ANAHEIM, Calif. — For many people, happiness is a feeling of joy.
There is a belief that one must only feel good to be happy.
But Disney California Adventure’s new “World of Color Happiness” nighttime spectacular, which kicked off last Friday for Disneyland’s year-long 70th anniversary, reveals that “happiness” is a much more complex human emotion.
Inspired by Walt Disney’s iconic opening speech when he welcomed the public in July 1955, “To all who come to this happy place… welcome,” World of Color explores the nuanced feeling of what it means to be happy, and of course, done, in the Disney way.
“When we sat down to start our creative process, it was an immediate thought of ‘What is happiness?’ ‘How do we create happiness?’ ‘How do we experience happiness?’ ‘What does happiness mean to everyone?’” said Jennifer Magill, an executive producer for Disney Live Entertainment, during a media event. “As we started doing that deep dive, we realized very quickly that our friends at Pixar have created the perfect solution on how to tell that story and to help explain what happiness is with the cast of ‘Inside Out’ and ‘Inside Out 2.’”
Joy, Sadness, Anger and the rest of the emotions from Disney/ Pixar’s “Inside Out” franchise play a role in Disneyland’s newest and seventh iteration of the light, water and projection show on towering water screens over Disney California Adventure’s Paradise Bay, which initially debuted in 2010.
As part of the performance, visitors could vote on the Disneyland mobile app before the show to determine which of the four emotions — Anger, Disgust, Envy or Sadness — will have featured scenes throughout World of Color.
Also, before the main event, the Muppets, such as Kermit the Frog, Gonzo and Miss Piggy make a special five minute pre-show appearance to make sure the show is “legally compliant.”
“That’s when the Muppets hi jinx begins,” said Magill.
The show then begins with a montage and snippets of popular Disney animated characters over the past seven decades — Snow White, Pinocchio and Simba as a special rendition of “Rainbow Connection” is played overhead.
Walt Disney’s iconic speech continues before Joy appears.
Joy dances with her accordion, drums begin, and upbeat music plays.
This is Joy’s happiness.
She then explores what happiness means to the different emotions.
“There are so many ways to be happy. It’s a little different for each of us,” she says to Envy.
Scenes and music from the boy band in “Turning Red” make an appearance. Goofy and Max show up, too.
Joy tells Sadness that “Dreaming big dreams can bring you happiness.”
We hear longing songs from Disney’s “Wish” and “I Have a Dream” from “Tangled.”
As Disney characters from Hercules to Rapunzel appear on water screens to the beat of “The Incredibles,” Anger declares that true happiness requires action.
Happiness isn’t just about dreaming, it’s about doing.
Anxiety makes an appearance as “Surface Pressure” from “Encanto” plays.
There is also fear associated with achieving happiness.
But it’s okay to be — joyful, sad, angry, anxious and fear — when it comes to feeling happy.
Envy gets it.
“Happiness is all of us, all together,” she says.
“It sure is,” Joy responds. “And when we all shine together like that, what a rainbow.”
Magill said as she and the Disney creative team explored what happiness meant to them, they “realized quickly that we can’t have happiness without all of the emotions.”
She hopes visitors will feel that way after the 30-minute show.
“If you don’t leave that show humming, dancing ,moving and feeling all the wonderful emotions, I’ll be very surprised,” she said.
