A heroic Thanksgiving Day Parade float reminds us why Marvel desperately needs to channel ‘Shrek 2’

They say that sometimes we need to look back to our past in order to move forward to the future, and in this little gem of a video from 1989, we hope that Marvel can learn something. The 1989 New York Thanksgiving Day Parade included a Marvel Universe performance that delighted audiences, as spandex-adorned heroes danced their hearts out to the song made more famous from its use in Shrek 2, “I need a Hero.”

Thanks to YouTube all these parade videos are available to watch whenever we want from the palm of our hands, and thanks to that we can see just how magnificent a musical Marvel project could be. The parade float features many of the famous comic book characters that we adore to this day, including Captain America, The Hulk, Daredevil, and Spider-Man. The one thing we will say is, we’re glad the costumes got an upgrade in the last few decades.

Watching the video, it isn’t really obvious if there was any choreography if we’re being honest, as performers just sort of mill about, wave their hands in the air, strike some poses, and generally try not to fall off the moving float. We are sure that if Marvel wanted to take this idea now and run with it the result would be a lot smoother.

Music has been a strong part of the MCU since its inception, finding songs that perfectly match the heroes for their entrances, who can forget Iron Man’s entrance in The Avengers to AC/DC’s “Shoot to Thrill,” or Peter Quill’s entrance into the MCU dancing to Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love.”

Bonnie Tyler’s song, “Holding Out for a Hero,” has been used many times, perhaps none as notable as when it was sung by Jennifer Saunders as the Fairy Godmother in Shrek 2. Now, who doesn’t want to see an epic Marvel recreation of that iconic scene? It should also be noted that it has also been used in the MCU already, in Loki episode two, we feel that it could be revived again for an even more glorious purpose in the future.

Though it’s usually left to a long-running sitcom to include some kind of musical episode, either through a musical demon in Buffy or hallucinatory singing after a vehicle accident in Grey’s Anatomy, we don’t think the MCU will use this device just yet. But who knows? After they proved they are bridging genres with She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, maybe another MCU project could indeed have just this, and we’d like to think that if they ever do “Holding Out for a Hero” would be high on their list of options.