Swans (Main Street Electrical Parade)

The Swans are characters from the Main Street Electrical Parade at the Disney Parks.
==Background==
The swans consist of a mother swan and her three cygnets appearing in a section representing Swan Lake. Each swan float is depicted with a mother swan followed by her three cygnets with blue bulbs representing the water they are swimming within. Verses such as the "Swan Lake Waltz" or the "Swan Theme" would often play whenever the swans appeared during the parade to remind guests of the ballet Swan Lake.
===Development===
The swans were created for the Tokyo Disneyland version of the Electrical Parade on March 9, 1985. Seven years later, the swans were brought to Disneyland Paris with a new version of the unit used in Tokyo in its Electrical Parade Dreamlights incarnation.
Following the closure of the parade in 1995, only the the swans remained intact, due to the rest of the parade floats being destroyed, resulting the swans to be shipped to Paris in 1997 for Euro Disneyland's version of the parade.
==Appearances==
In the original Tokyo Disneyland version of the parade, the swans paraded across the street to impress the park visitors where they appeared after the Alice in Wonderland unit, followed by the Cinderella unit. The parade depicted golden-lit swans swimming down the parade route, followed by three cygnets sharing the same color as their mother. One of the parade floats depicted a baby swan tipping their head in the water to find food. In addition to this, the swans with their heads raised up would turn their heads to give expression while parading across the street.
In the Disneyland Paris version in 1997, the swans functioned the same way they did in the Tokyo version of the parade. The only exception was the light bulb change, due to Europe's high voltage of electricity as well as the harsh weather in Paris. This float remained in use until 2003. The swans did not move their heads within the unit unlike in the original Tokyo version.
The Electrical Parade Dreamlights version at Tokyo Disneyland featured the swan unit as in the predecessor version where the swans were depicted with white plumage around their body and blue beaks. Unlike in the predecessor, they did not move their heads and followed alongside the parade in a normal manner. This parade unit was retired as of July 2011 and was replaced with a Disney Fairies-themed unit.
The Electrical Sky Parade version at Disneyland Paris featured the swans appearing in a unit representing Swan Lake at the Sleeping Beauty Castle where a large swan appeared as a projection. Drones then formed an image of two swans - consisting of an adult swan and a cygnet who swim towards each other. As the drones forming the swans disappear, the swan in the projection flies away and then loops into an image of "King Leonidas" on the castle's projection.
==Trivia==
*The swans are the only characters featured in the Main Street Electrical Parade whose unit is not based on an existing Disney IP, making them completely original characters to the parade. In this case, the swans are based on the swans from the Swan Lake ballet.
*Due to the fact that many parade floats were destroyed in the Tokyo Disneyland version of the Electrical Parade, the swans are the only parade floats from the original incarnation of the Electrical Parade that remained within the Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights version.
*To date, the swans were never featured in either version of the Electrical Parade at any of the Disney Parks in the United States in the Disneyland and Magic Kingdom version at California and Florida respectively.
Category:Swans
Category:Disney characters
Category:Silent characters
Category:Adults
Category:Families
Category:Theme park characters