If you bought a pair of the ears at Disneyland, they will work at Walt Disney World once Disney starts running "Glow"-activated shows this fall. Disney World is starting with Fantasmic! on October 15, then will add the light-up ears to the Wishes fireworks and Celebrate the Magic shows at the Magic Kingdom on October 19. The ears also will become part of The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights show at Disney's Hollywood Studios when it returns later in the fall.
From reports on Twitter and Facebook, it appears that the Glow with the Show ears are most popular in Tokyo, which probably shouldn't be a surprise given Tokyo fans' enthusiasm for of Disney merchandise (they love Duffy!) and embrace of gadgetry. We've written before about the Prisoner's Dilemma problem with Glow with the Show -- the visual effect of seeing all those ears lighting up works only if other people buy the ears. But buying the ears for yourself doesn't improve your view of the show, unless you're satisfied with knowing that you've contributed to the greater entertainment good. Disneyland did offer some special events for annual passholders where it gave away ears, and provided special reserved viewing areas to participating shows for ear owners, to boost the number of people wearing the light-up ears in the parks. Disney World has not announced any such events in Florida, but who knows?
If you're interested in the technology behind Glow with the Show, here's a Disney video on that topic, with Creative Entertainment Technical Director, Chuck Davis:
Tweet
If you've gotten stuck standing or seated behind someone with these then you know the distraction is ridiculous! They may as well put a cast member with a flashlight in front of you and shine it in your eyes every couple of minutes!
I hate Glow with the Show ears!
I am a little intimidated by these things because I am not very quick with hand eye coordination and would not be able to keep up and have the ears turned to the right color like everyone else. It reminds me of playing "Simon" that light up game from the 70s.
I just don't need another gadget to learn. I have enough trouble understanding iPhones.
As for how the ears operate, from the wearer's perspective: the ears use AA batteries, and you turn them on and off by moving your finger over a small silver-colored circle underneath the right ear. Once the ears are on, they will blink randomly until you get in range of a Glow-enabled show, then the show programming will take over and control the blinking and colors of the ears.
The batteries burn out pretty quickly, within 6-8 hours, in my experience, so you can get one night in the park with them before you have to replace the batteries. Or just turn off the ears until it's showtime.
I'm quite surprised that Disney hasn't introduced a whole line of Glow with the Show ear designs. Having just one design for ANYTHING hasn't exactly been Disney merch's SOP for some time now.
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
