Tokyo Disneyland
Topic: TDLFAN reviews TDL "Disney's Halloween 07"/ photos

#	Author	Message
1	TDLFAN Sun 10/21/2007 9:12p	As part of our vacation in late september, G-Fan and I made a point of stopping at TDR for a few days and hit TDL for a couple of days to enjoy this year's edition of "Disney's Halloween 2007". As always... TDL did not disappoint. This year, more than ever, both G-Fan and I felt the Halloween event was truly inspired and in our honest opinion, one of the best Halloween events at TDL ever. The theme for TDL's halloween this year is the Haunted Mansion. While the Mansion has been used for inspiration for the halloween decor and merchandise from "Disney's Halloween" in 2000, this year the event took the Mansion's themes and gave it a truly fun-filled Disney twist. While the Paris and Hong Kong parks choose to go a more spooky way... DL, MK and TDL appear to be more family friendly.. but TDL, in a move that should not shock anyone, takes the Disney theme to the highest level of fun, making Halloween a truly fun fun fun (and criminally happy) event for guests of all ages. Frenetic at times, but truly wonderful in feel, this year's Halloween event is no exception. As always.. TDL unveils new, lovely (and expensive looking) decor for the park and especially for the Hub gardens, where Halloween Central appears to be. Hundreds upon hundreds of guests decend into the Hub to have their picture taken at the official photo spot. If you go, and want a truly unique photo memento from the event, then do the line (45 mins to 75 mins wait on average) and have your photo taken here. Trust me, you will not see these halloween decorations ever again! Capture it on film while you can, because next year's Halloween will not offer the same theme, and with TDL's 25th anniversary coming up, Disney's Halloween 2008 should be an epic event. We'll see what develops... What never ceases to amaze me is how clever and well thought out TDL's Halloween events really are. From the decor, to the character's costumes, to the references they try to insert here and there... to the overall show and production, the hidden Mickeys, the storytelling... THIS is a disney-style Halloween at it's biggest, massive degree. Take this year's parade for example..."Happy Haunted parade". How do you take the classic Haunted Mansion ride and bring it out into the street, while transforming it into a Disney character romp? From the moment the parade begins... you know you are up for a great treat. It is simply amazing how much of the Haunted Mansion they were able to incorporate into all of these brand-new floats, costuming and how perfectly matched the classic Disney characters are to the Mansion Characters they are trying to portray. Example.. Goofy as the cemetery keeper and Pluto as his mangy dog... BRILLIANT! In fact, Pluto's costume this year is my favorite of the entire bunch... as he appears totally nude (?), with just his collar, a spider web over his nose and nasty creepy crawlers all over his body. It's so simple, yet so yucky.. the visual effect is horribly creepy! Eeeeek! Mickey and Minnie wearing Halloween versions of the usual Haunted Mansion costume was also an inspired touch. Lastly... the perfect "part" casting here... trampy Clarice as the Mansion Bride, with two ghosts proposing to her, one of them waving a huge diamond ring at her! These are truly inspired moments during the parade, and if you blink, you miss them and that would be a terrible tragedy! Talk about "repeat viewings!!". The parade's fun factor is indeed so contageous that G-Fan and I even got into the act... when audience participation is encouraged during the show mode. The hand/clap dance appears easy at first but in fact, it's quite challenging. Anyone who would dismiss this as "silly" and "stupid" should give it a try at first, and find out how silly it really is. I dare any naysayer to try this dance during the show mode and succeed. The parade BTW... performs 3 (that's THREE!!) times daily. My rating for the parade: A+ As an added testament of how much OLC spends on these temporary events.. some of the daytime floats, also perform in the very loud, very rock and roll, evening halloween hub show "Rock and Roll Halloween Night" (or something like that). This night time show performs twice nightly around the Hub, and includes an audience participation dance in which close to about a thousand park goers (that's 1,000 guests I would guess), winners of the audience participation lottery, take to the street and participate in dance and song, as they march around the Hub with other show cast members, characters, floats and other props. It is a massive compliment to the crowd control CMs as they have to maintain a certain level of order and sanity with so many people congregating here