Disney Parks is the constantly changing, always evolving, stronghold of The Walt Disney Company. With decades of content to choose from, each Disney Park across the globe faces almost limitless possibilities, and next the Imagineering team will bring a beloved animated classic to one of Walt Disney World Resort’s largest structures.
Last year, Happily Ever After retired at Magic Kingdom’s Cinderella Castle, replaced by Disney Enchantment, and Harmonious debuted on the World Showcase Lagoon. A few months ago, Festival of Fantasy made its return to Main Street, U.S.A. at Walt Disney World, and Disneyland Paris launched their anniversary Castle drone show and updated cavalcade.
And just yesterday, Disney Parks announced that the limited-time shows, Main Street Electrical Parade and Disneyland Forever at Disneyland Resort will close in September. It’s safe to say that Disney Resorts are adapting, changing (and not always for the better it seems), and frequently updating operations including Disney Genie+ to match Guest demand, needs, and the overall Disney experience.
The latest update to come out of Walt Disney World relates again to its entertainment slate, with one executive releasing the news that Spaceship Earth, the icon of EPCOT Park, will be the landscape in which a new light show inspired by and themed to Beauty and the Beast (1991) will take place.
Chief Portfolio Executive for Walt Disney Imagineering, Zach Ridley — who was a driving force behind the Future World and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind attraction development also at EPCOT — shared the Beauty and the Beast takeover news at the Disney Resort on Instagram. He wrote:
Our Lighting Design team at Walt Disney Imagineering continues to explore the artistic and technical possibilities of the new Spaceship Earth lighting. For our newest limited time sequence, we were inspired by the vibrant colors and strong movement in the 1991 Walt Disney Animation Studios classic, “Beauty and the Beast,” and infused both into the programming of the show. Be on the lookout for some fun subtle easter eggs such as rising champagne bubbles and the multicolor spotlights from the finale of the song, plus a special tri-color celebration to France, the setting and inspiration of this tale as old as time.
It is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you to “Be Our Guest” for an amazing new sequence inspired by the Academy-Award winning song just in time for the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival.
For the music, we always enjoy the chance to put an EPCOT twist on the shows we create for Spaceship Earth. The lyrics from this song as known by heart to millions – I know I can recite them by heart every time the song comes on, and I’m sure I am note alone… By blending both the original English and French versions of Be Our Guest (known in French as “C’est la Fete”) we create a unique cross-cultural experience that’s a spectacle in any and all languages.
Enjoy!
EPCOT is quite obviously the Disney theme park that is undergoing the biggest noticeable development across the Central Florida Resort, and this new Beauty and the Beast light show is just the latest in a long line of changes coming to Walt Disney’s Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. EPCOT’s International Food & Wine Festival begins on July 14, 2022, ending on November 19, 2022; it is not clear if the Beauty and the Beast lighting on Spaceship Earth will continue after the festival wraps, or just how limited the limited run is.
This Beauty and the Beast update to the lighting of Spaceship Earth takes place amid the ongoing construction work at EPCOT which sees the new World Celebration area (formerly, Future World) transformed — although just how transformed seems to be its own developing process.
Will you be taking time to watch this new light installation at EPCOT? Let us know in the comments down below!
Walt Disney World Resort boasts four theme parks: Magic Kingdom Park, EPCOT Park, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios Theme Park. It also features two Disney water parks, Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park and Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park, and the retail and recreation area, Disney Springs. A valid ticket and Park Pass reservation is needed to enter each Park and Park Hopper hours begin at 2 p.m. daily.