Attack Of The Pixar People!

Even though it is November and Halloween is over, we are still taking a look at some of the costumes that the guests wore to Tokyo Disneyland during the last week of October.

Friday's theme was Sleeping Beauty. Yesterday's theme was Alice In Wonderland. Today, I have chosen a Pixar theme. Below is your typical "Bug's Life" Family.

Take a look at "Mini-Pluto" behind "Mr. Incredible" in the photo below.

Here's Mike, but Sully was nowhere to be found.

The photo below shows two of my personal favorites out of all the costumes I saw on my trip. These were both custom-made costumes. It's interesting to note that Wall-E had not yet been released in Japan. It will not be released there until next month. The parks also did not have any Wall-E merchandise, but there was some to be found at the Disney Store in Ikspiari which is Tokyo's version of Downtown Disney.

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.

Halloween Parade 2005, Part 2

I am going to keep the commentary short and sweet today. Today's post is a continuation of yesterday's. The photo's are from Tokyo Disneyland's Halloween Parade in 2005. Above is Scrooge's float......followed by Huey, Dewey and Louie.

Below, we have a wider view of the Pluto and Goofy float from yesterday.

Next, we have Chip and Dale (playing pumpkin guitars) along with that female chipmunk. Does she have a name?

And finally, we have Stitch, followed by the wicked witch from Snow White.

Halloween Parade 2005, Part 1

As mentioned in yesterday's post, Tokyo Disneyland has a Halloween parade and they change the floats, costumes and parade soundtrack so that it is completely original every year. The photos in today's post are all from 2005. The theme that year was, "A Pumpkin Party in Pumpkin Kingdom". If you compare today's photos with yesterday's, you can see that Donald, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto, are all wearing the same costumes that their corresponding figures in the Plaza were wearing.

Note the bat wings on the pumpkins above and below.

Above, is Minnie as the Pumpkin Queen (sorry for the out of focus shot), and below is Mickey as the Pumpkin King.....pumpkin shorts and all.

Tokyo Disneyland's Halloween parades are always pretty decent in length. There is more to see from this parade. I will be posting pics of the other units tomorrow.

Tokyo Halloween 2005!

We will be taking a little break from Tokyo DisneySea for now, but we will definitely go back and take a closer look since there is still much more to see there. For now, let's go back to Tokyo Disneyland and take a look at how they decorate the park for Halloween. To begin with, I don't remember Disneyland in Anaheim doing too much for Halloween until around the early to mid nineties. Then it seems like they stopped at some point, and didn't do much for Halloween again until just two years ago....but somebody please correct me if I'm wrong about that. I do have photos of DL's Halloween decor in the nineties. I should pull those out and post them.....if I can ever pry myself away from the Tokyo parks. I have to say I was totally blown away by how much decorating Tokyo Disneyland does for Halloween. It seems like more than half the park gets decorated. They decorate the Plaza area, Fantasyland, Westernland, Toontown and World Bazaar (Main St.). The pictures in today's post were all taken in the Plaza in 2005 . If you look closely, you will recognize some of these figures from Anaheim. That's because they acquired them from Tokyo and used them the very next year in 2006......and then again last year in 2007.....and also again this year. Tokyo changes their Plaza vignettes and all of their character figures every year. They only reuse a few of the pumpkin props. In the photo above, the Mickey, Minnie and Donald figures are the same as those seen alongside the tram route in Anaheim. Too bad Anaheim didn't also get the pumpkin carriage.

Anaheim also acquired the Mickey and Minnie ghosts and the Goofy figure seen above and they are also visible along the Disneyland tram route. I am guessing Anaheim didn't want the Marie (Aristocats) ghost figure. (By the way, Marie is a VERY popular character in Tokyo and is depicted on a fairly large selection of Tokyo Disneyland merchandise.)

These ghost figures, Pluto and the pumpkins that spell out "Halloween" were also brought to Anaheim to use the following year.....and the next.....and the next....and we will probably be seeing them again next year, but hey....it's better than nothing, right? I'm guessing that the reason Tokyo changes their figures every year (other than the fact it appears they are not afraid to spend money), is that the figures' costumes reflect what the actual park characters are wearing in the Halloween parade each year. Yes, Tokyo Disneyland has a Halloween parade and THAT changes every year as well....they don't just trot out the same floats year after year. They go to all this effort, for park decorations and a parade that are only in use for about 7 weeks. Oh, and they write an entirely different soundtrack for their Halloween parade every year, done in the classic Disney parade style.

As the month goes on, I will post some photos from Tokyo Disneyland's Halloween parades as well as photos of decorations from other areas of the park.

There Is Just One Moon and One Golden Sun......

The Small World unit of Tokyo Disneyland's Electrical Parade Dreamlights is made up of 4 large floats. The first float is the "Showboat", with Daisy, Donald and the Three Little Pigs riding on the top deck.

The second float is the "Airship", with Chip and Dale.

The next float is the "Moon" float, with Mary Poppins, Bert, Pinocchio, Gepetto and Jiminy Cricket.

And last, we have the "Sun" float, with Lilo, Stitch, Roger Rabbit and Pluto.

This is the last unit of the parade however, the sponsor of the parade actually gets it's very own float in the Tokyo version of the Electrical Parade and that float follows the Small World unit. Tomorrow, we will look at that float and the illumintated performers that carry the rope at the end of the parade, as well as take a look at a neat little effect that takes place during the parade for one brief "blink and you've missed it" moment. Then we will move on to other subjects and even other parks. We still have a whole second Disney park in Tokyo to look at....."Tokyo DisneySea!"