Extinct Attractions: Toy Story Fun Party

Welcome to Extinct Attractions. This week, I jumped in on Disney’s Toy Story fun and took a look back at one of the first Toy Story-themed attractions.

This past weekend, Toy Story received a theatrical re-release for its 30th anniversary and did well enough to finish #5 at the domestic box office. It shows the staying power of the film, which was the highest-grossing film of 1995, with an adjusted box office of over $500M at today’s ticket prices.

With a hit of that magnitude, Disney knew that they needed to get some Toy Story representation into the parks as quickly as they could (and start on that sequel). The first place they began was at Disneyland itself where the Toy Story Funhouse opened its door in Tomorrowland in January of 1996, just a couple of months after the film debuted. Interestingly enough, the next Toy Story attraction to reach the parks also called Tomorrowland home, with the Toy Story Fun Party joining the entertainment at the Tomorrowland Terrace in Tokyo Disneyland in 1996.

Via TDR Fan 

Replacing Roger Rabbit’s Dancing Time Warp, the Toy Story Fun Party was also a show that one could experience while they ate, very similar to Sonny Eclipse in the Magic Kingdom. What made the Fun Party an odd fit for the land was the fact that the show took place in Andy’s room, not the most futuristic in the way that it would be if Buzz Lightyear was the main star of the show.

The stage in Tokyo Disneyland’s Tomorrowland Terrace functioned like Disneyland’s with the stage rising up from the ground to reveal Rex, Hamm, Slinky, Mr. Potato Head and a toy soldier. The first four were all puppets that would stay on stage for the entire show and help the room really come to life.

It wouldn’t be a Tokyo Disneyland show without some musical numbers, so to start things out the soldier hyped up the audience before some dancers came out and sang a great parody called “The Toys are Back in Town." It was a really silly time that helped set the tone for the fun that was about to occur.

The dialogue of the show was in Japanese, so it was a little tough to tell exactly what happened next, but all of a sudden Woody appeared. Of course, that meant that we were treated to “You’ve Got a Friend in Me" next, which continued the fun of the show.

But things were about to get serious because with a puff of smoke, Buzz Lightyear hit the stage next to dance to the Randy Newman classic, “Strange Things." Since it was 1996, only the first movie had been released so far, so the song choices were a little narrow.

Via YouTube 

The next scene was a great example of the limited song choices, but before we get there let’s set the scene. Woody brought some kids up on to the stage and dressed them up like him with versions of his hat and handkerchief. The soldier then taught these five year old kids to do a little dance, so things were looking interesting. And then the song “Tequila" started playing. It was an inspired choice to say the least, but led to a fun scene where the soldier had to keep interrupting to basically tell the kids they were doing the dance wrong.

It was all good fun, but unfortunately meant that the show was coming to a close with just a reprise of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me" left before the stage made its way back down into the depths of the restaurant. I thought the show was a pretty fun time, but it was definitely very limited in scope when compared to the typical Tokyo Disneyland fare. It only stuck around for a year, with a new show called Hot Wax Tracks taking over Tomorrowland Terrace in 1997, but it served its purpose well of giving Japanese audiences a taste of the Toy Story experience.

Via All Ears 

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!