Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, I’ll be taking a look back at a stage show from Tokyo Disneyland that used it’s a small world as inspiration.
This week, Disney announced that they’ll be cruising in Southeast Asia for the first time with Singapore serving as the homeport for a currently unnamed Disney cruise ship. Starting in 2025, the partially-completed ship that Disney purchased out of bankruptcy from another company will take its maiden voyage.
With three theme parks resorts in Asia, it’s a bit surprising that the Disney Cruise Lines don’t have a bigger presence in Asia, so the move to place a ship there makes a ton of sense for the company’s long-term future.
Via Facebook
Disney first came to Asia in 1983 when Tokyo Disneyland opened on April 15. The park was a smash hit from the start with the park reaching 10 million visitors in less than one year. As the first Disney park outside of America, the local people were instantly taken with the park and management treated them like family, commonly updating shows and parades to keep things fresh for its guests.
While many of the new shows were tied to an anniversary, It’s a Musical World just popped up in 1989, replacing a show called Let’s Be Friends. The show did open 25 years after it’s a small world first opened at the New York World’s Fair, so it’s definitely possible that it was created to tie with the opening, but I couldn’t find that written anywhere. The show called a stage in front of it’s a small world home, and took many of its elements from the attraction, representing cultures from all around the world with cool costumes and instrumental music representing each place.
The show began with some performers coming out to sing “it’s a small world” in Japanese, which was a lot of fun to hear after listening to it in English so often. As they were singing, Mickey and Minnie came out, giving each other a cute little kiss as they began to also dance around.
After the opening, our first culture represented was Hispanic culture, with Pluto and Goofy coming out in more of a poncho look and Mickey, Chip and Dale following along dressed more like rancheros. The mood then switched over to a more Spanish feel with Donald coming out along with some flamenco dancers.
Via YouTube
The European part of the show continued next with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum emerging whilst playing bagpipes and the Queen of Hearts following after and doing some wicked dance moves before a pratfall that led to a great “Off with their heads” rampage through the backup dancers.
The action then moved over to Germany with Pluto coming out dressed in a traditional German outfit, followed by some of Snow White’s dwarf friends. They had a bit of time on stage before moving onto a Middle Eastern portion of the show with Chip and Dale coming out wearing, each wearing a fez and then dancing to what sounded like predominantly Jewish music.
We moved along next to Goofy with a gong and some representation of Chinese culture before going full circle with a couple of songs representing America. “Yankee Doodle Dandy” was sung with Mickey emerging dressed to the nines as George Washington during the song while a couple of the Country Bears also came out to join the party. America also had a rendition of “New York, New York” after with some more flapper-esque dancers before Japanese culture finally got its time to shine.
Via YouTube
Most of the Fab Five characters came out dressed in more traditional Japanese garb while Chip and Dale were in full-on samurai suits. They danced around a bit before the show concluded with the dolls that help tell the time all coming out as everyone sang “it’s a small world.”
In case you couldn’t pick up on it, this show had a lot going on, with almost all of the primary Disney characters wearing multiple costumes throughout the show. But even outside of the costume changes, there were also just so many characters that you never got to see in a show like the Queen of Hearts and some of the dwarfs. Plus, the show moved at a breakneck speed, with it basically just transitioning from scene to scene with no real breaks.
The show fit in the park really well and was a lot of fun for people of all ages, but eventually its fun was not enough to keep it around with a Mickey Mouse Club show coming in to take its place presumably for the 10th anniversary of the park. The show was a lot of fun and impressive with its character and costume count, but all shows must come to an end unfortunately.
Via The Chive
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!