Spectro Magic

[Donna Pape]

I was up at WDW last weekend and have a question about some of the
characters in the SpectroMagic parade in the Magic Kingdom:

The first thing I saw in the parade were these characters sitting on
big illuminated balls. They were "smiling", waving and kicking their
feet around. By "smiling" I mean they had really neat masks on - kind
of like porcelain doll faces - that were smiling. Are these characters
that I should know? Are they special SpectroMagic characters?

Also, we got to see the Surprise in the Skies show at Epcot. Now *THAT*
was pretty spectacular!

Donna

[CARL L SAGE]

The characters who lead off Spectromagic are called Spectromen.The
masks are filled with optic fibers which allow the faces to change
color in sync with the other parade units.
The color changes can be subtle and if you aren't in a location with
a "long viewing angle" some of the parades magic can be lost.For
example,the finale unit is keyed to the paint brushes the Three Little
Pigs are playing with on the units front.When they "pull a color" out
of the paint can and touch the unit,the whole unit fades to that
color.A great many guests only experiance the finale in its pure white
state,due to unit timing versus the parade route.
The two prime viewing sites are:
1)Town Square - the Disneyana Shop steps/the patio
for Tony's Town Square Resaurant
2)Liberty Square - the dockside area for the Liberty
Square Riverboat
These locations provide guests with a "field of view" large enough to
see the complete cycle of each parade unit (eg. Chernabog furling and
unfurling his wings).

The first rule of intelligent tinkering
is to save all the parts.

"It's kind of fun to do the impossible."
-Walter Elias Disney-

C.L.Sage-Disney University(Class of '90)