Disneyland Resort’s 70th anniversary is just around the corner, beginning May 16th, 2025 and running through the summer of 2026. The celebration will include several new offerings come to the resort including entertainment, attractions and more. We’ve got the first bit of information about Disneyland’s 70th anniversary and we’ll share that in this post before adding our commentary at the end! Let’s start over in California Adventure.
“World of Color Happiness!” Debuts at Disney California Adventure Park
This all-new “World of Color” show is inspired by Walt Disney’s words from the opening day park dedication from seven decades ago: “To all who come to this happy place… welcome!”
This nighttime spectacular will explore “happy” through a kaleidoscope of emotions, hosted by Joy and the other Emotions from the hit Pixar Animation Studios films, “Inside Out” and “Inside Out 2.” Along the way, the Emotions manifest music and moments from favorite Walt Disney Animation Studios’ and Pixar Animation Studios’ stories, including “Turning Red,” “A Goofy Movie,” “Tangled,” “The Lion King” and so many more.
“World of Color Happiness!” will transform Paradise Bay with a brilliant array of signature fountains, dynamic lighting, colorful lasers, fog and dramatic flame effects, painting musical memories with all the wonder that only “World of Color” can create.
“Paint the Night” Parade Returns to Disneyland Park
This fan-favorite, dazzling nighttime parade will make its grand return to Disneyland for the 70th celebration, lighting up Main Street, U.S.A., with stunning color and more than a million brilliant LED lights.
Mickey Mouse uses his vivid imagination to harness the power of Tinker Bell’s pixie dust and “Paint the Night” in Disney dreams, bringing to light beloved characters and stories from Pixar and Disney Animation films such as “Monsters, Inc.,” “Cars,” “Toy Story”, “The Little Mermaid,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and more.
The “Paint the Night” parade features innovative floats, vibrant costumes, incredible special effects, unforgettable music and energetic performances.
“Wondrous Journeys” is Back at Disneyland Park
At night, Disneyland will become a magnificent canvas with the return of this beloved nighttime spectacular. “Wondrous Journeys” celebrates the legacy of Walt Disney Animation Studios classics that have inspired Walt Disney’s original magic kingdom. Throughout the show, you embark on a journey filled with artistry, music, storytelling and heart as you experience moments from beloved stories like “Hercules,” “The Princess and the Frog,” “Peter Pan,” “Frozen,” “Big Hero 6,” “Moana,” “Encanto” and more.
The show features state-of-the-art projection effects that transform Main Street, U.S.A., Sleeping Beauty Castle, “it’s a small world” and the Rivers of America. On select nights, the show will be enhanced with fireworks.
“Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration!” Parade at Disney California Adventure Park
As part of the fun, “Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration!” returns to the streets of California Adventure. This delightful daytime parade is filled with incredible music, dynamic and colorful floats and nearly 30 favorite characters from Pixar Animation Studios films, including “Luca,” “Turning Red,” “Up,” and more.
“Wondrous Journeys” nighttime spectacular and “Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration!” parade will temporarily pause to make way for seasonal Halloween and Holidays entertainment offerings, then resume at a later time.
Additional Entertainment and More Magic to Come
Even more details and magical touches will be coming to the resort for the 70th celebration.
Brilliant, colorful décor will adorn the entire resort, including an elegant medallion on Sleeping Beauty Castle.
Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and their pals will all come dressed for the party in Town Square in Disneyland park, in custom looks designed just for the occasion.
Disneyland park will debut a new character cavalcade called “Mickey and Friends Celebrate Happy!” As it winds its way along the parade route, favorite characters will encourage you to dance and clap along in an energetic and contemporary celebration of seven decades of happiness.
In the evenings at California Adventure, the exterior of Carthay Circle Restaurant will invite everyone to “celebrate happy” during a special moment filled with music, lights and projection effects. And at Disneyland, the facade of “it’s a small world” will also get a new projection show.
Plus, created in honor of the anniversary, an upbeat new theme song “Celebrate Happy” will be heard throughout various entertainment offerings.
We’re just getting started! More joyful touches and magical details will be shared about the Disneyland Resort 70th Celebration in the coming months.
Commentary
Disney is using this week to get ahead of the game on the release schedule and I’m really enjoying that! After the last few years, where it felt that the parks were waiting to see the amount of money they had to spend before they could announce anything, this week has been a pleasant change.
On top of that, all of this news about the 70th anniversary is exciting! We knew some of it before this announcement, including the return of Wondrous Journeys and Paint the Night. Those still might be the marquee announcements as the firework show is one of the best Disney has ever created. Paint the Night is a good nighttime parade that was made this century so we’re very excited to see it back on Main Street. While I’ll always prefer something new, these are two classics that will be great to have back!
The ‘new’ comes in the form of World of Color! This has been the move for the past few Disneyland Resort anniversaries. Unfortunately, that hasn’t always been a success. The last few iterations of World of Color have been varying degrees of average and haven’t measured up to the original. Maybe they’ve cracked the code with this one and leading with a Pixar property has me optimistic.
Finally, the Better Together Parade is the same as this summer’s Pixar Fest. I don’t especially like that parade but having a continuous offering at California Adventure is very exciting! That park thrives when it has exuberant amounts of entertainment.
My only bit of pause when it comes to the 70th anniversary offerings is the phrase ‘Celebrate Happy’. I mean, come on! This isn’t even a catchy phrase, much less a good one. Did they go to a random word generator and pick a Disney sounding verb followed by adjective? The anniversary is a celebration of happy? Or is it a happy celebration? Happy celebration sounds better but still not very good. This paragraph is mostly in jest, but I do think we’ve all gotten significantly worse at naming things. Blame SEO or Google or whatever you want, I’ll just be over here celebrating happy.
Even if it’s a bad name, we are very excited for the 70th anniversary at Disneyland Resort. More details will be released soon and we’ll be here to cover them!
What part of the 70th are you most excited about? Let us know, along with any questions you might have, in the comments below! Planning a trip to Disneyland Resort? Check out our Disneyland Trip Planning Guide to help you out. If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends and like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. All of those links are on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!
Categories: News, Rumors and Commentary
I’m super excited for Paint the Night and the World of Color Happiness show, especially since I loved ‘Inside Out 2’! But also, the concept art photo, I want that in my room!