Neil Patrick Harris closed out night two of D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event presented by Visa with exactly the kind of showstopping opening number you’d expect from him…
…and this time, the whole thing was a love letter to Disney’s Audio-Animatronics!
As the lights dimmed to kick off the Horizons: A Carousel of Progress showcase, Harris led a star-studded musical number built entirely around the fantasy of becoming a Disney Parks Audio-Animatronic figure himself. The premise alone is delightfully absurd in the best Disney way — Harris spends the number daydreaming about trading his human life for a permanent gig as a robot inside the parks, and somehow makes an entire Broadway-caliber case for why that sounds appealing.
He wasn’t performing alone, either. Comedian Tig Notaro joined as Abraham Lincoln (and later popped up as the Yeti from Expedition Everest), Megan Hilty appeared as Madame Leota, and Jack McBrayer took on a version of the Haunted Mansion’s Caretaker. Musical theatre favorites Skylar Astin and Darren Criss rounded out the cast, showing up as both pirates and hitchhiking ghosts throughout the number. Disney Legend Paige O’Hara, the original voice of Belle, made an appearance as well, alongside a surprise cameo from Disney Legend and former Imagineer Joe Rohde.
Musically, the number was built around a brand-new original tune, but it wove in familiar melodic touches throughout — nods to The Sherman Brothers’ beloved Carousel of Progress theme, plus musical callbacks to “Part of Your World” and “Belle.” A live band, The Phoenicians, and a full ensemble of dancers backed the whole performance, giving it the scale of an actual awards-show opener rather than a typical convention introduction.
Lyrically, the song took the audience on a tour through decades of Disney Parks Audio-Animatronics history, packed with references and Easter eggs pulled from across the resorts — plenty for eagle-eyed (and eared) fans to spot and catalog after the fact.
Between the cast, the callbacks, and the sheer theatrical ambition of the whole thing, this opening number set an incredibly high bar for the rest of the Horizons showcase to live up to, and by most accounts, it did exactly that!
Did you catch Neil Patrick Harris’s opening number live or on Disney+? Let me know your favorite Easter egg from the performance!
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