For 2 consecutive nights in October 2025, residents of Santa Clarita, California had been handled to a quasi- secret Disney drone present.
Twice in a row, the skies lit up above Disney’s Golden Oak Ranch with an elaborate drone present that includes iconic Disney characters and imagery. The spectacle included formations of Genie and Agrabah’s palace from Aladdin, Mickey’s sorcerer hat, Gramma Tala in manta ray type from Moana and Captain Hook’s Jolly Roger from Peter Pan.
The sightings, nicely documented throughout Instagram, have sparked widespread hypothesis that Disneyland Resort might lastly be becoming a member of the rising roster of Disney parks incorporating drones into their nighttime leisure choices. Alternatively, Disney could possibly be gearing up for a giant public occasion, not essentially even at any of its parks.
Watch the Aladdin animations right here, in an actual shared by an account referred to as @plants_of_disneyland:
And watch the second evening right here, in a video shared to Instagram by an account referred to as @whatsupscv:
The evolution of Disney’s drone ambitions
At present, no drone reveals function on the Disneyland Resort in California. The park’s nighttime spectaculars — together with fireworks at Disneyland Park and World of Shade Happiness! at Disney California Journey — depend on projections, water results and, sure, fireworks. However for wildfire-prone Southern California (coupled with the robust winds that recurrently blow by the area), having a nightly fireworks present might be harmful. Actually, Disney ceaselessly cancels the fireworks elements of its reveals when winds are even remotely blowing.
That stated, drone expertise has develop into more and more distinguished at Disney’s worldwide properties.
I witnessed firsthand the beautiful capabilities of Disney’s drone expertise at Disneyland Paris, the place my thoughts was blown by its Electrical Sky Parade Drone Present. Although you can not at the moment watch that actual present, Disneyland Paris recurrently incorporates drones into their nighttime leisure. Hong Kong Disneyland additionally recurrently incorporates drones in its nighttime leisure.
And at one level, you may see a Disney drone present within the U.S., by the use of Disney Desires That Soar — a free-to-watch drone present that carried out at its Disney Springs procuring and leisure district in Orlando.
Disney has been exploring drones for nicely over a decade. It actually made a reputation for itself when it utilized for three drone-related patents in 2014. In 2020, it utilized for an intriguing patent the place drones would work together with human performers.
This secret Disney drone present is large — and impressive
The size of the testing at Golden Oak Ranch — with lots of of drones seen within the footage — displays broader trade tendencies driving the growth of drone leisure worldwide. A number of components are converging to make bigger, extra advanced drone reveals more and more possible:
Superior Swarm Expertise: Fashionable drone swarm methods characteristic dramatically improved software program that permits extra refined animations and smoother transitions between formations. These methods can now coordinate hundreds of drones concurrently with centimeter-level precision.
World Report Pursuits: Competitors amongst drone present suppliers to break world data has pushed technological boundaries whereas making large-scale operations extra routine. Corporations recurrently deploy 3,000+ drones for main occasions, normalizing what would have appeared not possible simply years in the past. Sure, even Disney has set drone-related world data, together with a spectacular, tricolor Mickey Mouse head made out of 1,571 drones as a part of a Bastille Day drone present over at its Paris resort.
{Hardware} Accessibility: Providers like UVify’s FAB (Fleet Augmentation by UVify) rental system have democratized entry to professional-grade drone present {hardware}. Somewhat than buying fleets outright, organizations can now entry drones on a service foundation, reducing limitations to entry for formidable tasks.
These advances imply that what Disney is testing in California probably represents way more refined capabilities than their earlier drone experiments.
Testing the key Disney drone present at Golden Oak Ranch
The key drone present gave the impression to be a check held at Golden Oak Ranch—a 890-acre film backlot positioned roughly one hour from Disneyland and 25 minutes from Walt Disney Imagineering’s Glendale headquarters.
For lower-budget drone reveals, real-world testing typically isn’t carried out in any respect. Operators sometimes visualize the complete present on laptop software program, confirm the flight paths digitally after which execute the present for the primary time with a reside viewers. This streamlined strategy works for simple shows however leaves little margin for error.
Disney’s determination to check repeatedly over a number of nights suggests they’re creating one thing considerably extra advanced, probably integrating drones with present infrastructure like projections, music and presumably fireworks or water results. This degree of preparation is attribute of Disney’s requirements, however it’s additionally a response to hard-learned trade classes.
The shadow of Orlando — and why U.S. theme parks are cautious
The in depth testing additionally displays the heightened warning with which American theme parks have approached drone leisure following an incident in Orlando in December 2024. As a part of a public drone gentle present held in Lake Eola (not a part of a theme park), a drone present by Sky Parts misplaced management. Drones fell out of the sky, and one struck a younger youngster, necessitating a coronary heart surgical procedure after he sustained extreme accidents.
Whereas Disney and Common haven’t formally commented on that incident, there’s been a marked pullback in home drone present ambitions following early experiments.
Disney Desires That Soar, which debuted at Disney Springs in 2024 to appreciable acclaim, notably didn’t return the next summer time. Equally, Common Orlando stopped incorporating drones into its nighttime spectacular.
What the key drone present signifies for Disneyland
If these exams are certainly for Disneyland Resort, a number of prospects exist for implementation.
Drones may complement or partially exchange fireworks at Disneyland Park’s nightly spectacular, providing storytelling capabilities that conventional pyrotechnics can’t obtain (or take away the fireplace hazard tat comes when utilizing fireworks). Alternatively, Disney California Journey may combine drones with World of Shade’s water screens and projections, creating a really distinctive hybrid present.
The Santa Clarita location’s proximity to each Disneyland and Imagineering headquarters strongly suggests a Southern California software, although Disney has additionally used drones for one-off occasions like film premieres (together with 2025’s The Incredible 4: First Steps). And hey, this could possibly be a drone present maybe even used at its Orlando resort, too.
Disney has not introduced any new drone reveals or adjustments to present Disneyland nighttime spectaculars. Nonetheless, if the ambition and scale evident within the Santa Clarita exams are any indication, one thing spectacular could also be coming to the California sky.
Associated
Uncover extra from The Drone Lady
Subscribe to get the most recent posts despatched to your electronic mail.
