Nassal's scope for the 2017 Universal Holiday Parade was to take Universal’s concept designs and design, engineer and build 14 floats ranging in size from 10 feet to over 30 feet. The various floats required creating both static and animated icon characters and scenic environments from Shrek, Madagascar and Despicable Me as well as the Title float with a 13 foot lighted, rotating snowflake and Santa’s floats complete with flying reindeer. The project took almost a full year to complete once production began.
Universal’s Holiday Parade has been newly re-branded and given a somewhat bigger scope: although the famous larger-than-life Macy holiday balloons are still part of the proceedings, they are now joined by 14 new “incredibly detailed” floats that include “astonishing” lighting displays and that feature the likes of the Minions, Shrek, Madagascar‘s cast, and, of course, Santa Claus himself.