Wondrous Journeys

Wondrous Journeys was a projection mapping and fireworks show at Disneyland that debuted on January 27, 2023. It premiered alongside World of Color: One as part of the Disney 100 Years of Wonder celebration to commemorate the centennial of The Walt Disney Company. The show contains a large assortment of songs and characters from the entirety of the Walt Disney Animation Studios feature film canon.
The show was announced on September 11, 2022, during the D23 Expo. It was developed by Disney Live Entertainment and Walt Disney Animation Studios as part of a collaboration.
The show's original run started on January 27, 2023 and ended on August 31, 2023. On December 21, 2023, Disneyland announced that the show will return on March 22, 2024, until April 14, 2024. On December 5, 2024, it was announced that the show will return again on May 16, 2025, as part of Disneyland Resort's 70th anniversary celebration.
The show features special projection effects showcasing the tribute to Disney animation consisting of blank pieces of paper, pencil sketches, and transitions from black and white to finalized colors as well as featuring characters such as Mickey Mouse, Bambi, Ariel, Mirabel, and Winnie the Pooh.
The show has four viewing areas within the park: Main Street, U.S.A., Sleeping Beauty Castle, It's A Small World, and Rivers of America. The projection mapping for the show was made by Medici Media (formerly Mousetrappe).
Wondrous Journeys is a multimedia show that was created to celebrate 100 years of Walt Disney Animation Studios and the entire company as a whole. It features a montage of all 61 films released by the studio during the 100 years of the studios existence, paying tribute to Disney as well as moments featuring characters from films, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Frog, Frozen, Encanto, Wish, and many other films.
The list below shows complete scenes during the show. Due to differences in projection size, certain scenes are absent from the castle side and the Fantasmic! stage side.
At the start of the show, an introduction welcomes guests with the following words:
Shortly afterwards, the music begins with Plio's opening narration from Dinosaur before the show theme It's Wondrous begins:
During the introduction, the projection on the Fantasmic! stage shows lights with the same colors as Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, while other buildings just show blue searchlight-like lights.
After that, the original theme song of the show It's Wondrous plays, and features the line drawing and footage from the following shorts and films:
After the introduction that contains the original theme song of the show, a transition occurs featuring the Philadelphia Orchestra's silhouette in Fantasia 2000. In this part, the instrumental version of When You Wish Upon a Star plays, then the first lyric of I'm Wishing sung by Snow White combined with the melody from I Wonder from Sleeping Beauty. After that, the reprise of When You Wish Upon A Star plays for the castle side, for it features a flyover of Blue Fairy that is accompanied by shooting stars of fireworks, while for the other buildings, it shows the films instead below:
This is a segment that featuring the concept art and the characters sung from three films from Disney Renaissance era as well as Moana from the Disney Revival era.
In the Out There segment, all characters from four films sing together at the finale.
This act begins with Tiana's father James telling her about her dream and the hard work. "Now you remember, that old star can only take you part of the way. You got to help it out with some hard work of your own." Upon the conclusion of the quote, the song Almost There plays with initially slowing-mode to depict the scenes of Tiana from The Princess and The Frog, Pocahontas from Pocahontas, as well as Simba and Mufasa from The Lion King. With the song becoming more upbeat, the scenes transition from The Lion King into featuring characters from many films from different locations:
It then switches into a footage featuring The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and therefore it transitions into a scene where Peter Pan is flying with his friends combined with the a snippet of You Can Fly taking the journey to depict the footage of ships from the following films:
For another part, For the First Time in Forever plays, and it features some scenes from the following films in different buildings:
This act begins with a transition featuring Treasure Planet and Long John Silver's narration – "You got the makings of greatness in you, but you got to take the helm and chart your own course. Stick to it, no matter the squalls!" It then transitions to a scene of the Golden Bridge from Big Hero 6, the castle side features a flyover of Baymax, while other buildings and Rivers of America use projection animation of Baymax and Hiro Hamada. After that, the song Immortals plays featuring dialogues from Disney characters from Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Raya and the Last Dragon, and Big Hero 6. From these scenes, it combines with I'll Make a Man Out of You from Mulan and features movie's characters from the different buildings. In the climax, Casa Madrigal from Encanto collapses, with all related buildings except the tavern at the Fantasmic! stage area collapsing in the same way while Baymax breaks a hole in Krei's teleportation portal space.
Wondrous Journeys contains a total of 18 songs. "It's Wondrous", an original song created by Duddy Brown and Alex Geringas, is used as the theme song for the show. The other 17 songs are from various Walt Disney Animation Studios films.
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