With four innovative parades winding through its theme parks, Walt Disney World Resort is a daily celebration of company founder Walt Disney’s passion for processions.

“Walt loved parades,” says Marty Sklar, vice chairman and principal creative executive for Walt Disney Imagineering, who worked with Walt for many years. “Parades were important at Disneyland from ‘day one’.”

And at Walt Disney World Resort, Magic Kingdom, Disney's Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom carry on the tradition:

Disney milestone moments are presented in units inspired by snow globes in the “Share a Dream Come True” parade at Magic Kingdom. And on select nights at Magic Kingdom, Disney stories take on a whole new kind of life in lights and music in the “SpectroMagic” parade. Motorcars take on the visual personality of Disney characters in the “Disney Stars and Motor Cars” parade at Disney's Hollywood Studios. The jungle beat is a pageant of Party Animals in “Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle” parade at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

The four parades are brought to life by legions of entertainers -- a total of more than 300 -- plus nearly 60 parade-unit drivers and other support personnel.

Then there’s the “supporting cast” -- thousands of theme park guests who are invited to take a role in the fun. Some are selected to actually ride along. Some have the chance to step off the curb and join the Disney characters in a brief activity. Others help make the magic happen when the characters musically invite them to shout a special phrase.

Here’s a peek at the parade fun that’s in store for Walt Disney World guests.

“Disney Stars and Motor Cars” Parade

The resident stars at Disney's Hollywood Studios participate in a celebrity cavalcade worthy of a red-carpet event, the “Disney Stars and Motor Cars” parade.

“We bring the stars to you,” says producer Taz Marosi. The luminaries -- from new big-screen stars Lilo and Stitch to Mike and Sulley of “Monsters, Inc.” fame to Aladdin and Jasmine, Luke Skywalker, Rolie Polie Olie, Miss Piggy, Mary Poppins, Mickey Mouse and more -- all are on hand for a Hollywood celebration honoring Walt Disney’s career in motion pictures.

More than a dozen stars ride in customized cars, many of them vintage models: the “Aladdin” car is outfitted to look like the Genie, the “Toy Story” car is in the shape of Andy’s bed. The final car, a 1929 Cadillac, carries Mickey, Minnie and friends.

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“Share a Dream Come True” Parade

Mickey Mouse and 100 Disney characters star in the Magic Kingdom parade, “Share a Dream Come True,” highlighting favorite moments from the early days of Mickey Mouse cartoons to the newest animated Disney characters.

Vignettes are captured in giant snow globes with live Disney characters inside. The spectacular opening float features Mickey Mouse waving from inside his snow globe atop a “Mouse-ument” of Mickey statuettes depicting Mickey through the years.

Each float is “a moment to remember,” says producer Bill Anoka, from the charming “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Pinocchio” to the adventure of flight in “Mary Poppins,” “Dumbo” and “Aladdin.” The parade stops momentarily along the route to invite guests into the street to celebrate with the characters. The finale is a magnificent castle floating on clouds, with Tinker Bell’s magic wand revealing a character carousel rising from the clouds inside the final snow globe.

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“Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle” Parade

The parade at Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a traveling, interactive island street party that features Disney characters “on expedition” and a tribute to their animal friends. As the procession winds through the park, a menagerie of abstract animals comes to life in handcrafted theatrical designs -- “bursts of living color,” says producer Paul Nichols.

During each parade presentation, nearly two dozen guests get in on the action in customized rickshaws that accompany the Disney characters traveling in personalized safari vehicles. Minnie Mouse, for instance, appears as if she brought all the comforts of home along on her safari, with steamer trunks, wardrobe cases, hatboxes, even a bathtub (with bubbles continuously floating out).

Party Animals and energetic Party Patrols coax the audience into a sing-along music fest as the parade winds throughout the park.

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“SpectroMagic” Parade

Combine the energy of seven lightning bolts, the electrical power of a fleet of 2,000 highway trucks and a sprinkling of pixie-dust. Then turn down the lights in Magic Kingdom. It’s showtime for the Walt Disney World nighttime wonder “SpectroMagic.”

Designed as a moving gallery for audiences along a darkened parade route, the show uses a techno-workshop full of lighting effects to re-create pixies and peacocks, sea horses and flying horses, flower gardens and fountains -- all the whimsical creatures and environments of Disney’s worlds of wonder and fantasy.

Some “SpectroMagic” highlights:

The Genie from Disney’s “Aladdin” is the eccentric conductor of an orchestra producing a rainbow of music notes that flow into the air.

Practical Pig, poised before the magical world of Disney’s characters (a parade segment more than 100 feet in length and featuring castle towers, a carousel, a bejeweled coach and other dreamlands), flicks a paint brush to change the colors of the characters’ world into silvery white.

Chernabog, memorable for his role as the monstrous demon figure in “Fantasia,” is portrayed in dark and eerie colors as he dramatically spreads his wings to a 38-foot span.

The Three Good Fairies in Sleeping Beauty’s garden create the sparkle of day among the flowers and insects...and magically transform the scene to the mystery of night.

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The History of Walt and Parades

Walt Disney was infatuated with parades from the time of his youth in Missouri. “When the circus came to [Kansas City],” chronicles author Bob Thomas in Walt Disney: An American Original, “Walt followed the parade from beginning to end, his sister Ruth striving hard to keep up with him. He devised his own circus parade, enlisting Ruth and the neighborhood children to help decorate floats atop play wagons.”

More than 40 years later, Walt’s love of parades had a whole new “stage”: Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland in California.

“On ‘day one,’ Walt read a dedication and then the parade started,” says Disney historian Dave Smith. That was July 17, 1955. The Disney characters -- Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, Snow White and others -- took on a new, three-dimensional life in a procession that marched to the beat of the Disneyland Band. Actors Fess Parker (Davy Crockett) and Buddy Ebsen joined in the fun. The parade featured TV commentary by Ronald Reagan.

On Thanksgiving Day in 1955, Walt introduced a circus parade. The following Easter, there was an antique automobile parade. In December 1957, the “Christmas in Many Lands Parade” premiered. Then came “Cavalcade of Bands.” And “The Parade of Toys.” Then the Christmastime extravaganza “Fantasy on Parade.” And “Tencennial Parade” in 1965 to salute Disneyland’s first decade.