Glow Honor Choir Wonder – Season’s Greetings:  features the “World of Color” Honor Choir singing “Glow,” written especially for this new show. Then Tinker Bell’s traditional greeting from “Wonderful World of Color” summons Old Man Winter and the skating Frost Fairies.

• Snow – A Winter Wonderland: Olaf takes guests on a breathtaking winter sleigh ride, encountering Bambi, Thumper and, from “Frozen,” sisters Anna and Elsa.

• Glow – A Season of Light: The holidays are celebrated with images of holiday cards created by Disneyland Resort guests and cast members.

• Enchantment – The Toy Story Nutcracker:  This familiar ballet is danced in some delightful, offbeat renditions by favorite “Toy Story” characters.

• Spirit-Holiday Sing-Along: Snowman Olaf has always loved the idea of a warm summer. He innocently imagines himself enjoying the sunshine, then leads the audience in a holiday sing-along.

• Finale – Merry & Bright Holiday Lights”: Olaf welcomes a surprising Santa as 700 newly installed lights blaze to life for a colorful finale around the lagoon.    
  

After Glow: Finale (Honor Choir)

• “World of Color – Winter Dreams” features more than a dozen songs, ranging from familiar holiday tunes such as “Jingle Bells,” “Feliz Navidad” and “The Dreidel Song” to musical numbers from “Frozen” and original compositions such as “Glow.

• The voices of more than 500 singers representing all 50 United States appear in the pre-show carol, “Glow.” Participants signed up on a “World of Color” Honor Choir website and performed “virtually,” in front of their computer webcams. Disneyland Resort teamed with Grammy®-winning composer Eric Whitacre, who has joined hundreds of voices online in similar “virtual choirs.”

• More than 1,400 submissions from around the country were received for the “World of Color” Honor Choir.

• Other Disney fans designed holiday cards and submitted them online to appear in the “Glow-A Season of Light” sequence.

Technology

• Programming for the new “Winter Dreams” show took three months.

• Visual projections are now created with an ultra high definition image playback system with more than four times the resolution of the original “World of Color” system.

• There are more than 17 million pixels in the “World of Color – Winter Dreams” screen. A High Definition television image uses 2,073,600 pixels.

• For the dazzling finale of “World of Color – Winter Dreams,” 700 high-power, color, LED strobe lights were installed along the side of the California Screamin’ roller coaster. Each light has four individual control channels.

• Adding new brilliance are 16 narrow-beam moving lights within the sun-ray sculpture on Mickey’s Fun Wheel, plus 21 narrow-beam movie lights within the viewing area.

• Six snowflake generators within the viewing area produce giant snowflakes in six different shapes.

• Ten mirror balls, installed on the speaker and lighting towers, produce dazzling sparkle effects for the show.

• All of the new technological effects enhance the existing “World of Color” “stage: a platform composed of nearly 1 full acre of engineered superstructure, longer than a football field and capable of settling on three levels – one for the performance, one under the water surface and one for maintenance. There are nearly 1,200 powerful and programmable fountains, and a vast underwater grid with more than 18,000 points of control.  Each fountain has multiple points of control for lighting, color intensity, water angle and height.

‘World of Color’ Evolution

• Since its premiere on June 11, 2010, “World of Color” has been performed more than 2,100 times and been viewed by more than eight million guests at Disney California Adventure.

• The show’s flexibility has made it possible to add and subtract special sequences since its 2010 debut:  a July 4 Independence Day pre-show, a New Year’s Eve pre-show, and scenes focusing on “TRON: LEGACY,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and “Brave.”

• From 2011 to 2012, “World of Color” featured a special holiday season pre-show with characters from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Prep & Landing.”

• The “World of Color” fountains also have played parts in daytime shows on Paradise Bay: “Disney Channel Rocks” and “Instant Concert … Just Add Water.”

• The fountains in “World of Color” can send water to heights ranging from 30 feet to 200 feet (by way of comparison, Mickey’s Fun Wheel reaches a height of 150 feet, some of it below the edge of the lagoon).

Wishing you Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust

Sunshine