Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade Inflation
Today is the worst day for the rights of animated animal stars.
At 4 p.m. on Wednesday, November 25, Toothless, the star dragon in the movie “How to train your dragon,” was found lying weakly, and wrapped in a net next to the American Museum of Natural History. But after a medical treatment for an hour and a half, the mysterious black night fury, was floating over the streets of New York, keen to break through the net and spread his wings.
There were several famous cartoon figures that came to life on West 81st Street and West 77th Street between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West: Red, one of the Angry Birds; Scrat and his acorn, the squirrel from “Ice Age”; Snoopy; Toothless, the most intelligent dragon; and a number of other animated creatures. They didn’t come alive due to the magic power of the Egyptian artifact, like Rexy, the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton in the museum. They are from the collections of the great collector, Mr. Macy.
On normal days, these large animated animal star balloons are stored in a warehouse in Moonachie, New Jersey. Today, they were moved into trucks and carried to Midtown Manhattan in the morning.
After a long trip, all of the animated animal stars looked lame and lay on the ground. There were four teams of volunteers trying to save the kids’ favorite stars. They dressed in four colors: orange, green, yellow and blue. The crews in blue were responsible for reinvigorating the spineless dragon who couldn’t even stand on his own.
Toothless lay on the ground like a dog, starring at the crowds while the blue crews with blue baseball caps and blue overalls surrounded him and analyzed the weakness of his body. By dividing body parts into different chambers, the crew decided to cure this mammoth creature, who is 60 feet long, 50 feet tall and weighs 800 pounds, chamber by chamber. The order in which they tackled different chambers was crucial, so that a large dragon like Toothless won’t fall like a crippled dog.
They infused gas that strengthened Toothless’ muscles into each part of its body, one after the other, with several thick pipes that looked like red fire hoses.
For the crews, the hardest part was to prevent balloons from floating away after inflating helium. They covered a huge net over each balloon before they started the injection and tied more than 50 sand bags around each net. They also secured the balloons with four bolts that stuck eight or nine inches into the ground.
Most important of all, they anchored large balloons to two Toro carts, a utility vehicle that resembles a golf-cart, loaded with1,000 pounds of sand bags each. The Toro carts are also capable of dragging 2,400 pounds, which could pull the balloon all the way back to the ground.
Toothless is a tough dragon, and he didn’t cry or snarl, but withstood all the pain and stared at the figures in front of him with his yellow eyes, as if he didn’t feel a thing. Probably also because he knew that he had no choice, since it was his third time here since his first suffering in 2013.
After an hour of medical injection, Toothless looked strong and vivid. He raised his head, straightened his tail and spread his wings. The crews looked happy, and they took a photo of the flying dragon and went off to heal another animal.
After opening to the public for several years, the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade balloon inflation event itself has became a great alternative to have an up-close preview of all those flying puppets. According to a volunteer of Macy’s who is not willing to give out his name, “the inflation is going to attract 1 million visitors tonight.”
This year, same as for the past 91 years, Mr. Macy will show off his collection and parade them on the street for the whole morning., Volunteers will tie all the famous stars up with white ropes, and 90 handlers will walk each of them like domestic animals.
Where will Mr. Macy show off his collections?
He will let his employees and volunteers lead all the star animals along Central Park West from 77th Street and turn left at 59th Street. The contingents will turn right at Sixth Avenue and go all the way down to 34th Street.
How long will this inhumane event end?
It is going to take three hours from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., November 26th.
When will Macy let them go?
No, Macy is not going to let them go. His crew will take away all of their power again after the parade and then send them back to New Jersey to wait for the next time Mr. Macy feels like showing them off, and it’s often the first day of Thanksgiving vacation. They are all Macy’s.