Which nighttime parade do you like more? Personally, I've gotta give my vote to PtN because I love the homages to Main Street electrical but I also think PtN has a much clearer direction, the parade units are larger than life, the costumes are truly innovative and I honestly prefer PtN's soundtrack over MSEP (please don't hurt me)
Editor's note: Let's put it to a vote.
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To me, this is the theme park equivalent of a "LeBron vs. Dr. J" argument in sports. Put them side by side today and you've got an old, retired guy versus an All-Star. Even if you could fire up a time machine and have them face off in their respective primes, the quality of competition for the newer one is almost always better than for the older one, leaving that older one to suffer in a true, direct comparison.
But that doesn't take away one bit from the fact that the older was awesome, and dominant, in his/its time.
I voted for Main Street Electrical Parade because it's a vivid part of my childhood. I remember the "glowing away" finale season of 1996 very well, and yet the parade continues to this day. It created a legacy to which all other nighttime parades are compared; Paint the Night makes many references to it with the "Baroque Hoedown" song, the drum float, and other touches. Without MSEP, there likely would be no Paint the Night.
To me the Paint the Night Parade Soundtrack is the winner here. It just makes the parade so energetic and enjoyable. It makes you almost dance to the tune. I loved the parade when I saw it a week ago.
It may be because I saw it many, many times as a kid, but to me Main Street Electrical Parade is the best parade Disney has done to date. Other than Fantasmic, this was the nighttime show I always wanted to see. The parade was created in the 1970s, and while I'll agree that it was getting a bit dated by the end if its run it still had some very good floats and elements representing many classic Disney films. In addition, the soundtrack was outstanding...I still listen to the CD version of it on a semi-regular basis.
Now, Paint the Night is not bad and my impression of it may improve after a couple more viewings, but I was honestly underwhelmed by it. I will say that the floats were extremely impressive (particularly the finale float with Sorcerer Mickey), but for the length of the parade it just seemed like there was a lot of dead space. From what I remember, MSEP had very short gaps between parade units (30-45 seconds, with a handful of longer gaps to facilitate crossing), but PtN felt like floats were about 2 minutes apart with just a handful of dancers in between. Additionally, I was disappointed that almost nothing from classic Disney was represented...the new stuff is great, but I want to see a mix of new and old (and less Pixar...keep that in the DCA parade). Lastly, while the soundtrack wasn't bad it just wasn't as memorable as the MSEP version in my opinion.
It wasn't that long ago that I saw the Electrical Parade in DCA. I expect to see Paint the Night for the first time in a few weeks at the Halloween Party. I hope it ranks ahead of Light Magic that I also saw and enjoyed, but the public felt it sucked. Actually, Light Magic didn't suck, but it had a rough beginning that later became more tolerable and better by the end of its run. It seems like Paint The Night had no work out period in the public. It was good to go from the start.
Paint the Night seems rather short to me in comparision to the Electrical Parade, although the gaps between floats seems larger. "Baroque Hoedown" is indeed an earworm and not necessarily a pleasant one; I am glad it isn't the entire soundtrack for PTN. I guess I'm not all that enthused about either one.
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They are both bascially the same with PTN being an updated version.
Which is better? Depends on your thoughts. Technical wizardry of PTN is far better and they moved the MSEP into the 21st century. However, MSEP is still a Disney Classic!