Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, I stuck to the Christmas theme and looked at a Tokyo Disneyland parade.
A couple of weeks ago, we got the first look at the live-action Lilo & Stitch coming to theaters next Memorial Day. People were initially concerned about how the look of Stitch would transfer over to live-action, but I think he looked perfectly cute. To me, the bigger question is how Jumba and Pleakley are going to look with some unique alien designs as well. Either way, I’m sure we’ll be seeing plenty of Stitch representation in the parks following the film, especially in Tokyo where Stitch is truly the bees knees.
Tokyo Disneyland is in full holiday spirit, with decorations and parades galore and much like the domestic parks, Tokyo Disneyland gets very into the Christmas spirit every year. For today, I’ll be taking a look back at the parade that started in 2006, Disney’s Christmas Dreams on Parade.
Earlier that year, Disney’s Dreams on Parade came to a close, so Tokyo Disneyland decided to do something unique with a holiday retheme of the parade. They even further recycled it by using the soundtrack from Disney’s Jolly Holiday Parade, which primarily included songs sung in English. What made things even more interesting was that there were some changes in the parade between its 2006 and 2007 holiday runs, which I’ll detail as we run through the 2006 version of the show.
The opening float was from a completely different parade, this one called Dreams of Christmas. On it were Mickey and Minnie (plus a snowman), all gathered around a gigantic sleigh on a snow-covered hill. In 2007, this float fell back a little bit towards the end of the parade with Donald and Daisy taking it over to call it home.
Before the next floats, there were some trumpeters and a gigantic tree, but the highlight was some carolers in front of a gazebo float. The gazebo was big enough to hold Donald and Daisy plus Chip and Dale, though Scrooge had to stay on top of the float himself. It was pretty cool getting to see Scrooge in a parade though because I feel like he gets looked over pretty often for opportunities like this.
Via YouTube
The next float on the docket was a saloon featuring Br’er Rabbit and Br’er Fox along with Pluto. But the big highlight was that Wendell and Big Al also got a place to hang out. The Tokyo parks are always good about ensuring that the Country Bears get representation in entertainment, so it brought me a lot of joy to see some of my favorite characters get a primetime spot.
Before the next float, there were some giant candy canes walking around on stilts, which helped set the stage for the next float – a candy corral. Because of the nature of the corral, Woody and Jessie strutted their stuff surrounded by some gingerbread men. The float was really interestingly designed with so many different types of candy on it that it made me just want a quick piece.
Via YouTube
After our taste of the Old West, it was time to get a bit more tropical with a Hawaiian Christmas float featuring Stitch along with his pals Lilo, Angel and Felix. Those all made sense and made for a very fun float, but there was the interesting addition of Clarice for no real reason at all. It was out of left field, but hey sometimes that’s what makes a parade great. The following year, Clarice was booted off the float as it transformed into Rhythms of Paradise, but it was a fun year while it lasted.
The princesses popped into the mix next, with Snow White, Aurora and Belle each appearing alongside their princes in some fun looking winter outfits. Notably, the Beast was in his human form, which I feel is a very typical Tokyo Disney move. But they weren’t the only princesses invited to the ball with Cinderella and Prince Charming leading their own float, accompanied by the Fairy Godmother herself.
Via YouTube
Some clowns killed time before the next float, a Toy Factory reminiscent of Santa’s workshop where Goofy was in charge (for better or for worse). Luckily, he had Mike and Sulley around to help him in a unique juxtaposition to say the least. But the next year, the main man Santa himself was moved to this earlier part of the parade to help keep the Goof in order.
There were a couple of mini floats from Dreams on Parade next featuring Dumbo and Pinocchio, but the real highlight was seeing Buzz in some kind of space train orbiting around a solar system that looked a lot like the Astro Orbiter. The design or it was such a nice nod to the attraction, while also just looking pretty darn cool.
Via Pinterest
Disney’s Christmas Dreams on Parade concluded with Santa’s reindeer leading the way for a Santa Claus who was a dancing machine. Santa almost always gets the last word in these parades, but that changed the following year when the closer of the parade was actually Mickey dressed up in a Santa suit. I mean, how cute is that?
Outside of what I mentioned, there were some other small changes to the order of the parade for its 2007 run, but nothing too notable. It only lasted those couple of years before being replaced by Stitch Presents a Holiday Greeting in 2008. It was a cute parade that did a great job of not feeling like the overlay that it was. It felt authentic and really made me appreciate how Tokyo Disneyland so consistently changes out their holiday parade while maintaining such a high quality. On the other hand, you’ve got Disneyland coming up on its 30th year of the Christmas Fantasy Parade coming up. They could use a few lessons is all that I’ll say.
Via Reddit
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!