Disney World's New Villains Show Sounds Amazing, But As A Dad, One Thing About It Has Me Concerned

Update: A Disney spokesperson reached out to CinemaBlend to confirm that the 40-minute runtime of Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After, was an error. While an official runtime has not been given, it will be less than 40 minutes. My kids can probably sit through that.

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There’s always something new at Disney World that is on the horizon. While 2025 won’t give us a major e-ticket attraction along the lines of last year's Tiana’s Bayou Adventure or Tron: Lightcycle Run, Disney World is giving us quantity over quality with numerous smaller new additions this year that will add up to a strong year.

One of the strongest new additions has to be Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After, a new live stage show set to debut later this year at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The show stars Cruella de Vil, Captain Hook and Maleficent who all claim they have been treated unfairly by their stories. Between the humor and what is sure to be a technically impressive performance, a lot has me excited for this show, but one piece of recent news does not.

Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After Is Reportedly 40 Minutes Long

This morning, a webpage on the Walt Disney World website went live to promote Unfairly Ever After. While little info on the page was new, one new item was the show’s runtime, listed as 40 minutes. While the runtime number has since been deleted from the page, it’s unclear if the number was wrong or if Disney World simply decided they weren’t ready to publicize the number yet.

If we assume, for the moment, the number is accurate, it will make for a long theme park stage show, significantly longer than what Disney World, or other theme parks for that matter, target for these sorts of attractions. Most other live performance shows, like what Disney Villains is going to be, are closer to half as long. This allows the show to simply have more performances, allowing for more turnover in guests. Considering the length of lines at Disney World for attractions, frequent turnover is what you want.

How Am I Going To Keep My Kids Still For 40 Minutes?

If the showtime is accurate, that’s potentially quite exciting for me personally, as a longer show allows for more in-depth and detailed storytelling than we might otherwise get in a theme park show. Many live stage shows are simply condensed versions of Disney's best movies. However, as a dad of two small kids, I have concerns.

Getting some kids to sit still for even a 20-minute-long show can sometimes be a chore. Believe me, I know. Even my all-time favorite Disney stage show, the incredible Rogers: The Musical, was only about 30 minutes long. So the idea of mom and dad putting a four or five-year-old kid in a seat for 40 minutes strikes me as a herculean task. They will want to move. They will want to eat. They will need to go to the bathroom.

Of course, If Unfairly Ever After is really that good, and truly engaging, perhaps it will absorb the attention to the point that the length won’t be an issue. I certainly hope so.