Extinct Attractions - Midsummer Night Panic
Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, I took a look back at another Tokyo Disney attraction that looked like a ton of fun.
The live-action reimagining of Lilo & Stitch is closing in on becoming the second film of the year to reach $1 billion in worldwide box office (after Chinese sensation Ne Zha 2). Between that and the success of How To Train Your Dragon, live-action remakes remain in vogue even after the failure of Disney’s Snow White earlier this year.
One of the best ways to help make these movies stay in the zeitgeist is giving them some theme park representation, with my favorite recent activation being Stitch driving around Main Street in his little pink car.
As you might guess, Stitch is a pretty big deal in Japan, with his cute nature playing well with that audience. He has a couple of different attractions in Tokyo Disneyland alone, in addition to all of the temporary experiences that have appeared over the years.
Even though it had been a few years since the original Lilo & Stitch released, he was the perfect choice to headline a temporary summer event show in 2010 called Midsummer Night Panic.
The show began when Gantu and Dr. Hamsterviel (who was first introduced in Stitch! The Movie for those who were confused as I was) emerged from backstage to the Star Wars theme (for some reason). The costume for Gantu was really cool and put him at a huge height advantage over everyone else in the cast.
But he wasn’t the only one who looked great, with the backup dancers wearing what looked like spiky crystals laid into a black outfit. They were certainly fierce looking, which worked out because Gantu and Hamsterviel started the festivities by singing a song about how they were going to try and capture Stitch. As they left the stage, one could see some projection mapping on the castle to help everything feel much bigger.
Via Flickr
The show transitioned over to Lilo and Stitch themselves next, with the millennial banger “He Mele No Lilo" as the kickoff song to bring out everybody in their Hawaiian outfits. Even Stitch had a lei on along with the backup dancers and Stitch’s lady Angel. But what really stood out was that the entirety of the Fab Five (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto) were also there for some reason, all dressed in their Hawaiian finest.
The original song transitioned to one about summer nights with some more friends joining the party. Some of the monkeys from The Jungle Book dropped by, with Baloo and Louie right behind them, also dressed in some luau outfits.
Via Flickr
Of course, the fun times couldn’t last forever, so Gantu popped into the mix, scaring everybody there as the whole stage emerged into chaos. After the initial shock, Lilo took charge and seemingly challenged Gantu to a drum battle. The two of them both banged “traditional" Hawaiian drums with some of the villain back up dancers joining the mix with about 7 mini drums all around their body. But the good dancers wanted to get in on the fight, too, popping out in what looked like trash cans themselves.
It was a little hard to tell with the whole show in Japanese, but Lilo won the drum battle, with Gantu joining the good guys to help defeat Dr. Hamsterviel who re-emerged for the first time in the show. It was a pretty quick takedown of the hamster because it was time to get wet.
Via Flickr
Yep, you read me right. A lot of summer shows at Tokyo Disney are designed to give people a reprieve from the heat by soaking the audience, even at night like this show. And I mean it when I say soaked because basically the entire second half of this show involved water cannons shooting the crowd (and performers) every fifteen seconds or so. Meanwhile, there was music blaring and the entire cast of over 30 performers were jumping up and down and even taking fire hoses and spraying the crowd (and each other). And the crowd LOVED it! Even watching the video, you could feel how great of a time that everybody was having and I had a big smile on my face the whole time.
There wasn’t much more to the show once the water play began, but I sure wish I could’ve experienced it myself. It’s rare that you can feel the energy in a show like that and it’s just such a great idea for the summer. With the audience response, I’m honestly kind of surprised it only lasted for one summer. It just seems like an easy win for a crowd pleaser, but hey almost everything Tokyo Disney touches turns to gold because they truly want the best for their guests.
Via Demilked
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!