The Mickey Mouse Revue - Artwork

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This is a follow-up to my series of posts on Tokyo Disneyland's Mickey Mouse Revue . In Part 1 of the series, I posted a picture of the sign above. Today's photos show closeup shots of the information and artwork on that sign. I've already quoted a couple of these captions (and posted the artwork in the next photo), but I thought the entire sign deserved to be seen up close.

The lady in the photo below is Harriet Burns, who helped create such Disneyland attractions as Storybook Land, New Orleans Square, Pirates of the Caribbean, Carousel of Progress, the Haunted Mansion, and Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln. Oh, and she designed ALL of the birds in The Enchanted Tiki Room and headed-up the creation of Santa's Village near Lake Arrowhead.

By the way, Mickey isn't the only impressive figure in this attraction. Taking into consideration that this attraction was built in 1971, I was very surprised to see how advanced the audio-animatronic figures of Alice, Snow White, Cinderella, and the Fairy Godmother were. We should have such advanced animation in the Fantasyland darkrides at Disneyland! How about ANY animation. I think Alice at DL was actually changed in recent years so that she "shifts her weight" from side to side, but how about having her move her mouth....or an arm. Is that asking for too much?

In the photo and the artwork pictured below, the two mice seated to the right of Pluto are Abner (the country mouse) and Monty (the city mouse) from the 1936 Disney cartoon short, "The Country Cousin."

Tokyo Disneyland created 25th Anniversary signs similar to this one for other opening day attractions including Small World, Pirates, Mansion, Tiki Room and Space Mountain. I will try to post more of these if there is any interest out there in seeing them.

The Mickey Mouse Revue - Part 1

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The year was 1971....I was in the second grade and Walt Disney World opened. I was fascinated with the fact that there was another "Disneyland" opening somewhere. I remember looking at photos of the park that were published in Life and Look Magazines. As I stared at the photos of The Hall of Presidents, Country Bear Jamboree, and The Mickey Mouse Revue, I wondered what those attractions would be like (at that time, Country Bear Jamboree had not yet opened at Disneyland.)

Look Magazine

Well, I never made it to Walt Disney World until after The Mickey Mouse Revue had closed, but I did finally get to see The Hall of Presidents. I hope they NEVER remove that attraction, or Country Bear Jamboree for that matter....especially since Anaheim's has been removed. What I didn't know at the time I visited WDW, was that the Mickey Mouse Revue had actually been moved to Tokyo Disneyland. According to the book, "Realityland" by David Koenig, when the Japanese were touring Disneyland and WDW and making a list of attractions they would want in their park, the Mickey Mouse Revue was on that list. At that same time however, the staff at Disney was spread pretty thin due to the planning and building of EPCOT, so top management demanded that the attraction be taken out of WDW and shipped to Tokyo, instead of taking the time to build them their own version. The management at WDW tried to fight this decision, but top management won out (as usual) and the Mickey Mouse Revue was packed up and shipped to Tokyo where it opened with the rest of the park on April 15, 1983.

Life Magazine

I didn't actually find out about Tokyo having this attraction until I was planning my first visit to their park and was checking out the official website. Needless to say I was very excited, and when I finally did get to see this attraction in person, 33 years after first learning about it....it did not disappoint!

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And now ladies and gentlemen, we present Tokyo Disneyland's Mickey Mouse Revue!

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This is the entrance to the theater. I believe this is pretty close to what WDW's facade looked like.

The next two photos are close-up shots of some of the wonderful exterior details....gold figures of Goofy and Donald, dressed in medieval attire.

Posters located outside the theater announce what's inside. Music, Merriment and Memories.....how can anyone pass THAT up?

Featuring the WHOLE Disney gang! Well, a large portion of the Disney gang....the gang that existed up until 1971 at least (sorry, no Aerial, Belle, Simba or Aladdin....but that's okay!)



Your favorite Disney Stars performing Disney Songs! Let's go in!



Wait, let's check this out. This is a temporary sign for Tokyo Disneyland's 25th Anniversary. It designates this as one of the park's original attractions from opening day. It also explains the attraction's history along with some original artwork.
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Below is the original attraction poster. Sorry for the blurriness of the photo! I think I used the macro setting on my camera when I really didn't need to.



I smiled when I first read this: "Anticipating the success of his first Audio-Animatronics show, The Enchanted Tiki Room, Walt Disney told an interviewer in 1962 that he would also like to create an animated musical revue starring "all the Disney characters." And so the first ideas for The Mickey Mouse Revue were born." I didn't know that!!!




Now we can go inside!



Konnichiwa! Yokoso! (That means Good afternoon! Welcome!)



Sorry, but this post has been quite long....my longest ever. We will take a look at the lobby and the pre-show in my next post. Please check back for Part 2. Arigato gozaimasu! (That means "Thank you very much!")

The Plaza

Tokyo Disneyland has a HUGE Plaza area. It is kind of made up of three sections. There's the first section that guests encounter when they reach the end of "Main St." (actually called World Bazaar in Tokyo...a subject for future posts). This area is where the "Partners" statue of Walt and Mickey is found. The second section is beyond that and contains a huge central plaza area with a large round floral planter that is also used for holiday and special event displays (the Anaheim equivalent of this planter is where the Partners statue is located).

The third section is a huge paved area that is used to set up seating for stage shows that are held in front of the castle (again...holidays and special events).

The Plaza is SO big, that it contains FOUR of these large stand-alone castle turrets. Two of these turrets contain production booths with spotlights, projectors, etc. for the stage shows. The other two contain equipment for pyrotechnic and fire effects.

The banners and decorations on the castle are in honor of the park's 25th birthday which is being celebrated all year long.

Happy 25th Birthday, Tokyo Disneyland!!!