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The Centipede[1] (also referred to as a Caterpillar[2]) is a character from the Main Street Electrical Parade at the Disney Parks.
Background[]
The centipede area is a long myriapod featured in Electrical Parade. It is consistently featured in the Alice in Wonderland-themed unit of most versions of Electrical Parade, often with a smiling expression and has occasionally in merchandise inspired by the parade. Unlike most animal-themed parade floats such as turtles, snails, or lightning bugs, the centipede does not twirl but rather moves normally, except the legs repeatedly glowing. The centipede can either appear in a coloration of green or yellow all over its body often with green legs.
Due to the popularity of Main Street Electrical Parade over the years, the caterpillar occasionally appeared in merchandise inspired by the parade such as trading pins or in other merchandise such as the Walt Disney Classics set of figurines.
Effects[]
The centipede was designed with a mix between iridescent and LED lights to illuminate the parade floats to give illusion of how the glowing effect works on Main Street Electrical Parade. Said lights are efficient than incandescent bulbs, making them combinable in different ways to make color combinations for the centipede. In addition to the colors, the centipede's legs would occasionally glow to give it expression.[3][4]
Appearances[]
Main Street Electrical Parade[]
The centipede has been featured in the Alice in Wonderland-themed unit in every version of the Main Street Electrical Parade in the Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Disneyland Paris, and California Adventure versions of the Electrical Parade respectively. While parading down the street, the centipede's legs would occasionally glow to give it expression throughout the night.
The Tokyo Disneyland version of Electrical Parade featured a similar long-legged arthropod character known around 1985 functioning the same way it did in the California, Florida, and Paris versions but were removed from the park but was removed from the parade as of 1995. In the Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights version, a similar arthropod character known as an Inchworm used to be in the Alice unit of the parade, which moved its legs and squirmed its abdomen throughout the parade, which was since retired as of 2011.
The Electrical Sky Parade version features a centipede as one of the elements recreated through the use of drones during the nighttime show in Paris featured in the Alice in Wonderland-themed sequence.
Trivia[]
- The centipede was occasionally referred to or interpreted as a caterpillar in certain occasions, most likely due to its lepidopteran-like appearance. Centipedes and caterpillars are completely different species of arthropods in real-life, with centipedes being part of the Myriapoda order with caterpillars being part of the Lepidoptera genus.
- During the parade's 2001 run at Disney California Adventure, the centipede was in merchandise was depicted in having colors of yellow and green patterns on each of its segments respectively as shown in plush toys or trading pins.
- During the parade's 2019 run at Disneyland at California, marshmallows in the shape of the centipede were sold at the Candy Palace to promote the parade's run where they were referred to as caterpillar-shaped marshmallows as such.
References[]
- ↑ Walt Disney Classics Collection
- ↑ "Caterpillar Marshmallow Wand" - Candy Palace snack product at Main Street, U.S.A., Disneyland
- ↑ The Science Behind the Magic: Main Street Electrical Parade (April 27, 2022).
- ↑ The History of the Main Street Electrical Parade (September 18, 2021).