Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, we’ll be staying in Tokyo Disneyland to see one of the most impressive castle shows that I’ve ever seen.
Via Walt Disney
The Academy Awards are this weekend and for the second year in a row, Walt Disney Animation failed to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature, this time with Wish missing out. Though the Best Animated Short Film Oscar had been around since 1931 (with Walt Disney amazingly winning 12 times on 39 (!) nominations), Best Animated Feature only joined the fun in 2001. If the category had been around earlier, Walt Disney Animation would surely have more than the four awards that it does, the second most of any animation studio, though paling in comparison to Pixar’s 11.
Via IMDb
I’m sure that many of the Disney Renaissance titles of the late 80s and 90s would have taken the crown, with the two most notable being Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, the only two animated films to receive five or more Oscar nominations before Best Animated Feature was a category. (In case you are wondering, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, and Toy Story 3 have made it to five since then, crazily happening four years in a row.) But today’s focus is on Aladdin, which was nominated for Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Original Song (“A Whole New World” and “Friend Like Me” with the former winning) and Best Original Score (also a win). There was also even a little buzz for Robin Williams to receive a Supporting Actor nomination for his work as the Genie that ultimately didn’t amount to anything.
But the movie wasn’t just an awards darling as it also ended up finishing the year as the highest-grossing movie both domestically and worldwide. It was a bonafide phenomenon, so Disney wasted no time getting everyone’s favorite street rat into the parks, starting with some parades like Aladdin’s Royal Caravan starting in 1993. However, the movie didn’t release in Japan until the summer of 1993, so the Tokyo parks were a bit slow on the uptake with Aladdin not making it into Tokyo Disneyland until 1994 with Aladdin’s Great Adventure replacing It’s Magical as the park’s castle show.
To start out, this video was awesome because all of the dialogue was subtitled, which I hadn’t really seen on an attraction video before and really made my life much easier, though in this case the story was pretty easy to follow since it was just the tale of Aladdin albeit with a bit of shortening and rearranging since you can’t really tell a whole feature film in front of the castle, however cool that would be. However, the castle added an interesting backdrop to the experience, especially with the 25 plus performers who made up the show.
As one would expect, the show began with “Arabian Nights” as the Magic Lamp raised from the floor to set the tone for the exciting experience we were about to embark on. But then things took a really fun left turn when Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy all appeared dressed in Middle Eastern garb to basically narrate the beginning of the story, though they wouldn’t stick around for too long, since the palace then burst out of the ground and Aladdin appeared for a rendition of “One Jump Ahead” along with Abu as a walkaround character which I loved because he’s so often excluded from these quicker versions of Aladdin. But the fun didn’t stop there because when Aladdin went to rescue Jasmine, Aladdin swung down a zipline type contraption without a harness in a move you definitely would not see today.
Via YouTube
Aladdin got into some issues with the law after helping Jasmine and was taken to the Cave of Wonders, which also emerged from the ground. But it was no ordinary set piece as the Cave began talking like it does in the movie with some awesome animatronic work that had no right being so good for a little show that takes place on the Castle Stage.
Al then continued his great adventure when he found the Magic Lamp, rubbing it to reveal the all-powerful Genie, with the voice actor doing a pretty amazing job emulating Robin WIlliams. As you’d expect, the Genie was pretty fun with one of my favorite quirks happening when he first showed up and first pulled a Freddy Kreuger move by extending his arms out before rotating his head 360 degrees like Reagan in The Exorcist. I don’t think the intention was to harken back to two horror classics, but it worked for me nonetheless.
After his intro, we were treated to a great performance of “Friend Like Me” with a really fun gag where the Genie would disappear from one side of the stage and then reappear instantly on the other side in a whole new outfit. It was a clever way to take on the world of animation and left one waiting for the next outfit to pop up.
Via YouTube
Where things really got shaken up was that right after “Friend Like Me” we were suddenly taken to the final battle with Aladdin showing up to save the day after Jasmine was taken hostage. Jafar transformed into his serpent mode before an awesome animatronic graced the stage as Genie Jafar with a ton of great movement. Luckily, Aladdin was able to contain Jafar in the lamp, with Jasmine’s gratefulness transforming into a great big smooch on the lips that you don’t often see to such levels in a Disney show. The kiss transitioned into “Prince Ali” taking on more of a celebratory role, which honestly worked pretty well in this context.
Lest you forgot, Mickey, Minnie and the gang then popped in for some closing words before Aladdin and Jasmine reappeared in their carpet flying attire for a rendition of “A Whole New World” on a cool little carpet that extended pretty close to the crowd as a gigantic Genie balloon appeared in the background to celebrate the victory over Jafar and bring our show to a close.
Did Aladdin’s Great Adventure take some liberties with the source material? 100%, but it all worked probably because the scope of the show was simply epic. You’d expect a show of this quality and size to be an indoor stage with a proper backstage area, but what they were able to do on a castle stage was pretty amazing. The Tokyo Disney parks rarely miss with their shows and it really puts the domestic parks to shame. And all of this work was done for just one summer as a new show called Viva! Magic took over very soon after. It’s crazy how much work they put into such a short-lived experience and I simply cannot wait to experience some of these types of shows next year when I finally get to visit the parks in Tokyo.
Via Bored Panda
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!