Extinct Attractions: Happy Halloween Pumpkin Parade (and Twilight Parade)
Welcome to Extinct Attractions.This week, I got into the Halloween spirit and took a look at an early Halloween parade from the Disney Parks.
It’s September, which means that Halloween is in full flow at theme parks across the country. Both Disney and Universal are into the swing of their Halloween events across the country (with most starting in August), but some of the international parks don’t kick off until later.
Tokyo Disneyland’s Halloween festivities begin on September 17th (when Walt Disney World’s will have already been going for an entire month), but honestly that feels like a proper amount of time to me. I love Halloween, but six weeks is definitely enough to whet my appetite.
Tokyo Disneyland has been embracing the Halloween spirit since 1997, with the park’s first Halloween parade going by the moniker of Happy Halloween Pumpkin Parade. I’ll be honest, it was much closer to a cavalcade with Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Goofy walking around in front of a Mickey Mouse head pumpkin float followed by a large number of guests in costume. That was virtually the entire parade, so I’m not quite sure that it earned its name. But it was only around for a couple of years before Tokyo Disneyland decided to upgrade in 1999 with the Happy Halloween Twilight Parade.
I’ll admit, the new parade was definitely an upgrade, but I’m still not sure that it fully deserved the label of parade, either. With “This is Halloween" serving as the backing track, the “parade" gave Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Goofy a bit more luxury with a ride in a car this time, in basically the exact same fun outfits that they were wearing before. The outfits were festive and unique, so I can’t blame Disney for wanting to keep the characters looking spiffy like that.
Following the characters were the first group of guests, all decked out in their favorite Disney Halloween costumes and holding pumpkin buckets like ones used for trick or treating. It was a cool touch to include guests in that way and show off their awesome costumes to the crowd.
Via YouTube
To signal the end of guests, there were a few cast members strolling along with ghosts at the top of some poles, so this time the parade wasn’t over. Instead, Pain, Panic and Hades got to wreck a little havoc, which was super fun since they don’t get to be part of the party that often. Unlike their Fab Five counterparts, they had to walk, helping bridge the gap to the next group of guests. Of course, those guests were also dressed in some great outfits and even engaged in a dance along the way as they walked.
It appeared that only heroes got a car because Donald, Daisy, Chip and Dale were next on the docket, also in some bang up outfits, but driven along in a nice and leisurely way. Some more guests walked along afterwards before the Evil Queen, Prince John and the Sheriff of Nottingham had the pleasure of walking through. The latter two were especially fun to see because I feel like they are almost never included.
Via YouTube
To close things out, the same Mickey pumpkin head appeared as a closer in the show along with some scarecrow dancers. It was a nice bookend to close things out and tie the attraction to its predecessor.
The Happy Halloween Twilight Parade was short but sweet, with that awesome added benefit of including guests in the fun. It had a nice blend of heroes and villains, especially with lesser seen villains. It made a lot of sense as an early Halloween parade that Tokyo Disneyland brought in a more proper parade just the next year. Sometimes, it’s just time to move along.
Via Bored Panda
As always, don’t forget to check out my interactive maps of the Disney Parks throughout the years where you can watch or learn more about all the attractions from every Disney park around the world.
Thanks for reading and have a magical day!