Tokyo Disneyland Or Bust.....

I want to wish everyone a safe and happy Halloween in advance. I am leaving for Tokyo and I will be there through Halloween. I have never actually been at Tokyo Disneyland on Halloween Day. Like here in the U.S., they always allow children to enter the park in costume. They also allow adults to wear what they call "a hint of Disney" anytime during the year. This means NOT a complete costume, but I have seen some adults looking like they were wearing almost a full costume anyway...and this is throughout the year. On Halloween Day and for the seven days before, they do allow full costumes to be worn by adults. I have seen some pictures and it looks like the costumes get pretty elaborate. I am looking forward to seeing this in person and hopefully I will come back with a lot of new photos to share. I will resume posting when I return. :-)

Halloween Balloons

Today we just have some shots of Tokyo Disneyland's Halloween balloons. Enjoy! (The pumpkin balloons are from 2005 and the Mickey and Minnie ghost balloons are from 2007.)

Back To Toontown

Let's go back to Tokyo Disneyland's Toontown and look at the rest of it's Halloween decorations. The gazebo/bandstand has two ghosts on it's roof....one wearing orange Mickey ears and another wearing an orange Donald Duck sailor cap. Note the umbrellas over the tables that are all changed just for the season.

Tokyo Disneyland places cast members dressed as witches in both Toontown and in Fantasyland. They pass out candy to park guests, but first you need to tell them "Trick or Treat."

To see more photos of Toontown at Halloween, see my two previous posts: Halloween In Toontown and More Halloween In Toontown.

Ghosts In The Castle

Last week we took a look at the ghosts on the rear balcony of Tokyo Disneyland's castle during their Halloween celebration. Today we go inside the castle to look at a couple more ghosts at play.

The pumpkin-knight scarecrow below can be found just outside the castle in the forecourt area.

More Halloween In The Plaza - 2007

Today, we are still in the Plaza at Tokyo Disneyland. The year is 2007 and these are the rest of their Halloween vignettes. Once again, the theme was "Happy Haunted Halloween" and the Haunted Mansion was the inspiration for the decorations. (See the post below this one for the rest of the Plaza's Halloween decorations from that year.)

Stitch is entombing himself using a special Stitch-shaped trowel (hopefully he'll never come out and we won't have to deal with him anymore......ah, but that won't happen because Stitch is a VERY popular character in Japan).

Flora and fauna in the Plaza...... Merryweather showed up later. (A little weak humor in honor of Sleeping Beauty's re-release this month.)

And finally, we have Huey, Dewey and Louie as the Hitchhiking Ghosts. Once again, for the photos above and below, I've included a flash and a no-flash version to give an idea of what the plastic clothes on the figures looked like when lit up at night with black lighting. I just couldn't seem to get a clear shot without the flash.

Halloween In The Plaza - 2007

Last year's Halloween theme at Tokyo Disneyland was "Happy Haunted Halloween." The vignettes in the plaza and the floats in the Halloween parade were all inspired by the Haunted Mansion attraction. The picture above was taken with a flash and the one below was taken without. I posted both because even though the spotlights on Mickey and Minnie wash them out a bit in the photo below, you do get a better idea of what the ghosts looked like at night.....which was very much like the ghosts in the graveyard scene of the Haunted Mansion.

The photo below was also taken with a flash, so again, you don't get the full ghost effect that was intended. It was difficult to get an in-focus shot of this scene without a flash (I wasn't using a tripod.)

Below is Goofy as the Haunted Mansion's night watchman and Pluto as his trusty companion.

Since Tokyo gets all new character figures in their plaza every year....and since Anaheim got the figures that Tokyo used in 2005 and has used them every year following, I wonder why Anaheim couldn't just get Tokyo's "hand-me-down" figures every year? Oh wait, that would cost something and I'm sure they don't want to spend one more penny than they have to. What a shame. The figures that were used in Tokyo's Plaza in 2005 and that are still in use today in Anaheim, can be seen by clicking here: Tokyo Disneyland Halloween 2005.

More Halloween In Westernland

We're still in Tokyo Disneyland's Westernland, taking a look at Halloween decorations. The scarecrows above are dressed in costumes worn by the Mark Twain Captain (left) and the Western River Railroad's Engineers (right)

Above is another one of the many fun Halloween vignettes set up throughout the park. The scarecrows on either side of the wagon are wearing the ranger (or are they supposed to be cavalry?) uniforms that are worn on Tom Sawyer Island.

