View source for Once Upon a Time (show)

'''Once Upon a Time''' — billed in full as '''Once Upon A Time: Where Stories Take You Anywhere''' — was a nighttime projection show performed on [[Cinderella Castle]] at [[Magic Kingdom]] at Walt Disney World in Florida. Using projection mapping to wrap the castle in animated imagery, the show was framed as a series of bedtime stories told by Mrs. Potts to Chip from ''Beauty and the Beast''. Adapted from a Tokyo Disneyland spectacular of the same name, it played at [[Magic Kingdom]] from November 4, 2016 until the park's COVID-19 closure in March 2020, and did not return.<ref name="wikipedia">{{cite web |title=Once Upon a Time (Disney parks) |website=Wikipedia |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_(Disney_parks)}}</ref>

== History ==

The original ''Once Upon a Time'' premiered at Tokyo Disneyland on May 29, 2014. The Tokyo production was that park's main nighttime spectacular, a roughly 19-minute presentation combining projection mapping with fireworks, lasers, fire effects and searchlights.<ref name="wikipedia" />

At [[Magic Kingdom]], castle projection shows had begun with ''The Magic, The Memories, and You!'' in 2011, followed by ''Celebrate the Magic'', which ran for four years from 2012. On October 26, 2016, Disney announced that ''Celebrate the Magic'' would end on November 3 and that a version of Tokyo's ''Once Upon a Time'' would replace it the following day, as part of [[Magic Kingdom]]'s 45th anniversary observances and coinciding with the 25th anniversary of ''Beauty and the Beast''.<ref name="attractions">{{cite web |title=New 'Once Upon A Time' castle projection show debuts November 4 at Magic Kingdom |website=Attractions Magazine |url=https://attractionsmagazine.com/new-once-upon-a-time-castle-projection-show-debuts-november-4-at-magic-kingdom/}}</ref><ref name="wdwmagic">{{cite web |title='Once Upon A Time' projection show to replace 'Celebrate the Magic' in November |website=WDWMAGIC |url=https://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions/once-upon-a-time/news/26oct2016-once-upon-a-time-projection-show-to-replace-celebrate-the-magic-in-november.htm}}</ref>

The show debuted on November 4, 2016, initially as a companion piece to the ''Wishes'' fireworks, and continued after ''Wishes'' was replaced by ''Happily Ever After'' in 2017. Lasers were added to the production in June 2017.<ref name="wikipedia" /> Its final performance came on March 12, 2020, days before Walt Disney World closed for the COVID-19 pandemic; the show never resumed, and [[Magic Kingdom]]'s evening castle entertainment was eventually consolidated into its fireworks spectaculars.<ref name="fandom">{{cite web |title=Once Upon A Time |website=Disney Wiki |url=https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Once_Upon_A_Time}}</ref>

== Synopsis ==

The fourteen-and-a-half-minute [[Magic Kingdom]] version was a gentler production than its Tokyo parent: it used minimised pyrotechnics, no fire effects, and a greater reliance on searchlights, keeping the emphasis on the projections themselves.<ref name="wikipedia" />

The framing device is a bedroom in the Beast's castle, where Mrs. Potts tells Chip a bedtime story. As she begins — "once upon a time…" — the pair are drawn into the pages of a storybook, and [[Cinderella Castle]] becomes the book itself, its towers and turrets re-dressed scene by scene to match each tale. Stories visited include ''Cinderella'', with the castle transformed for the ball and the race against midnight; ''Peter Pan'', flying over London to Never Land; ''Alice in Wonderland''; ''The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh''; and ''Beauty and the Beast'', before a ''Frozen'' sequence drawn from a winter variant of the Tokyo show replaced the ''Snow White'' and ''Tangled'' scenes used in Japan.<ref name="mouseplanet">{{cite web |title=Walt Disney World Resort Update for November 1-6, 2016 |website=MousePlanet |url=https://mouseplanet.com/walt-disney-world-resort-update-for-november-1-6-2016/5637/}}</ref><ref name="wikipedia" />

Because the projections were mapped precisely to the castle's architecture, windows lit, banners unfurled and whole facades appeared to crumble or bloom in three dimensions — an effect contemporary reports described as covering "every nook and cranny" of the building.<ref name="dtb">{{cite web |title=Once Upon a Time Coming to Magic Kingdom! |website=Disney Tourist Blog |url=https://www.disneytouristblog.com/upon-time-coming-magic-kingdom/}}</ref> The show closed by returning to Mrs. Potts and Chip as the storybook closed, positioning the performance as the park's goodnight story before — or after — the evening fireworks.

== See also ==
* [[Cinderella Castle]]
* [[Magic Kingdom]]
* [[Main Street Electrical Parade]]

== References ==
<references />

[[Category:Entertainment]]
[[Category:Magic Kingdom]]
[[Category:2016 establishments]]
[[Category:2020 disestablishments]]