Creating ‘Rivers of Light’ Animal Spirit Guide Floats

Walt Disney World recently shared a new behind-the-scenes look at the Animal Spirit Guide floats that will serve as a guiding force in Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s first night-time show, “Rivers of Light.” We wanted to share the video with you again right here, so you can head “backstage” again to see how these amazing floats were created.

The show celebrates the magic of nature coming to life and starts with an ancient lantern festival that draws out four Animal Spirit Guides – an Elephant, Owl, Tiger and Turtle. These animals take shape as larger-than-life lantern floats, some of which measure 15-feet-tall and 30-feet-long, and were designed to look as if they were created centuries ago. As you can see in the video below, Walt Disney Imagineering Creative Entertainment, with Michael Curry Design, used innovative LED technology to illuminate the animals from within that suggests not only color, but changes in movement as the show progresses.