The Mulan Parade debuted at Disneyland in the summer of 1998 and was the last of the park's "movie tie-in" parades. It ran only at night during those summer months and was basically a replacement for "Light Magic." Light Magic had been Disney's highly touted replacement for the classic Main Street Electrical Parade. It debuted in May of 1997, but it was an immediate failure and ran for less than four months. At the end of summer, park officials insisted that Light Magic would be making a return the following year, but fortunately that did not happen. Instead, we got The Mulan Parade!
The Mulan Parade ran for one full year, and even received it's own Disneyland postcard!
Parade times were 8:50 (followed by the fireworks) and 10:15. Note below, that the Hercules Victory Parade was still running during the daytime.
I took the following pictures of the parade during the summer of 1998....20 years ago!
And speaking of the Electrical Parade, I was told at the time, that the framework for this "Matchmaker" float was the same one that had been used for the Electrical Parade's Blue Fairy float. I'm not sure if that is true or not. After all, Disneyland's Electrical Parade went to Times Square in New York for the premiere of "Hercules" in 1997 and I believe it then went on to Walt Disney World after that. If anyone knows for sure, please chime in!
Mulan and her father, Fa Zhou:
Mushu was chauffeured around in his own rickshaw:
The Fa Family Ancestors:
Mulan's fellow soldiers, Yao, Ling and Chien-Po, disguised as concubines:
Evil Hun leader, Shan Yu:
The Great Wall of China represented by a giant dragon:
Chinese yo-yo performers:
Pot balancers:
Plate Spinners:
Stilt Walkers:
Mulan, her father Fa Zhou, and Chinese army commander Li Shang, rode on a float pulled by a team of horses:
The float was followed by a clean-up crew for the horses:
The parade's finale, The Chinese Emperor:
I also shot video of the parade and I'm including it below, in case anyone is interested.
Mulan had just been released that year, as Disney's 36th animated feature film. Scenes from the movie had also been recreated in miniature, and displayed in the windows of the Main Street Emporium.
I do like the various movie scenes that are currently in the Emporium windows (when they work properly), but I miss the days when the latest Disney films would be represented in multiple window displays.
In 2005, some of the scenes from past window displays made a return for Disneyland's 50th anniversary. This window contained scenes from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pocahontas, Mulan, and Tarzan (partially obscured).
Here is a close-up of the Mulan scene that was brought back that year.
And because I did the same thing with my Hunchback of Notre Dame post, I'm ending this post with a photo of a Tokyo Disneyland guest, dressed up as Mulan for that park's Halloween festivities!
