Mouse Extra

Last year I spent eight paragraphs talking about how terribly unwatchable the Christmas Day Parade from Walt Disney broadcast was.  This year I just assumed it would be just as bad, and feared it may be even worse…if that is possible.  But I must be fair.  Even though it still was tough to watch at times, some noticeable improvements were made.

The biggest improvement was that the producers finally realized that even though they want to use this for one giant promotional stunt, people are hoping to see the parade when they tune in.  This was my biggest complaint last year.  It seemed in 2006 that they forgot there was even a parade to show and instead filled as much time as they could with poorly produced Year of a Million Dreams promotions chock full of old, canned footage.  This year, especially for the first hour, the parade and performances seemed to be the focus.  Disney was showing off their talent, and that was why we were watching.

If they could only get rid of Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa things may really get good.  But even these two were toned down from their over-the-top nonsense from past years.  Don’t get me wrong though.  They still were very tough to watch.  Sometimes they are so bad that it almost seems like they are doing a parody of themselves.  They really feel like they are just forcing it all the time and are plain terrible at reading copy.  However, Ryan Seacrest who hosted from Disneyland seemed very good at this.  Now, I am sure most of you have seen this guy a lot more than I. I never watch American Idol so I know nothing about him.  But compared to Regis and Kelly, he seems like a terrific option.

There are still some shameless and silly segments, like a piece they did from London with an actor from National Treasure 2.  This not only had nothing to do with the parade or a Disney theme park. It didn’t even have the slightest relevance to the holidays at all.  It was just a poorly done promo for the movie.  The difference from last year to this, however, is that last year had more of this stuff than the parade, or so it seemed.

All in all, I found myself enjoying this more than wishing to turn it off.   Seeing the Magic Kingdom on Christmas morning is a treat for all of us.  But if they could only concentrate on producing something worthy of a true Christmas tradition, people would be looking forward to watching every year.