Welcome to Extinct Attractions.This week, I took a look back at a Tokyo Disneyland parade celebrating a key anniversary.
This past week, the Tokyo Disney Resort welcomed their 900 millionth guest, meaning it has averaged over 20 million guests every year ever since it first opened in 1983. Amazingly, Disneyland only hit its one billionth visitor last year, so Tokyo Disney has averaged over 6 million more people per year since its inception. Having been there in the past year, it really is an amazing set of parks, so I can’t disagree that it deserves all of the guests that visit.
With that milestone in hand, let’s jump back to the park’s 10th anniversary. Every five years, the Tokyo Disney Resort goes all in on its anniversary, generally with a brand new parade. This anniversary was no exception with Fantasy on Parade replacing Disney Party Gras Parade on the day itself, April 15, 1993.
In a nice touch, the show began with a marching band to get people in the musical spirit. All of the performers looked like they were having a ton of fun, helping to pump up the jam.
After the band, Sorcerer Mickey started things out with the rest of the Fab Five behind him all wearing some magical clothes, as well. It was really fun getting to see non-Mickey characters wearing the sorcerer hat as I had never seen that before.
It must be stated that all of the floats in this parade were immaculately designed with a lot of backup dancers associated with them. To start things off, Beauty and the Beast was represented with a bunch of dancers dressed as different kinds of food. It also included an animatronic Lumiere on top of spinning plates followed by Belle and the Beast on a beautiful float. Cogsworth and Chip were even walk around characters behind them, which was also a new one.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the next movie included with a handful of dwarfs along with the princess herself. The giant float started in a grove and moved into the mines with a lot of awesome details. Every float also included music from each of the movies, a fun change from the usual move of the same song repeatedly.
Via YouTube
I was amazed by the Dumbo float that was up next because of the design consisting of the entire Casey Jr. train. There were a gaggle of circus clowns around, but the highlight was seeing Dumbo next to his mom, who I had never seen represented in the parks before.
It was back to the Disney Renaissance, with The Little Mermaid. The float was a lot of fun, but was relatively standard by Disney standards with Ariel, fishes, but also some other mermaids that I had never before, actually.
It was back to the oldies next with Pinocchio performing to “I’ve Got No Strings” with Jiminy Cricket as a giant costumed character beside him on the float. There were some awesome backup dancers there, too, with some really awesome nutcrackers on stilts.
Keeping it old school, Fantasia popped in with some weird mushroom things leading the charge before a lot of dancing flowers and a fairy lady up on the top of the float. But the highlight of this grouping was the gaggle of little Pegasus at the end, who were just so cute.
Sticking with films released while Walt was alive, we got a taste of Peter Pan, with some pirates kicking things off followed by Smee and Captain Hook on a little boat. Hysterically, there was also a Crocodile, which was just a person in a costume who was casually strolling behind them. Peter himself was on top of Skull Rock, but he came down to meet Wendy and some Lost Boys in a nice little touch.
Via Disney Wiki
My favorite Disney movie was the next to be included, aka Alice in Wonderland. The fun started with the Queen of Hearts and a handful of her cards. On the tea party float itself were Alice, the White Rabbit and the Walrus, who I had never seen in a parade before either. Of course, the Mad Hatter was having his own little party in the back.
The carousel from Mary Poppins was the next float to make its way into the mix, with Mary and Bert riding on horses in front of it. All those silly penguins got to follow, too, and how can you not love them?
To close things out, Cinderella joined the party, which makes sense with the park having a Cinderella Castle. Before her were a bunch of royal guests leading up to the giant steps and a little castle with Prince Charming and Cindy. And what would Cinderella representation be without the step sisters bringing up the rear (like usual)?
Overall, Tokyo Disney nailed it again with some many fun characters and awesome float design. They simply never fail to deliver on parades, which is even more impressive since they are so long. What’s even crazier is that they bring in new parades all the time, so they need to keep thinking of fresh ideas, with this one being no exception as Fantasy on Parade was replaced by Disney Carnivale in 1998. Man, I miss Tokyo.
Via No Guilt Disney
As always, don’t forget to check out my interactive maps of the Disney Parks throughout the years where you can watch or learn more about all the attractions from every Disney park around the world.
Thanks for reading and have a magical day!
AloJapan.com