 | Throwback Thursday - Jubilation! |
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| DisneyDan
Thursday, October 29, 2015 10:09:15 AM |
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Hello everyone,
This week's Throwback Thursday is to the former day parade, Jubilation!, at Tokyo Disneyland park.
Jubilation! ran for five years, from April 2008 until April 2013, when it was replaced by Happiness is Here. Jubilation! was one of our favourite parades of all time, along with Disney's Once Upon a Dream Parade at Disneyland Paris. Jubilation! featured some really neat characters, including Mowgli, the CDA workers, the Ringmaster from Dumbo, the Three Pigs and Clarice.
For those of you who don't know, after the parade ended, the princess and Pinocchio floats were sent to the Magic Kingdom in Florida, and are now part of Festival of Fantasy!
Let's take a look at some of our photos from [ Read More... ] |
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 | Throwback Thursday - Celebrate! A Street Party | |
| DisneyDan
Thursday, August 13, 2015 8:58:07 AM |
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Hello everyone,
Today's Throwback Thursday is to Disneyland's "Celebrate! A Street Party".
Celebrate! A Street Party replaced the much loved Parade of Dreams, opening on 27th March 2009, during the "What Will You Celebrate?" campaign at the US Disney Parks. Unfortunately, Celebrate! A Street Party was no comparable replacement for the Parade of Dreams, and was widely unpopular with regular Disneyland guests.
Celebrate! A Street Party featured twenty-three characters, ranging from Mickey and friends, Winnie the Pooh, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan and Woody, as well as many talented performers. The performance was not so much a parade, but more what the name suggests, a street party. In general, there was nothing wrong with this concept, but when you take into account the fact that this replaced a much loved day parade, which featured beautiful floats and great music, this was not going to cut it. It would be like the Magic Kingdom ending its day parade and advertising Move It! Shake It! as the main parade for the day - and we all know how awful that is.
To its credit, the street party did include new costumes for Mickey, Minnie and Clarabelle Cow. Chip 'n' Dale's sweet heart, Clarice, was also featured in the party; fans will know that, sadly, Clarice doesn't get out much in the US parks, so it was good to see her.
Celebrate! A Street Party featured the (actually not-so-bad) Disney created campaign song "Celebrate You", along with a remix of King Louie's "I Wanna Be Like You", and even Ricky Martin's "Ole Ole Ole". Overall, the idea of having a street party with popular characters is not a bad one, but when you look at the characters they included, and then listen to the soundtrack, you can see why it didn't work! Mary Poppins, Bert, Geppetto and Winnie the Pooh, all dancing along to "Ole Ole Ole" is not really within those characters' genre. Combined with the fact that this was the replacement for a wildly popular parade, it simply didn't work.
Celebrate! A Street Party ran for a year and a half, and ended at the start of the 2010 Christmas season. It did not return in spring 2011, and was replaced with the much more appropriate, and much better received, Mickey's Soundsational Parade, which still runs today.
Let's take a look back at some photos from both August 2009 and August 2010, when we watched Celebrate! A Street Party.
[ Read More... ] |
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Hello everyone,
This week's belated Throwback Thursday, which is now a Flashback Friday, is about the Magic Kingdom's former Exposition Hall.
Exposition Hall, or Expo Hall as it was more commonly known, is the building that is now known as Town Square Theater. Before Mickey Mouse and Tinker Bell took up residence, the building was home to a cinema, a small exhibit and fun photo locations.
Expo Hall was a great place to chill out, away from the crowds and intense Florida heat. The continuously playing cartoons on the main screen were a nice respite from the outside world. There were also various photo locations that were fun to take pictures with, and characters would often show up, seemingly randomly, at these locations, too! It was always one of those places that was hidden in plain sight - it was hardly ever crowded, but there were enough people there and things going on, that it was a fun indoor location that we loved to visit.
It was also a place where special events could take place, such as the Tinker Bell movie annual passholder preview, back in September 2008. The Fairies of Pixie Hollow made their debut appearance at the Disney Parks, right there in Expo Hall! We were very fortunate enough to be able to attend the event, where as well as meeting all five fairies, we also met the director, producer and screenwriter of the film.
Let's take a look inside, and take a look at some of our adventures there.
[ Read More... ] |
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 | Throwback Thursday - SpectroMagic | |
| DisneyDan
Thursday, July 9, 2015 10:05:46 AM |
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Hello everyone,
Today's Throwback Thursday is for a much loved, and missed, Magic Kingdom parade - SpectroMagic.
SpectroMagic ran from 1991 until 2010, with a hiatus from 1999 until 2001, making its run a total of 17 years. SpectroMagic featured over 40 characters, and a range of performers including butterflies and dragonflies. Amongst those 40+ characters, there were some which we would now consider pretty rare by Walt Disney World standards, including Madame Upanova and her Ostriches, the Three Little Pigs, the Big Bad Wolf, Ursula and even King Triton! There were some really cute moments too, such as Chip 'n' Dale sliding up and down on their bench, playing the piano, and cool effects such as Mickey with his "Spectro ball".
For us, SpectroMagic will always be our favourite Magic Kingdom nighttime parade. The Main Street Electrical Parade may have been there to begin with, and may be there now, but somehow SpectroMagic felt like it truly belonged.
Below are some of our photos of the many times we watched SpectroMaigc over the years. They aren't in any particular order, but I hope they do show what a truly magical parade it was.
[ Read More... ] |
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Hello everyone,
Last week's Throwback Thursday was for the Enchanted Adventures Parade at the Magic Kingdom, so this week I thought we would take a look at another sorely missed Walt Disney World parade, Mickey's Jammin' Jungle.
Running for nearly 13 years, and one of Disney's most creative and fun parades, the Jammin' Jungle Parade celebrated the culture and music of the indigenous people of the jungles and outback areas of the world, from Africa to Australia. The beat of the drums, and the lively songs all made the Jammin' Jungle Parade a treasure to enjoy - accompanied of course by all your favourite Disney friends in their finest adventure clothing.
Let's take a look at the regular version of the parade, then the Christmas version.
[ Read More... ] |
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Hello everyone,
I thought instead of just posting a photo on social media, I would actually make a more in-depth article for this week's "Throwback Thursday".
Back in 2008, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom held a series of spring/early summer ticketed special events that closely followed the model of their popular Halloween and Christmas parties.
The Pirate and Princess Party ran from around February until June, on select nights, and featured characters, a parade, fireworks and special merchandise.
The key highlight for us was the Enchanted Adventures Parade. This parade, although mostly just utilised existing parade floats and characters at the park, was put together in such a way that it really felt very unique and special. Some of the characters included the Lost Boys, Captain Hector Barbossa, Mickey and friends wearing special costumes, and even Aladdin and Jasmine riding horseback down the parade route! A new soundtrack was also specially written and produced for the parade, and to date is one of my all-time personal favourite Disney parade soundtracks.
Unfortunately, the parties did not become popular enough for Disney to continue them (apparently, although everyone I know always loved them), and they were sadly discontinued. So, today's Throwback Thursday is a homage to that short lived parade that is missed by many.
Note that we saw this parade several years before Character Central was even conceived, so we didn't have the best cameras; but I'm glad we have the photos we do have, if nothing else just for "memory's sake", as I like to say. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I did when writing this piece.
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