The wagon above gets a special holiday covering and the wooden bear that points the way to the Country Bear Theater even gets a special "pumpkin bear head" put over it for the season.

Westernland has LOTS of scarecrows throughout the area.

Halloween In Westernland

Today, we are in Tokyo Disneyland's Westernland at Halloween. This is the Trading Post and on it's rooftop we have a "ghost cowboy" and a "ghost Native American". One of them has a couple bullet holes in it's little ghost body and the other one has several arrows through his chest and hat.

This vignette may be un-PC on several different levels, but I do think it's kind of humorous....especially with the two ghosts smiling at one another.

Halloween In Fantasyland - Dumbo

Today, we're still visiting Tokyo Disneyland's Fantasyland. The lamp posts around the Dumbo attraction all get these special "Pink Elephants on Parade" lamp shades at Halloween......however, they're actually done in orange instead of pink.

The railing around Dumbo even gets it's own special Halloween bunting.

Tokyo Disneyland has a baby shop where you can buy a baby....some clothes or other baby items. The shop is named after the song, "Baby Mine" from the movie "Dumbo" and it's facade gets decorated for Halloween every year. Even some of the trash cans in the park get a special paint job just for Halloween!

To see photos of Tokyo Disneyland's Dumbo attraction without the Halloween decorations, click here: Tokyo Disneyland's Dumbo

Halloween In Fantasyland - The Castle

Another quick post today. This is the backside of Tokyo Disneyland's Cinderella Castle. It gets decorated every year for Halloween with a "Three Musketeers" vignette.....and plenty of orange and black bunting.

Halloween In Fantasyland - The Carousel

This will be a quick post today. These are all pics of Tokyo Disneyland's Carousel at Halloween. Three of the horses get decorated for the occasion and are given "special" riders playing musical instruments. Note the snake's head on the clarinet above, the spider web on the mandolin below, and the ghoulish face on the tambourine in the last photo.

Small World Character Parade, 1981

 

These three photos are of the Small World Character Parade at Disneyland. They were taken on July 17th, 1981. (Please scroll down for my latest post on Tokyo Disneyland!) 

 

Snow White and the Dwarfs were part of the Swiss unit.....or was it German? Oh, it was so long ago. Note the flowers in her hair and on her apron. This part of the soundtrack had a cuckoo clock going off, so maybe it was the German unit. (As an interesting side note...I remember this parade was the first to use the brand new Dwarf costumes which had just been redesigned. They went from being the large disproportionate costumes and heads to these, which are pretty much the same costume design that is used today.) The only other parade unit that I can remember right now was a Latin unit with Latin Dancers and the performers on the soundtrack singing "Ay yi yi yi". I do have the soundtrack to this parade somewhere, but haven't listened to it in years. Time to go looking for it...... 

 

More Halloween In Toontown

Today we are still in Tokyo Disneyland's Toontown, taking a look at their Halloween decorations. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald each have their own customized scarecrows in front of their homes.

The faces on all of the scarecrows as well as the pumkins, light up at night.

The "ghost pirate" below, is located on the rooftop of Donald Duck's Boat.

Halloween In Toontown

Today, we will visit Tokyo Disneyland's Toontown during the park's Halloween celebration. The columns at the entrance get covered over with stacks of large pumpkins whose faces light up at night.

Above we have a singing trio of pumpkin scarecrows (note the sticks for bodies.) All of the character's houses in Toontown have their own personalized scarecrows at Halloween. We will take a look at those tomorrow.

Tokyo still operates their Toontown Jolly Trolley (unlike Anaheim). Notice how much Halloween decor gets put on the cars. "Kid ghosts" ride on the back of the trolley, wearing orange and black mouse ears and eating popcorn out of a souvenir Halloween popcorn bucket!

.

The car below is parked outside of Mickey's house. Note the hood ornament in the shape of a bat. Tokyo really goes all out for Halloween. I will post more photos of Toontown's Halloween decorations tomorrow and then we will move on to take a look at Fantasyland and Westernland. They both get decorated too!