for the show, and as an audience. The Crowd control CMs do an awesome job! KUDOS! As I mentioned before, some daytime floats also perform here in the nightime with the added difference that these floats have built-in lighting systems and other technology, to make them very vivid and colorful at night. Think DL's current Parade floats, at night. Same luminotechics. This rock show also turns our fav Disney characters into rock performers... like Mickey playing electric guitar or Minnie on drums.. and guess what! Seemed to me there were playing their instruments LIVE, along with the prerecorded tracks. The music here is truly loud rock and roll versions of TDL's former Halloween parade songs and soundtracks. For those who have enjoyed these halloween events in the past 8 yrs or so.. you would recognize the music, since it is so unique to TDL's halloween spectacles. Truly a sentimental trip down Halloween memory lane at TDL. During the show, which lasts approximately 25 mins.. extensive use of pyrotechnics, lighting and real fireballs is utilized on or around the castle area, adding another dimension to the show..as if it was a real rock concert. Last but not least.. the merchandise for Halloween was plentiful. There was the Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare line, plus the TDL Disney's Halloween line, and yet another "Tokyo Disney Resort Halloween" line. It added for a lot of goodies and souvenirs for this special ocasion. From food items, to this year's Mickey and Minnie costume items, to pins, to toys, to cushions, to other assessories for ladies, men, phonestraps, plushes... etc etc etc, the merchandise was plentiful and varied. Likewise for food items.. and special Halloween menus at all restaurants. They even had pumpkin soup, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin mousse in souvenir cups, pumpkin cake... you name it. While any of this is not surprising to me, it is still staggering to think how much is done for Halloween at TDL, reason why I rate it 2nd to none in the Disney parks universe. Well.. without further ado.. here are the photos that made the cut from the original 550-some pics I took. If patient, you will be able to enjoy the sights, decor, and other things of Halloween interest at TDL. You'll get an eyeful of the daytime parade; a quick look at the evening show which is very difficult to photogragh with my cheap camera; your first look at new shop venues in World Bazaar; the current state of construction at the TDL Hotel; some pics from Dreamlights' new floats and even a little pyro. So take your time and enjoy... http://albums.photo.epson.com/ j/AlbumIndex?u=4334673&a=32600847&f=0 Coming next week... as a late halloween treat, TDLFAN will try to squeeze a review and photos from this year's DLParis Halloween event. Keep those fingers crossed and check the DLP section on Oct 30th or 31st. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! BOO!!!
2	code90 Mon 10/22/2007 1:26p	Wow! Beautiful decor as always. Just the fact that TDL has merch to commemorate the opening of a store is impressive enough! Great pics! Hopefully I'll be able to finally make my way over there next April.
3	dennis-in-ct Mon 10/22/2007 6:43p	Photo #14 << Lovely World Bazaar. Photo dedicated to my dear friend Dennis in CT. >>> OMG ... I just threw-up in my mouth a little ...
4	dennis-in-ct Mon 10/22/2007 6:51p	I love your review !! Thank you !!!
5	TDLFAN Mon 10/22/2007 9:11p	I am glad you did Denny dear since this was the trip you and Hubby in CT were supposed to come along with us.
6	FerretAfros Tue 10/23/2007 3:05p	Great pictures, as always. It looks like they've really kept pushing the bar on Halloween decorations. I can't wait to see what plans they have for next year after seeing all this. The pictures of Dreamlights reminded me that last year when they added the Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, and new Cinderella units, there was also supposed to be a Dory one. I noticed it wasn't there in the pictures, but was it part of the parade? There were supposedly delays getting it to work, but does anybody know if they've just scrapped the idea all together?
7	Spirit of 74 Tue 10/23/2007 7:32p	I don't know what to say beyond what I have said in the past. Great pics. You need an editor! And why is it that TDL (and other Disney resorts to a lesser extent) can do these amazing seasonal events, while the best WDW can do is this year's new decor on Main Street? When I see things like this, I just think about what kind of wonders I'll experience next year during the 25th Anniversary. Thanks again for letting everyone see how the OLC outDisney's Disney everytime.
8	TDLFAN Tue 10/23/2007 7:45p	>>You need an editor!<< I need SpellCheck. But thanks.

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