Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, I’ll be taking a look back at one of the myriad of anniversary parades from Tokyo Disneyland.
Yesterday, we finally got a closing date for Disneyland’s Splash Mountain with the attraction closing to become Tiana’s Bayou Adventure on May 30th. The attraction lasted another four months past the Magic Kingdom version, though both will be outlasted by Tokyo Disneyland’s version, which is not currently scheduled to close any time soon. It’ll be interesting to see what Tokyo DIsneyland ultimately does to the attraction, as the park is not owned by the Walt Disney Company.
Today’s journey will keep us in Tokyo Disneyland for the park’s 20th anniversary, which began its celebration on January 25, 2003. The resort loves to celebrate the anniversaries of its parks, with a new parade and show generally marking the occasion. The 20th anniversary was no exception with today’s focus being the new parade that replaced Disney on Parade: 100 Years of Magic, which, as you can probably guess from the name, was added as a part of the company’s celebration of Walt Disney’s 100th birthday.
Disney’s Dreams on Parade debuted with the start of the celebration on January 25, 2003. The parade was loosely centered around dreams, but the overarching theme was more so the different lands of the park. WIth that in mind, the parade underwent a name change in 2006 to become Disney’s Dreams on Parade: Moving On, with not much of the parade changing except for a move to have Mickey start the show instead of Aurora’s fairies and the names of the floats now officially representing the lands they stood for. Oh, and there were originally show stops throughout, but those were removed in the new version as well.
I thought the second iteration of the show was a bit more interesting, so that’s what I ended up focusing today’s post on. Without any further ado, let’s dive in.
The opening of the parade was the one part that did not fall into a land, instead setting the stage by focusing on Imagination with Mickey starting things off before floats with Dumbo, Pinnochio and Geppetto, Alice and the Mad Hatter, and Peter Pan and Wendy in quick succession. One thing that you’ll quickly notice about the parade is the sheer amount of characters included. Almost every group of floats had five or more characters on it, with tons of additional performers in between each float. In all, there were definitely more than one hundred performers in the show with a possibility that it was even 150 plus.
Via Disney Wiki
Moving on in the attraction, the next floats were related to World Bazaar, the park’s equivalent to Main Street USA. The first float had a gazebo with Daisy on top and the Three Little Pigs running away from the Big Bad Wolf inside of the gazebo. Then, some of the tunes transformed into some Mary Poppins songs and Mary and Bert appeared floating over the crowd in hot air balloons.
Next up, we had the Westernland’s floats, with Westernland being the park’s Frontierland. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad got its very own float in the parade with a giant railroad engine that had Chip and Dale battling it out as a cowboy and a Native American. The next part was a bit controversial as there were a lot of cast members dressed in Native American garb who very clearly were not Native American, so definitely not something that could be done today especially with some war chants they included. But after that, there was a very fun part with some cowboy boots tapping at the front and Woody, Jessie, and Clarabelle running around a saloon.
Via YouTube
The next float in the brigade brought Tomorrowland into the mix, with Buzz Lightyear on his own little roller coaster cart that traveled around on a little track around the Astro Orbiter centerpiece of the float. It was pretty awesome, especially compared to the confusing next float, which was Goofy leading the way on a robot-style contraption that had a bunch of moving and whirling parts and Sulley and Boo on the back waving to guests.
Adventureland got the next crack in the parade with some very jungle-like environments and the first float featuring Donald on the front with Lilo & Stitch bringing up the rear and really representing the tropical world of Adventureland. After the first float, the next crew that came in was filled with characters from The Jungle Book that had Baloo, Louie, and a giant Kaa that moved all around. Some music from The Lion King came on after that float went by, but unfortunately, the Adventureland fun ended there.
To close things out, we got the Fantasyland squad filled with princesses and their princes. The first float had Snow White, Aurora and Belle. It was a pretty standard castle-style float with the main interesting note being that the Beast was in his human form. But there was one more princess in the action with Cinderella and Prince Charming, with the real excitement coming from Minnie standing at the top of the float dressed up as the Fairy Godmother. It was a very fitting ending to the parade, but to truly close it out there was a little mini float with the sponsor’s name on it, which I had never seen in a parade before.
Overall, the parade lasted five years, which is pretty typical for an anniversary parade. I thought it was a lot of fun, especially tying in all of the different lands in the way that they did. I love shows and parades that celebrate the parks, so this one was definitely made for me. But alas, it was time for another anniversary parade for the 25th anniversary, Jubilation with Disney’s Dreams on Parade coming to a close on April 7, 2008.
Via Memebase
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!