VIDEO Walt Disney World welcomes back Happily Ever After at Magic Kingdom

Apr 04, 2023 in "Happily Ever After"

Forum Forums Tweet Share Tweet Share

Gallery / 5 Photos
Happily Ever After 2023

Posted: Tuesday April 4, 2023 9:54pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Fan-favorite Happily Ever After made its return to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom this evening, playing to a packed Main Street U.S.A.

Happily Ever After 2023

New for 2023, the nightly fireworks show adds brand-new projections that extend down Main Street U.S.A. to further immerse guests into the stories.

Happily Ever After 2023

The show is almost identical to the version that debuted in 2017, featuring the main theme song by Angie Keilhauer and Jordan Fisher and all the original pyro and laser effects.

Happily Ever After 2023

Watch the video below for tonight's opening night performance of Happily Ever After.

Discuss on the Forums

Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox

Starship8244 days ago

I assume you mean at Disneyland at IASW?

wbostic124 days ago

For sure. Does anybody remember the outrage at the first projector setup for Magic Memories and you? These don’t look good, but anything could be better than that.

cjkeating4 days ago

I would expect these will be themed in due course. They have only just been installed for testing the new show.

SpectroMickey856 days ago

I do not want to see boxes on the roofs either. The current quality is poor but I hope there are other options to improve that than rooftop projectors.

TTA946 days ago

I agree. If they could raise up and down that would be ideal, but like @Squishy said the alignment could be an issue. MK, for the most part and with the exception of the hub light poles, has always been good at not having show equipment and lighting visible. It will be interesting though to see if that is about to come to an end with the rumor of new parade route lighting for Starlight.

Starship8246 days ago

Honestly, I'd rather not have giant boxes at top of Main Street that you could see during the day. I think our current setup is pretty good even if our projection quality isn't as good as Disneyland or what Disneyland Paris will be if we can avoid having big boxes on the top of Main Street.

Squishy6 days ago

The quality is better than the WDW MS ones from what I seen in the recent preview video. The DLP projectors are not on lifts, lifts are typically avoided for projectors as even the slightest mm misalignment will cause a greater misalignment on the projected surface at a distance. If they went with the indoor projector route like MK they would be the same projectors as MK to not take up a lot of space.

TTA946 days ago

Interesting, Paris is installing their new MS projectors on the rooftops. Doesn’t look the greatest but it might be better than in the windows like MKs. I assume they will raise up come show time like the other rooftop lights do. Let’s hope MK does the same eventually.

Starship82427 days ago

Wanted to just point out that the show looked great tonight and it looks like the very top of the castle has brighter projections? Maybe I'm going crazy but it looked clearer and brighter at the top. Maybe they're updating the protections sections at a time? if you look at the left side it looks brighter too. That or I'm just going crazy.

ToTBellHopAug 29, 2024

Yeah. Will ops fund it well going forward, though? I don’t want to see empty character spots. It’s distracting on FoF.

jrhwdwAug 29, 2024

What ever budget Starlight has.....that Budget is totally secure, correct?????

DisoneAug 28, 2024

The budget is about $4.63. But that is about $4 more than they previously had🙂

Starship824Aug 28, 2024

I wouldn't be surprised to see some other kind of drone show to come along. Or updates to Luminous that have had recent rumors, I also watched the Nighttime spectacular panel from d23 and Steve Davison heavily hinted at updates even though he said he's "not announcing anything".

TTA94Aug 28, 2024

Something else new or plussing to go along with Starlight next year would have been nice, but I’m guessing Starlight is taking every last cent of WDWs entertainment budget. Let’s hope it’s a large budget.