Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular is a current mixed media show presented nightly at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The show includes projections, lasers, sound and pyro (fireworks) to create a solid, if not slightly underwhelming nighttime extravaganza.
Some complaints about the show include long periods without fireworks and the fact that the fireworks go off to the far right of the Chinese Theater where the projections are displayed (Due to Toy Story Land being built and now open).
The concept art from Disney here may even be a bit generous in terms of how far off to the right the blasts actually are.
Still, the show is enjoyable enough and worth checking out.
But contrary to what the first two paragraphs of this post may lead you to believe, this post is not about Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular. This instead, is a tribute to the show which it replaced. Symphony In The Stars was original Star Wars fireworks show at DHS and in my opinion it was the best.
The show first debuted in 2013 during Star Wars Weekends. It would return in May of 2014 and 2015 during the event as well. In late 2015, after Star Wars Land (Now Galaxy’s Edge) was officially announced, Disney began running the show nightly. They would continue to do so until summer of 2016 when the show closed to allow for construction to begin on the now open Toy Story Land. The show was then replaced by the current version mentioned above.
While I enjoy the current show, I LOVED Symphony In the Sky. It hit all the iconic moments of the Star Wars score, all in a beautiful arrangement. The pyro was as good as any show in a Disney park and probably better than Wishes at the time.
Note: Before you flip out, I’m not saying it was a better show than Wishes. Wishes had nostalgia and Jimminy Cricket on its side so it wins the one on one battle. I’m just saying in terms of pyro only, Symphony in the Sky may have had the more impressive blasts.
Because Toy Story Land was not yet under construction, Disney was able to launch the fireworks directly behind the Chinese Theater. This alone made for a better show than the current version in my opinion. Add to it the almost constant impressive pyro display and it was a real winner.
Here are some photos from the show:
The show creatively used different color fireworks to represent different characters or groups in the Star Wars Universe.
The blue fireworks above represented Luke and the light side.
Green for Yoda
Gotta love the hidden Mickey in the fireworks.
The red fireworks represent the evil dark side of the Empire.
Here we see the red mixed with the blue implying a fight.
Looks like the dark side is winning here.
But at last, the light side prevails! Hazaa!
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