Extinct Attractions: Mickey's Magical TV World / Mickey's Starland Show

Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, I celebrated the Magic Kingdom’s 54th anniversary with a look back at a former Mickey’s Starland attraction.

Via D23 

Yesterday, Magic Kingdom (and Walt Disney World) celebrated their 54th year of existence. It’s kind of hard to believe that it’s been four years now since the grand spectacle that was the 50th anniversary and there are some exciting things on the horizon with all of the announcements from last year’s D23 Ultimate Fan Experience. Over the years, the park has undergone a fair amount of change, with one of the the most fun additions being Mickey’s Birthdayland as the Magic Kingdom version of Toontown (though it was created first).

Via D23 

Opening in 1988, Mickey’s Birthdayland only lasted for a couple of years before being rebranded as Mickey’s Starland. WIth the new name, the powers that be decided to add a show to the mix with Mickey’s Magical TV World opening along with the rebranded land on May 26, 1990.

As Disney was planning for Mickey’s Starland, they sensed a great synergy opportunity with their upcoming Disney Afternoon programming plans. Packaging together four of their animated television shows into a two hour block created an event type feeling around the show for kids young and old. To help raise awareness for the fact that these established shows would be part of the television landscape, Disney created Mickey’s Magical TV World and the land as whole.

Via Disney Afternoon Wiki 

Much like the programming, which would swap out older shows once their season ended with whatever the newest one was, Mickey’s Magical TV World did so as well, with a new addition to the show joining every year to take the place of whichever show had dropped from the Disney Afternoon lineup. Over time the following shows made an appearance at some point:

In 1991, Roger Rabbit even joined the party for a little while, but today I decided to look at the final iteration of the show, which in 1993 was renamed to the much simpler Mickey’s Starland Show.

My first takeaway was that the theater was really cleverly designed with a door representing each of the shows. As the show started, one could hear some beeps before a computer named D.U.D.E. turned on and started rapping. It was so 90s coded and just really set the tone for what we’d be about to see. The rapping computer introduced all of the characters who would appear where they would pop onto the stage for a few seconds and wave to the audience. To close that part of the show out, the one human in the show, CJ, made her appearance with a little rap ditty before recruiting Darkwing Duck to help her in her endeavor to find Mickey.

Darkwing needed some help with this mystery, so he brought in Launchpad McQuack to help him figure out what was going on with a mysterious box. They even spun the entire open box around to show that nothing was in it. CJ left the stage, which gave Darkwing the opportunity to pull on a “do not pull" tap which miraculously made Mickey Mouse appear, but before CJ could find him.

Via Disney Detail 

TaleSpin was the next show to get representation with Baloo and Louie popping in to check on Mickey. Excited, they did a fun dance together which helped get the crowd into the fun by getting up off their feet and following along. With the dance out of the way, the crew all left through the door marked TaleSpin with CJ running onto the stage, just a split second too late.

Luckily, CJ’s friends Goofy and Max from Goof Troop were around to help her search for Mickey in some really fun 90s outfits to help epitomize the time period. Max was working on an electronic science project for class that he introduced to the audience as a way to help find Mickey. As you’d probably guess, things went haywire and Goody and CJ got locked behind a steel door.

Via YouTube 

Max didn’t freak out too much though, and Mickey and Bonkers quickly appeared to help Max with his predicament, but after a quick little song together, of course. There’s always time for a song. After some brainstorming, they came up with a “dynamite" idea to quite literally blow up the door. Thankfully, Bonkers was a master at blowing things up, so Goofy and CJ emerged unharmed, with Mickey and CJ finally reunited.

To celebrate, all of the characters came onto the stage for a final dance number to tie things together in a nice little bow. Overall, the show was really simple, but it was fun to see all of these Disney Afternoon characters together.

The fact that they would change out the characters depending on which shows were on air was super fun, and I’m sure that Mickey’s Magical TV World was a nice crowd pleaser that helped on busy days. Otherwise, a show doesn’t just stick around for six years, with Mickey’s Starland Show lasting  until March 11, 1996, when the stage was demolished as a part of the switch over to Mickey’s Toontown Fair. But six years is a great run, so I’ve got to hand it to the show for being a real winner.

Via Thunder Dungeon 

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!