Okay, the more I think about how a couple of these floats should be designed, the more annoyed I get. Again, these aren’t operational things, these are straight up DESIGN things.
The lead float is the most egregious, of course, as it doesn’t tell the story of the parade. I’ve reworked/cleaned up my original design, but yeah. It needs to be a movie theater.
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The second biggest culprit, to me, is the Back to the Future float. Again, the failure is that doesn’t tell a story or highlight a moment from anything in the films. That’s fine if ALL the floats are like that, but they aren’t. As a result, the BttF and Kung-Fu Panda floats are odd ducks. That’s really disappointing when its float could be incredibly dynamic by showcasing THREE MOVIES on a single train.
I’d start with the BTTF float with 1885 (BttF 3), specifically with train climax leading (complete with incomplete track). The different color smoke cycles through the smoke stack. Claire is in the engine room, waving at guests while ground performers dance like a hoe-down.
The second part is a Hill Valley street circa 2015 (BttF 2). Griff Tanner and Old Biff “insult” the guests while Griff’s gang patrols the street. Simple, vibrant, fun.
That leads to the float’s final piece, the climax in 1955 (BttF) with Marty IN the Delorean and Doc Brown ON the clock tower. Here, the street performers are Hill Valley students at the Under Sea dance. Again, everything is oriented forward, so the Delorean is driving “away” from the clock tower. As the float passes, you see a massive flux capacitor behind the clock tower.
I like that the Kung-Fu Panda float has both Po and Tigress. I don’t like that they’re side by side. Po is the Dragon Warrior. He should be on a pedestal (friendship aside). This allows both sides of the street to better engage the star. The float should also feature “living murals” replicating the films’ 2D animated segments that retell the Dragon Warrior battles, and 3D figures of the rest of the Furious Five, Shifu, Oogway, and Ping. Honestly, Shifu and Ping should be puppets.
The Jaws float, similarly, needs to turn around, so the Orca’s bow leads. Then, as it passes, Jaws is revealed. This allows Quint to turn an react to the shark. As it’s currently designed, it’s fairly incoherent because Jaws is moving away from the boat.
I wish ET had government agents on the street looking for the kids, but aside from that, I like the float. Similarly, the JP float and Ghostbusters segments.
It very much feels like each float was designed in a vacuum. They feel disconnected in a way the best parades don’t.