Disney’s live-action reimagining of Moana will arrive in U.S. theaters on July 10, 2026,  and the promotional campaign surrounding it is as ambitious as the film itself. To help build buzz ahead of the release, Pyrotecnico was tapped to design and execute a drone light show in Miami as part of Disney’s Moana Global Tour launch.

The result was something unique in live entertainment: two coordinated drone productions utilizing the same drone fleet and designed to transition seamlessly between daytime smoke show and a nighttime light show – in the same city and on the same day. Here’s how it came together.

The Brief: One Fleet. Two Productions. Daytime to Nighttime.

When Disney’s Moana Global Tour needed two distinctly different aerial experiences within a single day, Pyrotecnico architected a production framework that could shift seamlessly from smoke to light, daytime to nighttime — with 300 drones, twice.

Two shows. One day. Designed in-house from concept to flight, each production captured the essence of Moana while demonstrating what drone technology can do when engineered with visual intention.

The challenge wasn’t simply technical. Moana is a story about courage, identity, and the ocean’s call, a narrative rich with contrast and movement. Any aerial production supporting it had to feel worthy of that story. That meant every formation, every cue, and every choreographic decision needed to carry visual weight beyond just filling the sky.

The Perfect Location: Miami

Miami’s skyline and waterfront made it a natural backdrop for a production rooted in oceanic storytelling. The outdoor environment also presented real production variables, wind, ambient light, crowd sightlines, that the Pyrotecnico team had to engineer around from the start. Running two productions in the same location within a single day meant the site setup, logistics, and safety infrastructure all had to be designed with the daytime-to-nighttime transition already built in.

The Production: Built in the USA, Designed In-House

Every drone deployed in both productions was manufactured in the United States. Pyrotecnico’s American-made fleet isn’t just a sourcing decision,  it reflects the company’s operational standards around data security, hardware reliability, and domestic manufacturing quality. When a production runs at this scale, with this kind of timeline compression, there’s no room for equipment uncertainty.

Just as important: every element of both shows was custom designed and executed by Pyrotecnico’s in-house team. No outsourced choreography, no third-party animation studios. Concept to flight, the design team owned the entire production process.

Show 1: 300-Drone Daytime Smoke Production

The first show was engineered for one of the most demanding environments in aerial entertainment — broad daylight.

Nighttime drone shows have an inherent advantage: darkness amplifies light, and contrast does much of the visual work. Daytime productions have to earn every moment of impact. Without that contrast, a show lives or dies on scale, color saturation, and the precision of its choreography.

Pyrotecnico’s team built the daytime production around integrated smoke pyrotechnics, creating large-scale aerial formations visible against the Miami sky. The formations were choreographed to mirror the visual language of Moana — sweeping, oceanic shapes rendered in atmospheric smoke, designed to evoke the world of the film rather than simply reference it.

Show 2: 300-Drone Nighttime Light Show

As day turned to night, the same logistical framework pivoted to an entirely different visual register.

The nighttime production used Pyrotecnico’s full-spectrum LED drone fleet, with each drone producing 3,600 lumens, among the brightest in the industry. Where the daytime show commanded through scale and atmosphere, the nighttime show worked through precision and light. The choreography was rebuilt from the ground up for the new environment, creating formations and sequences that could only work after dark.

Together, the two shows were designed to demonstrate the creative flexibility of drone technology across different environments and formats. The same 300-drone count, two completely different productions, engineered with visual intention for each.

The Technology: What Makes This Possible

Running two coordinated 300-drone productions in a single day requires more than strong creative direction — it requires an infrastructure designed for that kind of operational tempo.

American-Made Drone Fleet

Pyrotecnico’s drones are manufactured in the USA, built to strict hardware and regulatory standards. Each unit runs on smart battery systems capable of powering 10-minute shows, and the fleet integrates redundant safety systems, geofencing, and real-time monitoring as standard operating procedure. FAA Part 107-certified pilots manage every flight, with weather tracking active before and during each production.

In-House Design and Execution

The case for in-house design isn’t just creative — it’s logistical. When the design team, the choreography, and the flight operations all sit under one roof, production adjustments move faster, creative decisions are better informed by technical constraints, and the final show reflects a singular vision rather than a handoff between vendors.

For this project, that integration was essential. Shifting from a smoke-based daytime show to an LED nighttime show within the same day required constant coordination between design, engineering, and flight operations. An outsourced model simply couldn’t move at that speed.

Scalable From 100 to 1,000+ Drones

Pyrotecnico’s drone show capabilities range from 100-drone productions to shows featuring 1,000 or more aircraft. The 300-drone count for each Moana production sits in a production-scale range that delivers visible, complex formations while remaining deployable within tighter event footprints, an important consideration for an urban Miami venue.

About Disney’s Live-Action Moana (2026)

Disney’s Moana arrives in U.S. theaters on July 10, 2026, directed by Emmy and Tony Award winner Thomas Kail (Hamilton) and starring Catherine Laga’aia as Moana alongside Dwayne Johnson reprising his role as the demigod Maui. The film is produced by Johnson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, and Beau Flynn — with Auli’i Cravalho, who voiced Moana in the animated films, serving as executive producer.

In Disney’s live-action reimagining of the beloved animated adventure, Moana answers the ocean’s call and voyages beyond the reef of her island of Motunui with the demigod Maui on a journey to restore prosperity to her people.

The film releases on the 10th anniversary of the original 2016 animated Moana and marks Dwayne Johnson as the first Disney performer to play the same character in both an animated film and its live-action adaptation.

What This Production Proves

The Moana Global Tour engagement is a proof point for something Pyrotecnico has been building toward: drone technology that’s flexible enough to serve any production format, in any environment, at any scale, and an in-house team with the design depth to execute on that flexibility.

Two coordinated drone shows in a single day, for one of Disney’s biggest theatrical releases of 2026, built entirely by a domestic team using American-made aircraft. That’s not a feat of equipment. It’s a feat of production architecture.

“For over 135 years, Pyrotecnico has been creating moments that move people. Drone technology gives us the unique ability to tell a story in the sky. Being trusted to bring that to life for a production of this scale, twice in one day, is a privilege we don’t take lightly. Doing it entirely in-house, from the first design frame to the final landing, is what makes it even more special.”

— Rocco Vitale, President, Pyrotecnico

Work With Pyrotecnico

Pyrotecnico is America’s largest provider of fireworks displays and a trusted leader in special effects and drone light shows. Since 1889, the family-owned, New Castle, Pennsylvania–based company has delivered aerial experiences for sports events, concerts, touring productions, corporate events, and major brand activations across the country and around the world.

Drone light shows start at $20,000. Every production is custom designed and includes full FAA permitting, airspace coordination, and in-house flight operations.