Disney presents “Blaze Your Path: A Star Wars Adventure” for dream children in Galaxy's Edge

Disney granted wishes for 19 children battling serious illnesses as part of Blaze Your Path: A Star Wars Adventure at Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland. Learn more about the magical milestone for Make-A-Wish families, which saw a brave group of young Padawans take part in a one-of-a-kind, Star Wars-themed event.

Children all over the world are fascinated by the power and magic of Star Wars. Especially for wishful children, the Jedi can be powerful symbols of hope and courage. Blaze Your Path: A Star Wars Adventure brought the wonder of Batuu closer to children who wanted a unique Star Wars experience at the Disneyland Resort and invited them on a journey they will never forget.

“We are proud that so many children choose Disney to make their dreams come true,” said Josh D'Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences and board member of Make-A-Wish America. “We are constantly finding innovative and uniquely Disney ways to grant wishes in our parks and experiences around the world.”

Dozens of Cast Members and Disney VoluntEARS from The Walt Disney Company worked together to create and plan this once-in-a-lifetime experience for some of Star Wars' biggest fans. The first-ever event featured special merchandise, select adventures and thoughtful surprises for each Make-A-Wish child.

For five days of fun, wish kids and their families explored the Disneyland Resort and made the leap at the speed of light in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, embarking on a galactic adventure full of surprises. To begin their journey, travelers enjoyed an exciting kick-off celebration with special photo moments, festive treats and the chance to meet some of their favorite characters from the Star Wars galaxy.

After an intensive breakfast where children could choose whether to follow the light or dark path, each Make-A-Wish child entered Batuu for the day. During the customized experience, each child was invited to build their very own droid, a fitting companion for the next part of their adventure – an exciting scavenger hunt created especially for the event, where families were tasked with finding the missing pieces of their own lightsaber and encountering First Order leader Kylo Ren in Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.

The Force was strong in every family as they traveled to Batuu for a private dinner and dessert party featuring galactic food and treats. Each child experienced the power of the Jedi before a surprise visit from First Order stormtroopers and an epic lightsaber battle for the ages between Kylo Ren and Rey.

In-depth wish-granting events like Blaze Your Path: A Star Wars Adventure at Disneyland Resort and Once Upon a Wish Party at Walt Disney World Resort help bring families and friends together in life-changing experiences at a time when it is needed most.

For nearly 45 years, Disney has partnered with organizations like Make-A-Wish to grant the wishes of seriously ill children across the country. Since the very first official wish was granted at Disneyland Resort, Disney has granted more than 155,000 wishes worldwide through Make-A-Wish. Additionally, Disney is the world's largest wish-granter for Make-A-Wish, making the dreams of children around the world come true.

“It's a testament to the passion and commitment to Make-A-Wish's mission that Disney continues to find new and creative ways to provide truly life-changing experiences for wish children and their families,” said Leslie Motter, President and CEO of Make-A-Wish America. “This event gives wish children and their families a chance to feel like a normal family again – perhaps for the first time since their medical journey began. The stress, fear and worry that come with their illness are the last thing on their minds.”

Just last week, Disney highlighted another Star Wars wish that the company has fulfilled. It's an interesting story of 14 teams from The Walt Disney Company working across five cities for eight months to bring the magic of Disney to Brisbane, Australia. On May 4, the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium was transformed into Savi's Workshop using video, lighting, sound, props, local talent and the use of dozens of Disney cast members.

This fascinating behind-the-scenes story shows just how elaborate the Disney wish granting process is and how meaningful it is for both the children and the cast. As Disney emphasized in this article, wishes have transformative power. The majority of wish children go on to live fulfilling lives and often credit their wishes with giving them the physical and emotional strength to face their illnesses.

As Disney also notes, wish granting is also very meaningful to the people who make it come true. Witnessing a wish come true is often a significant moment in a Cast Member's or Disney employee's career. “I'll never get over the feeling I get when I think about how this seriously ill child, when asked to wish for anything in the world, chose Disney. It's incredibly humbling and a huge responsibility to make it as good as possible,” said one of the Cast Members who helped grant the wish in Australia.

As for the commentary, I wanted to share this for a couple of reasons. First, to simply bring awareness to the amazing work that Make-A-Wish and other wish-granting organizations that partner with Disney are doing. It feels like it's been too long since we've promoted Give Kids the World, so this is a convenient channel to do so.

Readers occasionally ask how they can support the site, since we don't have a Patreon or anything similar. The answer is to give back by donating to Make-A-Wish, Give Kids the World, or a similar charity of your choice. (We also happily support Second Harvest of Central Florida and Orange County, CA.)

Second, because it's both fascinating and a feel-good story that makes us proud to be Disney fans. We moan about this and that, but it's nice to read accounts of the care and compassion shown by the company's employees – it helps us remember what makes Disney so special in the first place, and fills our hearts. The story above about Australia is particularly insightful because it describes the tremendous efforts of Imagineering and other Cast Members around the world who go above and beyond to make a wish come true.

And finally, because Blaze Your Path: A Star Wars Adventure featured live-action elements and a big final stage show on the runways above Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge that were strikingly similar to the entertainment that was cut from the country before its debut. Here's a video from our friend Guy Selga:

This may look familiar if you've seen videos from the big media events for the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge or footage from the ill-fated Galactic Starcruiser. It's not exactly the same as those, but from what I understand, this is what the show looked like at the end of the night in Galaxy's Edge. In this video, you can see the light side show. A dark side show was performed on nights when there were more dark side victories in the datapad games during the day.

It's fascinating that Disney is putting on this show 5 years after Galaxy's Edge launched and bringing it to public attention (Blaze Your Path: A Star Wars Adventure was on the Disneyland app's entertainment features). It's surprising and oddly reassuring – five years is a long time, especially when you factor in COVID and all the resulting revenue. With that in mind, it's good to see that this show hasn't been lost to the passage of time.

As regular readers no doubt know (because I harp on about it incessantly), I've consistently and repeatedly advocated for Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge to get a soft reboot. I won't rehash all of that here, but the bottom line is that I want Batuu to break the sacred timeline and use the land's setting as a jumping off point for new adventures. (See Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge Must Break the Rules to see my thoughts on all of this.)

A soft reboot of Star Wars land would be an opportunity to introduce popular characters, use the runways in the land for mini-shows, and make the land more lively thanks to droids and additional performers. They could also do a test run of a dinner show at the Starcruiser in Walt Disney World for a future purpose-built venue in the land. All of this would breathe new life into the land and help it finally reach its full potential.

Honestly, the finale of Blaze Your Path: A Star Wars Adventure wouldn't be against the rules. It's part of the original storyline and works with Galaxy's Edge as it is. But I think to deliver entertainment like this on a regular basis, it's going to need a funding package that revolves around a renewed marketing push. I hope the upcoming Mandalorian and Baby Yoda Mission for Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run could be just the thing, and we'll get it along with new entertainment and more in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. We'll see!

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YOUR THOUGHTS

What do you think about Blaze Your Path: A Star Wars Adventure? Does it make you proud to be a Disney fan when you hear how much effort and care the cast members put into making wishes come true? Do you think Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge should break its own rules or stick to the set schedule and story? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Do you have any questions? Your feedback – even if you don't agree with us – is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so let us know what you think in the comments below!